After Double the Rain Sunday Flower Walk

It's not easy to find colour at this time of the year, so I went off the road to snap this Daisy!

Many of the Helichrysums have just one or two flowers open.

We were keen to see the effects of the 34mm of rain we had almost overnight during this week, just double last week's. It is interesting to see how the ash is being washed off the top of the sand and into the waterways. The rest is being blown our way by the Northwester!

We suspected that it wouldn't look good where the 4X4s went up recently in the loose sand in the burned area.

Not a pretty sight! However, I'd brought a spade and first put some more rocks in the deepest parts of the ruts (I put the one on the right hand track last week) and scooped back the sand from the road and tamped it down. Soon it was looking a lot better. This route is not being used anymore:

Then I deepened the diagonal cut further up.

Something is happening in the re-growing Restios!

... and is this a Star Grass?

This Metalasia is flowering in the very edge of the burned veld:

Up close:

The Buchu Agathosma crenulata is in full flower. There is good new growth and one of its 'babies' can be seen in the foreground.

Near the ruins of the Railway Cottages, a Black Wattle branch had broken off in the storm. Argentinian ants are swarming over the break.

Other termite activity we noticed was in the track where the 4X4s had just driven over. Interesting how quickly nature responds. The thrown-out sand granules were fresh.

Pippa spotted this Jackal Buzzard on Oliver's fence as we got back to the railway line.

That's all this week, we didn't go far, Pippa is recovering from a small knee op!

I would like to dedicate this issue to Jennetta Tilney who passed away suddenly this week. She had often written in with identifications. Our thoughts go out to her husband Barry.

:-) A