Stormy Skies and Yellow Flowers

Brooding, stormy blue skies and bright yellow dabs of color in the lush green grass lured me from the house and onto the verges outside my neighbour's house.  It's interesting to look at your house from a different direction and imagine how it appears to other passers by.  Hunkered down amidst fynbos and indigenous trees it looks interesting and inviting to me and once again I was amazed at how quickly it has become home.  We've been living out here for six months now and the old life in the city with all its noise, stress and endless traffic has become a distant memory.

Despite the muddy road I was able to hop (so to speak) across the furrow which runs alongside the road, carrying water away from the mountains behind us.  It took numerous tumbles and bruises before I was prepared to accept the fact that I needed help keeping my balance on uneven ground but now that I'm used to it, I wonder how I managed before.  And at least it has a jazzy lime green handgrip and useful loop so it can hang off my wrist when I take pictures.



I've recently become addicted to placing my camera at ground level and turning the articulating LCD screen  upwards so that I can see what I'm aiming at.  For anyone unable to kneel or crouch, the Canon G12 is an absolute dream and you can discover tiny little plants and flowers that you'd normally never notice.  For many years I've been forced to shoot from a standing position unless I can sink (un)gracefully to the lawn.  Getting up again involves all sort of ungainly moves somewhat similar to a camel rising from the ground 

I don't have any idea what these little yellow flowers are but they're everywhere at the moment especially along the verges and vacant land.  I study up everyday on the fynbos of the area but it's sometimes quite difficult to decide from photographs exactly what plant you're looking at.  When all else fails, I cut a little piece of the plant and take it up to the Botanic Garden for identification.

And here are some of the little pink jewels spreading across the ground under the grasses and other plants.  I'm reasonably sure that they are oxalis and you'd miss them if you were driving past so the moral of the story is Get Out And Walk.



The assignment for the photographic society this month is "Grass" so much of my time is spent aiming my camera at grass on the roadsides, grass next to the Kleinmond Lagoon and grass at the Harold Porter Botanic Gardens; grass against a blue sky, grass covered in raindrops or grass against a sunset.  Who knew there were so many different kinds and that they all have their own preferences as to locations and water.