Money Tree

 

I don't believe in good luck although I find myself often wishing someone good luck and fortune. In our office is what my boss calls a money tree which is growing very well in the florescent lighting. From what I understand the money tree is also called the good luck tree and is an age-old token of good luck and an invitation to good fortune. Really? It is rumored to bring prosperity and wealth to our surroundings. Uhmmm!

Waiting for the Rain

Last year, due to the excessive evaporation of the water from our swimming pool we got it covered during the winter and now we are waiting patiently for the rains to come so that we can uncover and enjoy our pool again. But 20 drops of rain does not count as the summer rains. They say the rains come when the purple jacarandas are in full bloom  but see they already are and still no rain. There is another saying that rain before Paul Kruger's birthday will mean a dry season but rain afterwards brings good news, and his birthday was the 10 October, 2 days ago, so bring on the rain, please, I want to swim.

Unfurling Bottlebrush

 

The temperatures are starting to rise with the mercury just about hitting the 30°C mark. The summer rains still have to come and the flowers are all starting to prepare for the wet hot summer. Here is a bottlebrush tree's flowers starting to unfurl in anticipation. 

Swem Verbode

For many years, a stream that runs through my neighbourhood, was an open sewer. Sewerage would run unabated for months before anyone would fix it. The stream itself is the source of the Crocodile River and comes out of the rocks at 3 springs in Breaunanda before cutting through what is known as the deepest gorge in Gauteng before plunging over the waterfall at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. 

The probem is that the stream forms the border between Roodepoort and Krugersdorp hence no one wants to take responsibility for the upkeep. Just below the gorge is a park that used to have a lapa but that was pulled down by the municipality due to druggies that abused the facility. I was told that there was lovely walkways and bridges across the stream here at the lapa. Sounds lovely but all that remains is this sign, what is left of it.

Surely this is a sign that nature is fighting back. All that can be read of the sign is "Water Besld... Swem Verbode Notice Water Polluted..." I assume "No Swimming" was below that.

There are no fish in this stream, and I was told this is due to a chemical spill at the Plascon paint factory that is upstream on the Krugersdorp side a few years early.

Now for the GOOD NEWS. For over a year now this stream has been free of pollution and has been mentioned in an Gauteng Government report as the cleanest river in the province. The secret to our success is the people on the ground who are willing to make a difference. 

We have a testing station at the Botanical Gardens, here the staff use an oxygen meter to test the water daily. The results are then posted on a WhatsApp group that has all the decision makers from both Mogale City and City of Johannesburg on. If the oxygen in the water drops below a certain mark, then members of the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch, go out and search for the most likely cause which is normally a sewerage leak. They then post where the leak is on the group and then the relevant people at both municipalities jump into action and the spill is fixed.

This has been in most cases less than 6 hours even on weekends which has lead to this stream getting cleaner and cleaner. So much so that plans are been set up to restock the stream with fish. In my opinion, maybe if Plascon is reading this they should help sponsor the restocking of the fish as any good neighbour would. If any readers want to help, either make contact with Andrew Hankey from the Bot Gardens or Andreas Oberlechner from the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch.

Back to the sign in the tree. It is good to get nature back into our neighbourhoods and signs like this will all be but a distant memory.

Young Fig

Last year I discovered a small fig tree growing in the back garden near the granadiilas. Looking at the young fig tree this morning I noticed that it is 3 times taller than when I first discovered it and now it has a few figs. Yummy I enjoy figs and I can't wait to sample some of the figs.

Sweet Thorn Yellow

The world seems to be falling apart on the other side of the gorge. Riots and protests are the name of the game in Krugersdorp as residents take to the streets in protests to the drug kingpins in the area, namely the Nigerians. houses are burning including a police station. Well I think I will stay this side thank you very much.

Sitting on my patio I look out over towards Krugersdorp or Mogale City as they like to call it now, and wonder why? In my view is this large yellow tree with another in the corner of our garden. Somehow it just does not quite fit into the Protea forested veldt. It these trees that have burst into bright yellow pom-poms attracting bees, butterflies and many other strange insects, during the first light of the mornings the trees buzz from the sound of all the visiting bees. It was this buzzing that made me start thinking about getting my own bee hive.

The Acacia Karroo tree is also known as the Soetdoring or Sweet Thorn tree. I know that bushbabies or galagos have been recorded in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg moving into the urban forests, now they love these acacia trees, so here's hoping that they too move into this area.

