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ODD FINDINGS

Who says one has to travel far to spot strange and interesting things? Over the past while, I have come across several odd things of interest right here at home. The first ‘found’ me while I was working at my desk. Seemingly from nowhere, this spider dropped down onto the paper I was writing on:

Then, I was washing dishes when I looked out of the kitchen window – my attention was caught by something ‘solid looking’ apparently bouncing or hovering in one place against the wall of the garage. What could it be? Of course I had to go outdoors for a closer look. It turns out to be a rainspider web – nest might be a better description – made up of dried Erythrina leaves bound in silken threads and firmly anchored to the rough plastered wall. Whenever I come across webs such as these, I wonder why it is that I haven’t noticed it being constructed. I looked it up: they take only three to five hours to complete.

Here is a songololo making its way thrugh the weeds on my lawn.

So much for the creatures around. While wandering through our drought-stricken garden, I couldn’t help being attracted to these holes in the leaves of the giant Delicious Monster growing in a shady area.

Lastly – and I doubt if any of you would be expecting this – I happened upon this pile of copper coins (no longer legal tender) on the top of a wall along the side of our home. Who emptied them there and why? My grandchildren? It was an odd, yet fun, find which I have left untouched.

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JUNE TRAVELS

Somehow June has never been a great month for travelling. I suppose this is mostly because I was unable to get much leave at that time while I was working; it is also a fairly chilly time of the year – especially for camping; and yet, while I was looking through my photographs of the Pool Garden I featured yesterday, I realised that we have indeed got out and about in June most years. In 2015 we enjoyed a delightful weekend on a farm in the Eastern Cape, where we were woken up by cows very early in the morning.

A year later we were in the Addo Elephant National Park – this is a photograph of what the Ghwarrie Dam looked like then:

Two years later saw us in Observatory, Cape Town:

We obviously didn’t travel anywhere exciting during the next few years and so in June 2021 I photographed these hills from along the Highlands road in the Eastern Cape, not far from where I live:

Our longed for overseas trip to visit our sons came about in 2023. Having spent some time in Norway, we also visited Glasgow, Scotland, where I photographed the crowds in Buchanan Street:

We visited the Karoo National Park after Easter this year, followed by a delightful visit to the Mountain Zebra National Park in May … June has been a stay-at-home month during which I have got stuck into my back garden:

I have since filled the front section with pansies and petunias – worth staying at home for!

 

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RANDOM PICTURES

I feel the need to brighten up this blog a little for this tends to be a drab time of the year. As today is the fourth of the month, I decided to take the fourth picture from four different years that show aspects of my garden – bar one:

Look at the shape of these feet.

Five minutes away from home.

These Cape gooseberries were turned into jam.