When spring arrives in the Western Cape
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:21 pm
Looking around the forum , I hardly see any threads about this , South Africa's southern-most province , and therefore which , to me is rather surprising . For those of you who do not know , the Western Cape has quite a few National parks , plus also quite a number of Nature reserves run and managed by Cape Nature - which is a Department of the Western Cape Government . In fact , in all , I think we have more National Parks and Nature Reserves than any of the other provinces , maybe more in number , than all the other provinces put together .
The Cape Floral Kingdom ( exclusively situated within the Western Cape ) , is the smallest in size of all the Floral Kingdoms globally . For instances , the rest of Africa falls within the Ethiopian Floral Kingdom , and as such absolutely and totally dwarfing the tiny area covered by the Cape FK .
Yet , the CFK has a larger diversity of plants , than any of the other much bigger sized Floral Kingdoms .
The subject here is mainly about that time of year which we all know as " SPRING " , which , officially , in the southern hemisphere , is supposed to start on 1 st September every year , and specifically spring here in the Western Cape - and maybe even more specific , around my own immediate area ( Worcester , Robertson , Montagu - Barrydale - therefore parts of the Overberg and Klein Karoo ) .
Now , we know that climates and seasons do not just suddenly change from one day to the next ( although it can sometimes happen that you THINK that you may have experienced all four seasons in one day -- but that is another subject .
But , we humans , maybe RP and HE excepted , like to put everything in little boxes , whereas some of us just want to do their own thing .
I grew up on a smallholding , in a little village north of Johannesburg , called Rivonia , which became famous for where the Late Pres Mandela was arrested way back before you-know-what .
In any event , my father , used to go to bed before the chickens , and next morning he used to wake up the family rooster , so that he in turn could then clap his wings , stretch uout , and let out very early morning blood-curdling Cock-a-doodle-doo , that would wake up all the neighbouring roosters in the village , and so on , waking up all the neighbours ( they were probably all grumbling too ) , as well as us children too
- I had to milk the cows 
) .
In any event , being an early riser , he used to become quite impatient with the fact that spring is only supposed to start on 1st September , and until then , nothing is going to grow .
Look , on the Highveld ( there north of JHB ) , winter only really arrives about July , and August is when you get black frost . And nothing grows - its all dead , dormant , kaput -- waiting for a bit of welcoming warmth from the sun , and where-ever , and for the frozen hard permafrost-like , red soil to thaw out
. And its only then , in the normal , good order of things , that spring happens 
But , no , as far as he was concerned , spring had stayed long enough
, and it was time for everything to wake up and face the new season - and this usually happened around 1st or 2nd of August .
No matter that the strong August winds had not yet had their weeklong blows - these as I recall , used to start around 3rd week or 4th week into August ( about six weeks after winter solstice - the longest night ) .
So , my father , being an impatient early rising man , even still in mid-winter for us - ( but spring for him ) , used to get out of bed around 4 o'clock in the morning ( still pitch dark remember ) , wake up the poor family-rooster ( who prayed for Christmas , so that he could have his head chopped off and he could then rather become the family Christmas dinner instead -- poor bugger - what did he know 
) , and then into the garden , turn on the water , and just let it run . Flood the soil , let it run all day , even if it freezes as it comes out of the tape -- because the more water , the better the plants will grow . He soaked the kikuju lawn , even the patches of soil that had been laid bare by harvesting termites .
He tried to force a reluctant nature along into spring/summer
And this while we , the rest of the family , tried to pull the blankets up around our ears , trying to get in another hour or two sleep , before he realises that the family rooster had not yet made a noise , and as such , the whole darn village is also still asleep
.
But , what does all this have to do with the season of spring in the Western Cape . Well , nothing really , but I just thought that it would be nice to relate this , as a sort of preface to this thread .
Over the next few weeks or so , in order to keep me a little more busy using up time before our next KNP visit in October , I want to show you some pics of the Western Cape , especially around my area - in " My Kontrei " , as we say in Afrikaans . With my camera I will travel around a little in the immediate vicinity , neighbouring towns , such as Robertson , Montagu , and others , it all depends how my time works out etc etc .
And I hope that you will come with me to enjoy .
Just as a foretaste , if you think that there are only spring flowers in Namaqualand ( which is in Northern Cape province in any event ) , well , think again .
