And for South Africans, in comparison to Westerosi and winter, this is a grand turn of events, not the most terrifying experience of our lives. It brings dog walkers, not White Walkers, out of hibernation.
What turns a South African's crank?
It might be cloudy today, but something which makes the South African heart go pitter patter even more than wedding bells (which will make sense if you've been reading the leadup to the Wedding of the Century - which I promise you I'll post about tomorrow) is the gentle sound of spring rains after the long dry season. The air smells of impending rain, and is bursting with the competing smells of flowering plants. Clouds mean rain, and rain spells relief from the long period of dusty, beige Highveld winter landscapes.
Spring arrived with force and splendour here in Johannesburg a couple of weeks ago, with trees racing each other into bud, leaf and flower. It's particularly heady in the late afternoons when @tim-beck and I take our little 4-km walk around our peaceful Johannesburg suburb.
Smells and spring just go together
The smells reminded me of a line from a set work we had to do in French in high school - Poussière sur la ville, by André Langevin. It's quite a depressing book about the gradual failure of an ill-fated marriage, but I remember two things specifically from the book: that the young wife was a fauve (she was wild) and that l'air embaumait d'effluves. This was my very first lesson in not translating French to English literally, because that can get you into trouble. If you look at the words, they seem to say "the air was embalmed with effluvia" - bleah. A more elegant and accurate translation is that the "air was fragrant with scents".
As always, something to be thankful for
Okay, so the photos aren't as dramatic without the beauty of afternoon sunlight to bathe the flowers in gold. But we'll get rain soon, and that will make the farmers happy and start to fill our dams again.
Sharing spring
Here are a few shots from the garden today (shot under a cloudy sky) to give you an idea of just how much flowering is going on.
This little beauty is covered in pollen from the tree above it!
Trees and plants the bees love
The bees go crazy for the bottle brush tree.
They also go nuts for this salvia.
Lavender really attracts bees too.
The lemon tree is irresistible to bees. It gave us a bumper crop last year, and it looks like this year might also be sweetly sour.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow
That's what this bush is called. It's been flowering for a couple of weeks now so some of the blooms are starting to dry up - but it still smells heavenly.
It's called a Yesterday Today and Tomorrow bush because it flowers in three colours simultaneously.
Other beauties in the garden
Here's a sample of some of the other beauties enjoying our Joburg spring.
The pomegranate bush which gave me one fruit for my birthday last year is covered in red buds.
Irises are dotting the walls.
Ooooh! I just heard thunder.
Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone
pocketsend:101@kiligirl, have fun!
Amazing beauty of the flowers!
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So wonderful pictures of flowers,love it. upvoted ,resteemed.
Thank you, @theia7! Appreciate the support! 😊😊
Flower beautiful..
I like your post.
I love your writing style :):) Amazing!! I'm also really jealous about your YTT, mine died :( + pomegranites, ughhh, JEALOUSSSS I AM!!!
Thank you so much, @therneau! That's a lovely compliment from you. I wish I could say we lavish TLC on the YTT, but frankly I just think it's been planted in a place it loves. The pomegranate was a heckuva surprise. 😊😊
Great post, re-steemed!We had a first Frost here in Canada last night. Enjoy your Summer!
Thank you, @petal-power! I'm actually a transplanted Montrealer, so gee, I can really relate to your feelings about the first frost. One of my FB friends posted a beautiful photo of the leaves reflected on an Ontario lake this weekend...beautiful, yes, but a sure sign that Winter is Coming. Where do you live in Canada?😊😊
Like every other cricket lover, I heard the word Johannesburg back in late 90s. The matches played there still refresh my 2 decades old memories. Since Cricket introduced me to this city, so after reading your today's post, the first image that came into mind was cricket matches. Thanks @kiligirl for this beautiful post laden with colorful flowers. It was refreshing to read it. By the way, do you use Dicord or Steemchat?
I've become a cricket lover since moving to South Africa (unfortunately Canada is not a great country for cricket). I'm glad this post gave you another dimension to your view of Joburg. I've been using Discord for @teamsouthafrica and went onto Steemchat when I was trying to figure out how to get @scienceguy's account going. Let me know how and we can chat on either of those channels. 😊😊
What unusual flowers! For the first time such I see and I like it. Recently I published flowers from my land and I was surprised that the usual flowers surprised me for other people.
