A Saturday Garden Stroll

I never cease to be amazed at how our garden in the African bush can continually surpise and delight me!

Today I heard high pitched shrieking and went outside to investigate…

....only to discover monkeys everywhere, maybe around 20 of them or so, including several scruffy 'teenagers', and a mother grabbing her very young shrieking baby back toward herself and getting him to 'hang on' as she ran off with him clinging to her belly. 

I proceded to chase the other monkeys off the car and out of the garden, but one didn't run off quickly and looked a little panicked.  

As I got a little closer I realised there was a reason for her slowness….

I noticed she had a very tiny newborn, 

But then realised it wasn't just one baby, it was twins.

I think I must have stumbled upon a her very soon after delivery as she showed signs that may have been the case. But her two babies looked very weak and very, very new. As long as I stayed a reasonable distance away from her she didn't run off, although she looked like she wanted to.  But it meant I did get some good photos.  When she had finished picking some morsels to eat for herself she grabbed her little ones and went and sat in a low tree branch. She also wasn't moving too energetically and seemed to be struggling a bit trying to carry two babies. At one stage I wasn't sure if her babies were even alive, but then I saw each of them voluntarily move, and the tiniest of them did have his eyes open just a little bit.

I don't know if they will survive, but their mummy was trying her best to take good care of them, and it was rather special to get such a long time of watching them.

Having got the camera out, I thought I would take a further gentle stroll around the garden and see what it had to show me at this crossroads of seasons - the end of the dry season, with a first storm yesterday that brought a short soaking downpour.

Let me show you some of what I found…

Firstly - just to show you how dry some of our plants get over the dry months - this succulent, normally so full, smooth and fat and green, is currently not only stressed and red, but shrivelled and wrinkled!

Next - a fascinating assortment of dry open seed pods - various shapes, sizes, colours and patterns…. more examples of the creativity of the Creator!

Here is a hoodia plant wide-open seed pod (it is also in a state of stress from the dry weather and lacking its usual green colouring - but instead is showing the beautiful 'white dotted' effect on the edges!

This succulant is the same one that was a brilliant white stalk a few months back - that the sunbird was photographed on, now it is tipped with a subtle burgundy...

Here is the dry flower stalk of a native bulb with its stylish light browns, creams and black...

This is the seed stage of the very pretty orange flower that you saw butterflies photographed on in a previous blogpost

Here is a frangipani seed pod with its patterned arrangement of compartments inside

But not everything is dull and dry - the flowers are beginning to bloom too, and looked so beautiful in the afternoon sun...

And birds and squirrels are busy trying to find a mate - this little guy had to fight off a competing suitor this afternoon and in the process fanned his tail and revealed a brilliant copper colour hidden away, but he was too quick for me to catch a photo in the midst of his display.  Hopefully he will win over his lady without too much more ado!

Then as I headed indoors a heard the familiar squirrel mating call and looked up as he was scurring to the very top of the stone parapet on the end of our house where he continued his wholehearted efforts for quite a while!  There was no "mrs" in sight so he is going to have to work a bit harder for some time yet!

So many opportunities to once again marvel at our God's amazing creation, and the reminder that as the seasons change, that His hand is still directing and sustaining this earth's systems. 

We can trust Him!