I found this sculpture hanging in the gardens of the Temenos Retreat Centre. I am not sure if this sculpture is an original created in the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda.
The owl sculptures were originally created by an artist Helen Elizabeth Martin who did some amazing things with light and cement. She stayed in Nieu Bethesda for the last years of her life. Ms Martin’s home has been turned into a museum and an art outreach centre. You can see more detail on the Owl House website and if you are in the area of Nieu Bethesda it is well worth a visit.
Temenos is a multifaith retreat centre situated in McGregor in the Western Cape. Their website is here.
We were privileged to see Bat Eared Foxes in the Mountain Zebra National Park. They use those big ears to detect insects which they then dig for in the dry sand.
And now the story of a failed star shoot. We were in the Mountain Zebra National Park. It is a really great park. They have just brought lions in and according to the park staff the lions are “far over there” pointing towards Graaff Rienette.
We were in a fenced camp but worryingly we have seen buck inside the fences so we are not convinced that the fences are as secure as the staff say.
Anyway, at 2 AM I go outside to take photos of the stars because the skies are really quite beautiful and bright in the dry Karoo air.
My first shot and the focus is a bit off.
Taking the advice of a wise photographer, I switch to manual focus and attempt to get sharp focus on a distant street lamp.
Then I start a third photograph setting the timer to 65 seconds.
It is at 30 seconds that a lion roars. It takes about 5 seconds for me to reallise that what I had just heard was a lion, that it might be far away but I wasn’t going to take a chance of it not being in the camp, so I raced inside the chalet and slammed the door which results in a third image which is a nice blend of the stars and the inside of the chalet.
Some years ago, I was travelling though the Free State province of South Africa and came across rocks that had round lumps on them. Some were complete, others were broken. I found one possible explanation on Atlas Obscura – concretation. The images on Atlas Obscura are far larger than those I found and are not attached to larger rocks as mine are.
We went to the Tankwa National Park for a birding outing. The Tankwa is in what is called the Arid Succulent Karoo. With an average of 15 cm (6″) rainfall per annum the area is dry and water is scarce but the animals, birds, reptiles and plants survive in surprising numbers. This is the second time we have been to Tankwa. Our previous visit is documented here.
This is the view from the front of the chalet looking out towards Sutherland where the South African Large Telescope is housed.
Because of the dust, sunrises are colourful.
The stars are beautiful but light pollution is ubiquitous. That is Cape Town in the distance – about 200 km as the crow flies.
There having been a very wet winter, the only major dam in the reserve was overflowing. We never did identify that bird.
Birds tend to be small and really difficult to photograph.
A mouse warming itself in the early morning sun.
A Spiny Agama suns itself on a rock.
A Black Backed Jackal surveys the world.
Gazanias grow where there is a little more water available.
Where there was once water. A few centimetres of rain causes wash aways an pools like this one.
This is a Sutherlandia commonly called a Cancer Bush, supposedly helps treat cancer. No basis for this claim that I know of.
This plant is still unidentified, it just grows out of the thin soil and produces these beautiful flowers.
The Orange River Canyon does a sharp turn and the resultant spur of rock is called arrow point. This part of the canyon is in hot dry lands where the rainfall is typically 160 mm per annum.
We went to Vrolijkheid this last weekend and were stunned by the spring flowers. The birding was not great, but we got some lovely pictures none the less.
Now for the birds
Coot feeding time.
Grebe and gone
And a clicking stream frog.
And a large ant. The Afrikaans name is “balbyter” literally ball biter.
Recently I found that most creative people have a portfolio so I decided it was time I created a brag page so here we go. I am a generalist or less politely a jack of all trades. Whichever title you want to use it means I am curious about practically anything so to save you from browsing through the entire website, I will provide a short summary. So here goes
Painting – oil, acrylics and pastels. Acrylic first
Oil
Pastels
Charcoal
Photography – photograph anything that takes my fancy, flowers, sunsets, stars, landscapes and birds.
A glacial pavement just outside Nieuwoudtville when we were part of Pangea.
I love mountain passes and actively seek them out. The one in the video does not have a name to the best of my knowledge. It is very short and possibly cannot even be considered a pass, but I believe it is the steepest I have driven. It outdoes the Botterkloof pass in Namaqualand. Where is it? It crosses the Gouritz River about 50 km east of Herbertsdale. If you want to find it on Google Maps search for Willie se uitkykpunt. Apologies for some bad images, but I was using a hand held camera balanced on the steering wheel and my wife was not with me so I had to do it all myself.
