Young Aloe ferox

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

My experience is that this aloe (A. ferox) spreads easily from seed – from my original three plants, I now have over ten. They have sprung up all over the garden, obviously from seeds dispersed by the wind and birds. The only problem is that some of them are in unwanted locations and now I have the job of moving them to more suitable spots. But a chore I’m going to enjoy!

Aloe ferox (also known as the Cape Aloe, Bitter Aloe, Red Aloe and Tap Aloe), is a species of arborescent aloe indigenous to Southern Africa.

Bulbine frutescens

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Bulbine is effective in preventing skin infection, healing and soothing cuts, rashes, insect bites, burns, cold sores, pimples and other skin problems. Its clear and soothing gel forms an invisible ‘seal’ over the wound, protecting against bacteria and providing ongoing relief and healing throughout the day.

It is a very attractive succulent indigenous to South Africa which needs little attention, and thrives in most soil types and in most weather conditions. The juice from the leaves is used in creams, and can also be applied to eczema, burns, rashes, fever blisters and stings etc. I often use it on cuts and scrapes I might pick up while working in the garden.

This native of South Africa occurs naturally in the Orange Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and parts of all the Cape Provinces.

Afrikaans: balsemkopieva, copaiba, geelkatstert, katstert

Cactus Cereus jamacaru (SOLD)

Ink sketch and watercolour wash on Bockingford 300gsm 

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Cereus jamacaru (Queen of the Night, Nagblom)
Classification: Cactaceae
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Incorrectly referred to as Cereus peruvianus in South Africa.
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The Peruvian Apple Cactus, Cereus repandus, is a large, erect, thorny columnar cactus found in South America as well as the nearby ABC Islands of the Dutch Caribbean. It is also known as Giant Club Cactus, Hedge Cactus, cadushi and kayush. With an often tree-like appearance, the Peruvian Apple Cactus’ cylindrical grey-green to blue stems can reach 10 meters (33 ft) in height and 10-20 cm in diameter. The nocturnal flowers remain open for only one night. Unfortunately this plant has been declared an unwanted “invader” in South Africa due to it’s fast-spreading habit.

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Die Kaktus Cereus peruvianus (of Een-nag blom) is ’n boomagtige kaktus, partymaal tot 10m hoog, wat vir net een nag van die jaar asemrowende wit blomme voort bring. Ongelukkig is hierdie kaktus as ’n ongewensde indringerplant verklaar in Suid Afrika as gevolg van hul gewoonte om uiters vinnig te versprei. Daar is groot verwarring oor die eintlike naam van hierdie kaktus, aangesien Cereus vir heelwat kaktussoorte gebruik word. Die spesienaam, peruvianus, dui aan dat dit endemies is aan Peru, maar dit is ’n botaniese fout. Hierdie plant is eintlik endemies aan Brasilië, Uruguay en Argentinië.
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Hierdie een groei langs Solly se kaia op ons plot (Tarlton, Gauteng, Suid Afrika) en hy was verskriklik ontsteld toe ek voorstel ons moet dit verwyder. Nou is hy die dood voor die oë gesweer as ek sou sien dat dit enigsins versprei!

Bunny Ears Cactus (Opuntia microdasys)

For the Cactus-lover - W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm watercolour paper 

I'm an avid succulent and cactus collector and buy anything I can lay my hands on that's not in my collection yet and I was absolutely thrilled when I came upon this Bunny Ears cactus!

These cacti originated in the wild (North and Central Mexico) and are popular garden and house plants here in South Africa. I bought my Bunny Ears last summer and after a nice rest this past winter, is now showing lots of new ‘ears’. I’m just wondering if I will have any flowers while it is in a pot…
Opuntia microdasys forms a dense shrub 40–60 cm tall, occasionally more, composed of pad-like stems 6–15 cm long and 4–12 cm broad.

