First rain of summer.

Yesterday afternoon it started to rain softly, it rain softly for most of the night it has been raining all of today.

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When I looked out my front door this morning I saw this rose and rosebuds sprinkled with rain drops.

This opening rose looks almost like a strawberry, good enough to eat. 

It's been a long dry summer, this is the first rain since May.

First fish of summer.

Bass fishing in South Africa usually takes in the summer, that is all the month's that have and "r" in them.

Took a #6 fly rod down to one of the farm ponds and tried my luck, well first cast and I caught a nice small-mouthed bass. These bass are real fighters and give you a good run for your money.

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+/- 2 lbs.

Same fish, photo by Enrico Bucceri, a.k.a., the Italian Leprechaun. The following photos were all taken by Enrico.

I look a bit startled here, but this photo gives a nice idea of the size of the fish.

Tombi watching me cast. I think I have mentioned it before, Tombi means young girl in Zulu. Not so young any more +/- 14 years old now.

 Strike!

Second bass, small but gave a good account of itself.

Third fish, slightly bigger than the second. I caught four fish and missed several, think the hook was a bit blunt. 

My fly was a large "woolly bugger".

Grandfather & grandson.

My landlord, Owen and wife Sue are looking after their grandson Ben, the son of their daughter who lives in Durban. 

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I love my granddad. 

Owen Moore and his grandson Ben on granddad's modern steed. The first words that Ben learn't to say are ganda-ganda, Zulu for tractor. 

A real son of the soil, and a humble man with a deep Christian faith. Owen is supposedly retired and his son is farming now, but Owen is up at sunrise and still going at sunset.

Owens great-grandfather was Sir Frederick Robert Moor, 1853 - 1927, the last Prime Minister on the Natal colony, from 1906 - 1910. In 1910 Natal colony, Cape colony and the two ex Boer republics of the Orange Freestate and the Traansvaal, (Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek), amalgamated to form the then Union of South Africa, which became the Republic of South Africa in 1961.

Sir Frederick Owen Moor was a member of the Natal legislature from 1886 - 1910, Prime minister from 1906 - 1910. A minister in the first Union cabinet under General Louis Botha and the senator in the Union senate from 1910 until his death in 1927, he was also a member of King Edward VII's privy council.

Strange how people who really have "it" never flaunt it, I had to search for the above information on the internet. Owen's son Dave seems to have inherited his great-great grandfathers drive, apart from owning two farms he manages several businesses at the same time, not interested in politics though.

Molten gold.

Sunset Sunday.

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Domestic duck on a pool of gold.

Another sign of spring.

Butterflies are a sure sign that spring is sprung. This one came this morning to sip nectar from tiny flowers growing in a container on my veranda.

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Proboscis dipped deep into the heart of the flower.

I was so hoping it would open it's wings so I could get a shot of it's beautifully pattern'd wings.

Forked-tailed drongo.

I have been trying for years to get a decent photo of a Forked-tailed drongo, (fly-catcher). These little birds hardly ever sit still, flitting backwards and forwards snatching insects on the wing. 

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This bird posed for quite a while, till he was certain I'd got his best profile. 

A week previously this oak tree looked dead, and now new leaves are sprouting.  

Spring.

September 1st was officially the first day of spring in the southern hemisphere, but today 5 days later really feels like the first day of spring. It's warm, the birds and insects are out in force, and even though we have had no rain for 5 months there are flowers popping up all over.

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These delicate little purple flowers are all over, what they're called I don't know. Behind is a fallow field waiting for the first rain.

Only millimeters across.

This one is so small you could put two or three on you're thumb nail and still have space to spare.

The same flowers as above from a different angle. Only nature can get away with mixing purple, yellow and blue.

Tiny flowers with tinier insect guest.

All these photos were taken with my camera lens as close as possible to the flowers.