Spring is early this year

In our garden the first sign of spring is the budding of new leaves on our mulberry tree. They usually make their first appearance on 20th August, but they are early this year. They first appeared about a week ago, and now they are quite big.

When we first moved to this house, nearly 30 years ago, there was no mulberry tree. There was one over the road by the railway line, and when the children kept silkworms, they used to collect the leaves to feed them, and the fruit as well. One of the seeds must have germinated, and the tree is now far larger than its parent. The fruit comes in October, but we rarely get any. The birds eat most of it while it is still green, and what drops on the ground the dogs eat avidly.

Spring is here. Our raised garden is gradually taking shape, and leaves have already appeared on the mulberry tree

Meanwhile, the other trees are still bare, except for the jacarandas, which haven’t lost their leaves yet.

Spring is here

We’ve had a few rainy days in the last couple of weeks, and on Sunday last week my wife Val bought some Barberton daisies in various colours to plant outside out bedroom window.

Barberton daisies

They are planted around a bush with pink flowers that seen to flower several times a year. We are not sure what it is called. A friend on Facebook, where we also posted the picture, suggested that it was a “pink bottlebrush”, but I’m not sure if that is correwct — does anyone know?

Pink bottlebrush? No – it calliandra

Here is a close-up picture of one of the flowers:

Calliandra, powder puff, or fairy duster

We like it, because we used to have such a bush in the garden in Melmoth in Zululand, where we lived 30 years ago, and so it reminds us of home.

And when we were driving to Johannesburg last Saturday evening for Vespers at St Nicholas Church, there were rain clouds all over, with a hole in the sky through which the sun was shining, just when we got to church.

St Nicholas Church, Brixton, Johannesburg – clouds at Vespers

So spring showers bring pretty flowers.

PS

Thanks to Jenny Hillebrand who solved the mystery of what the plant is called — calliandra, powder puff or fairy duster. All is revealed here: Gobetween’s Space: Calliandra common names powderpuff and fairy duster.

Two gardens

We’re interested in family history and last week we went to the Mormon Family History Centre in Johannesburg to do some research in their library (details of what we found are on our family history blog).

One of the things I always enjoy when visiting there is the walk from the car park to the reading room, through a garden filled with ponts and shady trees. The ponds have goldfish in them, and it is a pleasant peaceful place, and it’s cool shade is especially good in summer.

And then on alternate Sundays we go to church in Mamelodi, where we have services in a classroom at the Zakhele Primary Schooll. Outside is a vegetable garden, where the kids learn about botany and agriculture, and last Sunday it seemed in particularly good condition. It seemed to say something about the quality of the teachers and the diligence of the learners, and gives one hope for the future of education. This picture was taken from the window of the classroom where we had just held our service.

So there are two gardens, one ornamental, and the other practical and educational.

Spring is here

There’s a big thorn tree in the corner of our garden, and towards the end of September it was in flower, covered with small yellow flowers.

A couple of nights ago the car was covered with the flowers when I went out to fetch my son from work, and out in the street there were gread drifts of flowers, though far from any of the trees, of which there are several in the neighbourhood. There had been a bit of wind, so perhaps that scattered the flowers.

We had been living in our house for twelve years before I actually noticed the tree flowering. I wonder if it flowers more in some years than others. It was certainly noticeable this year.

I’m not quite sure what kind of tree it is — some species of acacia, but which, I don’t know.

Spring is here

There’s a big thorn tree in the corner of our garden, and towards the end of September it was in flower, covered with small yellow flowers.

A couple of nights ago the car was covered with the flowers when I went out to fetch my son from work, and out in the street there were gread drifts of flowers, though far from any of the trees, of which there are several in the neighbourhood. There had been a bit of wind, so perhaps that scattered the flowers.

We had been living in our house for twelve years before I actually noticed the tree flowering. I wonder if it flowers more in some years than others. It was certainly noticeable this year.

I’m not quite sure what kind of tree it is — some species of acacia, but which, I don’t know.