A Mid-Winter's Day

At the moment we are in mid-winter here in South Africa. In the northern part of the country we get very little rain in winter so things can get quite dry and dusty. Except for when there’s a cold front passing by, the days are usually warm and sunny and the nights cold. As I’m typing this the time is 2:30 p.m. and the temperature is 23⁰C/75⁰F.

Here are some very recent photos taken about a week ago on a typical winter day:

Sunrise photo taken through the bedroom window

We have an old rusty table which we use to put out fruit and other treats for the birds. Here a Black-collared Barbet is enjoying a fruit mix. :)

The Wild Garlic is blooming - there is a long, wide flowerbed in the back garden filled with these flowers. They are always enjoyed by the bees.

Wild Garlic is an indigenous plant/herb. Besides being pretty it has many uses. There is also a belief that planting this around the house will help to keep snakes away! Well, I can tell you that doesn't work! One of our farms had lots and lots of wild garlic planted all around it and we still had snakes visiting by the dozen!

Although there are not as many butterflies around now as at other times of the year there are still some about to enjoy.

A favourite place for lizards - they like to bask on the rocks and quickly disappear into the Ivy-leaf Geranium whenever danger is near. They don't sit still long enough for us to get a photo of them.

Lama, our Bull-terrier/Wire-haired terrier cross enjoying a game with me. You can see how much browner the grass is after the frost we had a couple of weeks ago and how it affected some of the plants.

Winter's almost-always cloudless blue sky.

I couldn't resist putting in this picture of Lama just about to come down the back steps - she looks so cute! The dogs and cats enjoy basking in the sun as much as the lizards do! :)