Calendula Pot Marigold (Calendula Officinalis) - Maree

This plant sprang up between my Marigolds, I've never had them in my garden, and at first I wasn't sure what it was, but upon investigation found that it is also a Marigold and a bit different to my 'normal' Marigolds, which are French Marigold (Tagetes), an American native in the same family as the daisy. This Calendula officinalis or Pot Marigold  is edible and often appears on lists of attractive edible flowers. Most French marigold varieties are not edible, although I have mixed some of the petals in with my salads. Maybe it will seed and I'll have more this season.

The worst is over... Maree

Ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

… but still the weather teases, keeping Spring just around the corner.

The end of winter at the bottom of our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

Hard to believe... Maree

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Winter on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

It’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago the grass on our smallholding was dead and yellow and that these trees had no foliage … Now we've had our first rains and the landscape is once again smiling!

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Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

Ghostly pale and (not) strictly nocturnal, Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are silent predators of the night world. Lanky, with a whitish face, chest, and belly, and buffy upperparts, this owl roosts in hidden, quiet places during the day. By night, they hunt on buoyant wingbeats in open fields and meadows. You can find them by listening for their eerie, raspy calls, quite unlike the hoots of other owls. Despite a worldwide distribution, Barn Owls are declining in parts of their range due to habitat loss. I for one do not see them as often as I used to, but a few nights ago I was thrilled to hear one screeching just before dawn.

The Owl Rescue Centre is the only raptor centre in South Africa that primarily focus on owl species. They give all their time and attention to owl species because of the high mortality rate of owls in South Africa, making owls vulnerable to a decreasing population. They rehabilitate and release 200 – 250 Spotted Eagle Owls, 100 – 150 Barn Owls and 80 -100 other owl species each year. SHOULD YOU FIND AN OWL THAT YOU SUSPECT MIGHT BE INJURED, PLEASE CALL THEM ON 082 719 5463 (24/7 emergency line – South Africa)

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Amethyst Sunbird female - Maree

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Amethyst Sunbird female feeding on the Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker) flowers in my garden

I'm always utterly thrilled when these little beauties visit my garden. With all the rain we've had, my Red Hot Pokers have been an absolute magnet for insects and birds and when I hear these sunbirds twittering in my garden I always rush out, sketchbook or camera in hand. The male is pitch black with the most gorgeous metallic throat patch and one could easily miss his inconspicuous little wife perched on the flowers.

The Amethyst Sunbird, also called the Black Sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystine) mainly occurs in Africa south of the equator. Its natural habitat is dry savannah but it is extremely fond of gardens.

 It goes out of its way to visit a large clump of nectar-bearing plants. Here in my garden, it feeds on nectar from the Aloe, Kniphofia, Halleria lucida (Tree fuchsia) and a nectar mix in one of my bird feeders. It’s diet is supplemented with insects and often hawks flying insects from the trees or bushes, also gleaning them from leaves and branches. Nectar is obtained either from flowers or from garden feeders, which it uses readily (note that in feeding experiments it was found to prefer sucrose rather than sugar).

This Sunbird is not threatened, in fact its range has increased recently due to the spread of wooded gardens.

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Rain, rain and more rain - Maree

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

It has been raining solidly, every day, for over two weeks now and the landscape is saturated with water, forming large pans of water everywhere. Some days my rain gauge overflows, meaning more than 120mm in just a few hours! My chooks are bedraggled and wet, choosing the safety and dryness of the coop. While all this water is excellent for our ground water tables, it has caused massive flooding and damage in large parts of South Africa. I think we're getting a spin-off from all the ice storms and flooding in the Northern Hemisphere, because this is most unusual weather for us.

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Black-headed Oriole - Maree

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

The Black-headed Oriole (Oriolus larvatus) is a frequent visitor to my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and I’m always thrilled to hear his liquid call, upon which I rush out to refill the oranges and apples, which seem to be his favourite fruit.

The Black-headed oriole is common and widespread, occurring throughout sub-Saharan Africa, from East Africa to southern Africa. It is quite adaptable, occupying a variety of habitats, including savannah, woodland, parks, farmland and gardens. It eats a variety of invertebrates, fruit and seeds, often foraging in mixed species flocks in the tree canopy. The nest is a deep cup of woven old-man’s beard strands, moss and grass, placed between stems of a fork in a slender tree branch. It is usually placed between the stems of a fork in a horizontal branch, often far from the main tree trunk, usually 6-9 metres above ground.