Fairies and Woodpeckers

Yesterday and today have been rather hard on me and this stress is taking its toll. I arrived back from Pretoria yesterday late morning, tired, hot and bothered only to find the fibre is down since this morning and no one has an answer to when it will be back. Mid afternoon, an SMS arrives from Vumatel to inform us that it would take 10 to 14 hours to rectify as they have to wait for City Power to make the area safe. So what happened to their SLA of 7 hours to repair any damage to the line, uhmmm, Vumatel is like all the others.

Anyway 14 hours came and went, and this morning still no firbe. No fibre means no internet, no work. So I started preparing to go out and work at a place with internet when I got the message that my mom took a turn for the worse. From the sounds of the messages I got, her heart faded, and with hardly any blood pressure, the medical team injected adrenaline and her heart went in the opposite. It is not well.

The fibre finally came back and I started working to get my mind off all my stress but after an hour the power tripped. A whole section of our suburb was out, expecting it to be restored quickly, we were mistaken as we were kept in the dark on what was going on, excuse my pun but it was only about 3ish in the afternoon that we found out that they found the fault and power will be restored between 20h00 to 21h00 as they have to repair a faulty cable. Shortly after 21h00, we received another message that they still working frantically to restore power and it should be back up at 23h00.

In the meanwhile I received a message from my sister that mom is stable. A second vascular operation was scheduled for tomorrow but that has now been postponed until further tests on my mom’s heart can be run. I went to bed.

At about 22h22 I woke to find the lights back on. Yay, so now I can post a photo that I took earlier of the Fairy Iris or Dietes grandiforia, which is flowering in my garden at the moment. I enjoy my garden which calms me a bit, although wine did help this evening. Anyways my garden is a beautiful attraction to butterflies and bees, with plenty of sunbirds and as of this evening a Cardinal Woodpecker came a knocking.

Day After

The weather had changed from a hot and sticky Christmas to a cool overcast day with the sun trying to break through but lost. We stayed in bed as long as we could but had to drag ourselves out as the house needed cleaning before the afternoon visitors arrived.

Yesterday we had so much food that today was decided to leave the puddings and desserts for today.

By 2 o’clock a storm broke over Johannesburg just as I was supposed to leave to drive across town to pick up Matthew after his Christmas with his mother. As I left I saw these 2 guineafowls huddled under a tree seeking shelter from the rain.

The First Cut

HELP IT BLEEDS!

Yes my trees are bleeding as the first cut goes the deepest. I am not fond of cutting down trees especially the indigenous ones but these 2 majestic trees have outlived their usefulness and have become very programmatic and no other solution could be found other than cutting.

I am not 100% sure what these large trees are but the one at the back when you crush the leaves it smells like eucalyptus, so it must be an aussie. The one in the front is our main problem child, the Sycamore Fig tree or Ficus Sycomorus. It is not indigenous to the Highveld region here were I am but can be found all over Africa and the Middle East.

It is the sycamore that is of biblical proportions that is bleeding red blood like sap as we sadly cut her down. The seeds were giving our neighbour’s swimming pool pump a hard time and you should see the state of our driveway and walls. The sycamore was in the forefront of the taking back of nature. I can imagine little Zacchaeus wanting to climb up into the branches of the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see but the sycamore tree was no more.

Tree Nuisance

I love my garden, full of trees and indigenous plants, that attract caterpillars and butterflies but some are starting to misbehave. I have already cut one down a week ago for blocking up the sewer line and it has always been in the back of my mind that these 2 monster trees in the front yard need to be sorted out. In a sense I am glad that they not indigenous to the area although big trees are awesome.

The neighbours have complained and offered to help remove them, but huge trees are expensive to cut down and I have no budget. Oh well no more procrastinating as these old buggers are damaging the property and become a nuisance.

Protea Regrowth

In the dry winter months in Africa, fire is inevitable and the vegetation has adapted to the dry weather conditions and of course fire. And the Protea trees are no exception as they need the fire every year or two to burn off all the dead, feed the soil, and help the regrowth of the new buds.

It is amazing to see the transformation, the rains are not here yet but the Protea tress are already starting to sprout with green life.

Mamlambo Strikes Again

Death seems always close here. Saturday week, a much loved community member was tragically gunned down. And now this...

