The garden is showing serious autumn colours and the tall
trees across the road are throwing their long shadows over the roses and lawn. The
mornings are fresher and gone are the days when shorts and a t-shirt were enough
for an early morning walk through the garden.
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| Oaks in Autumn |
On Saturday morning I took a trip to Montagu to look for a
Burgundy Iceberg rose. The market was very quiet with hardly any plants for sale except for some hibiscus and bougainvillea. A quick stop at the agricultural co-op was an exposé on current affairs. Families
were shopping for alternative light and power sources. Load shedding has become
a lifestyle in the country. Bonnievale switches to a not so gentle hum of power
generators the moment the power goes off.
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| Hydrangeas in shades of autumn |
At the shelf for solar lamps a farmer, his wife, son and
daughter were looking at the solar lamps. The wife decided to buy two solar lamp
jars and the son of about eight was trying to convince his dad to buy solar
lamps to put in the garden. It was the kind of lamps you stick in the ground
and if you were lucky a dim glimmer may emanate from behind the bush. In the end the father agreed to two lamps, I
am sure just to get out of the co-op. Just then the daughter of four insisted that
she must also have two. I could see the father’s frustration and I left them to debate the sum of solar lamps needed by a
four year old. I saw them later at the till with three lamps and gathered that
every four years equals a solar lamp.
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| A Beautiful autumn day |
I decided to buy onion, rhubarb, pea and Brussels sprout
seeds for the winter vegetable garden much against my earlier decision to give
the garden a rest. At one of the dried fruit and nut factory shops in Montagu
there was a new product on the display table in the middle of the shop. I am
sure they have put that table there just for me. I cannot resist any new
products and that table draws me like a magnet every time I walk into the shop.
This time it was pecan nut flour and not sure how I could use it I bought a bag
anyway.
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| An Autumn Harvest of Brinjals and courgettes |
The house has got a glow of candle light at night when there
is no power. Somehow it adds a new charm to the rooms with the salt crystals
in the lime washed walls reflecting in the soft light.
I love what you managed to do with the pecan nut flour as described in your newest post! I am fascinated too by the unexpected charm of the candle light picking up the salt chrystals in the limewashed interior walls. Of course our forebears must have been very much aware of that feature. Interesting to think also that for most of the existence of the house candle and paraffin lamps would have been the norm. This 'development' therefore presents a familiar arrangement for the house, a return to the past!
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