Opuntia microdasys has no spines, but instead has numerous white or yellow glochids 2–3 mm long in dense clusters; these detach very easily on being touched, and can cause considerable skin irritation, so the plants must be treated with caution. Despite this, it is a very popular cactus in cultivation.

Trees are the Earth's Endless Effort

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm (135lb) Smooth heavy-weight sketching paper, no preliminary sketching 

Trees are the Earth’s Endless Effort
To Speak with the Listening Heaven.
- Rabindranath Tagore, ‘FireFlies’

Trees are living, breathing creatures. The fact that trees are, in many ways, like intelligent beings may come as somewhat of a surprise to you. This can be explained as follows:

1. 1. A tree eats. Its tiny hair like roots beneath the earth’s surface are always on the hunt for such elements in the soil as nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, and magnesium.

1. 2. A tree drinks. A generous supply of water is required for carrying nutrients from the soil through the “digestive system” of the tree.

1. 3. A tree digests its food. A tree has a digestive tract. Like a plumbing system, it functions as elements from the soil flow through microscopic ducts in the sapwood from the tiniest of root hairs to the most distant of leaves where tree food is formed on contact with sunlight and C02. The food is then carried through the tree to build up layers of cells in the cambium (the inner skin or growing tissue). Tree growth and root development result.

1. 4. A tree breathes. Like all living matter, a tree requires air. A hard, packed soil at the base of the tree will cut off the tree’s breathing. Supplies of oxygen and carbon dioxide vital to the manufacture of food are absorbed through the soil by the roots, as well as from the atmosphere by the leaves.

1. 5. A tree reproduces. The tree is capable of rearing its own family. Many seeds have wings that, with an assist by winds, carry them to points away from the parent tree. There, soil and sunlight sufficiently permit new, fast growth.

1. 6. A tree “talks.” Listen to trees the next time the leaves rustle in the wind. Thomas Hardy confirmed this when he wrote, “At the passing of a breeze the fir trees sob and moan, the ash hisses the beech rustles.”

1. 7. A tree sleeps. In the winter months, when deciduous trees lose their leaves and the growing processes of evergreens slow down, a tree is getting its rest.

1. 8. A tree has healing powers. A scar, if properly treated, will always heal as long as the tree is alive and growing.

Interesting, right?

Sunrise over a winter landscape

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Winter here in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa) means a late sunrise, often accompanied by clouds, which usually clear up as the day progresses.

“Nature is painting for us,
day after day,
pictures of infinite beauty
if only we have the eyes to see them.”
— John Ruskin

Bend in the road

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

A typical gravel road in the South African bushveld.

When you come to a bend in the road, aren’t you just a little bit curious as to what lies just around the corner…?

A farmer's cottage

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

A farmer’s cottage on a smallholding not far from us.

A labourer's cottage

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

A labourer’s cottage on a smallholding just down the road from us in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

Autumn Sunset - 1 and 2

Autumn Sunset 1 - W&N Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Today is the last opportunity 

I have to live intensely, 

as no one can assure me

that I will see tomorrow’s Autumn.

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Autumn Sunset 2 - W&N Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

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My Geranium would like to see you...

Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

“Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my Geranium to see you.”

A few months ago, a friend gave me a Geranium cutting, just a little piece of stalk with one leaf, which I planted in an egg shell filled with potting soil and kept on the kitchen counter (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa). As soon as there were enough roots, I planted her into this Terracotta pot, egg shell and all. Within 2 weeks I had about 8 leaves and another stalk appearing next to the original cutting. She now lives on the patio near my Natal Fig bonsai, and I’m sure I’ve heard them whispering to one another a couple of times! And now every spring she blesses me with a great show of her gorgeous flowers.
It is well known that the whole Geranium genus is highly redolent of volatile oils – lemon-scented, musk-scented, and peppermint-scented. In South Africa folk-lore has it that, if you plant Geraniums in your garden, you will never have any snakes!

