I wrote a letter to my dog ...

Now THIS is my kind of book.

There is a whole blog about it too. Click here to go to it.

And still it rains ...

Ladies in red. Only Pauline and Sue turned up in the rather iffy weather for our hectic walk up Blackburn Ravine this morning. We met Sue at Silvermine Dam and left our car there, and drove to East Fort in Hout Bay where Pauline was waiting for us. These are the ruins of this old fort which was apparently originally built by the British in 1796.

A Bract Disa or Orgidekie (Disa bracteata). According to the smart new book that the Food Lady has on the Cape orchids, it does not need the services of insects as it is mostly self-pollinated. It is also a weed in Australia.

Lots of bright blue Short Aristeas (Aristea africana) growing along the rocky path.

Another pretty flower for the Food Lady - the Common Catchfly (Silene gallica) - an introduced weed from Europe.

Things started to get a bit steeper (and wetter!) and this is the Alph giving me a lift up the ladder.

 Up and up and up we wended; Hout Bay far below.

 Looking back towards Chapmans Peak.

 Still a long way to climb to the top of Blackburn Ravine!

A rather wet and drippy tea; almost at the top. Pauline, me and Dougal at her feet, the Alph, and Sue in her trusty tent.

Once at the top, we set off along the path back to the Silvermine Dam carpark. We met two Weimeranas who were really scared of us and this made Dougal rather excited as he doesn't often get treated like the Rottweiler he thinks he is.

Then I found a nice family with a snauzer and a pavement special that I decided to try out - and walked the rest of the way with them. It made a nice change. This is me (the black speck) with my adopted, if only temporarily, family.

We went back to fetch Sue and Pauline's cars at East Fort via Noordhoek and then along Chapmans Peak Drive. Sue was telling us that Noordhoek is beyond the lentil curtain, and the Food Lady thought this might be the lentil curtain, but it is a special rock-catching barrier.

 Water was just cascading off the side of Chappies.

Luckily no rocks fell on us.

This is the toll booth under construction (slightly delayed due to the falling hillside) - a cackle from the Food Lady - who took the opportunity to say some more horrible things about a buffoon called Robin Carlisle.
We paid our R33 and dropped Sue and Pauline at their cars and hurried home for hot showers, bacon and eggs and a nice long sleep.

Witches brooms and pixie ericas

A Sunday morning lie in? Not a chance!

We were soon labouring up that mountain in an effort to get rid of that extra bit of fat that we all seem to have accumulated in the last month! Sue leading the way up Farmer Peck's Valley. Also walking were Thea, Paul and Pauline, Alice and Maddie.

A pretty pink and yellow Fringe Spray-flower or Stroopbossie, Struthiola ciliata.

Thea and me taking a breather.

Witches Broom on a Protea bush. This is a strange disease that afflicts lots of proteas. The cause seems to be a microscopic mycoplasma-like organism. (Mycoplasmas are bacteria that do not possess cell walls.) A toxin from these mycoplasmas is thought to stimulate the bud to divide and subdivide to form the witches’ broom growth. 

Aaah, a blissful tummy cooler!

There were lots and lots of back-lit Green Sticky Heaths (Erica urna-viridis) along the steep and steady climb up the Pecks path. These occur in a small area around here and nowhere else in the whole world.

Can you spot Dougal in the fynbos?

Phew - we were all a little out of condition.

 Alice leading the way through the ericas. Nothing wrong with her and Maddie's condition!

An Aandblom not quite awake: (Hesprantha falcata).

There were so many flowers that the Food Lady was a bit mind blown - especially after the "shades of brown" landscapes they had been driving through for three weeks. Here is Pauline admiring the tapestry.

And Dougal doing his thing.

Then we came across lots and lots of these Erica pyxidiflora plants in full bloom. Another Peninsula endemic. This one even had a little pink worm on it. They seem to like to grow in damp places, but we have never seen them here in such profusion before. The air was honey scented with them! The Food Lady calls them Pixie ericas but she says that its not really because they have anything to do with pixies, but because the word pyxidum means a fruit or capsule in Latin.

Little does she know!

This bush of the Green Tree Pincushion or Kreupelhout (Leucospermum conocarpodendron) had flame coloured pollen presenters instead of the usual yellow ones.

Tea time. Maddie, Alice, Paul, the Alph, Dougal, Pauline, Thea, me and Sue. Does this little group remind you of anything? Baboons with colourful clothes perhaps? Perish the thought! Baboons don't have dogs.

An intriguing Sundew (Snotrosie) flower - Drosera cistiflora - which just happens to the Kirstenbosch Plant of the Week. According to Monique of Kirstenbosch the flowers are self-pollinated, but what really is happening here with all these elaborate structures is beyond the Food Lady.

The leaves of the Sundew - the snot part of the name.

Painted Lady (Gladiolus debilis). Always a thrill.

Drifts of Wild Cineraria (Senecio elegans) and a discussion about the lost Border Collie, Lola, that we looked for but couldn't find. Sure hope they found her in the end.

  Looking for Lola and observing the antics of the humans on Muizenberg Beach on the way back. They were trying to break a record for the most surfers surfing one wave. Unfortunately they didn't.

Then it was home for the Alph and Dawnie to mow the lawn which was tree high to a scotty!

A Heritage Day walk in the park

After a late lie-in and relax in bed with coffee and rusks, they eventually got their act together to take us on our first proper walk in 3 weeks (although we did drag poor Simon round the block once or twice but we don't behave very well on those walks I am ashamed to admit). It was back to Tokai Park to show the Alph what an absolutely fabulous place it is. We started off on the outer ring road with views across farm fields and cosy farmhouses and Table Mountain as the backdrop, and lots of kids and dogs for me to try and make friends with,

but best of all was the promise of finding BABOONS to chase!

Dougal checking for baboons, but no, it's only Dawnie Dog shambling along behind us.

This is a civilized place where owners are expected to dig holes for us to do our business in but our humans just yell and shout YUK! NOT IN THE PATH YOU STINKVARK BRAK!

A flowering Whorled Heath (Erica verticillata)- the erica that came back from the very brink of extinction.

Dawnie and I having a companionable little paddle in a puddle.

Even Dawnie was stopping to smell the flowers.

A lachenalia. (awaiting id from Graham Duncan.)

Happy Scottie!

More senecios. Possibly Senecio elegans.

A large furry fuzzy sedge - Vleibiesie (Carpha glomerata). With beetle.

Heliophila africana also with beetle.

And then we found we were back where we started from and not one baboon had we seen. But it was still a lovely walk to celebrate our wonderful natural heritage on Heritage Day.