High Autumn

5 May '06 3:41 am

I returned from a week in Mozambique where I attended the Rotary District Conference and ate glorious seafood twice a day if I could at all manage it, to find cold weather on the mountain - 10 degrees Celsius by 6pm - and autumn ablaze! Here are just three of the nearly hundred shots I took yesterday.

Janbay, you ask about wild animals: last night I saw one of two types of entelope we have, browsing in my flowerbeds. It made me realise that soon precious roses and shrubs will need to be netted off. However I don't often see them. We also have two sorts of monkey (they excite the dogs!), a variety of small mammals (like mongooses), porcupines and wild pigs (a bit like european boar). The pigs are our scariest animal and I have on a few occasions walking in the pitch dark on the farm felt my neck-hairs rise at the sound of an unexpected rustle... but no, I don't need to fear attack by lions.

I tavelled back through the new trans-frontier park from Mozambique, which links up with the famous Kruger Park (if I may be allowed to ramble a little, Moosey/Eggy Wink

) where I saw many elephants and some other game. However we had an 11 hour trip, so we were not looking for exciting animals in the lush growth. Blase' , huh!

5 May '06 6:39 am

Thank you for describing the animals of your countryside so vividly .Quite amazing for us to imagine !
Your pictures are simply glorious - just like a jigsaw puzzle ---now That`s a Compliment ,Jack ! ! !
Dixie.

7 May '06 6:24 pm

Jack, does everyone call 'it' (the season, that is) 'high autumn' or is that just your own great phrase? Isn't it funny how huge changes take place when we are away from our gardens - for even a couple of days. Your autumn colours look great.

Jack, there's more. I have a South African question - well, two actually. One is about Super 14 rugby and the other is about SA playing New Zealand at cricket, and beating the pants off us, literally as I write. Are you a sports-minded gardener? Have you been deliberately, tactfully not mentioning the cricket? Or is it all in the wrong season, and maybe you don't take e.g. rugby and cricket as seriously as New Zealand Gardeners do? Well, most of us, eh Dixie!

By the way, I've managed to justify posting these rather off-the-garden-topic questions - please check the title of this post! Cheers.

9 May '06 10:11 pm

Jack, your fotos are breathtaking...absolutely calender material. It's nice to see landscapes in your country...and when possible plants. I have never visited South Africa, so I am quite curious.
Keep the pics coming, they are quite impressive to look at.

10 May '06 2:25 am

First the bad news, Moosey... it did occur to me to gloat a little, but I bethought me... Besides which, South Africans are notorious for gloating, then turning vicious the moment their teams don't perform - as is too often the case these days with our rugby and soccer. I'm no expert (in fact I don't have TV reception, as an antenna/dish will spoil the aesthetics (or so I claim: actually I fill my house-time quite adequately with music, books and the occasional radio news broadcast - not to mention school work!)and I think now I need - said the pedantic English teacher - one more 'close parenthesis' so here it is:)

My mom is the real cricket fan and she keeps me posted. When I asked her how NZ was playing as you and Dixie seemed so disgruntled she felt that you had played quite well - we just played better. As for rugby, I'v been known to stir among my rugby-coaching colleagues about men who fight over an oversized testis...

High autumn is I guess my phrase: the build up from mid-April to mid-May is by far the most intense part of my gardening year, and when one reaches the crescendo it becomes almost unbearable, on the one hand sad that it is almost over, on the other needing to move into calmer visuals.

Here is a pic taken on Sunday morning just as a cold front hit us. An hour later the mist was quite solid. I was due to host 40 Rotarians for the day, but cancelled on Saturday when I studied the detailed weather forecast. My house is the size of a double garage, and the forecast was for mist, 60% rain and 14 degrees... not conducive to outdoor living! Then I woke up to a perfect Sunday morning...

Sjoerd - some years ago the South African Tourism Agency's slogan was 'a world in one country'. My farm is not at all typical of South Africa, although there are some breathtaking rural autumn sights spread throughout the country. In the Kruger Park - dry and sub-tropical - there were some magnificent rounded open-crowned trees against the stony hills covered in yellow and orange leaves, although very few indigenous trees have good autumn colour. How I wished I had a camera with me. Perhaps I must identify them and find a pic to post!

10 May '06 6:58 am

There are no human words to describe this divine site! Just magic! Tell me, how was it smelling at the moment you were taking this stunning photo?? How was Nature smelling in that specific moment ?? Because Autumn has its magical smell, too... You must remember...

10 May '06 7:34 am

Here here liza Smile

or is that hear hear? I'm never sure.

Before leaving london, Stephen (the moosey garden engineer) was grumbling that moosey's pond plans have grown recently and now i think I know the reasons why!!!

Stunning photos Jack. Keep posting, don't stop 'rambling' and whatever you do don't mention Percy Montgomery's legs around moosey Smile

kruger park link : http://www.krugerpark.co.za/
Percy Montgomery's legs : http://www.sasi.co.za/images/sarugby/trivia2.jpg

10 May '06 8:26 pm

Wow! Wow! Wow!
Awesome! Indescribable beauties!
Thanks, Jack!

13 May '06 4:03 am

On 28 March I posted the pic and comment below. I always say that after 15 May autumn is winding down - I somehow don't think I'm going to be able to improve on this shot, taken this morning - 12 May - at 6.37... (I'll have to find something else to write about Smile

)

13 May '06 4:14 am

This pic is specially for Moosey. Eggie said not to mention the topic. A dangerous statement to make to me. However this particular Montgomery was described rather indelicately by a friend as having "Queen Anne legs"

High Autumn

High Autumn

Really lovely

Cricket and Rugby in High Autumn

High Autumn and cricket tact

Autumn Perfection!

Autumn Reflections and Percy Montgomery's Legs

High Autumn Pictures!

Then and now

Montgomery's legs