Bright yellow in colour with black head and black flight feathers, it has a flesh-coloured beak and grey feet. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Golden Oriole is bright yellow with black wings.

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Barn owls - Maree

Ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I've been so lucky this past summer in having the barn owls in our blue gum bush again and I've had plenty of sightings during the day and been thrilled by their screeching at night. I've mostly spotted this one particular pair and I was so hoping to see babies but I have no idea where the nest is.

Barn owls are most commonly monogamous, although several reports of polygamy exist. Pairs typically remain together as long as both individuals live.

Courtship begins with display flights by males which are accompanied by advertising calls and chasing the female. During the chase, both the male and the female screech. The male will also hover with feet dangling in front of the perched female for several seconds; these are known as moth flights.

Copulation occurs every few minutes during the nest site search. Both sexes crouch down in front of each other to solicit copulation. The male mounts the female, grasps her neck, and balances with spread wings. Copulation continues with decreasing frequency throughout incubation and chick rearing.

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A beautiful fence - Maree

“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land's inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery.”
― Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food  

Ink sketch and colour wash in Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Last month, on a public holiday, I took a drive with my husband to a customer's farm to go and have a look at a classic car the gentleman was selling and thank goodness we were in my husband's 4x4, the road was atrocious! 

I've got a thing about rickety old fences and asked hubby to stop so I could do a quick sketch. I added the colour once we were home again. The day was fruitless as far as buying anything was concerned but I was entranced by the natural beauty of his farm and managed to get in quite a few sketches while the men were talking cars.

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My Swallows are back! - Maree

Greater-striped Swallow sketch in my Nature Journal
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My swallows are back! 10 Oct 2013 - stealthily and imperceptibly they arrived; was I unconscious? 

They were very late this year, usually they arrive the beginning of September, maybe that's why I missed them. But we also had no rain in September, with our first shower happening on the 8th October. This leads me to believe they time their arrival with the rains... 

Wonder if they'll be using last year's half-completed nest?
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The Greater Striped Swallow (Hirundo cucullata syn. Cecropis cucullata) breeds in Southern Africa, mainly in South Africa, Namibia and southern Zimbabwe. It is migratory, wintering further north in Angola, Tanzania and southern Zaire. 

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Cumulus humilis (Cu hum) - Maree

“We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better.” 

― Walt Stanchfield

W&N watercolour on Aqua 300gsm (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

While sketching this landscape, I was fascinated by the colour of the clouds. So as soon as I finished, I decided to research some clouds and came up with some interesting information.

Cumulus humilis (Cu hum) is the smallest non-ragged cloud and usually shows a light-grey shading underneath.

These are small fair-weather cumuliform clouds of limited convection that do not grow vertically and generally do not produce rain showers. Being at or near the beginning of the convective cloud’s daily life cycle, they lack the moderate vertical extent of cumulus mediocris. Consequently they are commonly classified as low clouds. Cumulus mediocris (Cu med) achieves moderate vertical development, has medium-grey shading underneath, and can produce scattered showers of light intensity.

Striking cloud colorations can be seen at many altitudes in the homosphere, which includes the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesophere. The first recorded colored cloud was seen by Nathan Ingleton in 1651, he wrote the event in his diary but the records were destroyed in 1666, in the Great Fire of London. The color of a cloud, as seen from Earth, tells much about what is going on inside the cloud.

Cloud droplets tend to scatter light efficiently, so that the intensity of the solar radiation decreases with depth into the gases. As a result, the cloud base can vary from a very light to very-dark-grey depending on the cloud’s thickness and how much light is being reflected or transmitted back to the observer. Thin clouds may look white or appear to have acquired the color of their environment (cloud iridescence).

Colors occur naturally in tropospheric clouds. Bluish-grey is the result of light scattering within the cloud. The bluish color is evidence that such scattering is being produced by rain-size droplets in the cloud. A cumulonimbus cloud that appears to have a greenish/bluish tint is a sign that it contains extremely high amounts of water; hail or rain.

Yellowish or brownish clouds may occur in the late spring through early fall months during forest fire season. The yellow color is due to the presence of pollutants in the smoke. Yellowish clouds, caused by the presence of nitrogen dioxide, are sometimes seen in urban areas with high air pollution levels. This info from Wiki

So, either our veldfire-season has started already or I’m living in a highly polluted area!

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No rain yet... - Maree

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. 