Soft is Winter

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Could there exist a soft winter, a separate winter season? No, not separate. But there is a softer side of Winter, of the traditional winter season we know. The winter days when the light becomes a little warmer, days when the biting wind and the ice cold ease off a bit and allows the sky to scatter soft grey clouds.

Thoughts

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Thoughts drifting through my mind as I wend my way up the path towards the gate…

The last signs of Winter

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

The last signs of winter still lingering – a row of scorched wooden fencing that now needs replacing…

A windpomp in South Africa

Ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

The first records found of a windpump in South Africa, is from a painting drawn in 1848. Records were found of windpumps as from 1869 and the first import was in 1874. These were wooden constructions. The first all steel windpump was patented in 1855 in England.

Die windpomp

…en vurig en fier soos oor ‘n kleintandooi
die kop geolie en die stert bloedrooi
staan ons ou slyttand met ‘n nuwe rug
oor die jongste boorgat opgerig
-- Uittreksel uit ’n gedig deur Leon Strydom

Hard to believe

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Winter on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

It’s hard to believe that in a few weeks’ time the grass on our smallholding will be green and these trees once again thick with foliage…

Xhosa Woman hoeing

W&N watercolour on Visual 200gsm 

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. 

- Nelson Mandela

The Xhosa number approximately 7,1 million people, the majority of whom live in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. They are descendant from the Nguni, who migrated from central and northern Africa. They comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane, Qayi and the Gqunkhwebe of Khoisan origin.

In Xhosa culture the women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. If she has children, whom she has raised to be adults, then it is usual to find her seated among her peers smoking a long-handled pipe. It is also tradition that the women tend to the fields, carry water and tend to the household in general.

African Tribal dress

W&N watercolour on Visual 200gsm 

African clothing is the traditional clothing, often vibrantly coloured, worn by the indigenous peoples of Africa. In some instances these traditional garments have been replaced by western clothing introduced by European colonialists and worn in conjunction with tribal beads and aprons.

Ndebele women traditionally adorned themselves with a variety of ornaments, each symbolising her status in society. After marriage, dresses became increasingly elaborate and spectacular. In earlier times, the Ndebele wife would wear copper and brass rings around her arms, legs and neck, symbolising her bond and faithfulness to her husband, once her home was built.

Xhosa beadwork, like all African art, is steeped in symbolism and meaning. It has a rich and colourful history and has faced extinction with the encroachment and interference of the civilised, western, Christian world. Fortunately it has survived over the centuries and is still practiced by pockets of women in some regions of South Africa, to keep the tradition alive as well as to keep food on the table.

African Indaba

Winsor and Newton watercolour on Xpressit 200gsm paper 

An indaba is an important conference held by the izinDuna (principal men) of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa. In traditional African culture, people get together to sort out the problems that affect them all, where everyone has a voice and where there is an attempt to find a common mind or a common story that everyone is able to tell when they go away from it.

The term comes from a Zulu language word, meaning “business” or “matter”. The term has found widespread use throughout Southern Africa and often simply means gathering or meeting.

Hypericum perforatum

Black Pilot Calligraphy Lettering Pen sketch with W&N watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm acid-free paper 

Afrikaans : Johanneskruid

 St John's wort is the plant species Hypericum perforatum, and is also known as Tipton's Weed, Chase-devil, or Klamath weed and is widely known as an herbal treatment for depression. Indigenous to Europe, it has been introduced to many temperate areas of the world and grows wild in many meadows and in our South African gardens.

The flowering tops of St. John's wort are used to prepare teas, tablets, and capsules containing concentrated extracts. Liquid extracts and topical preparations are also used. Today, St. John's wort is used by some for depression, anxiety, and/or sleep disorders.

France has banned the use of St. John’s wort products. The ban appears to be based on a report issued by the French Health Product Safety Agency warning of significant interactions between St. John’s wort and some medications. Several other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, are in the process of including drug-herb interaction warnings on St. John’s wort products.

Read HERE how effective St John's Wort is.