Hi, @semptly, yes, South Africa's biodiversity is extraordinary and the variety of spring flowers is simply mind-boggling. I didn't even know we had those little purple flowers (the ones growing on the ground) - for two years they've been green leaves with nothing else to hint how beautiful they can be. Interesting how we get used to certain flowers and what is normal for us is exotic for someone else. Thanks for stopping in! 😊😊
always found it amazing how my winter is someone else's summer
Too true! And someone else's night is someone else's day. 😊😊
Spring definitely is inspiring teamsouthafrica, (not the scary winds Durban experienced yesterday though!) Lovely post:) I posted a fun story about my fragrant garden last week, think you will enjoy it @kiligirl: https://steemit.com/teamsouthafrica/@lizelle/what-fragrance-do-you-leave-behind
Glad you enjoyed the post, @lizelle, and I hope you and yours were ok after yesterday's winds (@tim-beck's cousin's smallholding has a couple less trees 😳😳. Sobering how the weather reminds us how small we are. Will check out your post tomorrow morning (internet connection unreliable - I keep having to move to another room to post a reply!) 😊😊
I was driving home at the time, felt like the car was being pushed, a fallen tree on the side of the highway, branches all over the road, scary! We live in a valley so no damage but leaves everywhere, pool full of bougainvillea flowers :) Much damage elsewhere! Never under-estimate the power of nature!
That must have been scary! So glad you and yours didn't suffer more damage. As you say, we must never underestimate the power of nature...hat tip to Irma....
Love the gazanias, bottle-brush, lavender, purple-flower plant, yesterday-today-and-tomorrow, but... my dahlias were blown away by the gale yesterday...so sad!
Oh, so sorry, @sea-cottage! I hope your garden recovers during the summer. Sad to lose growing things we've planted and worked with over months 😢
Thank you for taking care of those plants and flowers, nature is so beautiful
Indeed, and so inspiring! Thank you for stopping in 😊
great. I follow you and I invite you to see my publications
me encanta saludos
What a lovely post,i really like all the beautiful pictures of nature that you click,thanks for share buddy :)
natural thing....vary nice.....very nice post ...i like it..
Thank you, @johnmarteen. 😊
Mind blowing work @kiligirl - I'm a big of your writing skills. But today I must say that your photography skills is not less than writing. I love this cam(Please mention model of cam if possible) and also the way how pictures are taken is outstanding. Great job. From my side its 200/100. Keep posting outclass material. Regards!
That's really kind of you, @jawad09! My super duper camera is actually my Huawei Mate 9 phone. In amazed by what it can do. I simply click on the area I want the camera to focus on, and it gives me an extraordinary photo. It's my best photo partner ever. And I really appreciate your support! 😊😊
You're every time welcome!
😊😊
very beautiful flower
Thank you, @rbbeachdesigns. 😊
Congratulations @kiligirl, this post is the seventh most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Hero account holder (accounts that hold between 10 and 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Hero account holders during this period was 241 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $3882.28. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.
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Goodness, I didn't know there was such a thing as a Hero account. Guess it's appropriate for SuperKiligirl....
Beautiful plants and photos
You are lucky, winter is coming to my country :-((
Thank you, @josepalmetto...but at least we know that spring and summer will follow winter for you while we slip into winter here. Hope it doesn't get too cold and dark where you are. 😊😊
Great post! Much love to teamsouthafrica from oklahoma,us!
Thank you so much, @kenentertainment from Oklahoma!😊😊
These flowers are so plaid and sensitive ... But it impresses me with their beauty
Hi @amedeo, most of these plants are indigenous, which is really important to us as a water-stressed nation. On that front, we had a lovely thunderstorm tonight 😊😊
Ohh, I'm so glad to hear that. It's always a pleasure to comment on your wonderful articles
Thank you 😊😊
Just the truth! :D
Que bonito escribes @kiligirl
Gracias, @pielmorena 😊😊
I really enjoyed your post so much very well written and the most beautiful flowers! As I saw them one by one I thought wow this girl lives beautifully🌺
Thank you so much, @cecirod1218 😊😊
Very ornamental plants that can spoil our eyes with beautiful shapes and colors, some of which are just the types of flowers in a common form.
