Rain.

It rained buckets last night, from about 6pm until just before midnight, one of our typical summer storms. All the weather "fundis", pronounced fundees, (  self proclaimed experts,from the the Zulu word mFundis, meaning teacher or preacher, and now very much part of SA's colloquial English) predicted a long drought, so much for their prediction!

But my post is about the flower photos I took yesterday.

Click to enlarge.

We had a light shower the night before.

Rose leaves with rain drops.

My camera's lens was touching the bottom petals of this flower.

The epitome of "delicate".

Mauve beauty.

One of my aphorisms is "nature is hairy", and most of my photo's show it.

Very small but pretty.

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.

Click to enlarge.

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.

Colo-Prep.

Last post I promised to tell you more about my medical saga over the last couple of weeks. Here is the bit about Colo-Prep the laxative from you know where.

First though I must tell you we had our first spring rains last night after a long and very dry winter.

Click to enlarge.

Pear tree blossoms. Took this photo this morning after last night rain.

Well, last Sunday at 2pm I took the first of two sachets of Colo-Prep. After breakfast I was not allowed to eat any solid food and no milk products, only clear liquids and jelly. By 2pm I was rather hungry. Forty minutes later nothing had happened and I was just starting to think that this stuff is not all it's cracked up to be when I felt a slight twinge and decided I better make my way to the throne room.

Got there just in time, to say it works is an understatement, the bottom literally falls out of your world. On the sachet it say's that your stool will be watery, truth be told Noah could have floated his ark. After about 10 minutes I thought," well I survived that", did the necessary paper work, buttoned- up, zipped-up, and belted-up, and made my way back to my favourite chair and the book I was reading.

I didn't sit long when the warnings started, well now I had to head for the throne room at a gallop and only just made it in time. So it went all afternoon, at 4pm just as things were starting to calm down I had to take the second sachet, and it started all over again till after 10pm.

I was told to drink lots of water while all this was going on, which I did, glass after glass, but next morning when I signed in at the hospital I had lost 4kg, that's about 9lbs!

More tomorrow on this exciting saga.

And winter came howling.

Literally howling. 

Woke up this morning to blue skies and a balmy day, the weather man had predicted a cold front for Sunday, (same as he predicted for last Sunday, didn't quiet happen). Had to get to church early, my turn to unlock, switch on lights, etc., and then welcome people at the door as they arrive.

Standing at the door one has a splendid view to the south and there towering high, was a solid bank of cloud across the horizon, always the first sign of a cold front. Having made it's way from the southern Artic ocean, over Cape town and the Western cape, (snow, sleet, rain floods and freezing weather) right across the country, all of 1500 km, just waiting to pounce on us.

Church came out much later than usual due to the dedication of one of the members first child. Went in with blue skies and came out to grey skies and a freezing wind. Driving home I actually encountered some sleet which changed to small hail stones, then rain.

A strong wind accompanied by cold rain has been rattling the roof all afternoon and stripping the last leaves of the trees. 

Tomorrow the Drakensberg will be covered with snow and we will know winter is here to stay for at least the next three months.

  

Too wet for amphibians?

 Sunday night we had one of our torrential downpours which have been the norm all summer. In a dry country such as ours we don't normally complain if it rains, but this summer   it has almost been too much of a good thing, even the amphibians are taking shelter from the rain.

This Cape claw less toad, which is almost 100% water dwelling, actually came into the lounge to get out of the rain it seemed. I put it out and two minutes later it was back. Not the prettiest of creatures, it's harmless enough and serves a useful purpose in nature. 

Years ago these hapless creature were kept by the hundreds at hospitals around the world as a reliable pregnancy test, the so called "frog test". Pop one of these in the urine of a woman and if the toad started spawning, accurate proof that the woman was pregnant. 

A great favourite as bait among bait fishermen, as they don't drown and their struggles to get off the hook attracts game fish, such as bass, sharp toothed catfish, (barbel) and large mouth yellow fish. (They are usually hooked through the skin on the back). 

Rain, rain and more rain.

In my 65 years I don't think I have ever experienced such a wet summer as this one. Hardly a day passes without rain, usually torrential. Last week Thursday we had a storm that ripped through the district with winds that uprooted huge trees and dumped 65mm of rain, (almost 3 inches) in about 40 minutes. Yesterday afternoon we had a torrential downpour that started at about 4:30 and only stopped 6 hours later. At the moment 5pm, thunder is rumbling in the distance.

For weeks now I've been unable to take my dogs for their daily walk. For me it's no problem put on my water proof boots and plod through the mud. My dogs though, get covered in mud. If Tombi sees a mud puddle she literally wallows in it like a pig as does Lady, they just love it. Sissie is not much better, only Bruno steps fastidiously around the mud. Back home I have to try and clean them up before I can let them in the house.