- Ashley Smith 

 Ink sketch and colour wash of a scene in Magaliesburg in my Moleskine Nature sketchbook

It's the first of October, heading for mid-summer here in South Africa and we've had no rain yet. Normally we have the winds in August clearing up old growth and our first spring rains early in September, but the wind has been blowing right through September, seemingly blowing the clouds back to whence they came from.

I'm having to water my garden every day, we've had some very high temperatures, but nothing seems to give life like even just a couple of millimetres of rain...

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Bushman Rock paintings - Maree

Watercolour sketch in my Moleskine Watercolour Sketch-book 

Ancient Bushman paintings like these can be seen in many parts of South Africa, especially in the Drakensberg mountains. The Bushmen, or San, are thought to have been the first modern human inhabitants of Southern Africa. Only a few thousand survive today, living mostly in the desert regions. Their art tells of their ancient lives, with particular emphasis on hunting and the animals around them. 

During a visit to a rock painting site not far from where I live, located north-west of Klerksdorp, North-West Province, South Africa, I did a couple of sketches in my Moleskine Nature sketch-book and since then I've painted a couple of these on the walls in my house.
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A couple of 'rock paintings' on one of my bathroom walls

The Bushmen are a hunting and gathering people of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. There are many interesting aspects of their culture, but their connection with the natural world is mostly expressed through their rock art and healing/trance dances. The healing dances and the Bushmen’s rock art are both central to the Bushmen’s way of life. 

Bushman rock art today is widely threatened by erosion and vandalism. Some of the best known examples are under protection in South Africa’s parks. 

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Listen to the Guinea fowl - Maree

Be grateful for nature. Pay the thunder no mind – listen to the Guinea fowl. And don’t hate anybody. 

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm heavy-duty sketching paper.

The Helmeted Guinea Fowl is an African family of insect and seed-eating, ground-nesting birds resembling partridges, but with featherless heads and spangled grey plumage. They are the ultimate low-cost, chemical-free pest control and if your garden is already established and can withstand the scratching, you’ll have a healthy and pest-free garden. And be rewarded with some wonderful antics from these lovely birds. 

It is interesting to note that they are monogamous, mating for life. The hens have a habit of hiding their nests, and sharing it with other hens until large numbers of eggs have accumulated. Females lay 25-30 tough-skinned, smallish, creamy eggs in a deep, tapering nest and undergo an incubation period of 26-28 days. The chicks are called “keets” and are highly susceptible to damp. In fact, they can die from following the mother through dewy grass. After their first two to six weeks of growth, they can be some of the hardiest domestic land fowl.

They are highly social birds, and hate to be alone. When you see a lone guinea fowl, it usually means trouble, like that the family has been scattered by a predator. Guineas spend most of their days foraging. They work as a team, marching chest to chest and devouring anything they startle as they move through the grass. When they discover a special treat — a rodent, for example, or a small snake — they close ranks, circle their prey, and move in for the feast. All the while, they keep up a steady stream of whistles, chirps, and clicks, a sort of running commentary on the day’s hunt. 

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This Blue Gum

This blue gum tree greets me every morning as I open my studio curtains. She is always there. She has always been there, for the past ten years. She's the one I sit and stare at when I'm pondering or deep in thought. I've watched her swaying in heavy winds, watched as limbs have broken off and watched as veld fires have swept her base. 

She stands across the road from our property, probably about 20m tall and offers a safe haven for all the birds in the area. I've watched as baby crows have fledged from her branches and yet, I've never looked at her properly. 

Today I decided to look at her, with new eyes, and paint her. 

I think she's wonderful. 

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Kite's foot detail - Maree

“The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak
And stared with his foot on the prey.”
- Lord Alfred Tennyson



Kites are raptors with long wings and weak legs which spend a great deal of time sitting on overhead wires and hovering when they have spotted prey. They have featherless feet, but they also developed a range of other impressive adaptations that help them hunt most anything in their environment. Each foot has four powerful toes with sharp talons. Tiny projections on the bottom of their feet called “spicules” help kites grasp their prey.

The Black-shouldered Kite occurs in India, South-East Asia, south-western Europe and across sub-Saharan Africa, from southern Mauritania to Eritrea south to southern Africa. Here it is very common across the region but especially in South Africa, north-eastern Zimbabwe and central Botswana, occurring in most habitats but generally preferring grassland, transformed fynbos and cultivated land. It is largely absent from closed woodland, forest and desert.

