Capturing moments and releasing centuries

This year, Summer is a fickle mistress. Seductive and temperate at moments, then tempestuous and oppressive on other days. Is this a feature of global warming or a natural shift in weather patterns? I don’t know. We certainly experienced more strong winds and unseasonal summer rain this year.

Unexpected rain over a weekend plays havoc with any plans of gardening. It brings a myriad of other problems, such as diseases for the roses and vines. But rain will always hold an enchantment for me. Whether it be just simply watching it as it washes over the plants, leaving them refreshed, or listening to the rhythmic sound of water running in the gutters. A sudden downpour lends the roses another dimension of beauty while they are covered in pearly raindrops.

The garden in the rain

The charm of summer rain is that the sky can clear as rapidly as it became overcast. The sudden re-appearance of sunshine reflects in the raindrops on the plants. Wrapping the garden in an instant in a sparkling freshness. On weekends, when summer rain is just a memory, we negotiate the load-shedding schedule with solar lamps and suppers on the lawn in the cooler evenings. Or lunches in the cool dining room, when the midday temperatures can reach an average of 36°C.  

The garden is still producing a selection of fruit and vegetables. Among them are green beans, a variety of tomatoes, sweet peppers, chillies, green and purple cabbages, beetroot, carrots, figs, plums, pears, apples, limes, grapes and a variety of herbs. We are literally eating our way through the summer garden. This year, I have black sweet peppers. A gift from my cousin after his working stint in America. With the dark eggplant, purple figs and black peppers, my harvest looks monochromatic on a white plate.

I am constantly amused by the colour palette that nature creates in our garden. This summer has a distinctive taste. It is primarily the taste of tomatoes from our yellow, pink and red selection of vine ripened tomatoes. What an inspiration our garden is and a joy to find new ways of preparing the selection on offer.

The repertoire of birds in the garden includes a family of mouse-birds that decided to nest in one of the oak trees. After the wind blew the baby chick from the nest once, I seemed to have to put him back into the nest constantly. He could not fly yet but seemed to prefer it out of the nest after his first involuntary venture into the garden. I am not a keen fan of them in the garden. I find them too destructive in the orchard. They can destroy several figs in the course of a morning. But I could not let this ‘ugly duckling’ of a bird die of exposure or at the beak or claw of the fiscal shrike or a curious cat.

Other resident birds in the garden are the Olive Shrikes, Wagtails, Robins, Waxbills, Bulbuls, Paradise Flycatchers, Cape Canaries, Sparrows, White Eyes, Fiscal Flycatchers, Fiscal Shrikes, Sunbirds, Laughing Doves, Turtle Doves, the Swallows under the bridge that crosses over the canal, some visiting Hoopoes, Hadedas and Rock Pigeons. Each bring their own character and contribution to the magic of the garden. They are the reason for keeping the garden organic as much as we can. They meticulously clean the dry-stone walls, architectural quoining, lawns and outdoor lamps. They clean these of all the insects that also call the garden ‘home’. Though it is a short sojourn, thanks to the regimen of the birds.

The orchard through a rain splattered bedroom window

The house is designed in such a way that one is always aware of the garden from within, even more so at dusk and dawn. The garden brings a sense of visual calm to the rooms. In the dawning of the day, different bird calls can be heard from the parts of the garden where they prefer to forage. They bring a light fresh sound into the house from the garden. At dusk the lighter sounds are replaced by the sometimes almost deafening night sounds. These include a chorus of raucous toads, the percussion of Guineafowl in the blue gums across the road and the shrill strings of the crickets in the garden.

The silhouette of the kitchen gable during loadshedding

The garden is a happy place. One can capture endless moments of pleasure as it releases the magic of centuries old rituals in a space that has captured the imagination of so many before us.