When you live far up north in Southern Africa, there is one thing that you learn, and that is, that it doesn't take much to transform our seemingly barren dessert landscape into a lush green subtropical paradise...
After just a few bouts of rain as we step into the early days of our rainy season, what looked like dead earth just a few weeks ago, is already transforming into shades of gorgeous green with flashes of color as the wild flowers start to display their beauty.
Above we can see vibrant shoots of freshly grown wild green grass, boasting with gorgeous yellow flowers.
And below, a bouquet of fragrant wild jasmin spreading over the floors of the mango orchards, with their scent filling the air as you walk through.
A lonely butter yellow flower belonging to a ground creeper also decided to open and shed a bit of color from its softer palette, and soon the bushveld will be covered in thick matted grasslands with a array of wild flowers just like these...
But it is not only the vegetation becoming more visible, insect life is also taking front stage with some interesting finds such as this gigantic centipede that I found on my morning walk.
This one with a shiny blue-black back and almost sea-green belly, had me fascinated for quite some time.
I'll admit that this is definitively not one of my favorite bugs to stumble across. Not only because of their sometimes poisonous bites (depending on which one you encounter) but just because there is something about their design that just makes me feel uneasy. Maybe its just all the old wives tales about them creeping into your ears while you sleep?
And then of course a bit later that day, when I took the truck to get some more work done on the farm, I was greeted by a lovely mopani moth, one of the first for the season. Soon we will be having a lot more of these giant beauties fluttering around.
Then of course the mango season has kicked off and a few weeks from now, the first fruit will be ready to harvest. This being our main and annual crop of the farm, I think we were all a bit curious to see how well the surviving trees would do after the long years of drought, and despite the trees weaning some of their fruit with recent heat waves, I am happy to say that we will still have a better than expected harvest, given the circumstances, and for that I am grateful.
And then lastly I wanted to share these, at first glance, my immediate thoughts were mini fairy crop circles... but given the fact that these were found all around waters edge at the dam, I am guessing that they are more than likely some insect eggs. I have tried looking these up, but I couldnt find anything matching these yet.
But I am sure that I will find out in time what they could be. In the meantime if you know what these are, or if you know what they could be, feel free to point me in the right direction :)