On Sunday afternoon I did take them for a walk and they did get covered in mud, Tombi promptly lay down in the first mud puddle we came across. We walked down to the largest of the farm ponds and the dogs just charged into the water. All the swimming washed the mud off and on the way home I made sure they kept out of the mud by walking through the soya bean fields. Hardly home and the heavens opened again.

While at the pond I managed to take a few photos.

A Red-knobbed Coot chick. This little baby is hardly bigger than my thumb. 

One of the parents keeping an eye on junior, just of picture to the left.

Three juvenile Egyptian geese with their proud mom upper left of the photo. When I got here last October these guys were just balls of fluff, now they are ready to face the world.

After the storm.

Rain, rain, and more rain. This year our spring rains started very early and has continued steadily, some places in the Eastern Cape province had a years rain in one week. Here in Estcourt this weekend was the cherry on the cake. On Friday morning we measured 47mm, (almost 2 inches) from Thursday. Saturday morning the rain gauge stood at 50mm. It rained for most of Saturday, Saturday night saw violent thunder and lightning storms with torrential rain. Sunday it seemed as if it would clear but by 12:30 the skies opened up and the rain came down in buckets.

This morning the sun is shining and everything is green bright and clean. As a result of the rain the roses in our school garden have been particularly beautiful. This morning I came very early to see if there were any roses worth photographing. The storms of the weekend have battered most of them but here and there there were still one or two. As a result of the good rains the rose bushes are full of buds. I will bring my camera to school every day this week and try and get some good photos.

Click to enlarge.

Sparkling with drops.

Bowed down but still good to look at.

Pure white.

Bright yellow among the green.

New buds, by tomorrow the one in front will be perfect.

Sunlight shining through a petal.

Still cloudy and cool "keeza" weather.

Woke up this morning and the mist was thicker than ever. Rained all day yesterday, soft gentle rain, although along the coat I'm told it was torrential.

Photo taken from under a canopy of leaves, two weeks ago this mulberry tree was leafless, now you cant see the branches.

Heavy mist. 

Later on the weather cleared and at the moment the sun is shining. More rain is predicted later in the week.

The miracle of rain.

After yesterdays rainstorm, we had 60 millimetres +, the whole world was refreshed and green this morning. After church I took the camera and the dogs to see what there was to be seen. 


Click on photos to enlarge.

Yesterday this shrub was a grey green dried up thorn bush, this morning it's bright green and lush with bright yellow flowers. Absolutely amazing how quickly nature recovers after a good rainfall.

The little brook on the farm is no longer sneaking sulkily out from under the culvert, but babbling along as a good little brook should.

Even the Southern Red-bishop looks brighter after the rain.

A Black-Headed heron, (Ardea melanocephala) on the look out for breakfast. This picture and the one below need to be enlarged to see the full effect.

A bird on the wing. Haven't ID this bird yet, even has my sister Jo, at memorablemeanders.blogspot.com  flummoxed, and she has many years birding experience.

Storms of life.

Today was a hot sultry day with the promise of a thunderstorm late afternoon. When I got home at about 2:30 I took this photo below. A Tiger Lily, (I think) in all it's glory.


Click on photo to enlarge.

All afternoon the storm built up, with the sky getting darker and darker. Around 5 o'clock there was a flash of lighting and the skies opened up. Not drops of rain, but solid sheets, with some hail. The storm lasted about 45 minutes and stopped as suddenly as it begun leaving the air smelling fresh and clean.


I looked at the lily through the window and this is what I saw.

It's fragile beauty battered and bruised. By tomorrow it will have perked up, but it will never regain it's former beauty.


Leaves me wondering how I'm fairing through the storms of life. 

"How green was (is) my valley".

We have had more than two inches of rain in three days, every thing is turning green.

The willow trees in the middle distance, were bare branches two weeks ago.

Pecan nut tree. New life.

Winter fire break turning green. The dry grass will rot at the base of the stem and fall over in a week or two, making a great mulch for the new growth.

Green reflection.

Freezing cold.

Another cold front passed through this week end dumping loads of snow on the Berg and heavy rain. So far we have had four snowfalls on the Drakensberg this year, most years it's only two, sometimes only one. The N3 highway was once again closed for several hours. 


These cold fronts always seem to pick the week ends. I've been living in Estcourt permanently since 1993 and I can't remember it ever being so cold. Long time residents and people born here say it's the coldest in more than thirty years. So much for global warming. I suppose the "experts" will tell us it's because of global warming that the winters are so cold!


But the sky cleared late this afternoon and the sunset promised good weather for tomorrow.

Another cold front is predicted for this Friday.