I'm always in awe when I read Helen's blog, Walking the Cape, to see how many trails and walks there are around Cape Town. But living in Port Elizabeth doesn't mean that we don't have trails around the city. It just seems that the locals over here either tend to rather walk on the beach or use a safety excuse not to head onto the trails. A bunch of us from work decided to celebrate World Tourism Day on 27 September…
I've been fiddling with the blog's layout all evening, changing dimensions so that I can add bigger pictures and redesigning the title masthead. I think I may have it now so the flower with the fly on it will act as a test run. I do still have a number of pictures that have been edited smaller for the old layout so they will still get posted, but all the new ones will be this size from now on. Any comments…
Its amazing how you often see a photo opportunity and when you go for it you find a whole host of others. I stopped on the Swartkops Road between Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage to get some photos of the old Swartkops Power Station and the flamingos on the salt pans and also ended up with little yellow flowers with the salt pans in the background.
Quite a few of the succulents and cacti in my garden has been flowering lately being that time of the year. This one doesn't have what I would call regulation thorns, but rather long spiny ones. The little pink flower looked soft to the touch although I wasn't willing to venture a finger in between the spines to find out what it feels like.
One of the 52 species of Watsonia (Bugle Lily) that we find in southern Africa. The Watsonia is a type of iris native to South Africa. The genus is named after Sir William Watson, an 18th century British botanist. They are perennial herbs growing from corms and producing erect spikes of showy flowers, and are adapted to a Mediterranean-type climate.Firefly's note: Thanks for the help Geoff. I have changed the info. Shows my lack of knowledge as far as flowers go.
I've had these pictures of the Bottlebrush Tree's flower (Callistemon rigidus) for a while now wondering if I should post them or not. I know the light wasn't very good, but what the heck. Here they are.
The Protea eximia or Broad-leaf sugerbush as its commonly known as, are quite widespread throughout the mountains of the Southern Cape, stretching from the mountains near Worcester through the Langeberg, Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains as far as Lady Slipper outside Port Elizabeth. The Protea eximia flowers mainly from August to October and gets grown on Protea farms as they make a very good cut flower. This one I photographed at the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve near Port Elizabeth. For more information on this beautiful member…
Van Stadens Wild Flower Reserve is situated just off the N2 about 35km west of Port Elizabeth. This 450 hectare reserve is probably the best place close to Port Elizabeth to go and marvel at the wonders of fynbos and to see flowering proteas. The reserve covers both a large plateau area covered mostly in Fynbos as well as the slopes of the Van Stadens gorge consisting of indigenous coastal forest. The main purpose of the reserve is to protect and propagate the…