Something suggested by Paul

Valentine red disas

I tried to tell them that a short walk in the greenbelt would be a good idea, but no, off the Food Lady and Alice went slogging up Skeleton Gorge in the heat, without us of course.Paul, Sue and Claire-from-England were there too, as well as the entire membership of the Botanical Society, all out to spend Valentine's Day looking for red disas, Disa uniflora. The BotSoc paid a special visit to the tea spot (I was sorry to have missed tea!) to show the whereabouts of a rare erica called Erica marifolia, which was a bit old and turning brown - but only occurs on Table Mountain, in damp spots and near caves. Alice also found a rare and endemic leucodendron called Leucadendron strobilinum or the Peninsula Conebush. They saw lots of disas in the stream at the head of Window Gorge as well as this pretty butterfly, a Silver-bottom Brown, Pseudonympha magus. Paul's special Valentine Day boots matched the disas! Sue and Claire amongst the disas in the stream at Window Gorge. (Alice was apparently photographing them in the stream, you can just see her green shirt.) They came home hot and shaky-kneed, so I was glad that we had stayed at home, shooting the breeze.

Greyton Dog Post

The Food Lady deserted us once again to spend a few days in Greyton with the spaniels and their human, Omie Domes, who knows all the names of the rag-taggle dogs in the area, having worked for Animal Welfare. This is Millie or Mollie who lives in the house that makes first class wine. Spaniel swimming spot. Because Dougal and Aiden have issues, we are not allowed to come to Greyton - which is a pity, but you just can't knock any sense into Dougal. He just can't help himself - a bit like this manic collie pretending to attack Arabella. Just look at all that dust. Who does she think she is! I would send her packing if I were there...

Our human brother in Johannesburg

They got back late last night with news of our human brother who is living in Bedfordview in Johannesburg where he has just started his new job. The two of them drove up on Saturday, and stayed the night in Bloemfontein with Tembi, above, and her humans, Bernard and Wendy, in a lovely cool, green and leafy garden. Then they went to Johannesburg to see Phil who is staying in this posh apartment block near where he works. Here is Phil with all his products that he has to work out how to market now - and Kerryn, who has also just started at Reckitt Benckiser. Phil showed them around, and

then they went out to dinner at a nearby shopping mall before flying home to us.

Its not only me on the internet...

Up and walking again!

It was great to be back on the mountain after such a long time, even though it was quite humid for low down little black dogs like me. Pauline came (and nearly Paul but he decided not to be the Alpha Male and went home to fetch something in a hurry, leaving Dougal with no option but to assume the role) and Sue came with Claire-from-England and Nicole-from-Namibia.
After our hot slog up, we had the waterfall to ourselves for tea – here is me eyeing some of Sue’s delicious crunchies, and the Food Lady’s Twinings chai tea.
And here is Nicole-from-Namibia, Sue, Claire-from-England and us scotties-from-South Africa (or at least me, and Dougal's tail).
The rest of the walk was uneventful, although at one stage I considered defecting to another family with two rather interesting Jack Russells but changed my mind when I heard the Food Lady yelling.
We saw a few dusty flowers – some mountain dahlias, some ninepin heaths (Erica mammosa) and this 'purple inkflower', also known as the 'jacranda-inkblom'. Its posh name is Harveya pauciflora (it used to be H. tubulosa). It is a total parasite (which is what the Alpha Male sometimes calls us) and does not have any green leaves, their roots obtaining nourishment from the roots of other species – often of the daisy family.
Claire wanted a photo of this big gum tree although the FL says she prefers to see them in Australia where they belong, not on Table Mountain!