Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Longing to be back
10 Sep '06 10:16 pm Dear friends – I am now really paying the price for spending all my energy on the play: my marking is hopelessly behind and THE DEADLINE looms. So here is just a quick tease.
Last week I wrote and lost a post on the play, which was a great success. I have had very positive feedback. The pick was taken after the final performance last Friday. The witchazel pic was part of my lazing out last weekend after my series of 90hr weeks. I trimmed off the remaining dead leaves and celebrated the fact that it now really makes a show – just as Vita Sackville-West said it would, one day surprising one after years of just being there. I grew mine from seed – the only ones I know of in the country and - oops! – I discovered this winter I mistook some for limes (tilia) and planted them in the to-be-pleached lime circle behind the bench at the top of the beech borders.
The other pics are of spring in the garden - happening so quickly now! - AND of summiting Serala, the 2nd highest mountain in the province, with the Grade 8s on Wednesday. They were on a 5 day trek, but I could this year only go up for the day to base camp in my 4x4 – which had the advantage of lots of pics and several cuttings! I have some lovely wild flowers pics and distance shots to share still. On the view from the summit the white spot centre bottom is my car at base camp, and the playing fields at school read as a horizontal smudge immediately above the car in the far distance. One of the highlights of the year is signalling school from the summit – weather permitting of course!
11 Sep '06 3:09 am I missed the post about your play, but will look for it. However, the smile on your face says it all! I'm so glad all those long hours paid off for you.
For now, I want to say what beautiful pictures you have posted. The summit of Serala is breathtaking, and the wild flowers so colorful and 'Spring-ish.' Can we be looking for some of them in your gardens?
Looking forward to all the Spring pictures you, Moosey and others who share the opposite seasons of us in the USA. We are preparing for Fall, which is my favorite season with all the colorful leaves and crisp cool air. However, this year I can simultaneously enjoy Spring again through your pictures and wonderful journals. What a wonderful thing this computer.
