Spring

After a very mild winter (by my standards - no snow at all and endless days of blue skies and sun; South Africans however complained constantly of how cold it was), spring has arrived - you can tell because the temperatures have gone up to the high twenties during the day, plants are bursting into leaf and flower, and a few clouds have started appearing now and then, working towards an eventual storm or two and some actual rain - summer weather. The first of September is in fact the official first day of spring, marked in my office by gifts of fruit.

Last weekend I went to the wonderful Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, which was packed out with well-equipped picnickers setting up tents and cracking out cans of beer from coolers. If you walk away from the main lawns, however, you find yourself in various wonderlands of cacti, tropical vegetation (product of an aerial irrigation system), miniature forest, and even a path up the side of a steep rocky hill to get a closer view of the nests of some black eagles; the eagles themselves seem to spend all their time floating effortlessly above, coasting the thermals.

On the way out out the gardens you can even take a few plants with you, as long as you buy them from the shop rather than dig them up. The plant life in SA really is extraordinary. A new discovery for me is the "common" coral tree, which is a type of flame tree - the flowers appear first, before any leaves, bright red against the bark. Spectacular.

Above: coral tree flower; unknown tree; big leaf; unknown red cactus; scarlet ibis; flamingo having a bath.