Needed a trip to Cape Town to restore my faith. And deliver some household goods to J. On day two, I stopped on Chapmans Peak to gaze at the sea midway afternoon. This place, on this day, was truly magnificent.
A soft mist descended to soften the harsh westerly sun. And a black harrier soared around me after rising from a place in the bottom right of that shot. It was a lot!
And all of this was after another huge highlight: a morning swim with dear friend J. at St. James. The air was warm and still and the Indian ocean chilly. And the lockdown was eased – there were many mothers and babes enjoying the magnificent gift of a day. J. and I spotted a runaway child and swiftly rescued her from sprinting off to Muizenberg; once reunited the mother did not thank us. She must have been in some shock so I guess manners aren’t mandatory then? Funny that I felt weird about her lack of grace? I need more therapy, clearly.
Yesterday we ‘rescued’ some seedlings to an ‘upgrade’ in our garden. Was delighted to find this scented glory.
Then, we cleared the degraded space above the river bend view and found passerina corymbosa aka gonnabos or bakkerbos. After looking like nothing at all for the rest of the year, it is most certainly blooming full-on right now.
Pretty and useful! The stems, which are made up of extremely tough fibres, are not easy to break and the bark peels off in long, tough strips. Due to its tough stems, bakkerbos is good fuel and is used to tie down thatch.
‘Khoi people are said to have used certain Passerina species as cordage for the purpose of tying together poles for huts, and also plaited it into twine and thongs for whips’ according to SANBI (reference) .
Turning to Vermaaklikheid 