October orchid hunt - and other stuff

On a beautiful cool morning last Sunday, Harvey and Kerryn joined us for a walk up Steenberg - and we met Paul and Pauline, Thea, Katrin, Matthew and Tessa as well. The mountainside was covered in blue flowers -

called Pseudoselago spuria,

and lots of other flowers (for example, Moraea neglecta) that the Food Lady busily photographed,

while I got hotter and hotter and tried to stop in every bit of shade I could find. Helloooo, what have we here? Movable shade. Thanks Mr Airedale. Not sure where he came from but it was handy to have some shade!

There were lots of white flowers - twining Bergbaroe (Cyphia volubilis), 

bunchy Gnidia pinifolia

and daintily painterly Painted Ladies (Gladiolus debilis).

Scuse me while I take a water break. Finding it a trifle warm.

 But don't mind us Food Lady, just carry on photographing ...

A Moerkappie orchid Pterygodium catholicum,

and an Aristea spiralis.

The Food Lady and I were so far behind that the Alph came to help chivvy us up the mountain,

and eventually we reached the top

where we had tea and Thea's amazing delicious German sandwiches

 which I could smell but not taste.

Luckily there was lots of dog biltong to go around so a good tea was had by all: Thea, Matthew, Katrin, Paul, Pauline, the Alph and Kerryn.

Tessa got down to some serious exploring in the fynbos,

I tried to get them to play hide and seek - I love hiding -  

but Food Lady wasn't interested and found some more pink and white flowers to photograph - China Flowers (Adenandra villosa)

so I found a look-out point for baboons and whales

with back up on the other front from Tessa and Harvey.

Laddie was too distracted by what Paul was doing to be much good as a watch dog.

After tea the Food Lady found some more orchids although not as many as there were last year after the fire. This is Disa cylindrica

and this is quite an unusual one - Disa fasciata.

Not an orchid  but a really pretty Aandblom (Hesperantha falcata).

Ok Food Lady - ONE more orchid - Disa bracteata.

Fields of Ursinia tenuifolia in the boggy bits which I like too - cool and delicious.

Even Tessa was feeling the heat.

Thea found some golden moss - basking in the sun in its sporophyte phase. 

Not sure how the Food Lady slipped this past me - another damn orchid - Satyrium bicorne.

Now what are these two looking at?

Moi? Bringing up the rear. But now that I am 10 I am entitled to be a bit slower.

On the way down Paul found a flowering Mountain Dahlia (Liparia splendens) which is actually a pea. You can read all about it in Alice's article here.

I found some shade under a posh car and was immediately befriended by a very nice lass who was sorry for poor hot little me. Tessa came to tell me that I was being left behind,

so I followed her back to the cars and the end of a long walk.

Pauline gave the Food Lady a very lovely present with a portrait of me on it. Thank you Pauline. We are very chuffed.

We were all really pooped that afternoon.

Pretty in pink

Here we are again, climbing up the steepest path the Food Lady could find - Thea and Tessa, Pauline, me, Lad, the Food Lady and the Alph. Now that the Food Lady's foot is better ... watch out - we are all going to get fit again.

But luckily for me, she has to keep stopping to take photos. Here is the start of Orchid Season for the Food Lady - a dainty pink Moederkappie or Granny's Bonnet (Disperis capensis).

Tessa bounding up and down and up and down,

while I found every little water hole to cool off as it is definitely getting warmer.

Thea and Tessa knew EVERYONE we bumped into on the mountain!

We tried to spot Pauline's house in the distance when we reached the top but concluded it was just out of view.

Suffering from exhaustion, the Food Lady called for an early tea - which suited me as I could smell the dog biltong bits,

and Thea's delicious sandwiches.

The Alph tried to send messages,

while I kept watch for baboons and porcupines, caracals and other dogs that might want to muscle in our feast, 

and Tessa and the Lad went exploring.

There were quite a lot of flowers for the Food Lady - a pink flushed Yellow Rice Heath (Erica lutea),

some pink, honey-scented Erica glabella plants in full flower,

and these interesting, pinky white Common Starheath (Staavia radiata) flowers that are from the Bruniaceae family. They are composite flowers, like daisies. 

With battleships far below,

we reached Muizenberg Peak which had already been conquered by lots of other peeps.

So we turned down, past these endemic and rare Sticky Green Heath (Erica urna-viridis) flowers

and these big bright pink Cape Fellwort (Saltera sarcocolla) flowers which also belong to an interesting fynbos family - the Penaeaceae.

Some more of Thea and Tessa's friends passed us.

The Food Lady was super excited to find some teeny tiny, sweet-scented pink orchids called Disa obliqua subsp. obliqua.

And there were more pink flowers too - the pinky-blue, early flowering bulb, Babiana villosula,

and some pretty pink and white Needle-leaf Sunflax (Heliophila scoparia var. scoparia) - but eventually she had to stop and run to catch us all up.

Tessa and Lad and me were having a welcome dip in the river at the bottom of the path.

Then it was a short walk back to the Land Rover and home. Incidentally, the yellow flowers here have the fabulous common name of Fivetooth Baboon Cabbage (Othonna quinquedentata).