Old Port Elizabeth #1

Looking down on some of the older buildings in Govan Mbeki Avenue (formerly Main Street), built in the days when this section was still known as Queen Street. These buildings stood on the beachfront in the old days and everything behind them is reclaimed land.

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In the summer time when the weather is fine

It is a beautiful day and the Bay and the start of the holiday season. Pollock Beach was quieter than the other beaches today, with no wind and clear skies. Out in the ocean too far away to photograph, were two hump backed whales making their way acroos the Bay and far in the distance was a school of about 2000 dolphins in a feeding frenzy.For some beautiful photos of whales, dolphins and other animals in the Bay visit the…

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Protea farming

In the area to the west of Port Elizabeth there are several protea farms, especially in the eastern part of the Tsitsikamma. Proteas (more here and here) form part of the Cape Floral Kingdom or Fynbos biome. There are 8500 different plan species in the Fynbos biome, more than all the plant types in the whole of Britain. It is the world's smallest biome and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site (natural site) a couple of years ago.On this…

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Cape St Francis sunrise

So I decided to have a go at my first meme (sorry Jo) and what other than Skywatch Friday.Sunrise over the main beach at Cape St Francis taken during our last camping trip. I sneaked out early to try and get a nice sunrise photo and wasn't disappointed.For more great Skywatch pictures from around the world, visit the site and follow the links.

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Skywatch: Pearlised clouds

In all my years of watching clouds, this is something I have never seen before. When fetching our kids from the airport recently, we were greeted with shimmering pearlescent clouds as the lowering sun caught them at just the right angle to create irridescent colours across them, and we went home gasping at the sight of emerald green clouds. To see more Skywatch photos, go to the site and follow the links, you'll see wonderful photos and meet a great…

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Blood Lily

About eight or so months ago my mom sold her house and moved in with my sister and brother-in-law. She gave me some of her potted plants which I put around my house. This plant I stuck next to the front door in the corner and just kept on watering once a week or so. I couldn't even remember what she said it was. This afternoon when I came in my eye caught something in the pot. I just thought…

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For Brenda….

This is for regular reader and ex-PE girl Brenda, who lived here a while back. We featured a "Then and Now" of her at the house in 1949 (now now, it isn't gentlemanly to do the maths!) recently and she wanted to see how it looks now, so here you are.

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Porcupine

I'm sure everybody knows what a porcupine quill looks like, but have you ever actually seen the porcupine itself? A while ago I was at Schotia Private Game Reserve and while we were waiting for dinner in their open air boma, in strolled Mr Porcupine himself. It was the first time that I actually got to see one in real life. What a bonus to the evening's proceedings.Porcupines are nocturnal animals that live in burrows. The forage at night, alone…

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Plough Shells

Karin posted a pic of her son holding one of those snails that live in the tidal zone on Picture this! by Karin yesterday and I went scratching for my Plough Shells pics. A little while ago we went camping at Cape St Francis. While taking a walk on the beach we found literally hundreds of these snails. They live under the sand within the tidal zone. After a wave washes over them they come out of the sand to…

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