Five little fishies

swimming in a pond, 

actually a large old zinc bath tucked away in a leafy corner of the garden.

Caterpillars abseil towards them, dragonflies hover above, but their most favourite visitor is the art teacher- a very generous feeder.

See them wag their little fins in excitement, jostling for space in front of him.

He waits patiently for the slow one, always swimming excitedly in the wrong direction,

spreads the food evenly, so the greedy one can't eat it all.

What a happy little world to sit and observe.

Scent of an elephant ear

 

Of all the scented plants perfuming our little entrance- 

and there are many clustered around such a little entrance- chinese jasmine trailing  the window bars, lilac climbing rose beneath,  plump bushes of yesterday, today and tomorrow, not forgetting a young star jasmine, an eager magnolia flush with flowers and on the far side a frangipani beginning to flower.............

nothing smells quite as heavenly as the only plants we didn't place for fragrance- the elephant ears.

Our huge elephant ears have each made 2 or 3 flowers in quick succession. 

In the rush of my busy season, carrying full platters from the house to the car and empty ones from the car to the house in an seemingly never ending cycle,

 the spot where the scent hits me causes me to linger, inhale deeply and escape for just a moment of heady intoxication that leaves my lips with a smile.

Constantia Nek hike

Once again our middle princess shook us from our holiday lethargy-  it was time for our year end 'big hike'  - the previous year our torture of choice was skeleton gorge.... the beauty and the jelly legs, all still vivid in my memory.

Constantia Nek dam hike-  moderate to easy said the blogs, gentle contour paths with the bonus of three spectacular dams at the top....

and steps, lots and lots of steps....an age old dilemma- to the right is the winding contour path, gently steep, very winding, longer. Directly in front, the shorter version- cut the corners, take the steps, straight up.

I know- what's wrong with me?

Thankfully, the sweeping views quickly distracted us, with many stops to breath  admire our valley.

A note-. realising our folly, we abandoned the steps for the winding Jeep track and eventually our reward was in sight.

I believe there could possibly have been a ' no swimming' sign somewhere, but who walks for 1 1/2 hours in the hot sun to the top of a mountain and doesn't want a quick dip with the frogs.

I could happily have stayed there wallowing with the tadpoles, absorbing that energizing stillness.

Light headed from the altitude, we chose the steps for our return trip, but I suspect the contour jeep track would have been quicker

 As a service to once yearly 4 hour hikers, the code on regular hikers blogs deciphers like this-

Easy- not

Moderate- difficult

Difficult- don't 

 

Now that I've got that off my chest, I can tell you it was well worth it.