Steekgrass and Spanish wine

"Hello hello hello - what is it to be - food or a gentle stroll for an old dog?" Sorry Dawn, you can't come because we are going to Daisy for the weekend. But the Food Lady has a juicy bone for you.

Our favourite breakfast spot at the Red Windmill - but there is a change of management and our best breakfast is no longer on the menu. No more brie and poached eggs with salmon. And some new dogs - Jack Russels all, who were quite polite to us.

A roostery theme. And a very clean plate!

OMG. What is this! (The Food Lady thinks an Alpaca.) Looks a bit like a bleached bouvier with a long neck.

Then we arrived at our most favourite beach place in all the world - Daisy cottage!

We got a bit of a shock when we jumped out of the car joyfully - into a monstrous patch of Steekgras. Dougal jumped straight back into the car. (We spent some time removing all the needle-sharp grasses from me later.)

The Alph did a lot of fixing in the bathroom and repaired the taps and replaced the washers. They also repaired the blinds which are looking a little bit tatty.

We were confined to barracks because of the steekgras but I didn't mind as my favourite thing to do is shoot the breeze from my eyrie. 

When all the repairing was done, we repaired to the beach and the Alph had a swim at Papkuil,

while the Food Lady botanised and entemologised (this is a Lunate Ladybird) in the dunes,

and Dougal and I got stuck into some serious molerat hunting.

That evening we had a gentle walk along the beach of Suiderstrand,

the Food Lady likes to do a bit of beachcombing and botanising - this is the large egg case of the endangered Spearnose Skate   

and these are some Silene crassifolia flowers that had all opened in the evening light.

The Food Lady and the Alph enjoyed some wine from Jane from Spain.

Getting the braai going while we tried to avoid picking up ticks and steekgras!

The Alph decided to burn some of the steekgras that the Food Lady had pulled up. Jolly good too.

The next day we went for an early morning walk in the misty dunes behind the house. We found a new path marked out with sticks that we followed,

past flowers like this Crassula dichotoma in the sea sand, 

and this totally weird plant is Galium tomentosum which is related to the weed that sticks to our long Scotty beards in the garden called Goosegrass.There were some good rodent smells and the odd thrilling siting of a fat little mouse skittering into the bushes too.

Tea time on a misty beach.

Then back to business!

A pyjama shark all snagged up in nylon. Poor beast. There are lots and lots of these sharks that fisherman pull out and don't put back but leave them on the beach to die because they think they are bad biting sharks but in fact they are completely harmless. 

Skyline walkies

Sunday was cool and gorgeous so we decided to do a long walk from Silvermine Dam all the way up to Noordhoek Peak and along the Skyline Path to the Blackburn look-out platform. Only Pauline joined us as the others are either not feeling well, gadding around the gardens of the Boland, or working in darkrooms.

On the way past the dam, we found some mushrooms - maybe Coprinus micaceus - the caps sprinkled with fairy dust but no time to hunt fairies ...

because I had to chase this tortoise who was legging it into the bushes, before the Food Lady put an end to the fun.

 We walked up the road from the dam, happy cyclists crunching by, and turned onto the Amphitheatre Path.

There were lots of flowers for the humans to look at - some goggas for us too - like this grasshopper in a Cape Everlasting (Syncarpha speciosissima).

It was deliciously cool from the fog that was rolling in off the sea. Perfect for hot Scots. You can see Kommetjie in the far distance.

Marsh Bells on the mountain (Gladiolus ornatus).

 Some of the walk was on the gravel road which is not our best.

Also on the road was this Ewwa-Trewwa (Satyrium coriifolium). Apparently the funny common name is thought to have come from the Flemish words ouwe trouwe meaning old faithful which was applied to several long-lasting, mostly European, wildflowers. It might allude to the long-lasting spikes or the fact that it comes up regularly every year.*

-

 We soon turned off onto a lovely fynbossy path, where we came across a single large pink watsonia (Watsonia borbonica). You can just see the Alph in the background looking for a good tea spot with a view.

 A nonchalant scratch before tea.

 Tea on the slopes of Noordhoek Peak.

Monarch - er Rottweiler of the Glen.

After tea we came across a sign post to the look-out over the Black Eagle's nest.

A rock dinosaur guarding the nest site.The Food Lady is a bit nervous of the eagles and thinks that they might mistake us for large dassies, but little does she realize that we would snap their talons off if they came too close..

Far far below somewhere was the empty nest.

The Skyline path dips down and climbs up and there are spectacular views,

and the mist kept swirling in - keeping us cool.

Some more pink watsonias - this one a rather pink Red Watsonia (Watsonia coccinea).

One of my best plants - a Cat's Tail (Microdon dubius).

 Erica gnaphaloides.

A solution to dealing with dog poo - the Green Grooved Dung Beetle (Scarabaeus rugosus) on the road to the car park.

 Nearly home now - Alph stopping to smell the flowers along the way ...

pretty keurboom flowers (probably the Garden Route species one with dark pink flowers - Virgilia divaricata).

*Information from William Liltved's new book(s), The Cape Orchids.

Halloween barking

 Barking at the gate yesterday because

 just LOOK at what came trick or treating! Spiders and ghosts,

and some scary snary witches!
Thanks Alice for the photos!

A Hoerikwaggo Hike without dogs

They all went hiking on the Hoerikwaggo Trail last week without us - along Long Beach,

and up Chapmans Peak (note the Great Danes!), 

right to the top where they saw - a scottie! Matilda.

Then on they went over Noordhoek Ridge (this is Emma who I have never met photographing some Moraea ochroleuca flowers)

 to the Silvermine Tented Camp where they spent the night. For more dogless photos, here is a link the FoodLady's Facebook page.

 The next morning they woke up to Wachendorfia thyrsiflora spikes and bird noises - without us!

And breakfast and relaxing in wonderful surroundings (although the Food Lady says the one operational loo was a bit stinky and skanky!)

Paul pretending to be Monet.

Watching caterpillar/bug interactions at the dam. 

 

 But this scary snary octopus (a Virgilia oroboides) sent them scuttling home to us (while the more energetic and less osteoporotic of the party hiked up to Elephants Eye Cave).

Feeling rather guilty, they took us for a walk in the greenbelt to the dappled sunlight of my favourite swimming place. (The Food Lady breaks into embarrassing poetry* mode -

"Glory be to God for dappled things -

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced -

fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him" )

Are you quite finished? Good! I tried to gatecrash a party that was in full swing,  

and had to be forcibly removed by the Alph. Oh well, all good things come to an end. We look forward to next Sunday ...

* Gerard Manley Hopkins - Pied Beauty