Flowers and ornamental plants are part of our lives, they have different shapes, colors, benefits and meanings, flowers sometimes become one part of important events
Indeed, @miky! I love how Asian and Indian cultures incorporate flowers into so many rituals and ceremonies, and life in general. 😊😊
I'd love to visit your country, but I'm kinda far :(
Spring seems to be the perfect season to be there, I can picture all flowering in those amazing colors you let us see in your pics. How is it the beach on spring, the water temp and weather? Is really expensive to travel from here ( Uruguay ) to Southafrica but I'm getting more hyped everyday, thanks for sharing this beauty of a post.
Hi there, @fivefiveeleven. There may be some good deals available between Uruguay and South Africa - I know quite a few South Africans choose Uruguay as an affordable destination (because our rand doesn't go very far!). Once you get here, food and accommodation are well-priced for a cost-conscious international traveller. Airbnb is well-established here and presents well-priced alternatives.
Spring here is sensational. Flowers everywhere, but especially in desert areas in the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. There, carpets of flowers explode in areas that used to look like dusty rock. A South African photographer, Bipin Prag, does quite a good job capturing these explosions, but you could google it and probably see how amazing it is.
The water temperature? Depends what side of the country you choose! The Atlantic (around Cape Town, and through the western side of the Western Cape province) is good for wetsuit use only - really cold. The Indian Ocean coastline is fabulous, with some of the best wild beaches and diving in the world. If you look through Google Earth at the Eastern Cape coastline, you'll see what I mean. Kilometres and kilometres of dunes and coastal forest, with terrific bird life. The KwaZulu Natal coastline heads up to Mozambique and is even warmer, with the St Lucia wetlands presenting world class diving. Really worth saving up for the airfare.
Ok, that was pretty long, but I do love this country....
Hello kiligirl..beautiful post and pictures to show the onset of spring and then summer.. blooming of the flowers, showers of the rain, smells of the soil etc brings joy, festivities and colours to our life..
I do hope you get to enjoy some of what nature has to offer where you live, @momi5!
Yes..we do get...now it autumn here and it's a festive season for us...
Wonderful! I'm glad you get a chance to enjoy the festive season. It would be terrific to read about it on Steemit. 😊😊
Beautiful flowers....fall like here now...
I will have to capture the trees changing soon. Thanks for the post.
I really enjoy the changing of the leaves and here in South Africa we simply don't get the spectacular show that North America puts on. Glad you enjoyed this post! Look forward to your autumn photos 😊😊
The leaves changing re my favorite part of fall, well I enjoy Halloween also...Have a good day :)
I love the sounds and smells of fall, and the crisp air. Halloween in the suburbs of Montreal often meant temperatures around zero degrees (C) and a bit of swirling snow! Enjoy your day too. 😊😊
Hi Kiligirl what a nice day to take a walk. I am surprised that you have in Johan many of the same plants that we do. There are a couple of exception because of our humidity. I love spring! As you prepare for the rain we are turning to fall. Our most beautiful time of the year. We really are on opposite ends of the spectrum aren't we? . Gotta run for work. Thanks for starting my day off with a smile! Ellie Mae🐓🐓
Glad you enjoyed it and it made you smile, Ellie Mae! I saw a FB post from a school friend about her morning jog on Mount Royal in Montreal, and saw that the plants behind her could have come from our garden! Two more different climates are hard to imagine. Your climate is quite similar to the climate in the province of KwaZulu Natal, on the Indian Ocean coast on the eastern side of South Africa. Hot and humid! I don't know how you do it. You have my eternal (dry) admiration. And yes, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum! Hope you have (had) a good work day. Cheeriebye 😊😊
Nothing beats a South African spring time!
I visited Cape Town just over a week ago and was fascinated by all the different kinds of flowers that were EVERYWHERE!
https://steemit.com/travel/@enkulu/the-beautiful-cape-town
I would love to live in the Western Cape. Soon.
Your pics are beautiful.
Hell Yeah SOUTH AFRICA for the win
Great tagline - where lions roam free (I know, I know, sometimes they really do, but let's keep up the pretense for the tourists, shall we?) 🤣🤣
Hahaha xD I thought someone would notice it eventualy xD Thnx Will do xD ( Ive thought about Rainbow Nation for a while now)
Excellent gag, @technicalside 😉. Honoured to be the first to tell you I saw it! Rainbow Nation could be pretty cool too, especially with Heritage Day coming up....
I also think its more befitting :) thanx alot Its nice to see more South Africans being active on Steemit
Indeed!