Have alook at this , and what we already have right here in Worcester - a bare 100 kilometres outside Cape Town - and you do not have to travel the 500 km up to Namaqualand for sights such as these
The Cape Floral Kingdom ( exclusively situated within the Western Cape ) , is the smallest in size of all the Floral Kingdoms globally . For instances , the rest of Africa falls within the Ethiopian Floral Kingdom , and as such absolutely and totally dwarfing the tiny area covered by the Cape FK .
Yet , the CFK has a larger diversity of plants , than any of the other much bigger sized Floral Kingdoms .
The subject here is mainly about that time of year which we all know as " SPRING " , which , officially , in the southern hemisphere , is supposed to start on 1 st September every year , and specifically spring here in the Western Cape - and maybe even more specific , around my own immediate area ( Worcester , Robertson , Montagu - Barrydale - therefore parts of the Overberg and Klein Karoo ) .
Now , we know that climates and seasons do not just suddenly change from one day to the next ( although it can sometimes happen that you THINK that you may have experienced all four seasons in one day -- but that is another subject .
But , we humans , maybe RP and HE excepted , like to put everything in little boxes , whereas some of us just want to do their own thing .
I grew up on a smallholding , in a little village north of Johannesburg , called Rivonia , which became famous for where the Late Pres Mandela was arrested way back before you-know-what .
In any event , my father , used to go to bed before the chickens , and next morning he used to wake up the family rooster , so that he in turn could then clap his wings , stretch uout , and let out very early morning blood-curdling Cock-a-doodle-doo , that would wake up all the neighbouring roosters in the village , and so on , waking up all the neighbours ( they were probably all grumbling too ) , as well as us children too
- I had to milk the cows ) .In any event , being an early riser , he used to become quite impatient with the fact that spring is only supposed to start on 1st September , and until then , nothing is going to grow
. Look , on the Highveld ( there north of JHB ) , winter only really arrives about July , and August is when you get black frost . And nothing grows - its all dead , dormant , kaput -- waiting for a bit of welcoming warmth from the sun , and where-ever , and for the frozen hard permafrost-like , red soil to thaw out
. And its only then , in the normal , good order of things , that spring happens But , no , as far as he was concerned , spring had stayed long enough
, and it was time for everything to wake up and face the new season - and this usually happened around 1st or 2nd of August . No matter that the strong August winds had not yet had their weeklong blows - these as I recall , used to start around 3rd week or 4th week into August ( about six weeks after winter solstice - the longest night ) .
So , my father , being an impatient early rising man , even still in mid-winter for us - ( but spring for him
) , used to get out of bed around 4 o'clock in the morning ( still pitch dark remember ) , wake up the poor family-rooster ( who prayed for Christmas , so that he could have his head chopped off and he could then rather become the family Christmas dinner instead -- poor bugger - what did he know ) , and then into the garden , turn on the water , and just let it run . Flood the soil , let it run all day , even if it freezes as it comes out of the tape -- because the more water , the better the plants will grow . He soaked the kikuju lawn , even the patches of soil that had been laid bare by harvesting termites . He tried to force a reluctant nature along into spring/summer
And this while we , the rest of the family , tried to pull the blankets up around our ears , trying to get in another hour or two sleep , before he realises that the family rooster had not yet made a noise , and as such , the whole darn village is also still asleep
. But , what does all this have to do with the season of spring in the Western Cape . Well , nothing really , but I just thought that it would be nice to relate this , as a sort of preface to this thread .
Over the next few weeks or so , in order to keep me a little more busy using up time before our next KNP visit in October , I want to show you some pics of the Western Cape , especially around my area - in " My Kontrei " , as we say in Afrikaans . With my camera I will travel around a little in the immediate vicinity , neighbouring towns , such as Robertson , Montagu , and others , it all depends how my time works out etc etc .
And I hope that you will come with me to enjoy .
Just as a foretaste , if you think that there are only spring flowers in Namaqualand ( which is in Northern Cape province in any event ) , well , think again .
Have alook at this , and what we already have right here in Worcester - a bare 100 kilometres outside Cape Town - and you do not have to travel the 500 km up to Namaqualand for sights such as these
We live in the suburb right next door to Rivonia, and the Brat went to Rivonia Primary School...you probably wouldn't recognise the area now! 