A Staedtler HB pencil sketch detail of the Black-shouldered Kite's foot in my Moleskine large sketch-book 8" x 5"

Grand Dame - Maree

n. pl. grandes dames also grand dames

1. A highly respected elderly or middle-aged woman
2. A respected woman having extensive experience in her field
3. A woman regarded as the most experienced, prominent, or venerable member of her profession, etc.

The Blue Gum trees (Eucalyptus) on our property are showing signs of the winter, with lots of dead leaves and grass at their bases, a sure danger should our property catch fire this season. Our fire breaks haven't been done yet, normally we're finished by now, but we're late because the tractor has been out on hire and should be back in a couple of days.

Despite the freezing cold, I took a stroll down to the bottom of our property to find something to sketch and this tree is one of my favourite grand old dames that has managed to escape burning for the past couple of seasons.

Parker Fountain pen with Black Quink ink and Rohrer & Klinger Verdura Green ink, a bit of water added. Done in my Moleskine Sketch-book.

Morning is my favourite time

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm heavy-weight sketching paper - sunrise over our smallholding, view towards the neighbour's property

Morning is my favourite time when everything is new; 

flowers drink the morning dew and skies are painted in a golden hue.

Each tree stands tall and stately – different shades and different face. 

I’m viewing morning’s painting, done with Nature’s brush of Grace.

The sun peeks slowly in the East, then rises with its smile;

Another morning greeting and we walk another mile.

UNKNOWN 

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African Joy and Sorrow - Maree

"The triumph of life is the joy experienced thereafter." 

- Maree 

Guinea standing on the wall, forlornly calling his missing wife.

A couple of years ago, one of my guinea fowl sitting on eggs was killed by a dog, leaving 10 eggs, on the point of hatching, without a mother. I gathered all the eggs and put them in a basket with a hot water bottle, trying to keep them warm to see if any of them would hatch. Two days later still nothing, but on the third day I heard a weak peep-peep from one of the eggs. None of the others showed any sign of life, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and open the one that was peeping. I gently peeled away the shell and lifted out a perfectly formed little guinea fowl, and placed him on the warm towel, drying his little body with a soft cloth until he lifted his little head and stared me straight in the eye. 

That was the beginning of a beautiful, long relationship with "Guinea", who spent five years following me everywhere and providing us with endless hours of pleasure with his surprising antics. He even lured a wild guinea fowl female from the wild (they used to pass through our property in large flocks, travelling from one field to another) and together they reared 5 clutches of beautiful little guinea fowl, all of whom stayed on our property for many years. 

When Guinea's wife disappeared one day, he was inconsolable, standing on the wall and calling for hours in that haunting 'phe-twee, phe-twee, phe-twee' that is so typical of the South African bush. After that, he would often disappear for a day or two until, one day, he didn't come home at all. I hoped and presumed that he had found another family and was happily roaming the fields surrounding our property. 

“This life as you live it now and have lived it, you will have to live again and again, times without number, and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and all the unspeakably small and great in your life must return to you and everything in the same series and sequence -- and in the same way this spider and this moonlight among the trees, and this same way this moment and I myself. The eternal hour glass of existence will be turned again and again -- and you with it, you dust of dust!”

 - Friedrich Nietzsche 

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Golden Bishop (Euplectes afer) - Maree

“Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.” 

- Doug Coupland

W&N watercolour on in my Moleskine Nature Journal

For years I’ve been entertaining and been entertained by the Red Bishop in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and yesterday, for the first time ever, I had nine new visitors – Golden Bishops! My heart fairly bounced when I saw the splashes of golden yellow amongst the red of the Red Bishops at the feeding table – it looked like a colourful table setting for the festive season, mixed with the softer green-yellow of the Weavers. I immediately fetched my Bird Book, just to make sure, and to make notes, which I always do when I find somebody new in my garden.

I did a quick sketch while he was on the reed at my pond and then referenced the colours from one of my bird books. This is the Golden Bishop’s breeding colours and he is difficult to distinguish from the Red Bishop when not breeding, but is generally much paler below, with faint streaking confined to the sides of the breast and the flanks.

This bird is known as the “Goudgeelvink” in Afrikaans and when not breeding, is nomadic in large flocks over grasslands. They prefer to breed in reed beds surrounding dams and near rivers.

It is locally common in the Eastern half of South Africa, with more localised populations in northern Namibia, northern and south-eastern Botswana and Zimbabwe. In the breeding season it mainly occupies marshes or seasonally flooded areas, but when isn’t breeding it can move into dry habitats such as cultivated areas.

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