We received news that one of the religious pilgrims lost his life by the waterfall below us on Sunday. The cause of death still has to be identified but according to the police the probable cause is that he fell to his death negotiating the palisade fencing by the falls. This is not cool. Maybe that fence by Manie Mulder waterfall needs to be moved or the gate left open as it looks like the Mamlambo who is believed to be living in the plunge pool at the base of the falls, claimed another victim. I myself have skirted that fence due to the gate being locked. It is a small ledge and you have to hold on. Now if the pilgrim had stuff in his hands he could easily have fallen.

Speaking to one of the pilgrims about what could have happened, she said yes the snake, what she called the Mamlambo, pulled the person in using her poison breath. She went on to tell me that the Mamlambo can take many forms, a snake, a person, a stick or even silver coins. She told me a firsthand account of her seeing the Mamlambo. Her mother, brother and her, went to visit the graveside of her father, while crossing a river very similar to this stream in the kloof, she saw some movement in the water. She looked and saw a woman lying in the water on her back with her hair flowing in the water. It wore clothes that she described as snow and she could see the shape of her body though the water. She tagged her brother to see if he could see this woman. He looked sideways, got such a fright and ran. While running he was bitten by a small brown snake. All their feet felt heavy and sore afterwards. The family never returned to the area and a look of sadness passed over her face as she said that her mother joined her father in 2014. She ended the conversation with the words that this snake is very strong here. Sadly a lot of unfortunate accidents, 13 to date in the last 4 years have occurred down in the kloof all attributed to the Mamlambo in the eyes of the pilgrims.

My problem is not with the daily pilgrims coming for the holy water or bathing in the stream naked but my problem is with the pilgrims who camp over night. They are the ones who come up into the veldt above the kloof to cut down the Protea trees to use in their spiritual cleansing. I am not happy about the Protea forest being decimated at an alarming rate. I spend quite a bit of my time when I am down in the kloof talking to the pilgrims and explaining that cutting down the Protea trees is not good. Maybe I should tell them that these Protea trees belong to the Mamlambo, and she is not happy camper about her children being cut down.

There are a large number of trees in my garden, sadly none Proteas but my garden does overlooks the Protea forested veldt. Now one of the trees in my garden is giving the sewer line a hard time coping with the waste and the roots at the same time. Sadly I had to put this tree down today. I got the tree fellers to neatly pile the wood in the veldt to dry out so that the pilgrims could use this alternate wood to the Proteas so that this tree’s life would not be wasted.

Veldt Rejuvenation

After the veldt fire a month ago, the veldt has started rejuvenating. New life is and green shoots are sprouting everywhere I look, Yay! I took a walk around this afternoon just enjoying the last of the warm winter sun before spring which officially arrives next week. The birds were singing while the late nest builders were scurrying along building their nests. The busy bees were collecting pollen from the few colourful small flowers that were scattered around the rocky veldt.

And the air was clean, after yesterday’s dust storm, which was a worry but I was way too busy sorting out my electricity to even worry about it. Yesterday an almighty wind blew across the dry land blowing a dust storm of note and hiding the sun from the city of Johannesburg. The worry part is that the wind picks up the fine dust particles of the mine dumps which a lot are radioactive on the West Rand and carries this radioactive dust and dumps it onto the city. Yep it is a problem. But today the air is clean and crisp.

I was enjoying my afternoon in the veldt until I saw this. Yes the Protea trees are still getting destroyed at an alarming rate for firewood. People are still staying overnight in caves and hollowed out hovels in the veldt for religious reasons. When are we going to stop this wanton destruction?

And Down Goes Another Tree

Even while I write this blog post, down goes another tree! A few weeks ago, I wrote about the raw sewerage flowing into the Botanical Gardens from this very spot. Thankfully the councilors, conservationists, and concerned citizens, from City of Joburg, Mogale City, ARMOUR, Proteadal Conservation, and the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch, all jumped and as the result, the flow of pollution into the Bot Gardens has stopped. And now this.

In Cape Town they call them the Bergies, here in the upper reaches above the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, I have heard them been called the Mountain men by the police or the Church people by the locals. Whatever you call them, they live in the cracks and crannies of the ridges running between Roodepoort and Mogale City.

There are quite a few of them, some permanent, some only come over the weekends, they mostly men that live like hermits in either make shift shelters or holes dug in the sides of cliffs. The worst part is that it looked like a swarm of locusts came through, cutting down the indigenous trees, digging up medicinal plants, and leaving behind them a wake of destruction and not to mention litter.

When we confront these itinerants, or whatever you call them, they say that they are here for religious purposes, as they are the ZCC or the Zion Christian Church, but what religion allows to their devotees to wantonly destroy the nature around them, please pray tell.

More than one occasion has evidence of petty crime such as house breaking been found in the veldt overlooking the kloof and it is easy to put these two groups together as one and the same or are there rouge elements posing as ZCC? Last week a huge veldt fire raced up the kloof towards the houses, most likely from an un-attended camp fire. Luckily no properties were destroyed although my home came close and if it wasn’t for my neighbours and the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch it would have been a different story.

Today 2 itinerants were seen carrying freshly cut protea tree branches down towards the kloof. The problem is that these trees are not easily replaced. When are they going to stop? When there are no more trees left to support them?

My neighbour decided to confront them and I had to race after him with my camera in case he got into trouble. By the time I got half way down I heard his voice booming up the sides of the kloof as he demanded to know why they were cutting down the trees. The itinerants simply shrug their shoulders as if they did nothing wrong.

When will the authorities do something? Will the leadership of the ZCC do something? I can only guess NOTHING will be done. And down goes another tree.

Living on the edge

Part 2 of my 50th birthday celebrations is a Photowalk into the wilds that are my back garden ending off in a Cheese and Wine Sundowner. I invited the Joburg Photowalkers and my friends to this event which was aptly called Living on the Edge and quite a number did turn up.

Since I was the host and tour guide into the kloof, I gave Matthew my son my camera and these are a few of his images that he took except the bottom one of me and my Tardis cake which was taken by my friend Zoe. The Tardis cake was difficult to cut on Friday because it was so beautiful. Anyway we did get round to cutting the cake this evening after the Cheese and Wine. More of Matthew’s photos can be seen on my Facebook album Living on the Edge.

Supermodel Minky

Yip I am sure this cat of ours, Minky, thinks she is a supermodel as she loves to pose. Plus she is a daddy’s girl which makes her never too far from me. In the office she is on the couch and when I go for walks in the garden she follows along with her shadow Paddington.

Cabbage Tree View

Our garden consists of mostly indigenous plants, living long side a nature reserve has its price, nature overflows into our garden. Beautiful plants welcoming beautiful creatures who visit. In the veldt there are a proteas, cabbage trees, and wild peach trees.

This cabbage tree is in our property, the cats love climbing up its soft trunk, and the from the tree the dogs have a nice vantage point into the veldt. Here are my 2 Italian Greyhounds, Maxy and Jade doing what they do second best, gazing into the distance, hoping catch a glimpse of some guinea fowl or a rabbit or two. Second best as the best is all in the chase, baby!

Can’t handle the Rain

We have been blessed this Christmas with rain in abundance as the drought stricken ground has soaked up. The rain falling here flows north to the Hartebeespoort Dam before flowing through the Kruger National Park into the Indian Ocean. It is a pity as we rather need this rain water to flow into the Vaal Dam where it is needed the most.

Driving to church this morning, our way was blocked by a tree which couldn’t handle the rain. So we had to find an alternative route out of our suburb.

9 Weeks

Yes it is 9 weeks of crazy till Christmas Day, and already the trees and decorations are going up at a furious rate to start capturing the spending frenzy that tends to happen at this time.

To this day, I still don't know what a pine, fir, or a spruce tree has to do with what Christmas is all about as there never was any of those trees in Bethlehem.

The Upside Down Tree

For those readers who have followed my blog would know that the company that I work for, eKayaMedia is going through a transformation, gearing up for something big. The growing pains have not being easy. eKayaMedia is about to change its name, I can’t say what it is yet as that is still under wraps but it has to do with Creation, Africa, Baobabs, and Zebras. Now that is a big clue.

On our boardroom table proudly sits a wireframe of a baobab tree or as African legend calls the upside down tree. The legend goes something like this, a long time ago, when the Creator made all the plants and animals, a tree sprouted up alongside a lake. As this tree grew tall and strong, it saw all around it all the beautiful creatures that came down to the lake to drink but then the tree saw its own reflection in the water and was shocked. Its own flowers lacked colour, its bark was thick and wrinkly. The tree started to complain to everyone about the bad deal he got. Eventually the Creator got tired of hearing the whining, so in exasperation or maybe to preserve his sanity, he ripped the tree out of the ground, turned it over and replanted it upside down. Now the tree could not see its own reflection and complain. So since that fateful day, the upside down baobab tree had to live in silence, providing shelter for all the animals from the harsh sun.

Now has this legend something to do with the new eKayaMedia or is it that kings and elders use this tree to hold their meetings knowing that the now wiser tree would guide them in their decision making.