Around 50 short years ago B.J.Thomas sang a wonderful song which was the accompaniment to one of the cinema’s all time happy scenes: Paul Newman and Katharine Ross riding a bicycle in circles as Robert Redford looked on in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head. Today’s soft rain here in Bathurst was what brought back the memory of that iconic scene ………….. that and the fact that virtually every plant in the garden is suddenly standing up with a smile on its face.
Hand in hand with this goes another iconic song from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers …… Spring is Bustin’ out all Over. And it certainly is. Virtually every single plant in Pat’s garden is either flowering or budding, and it is all just such a pleasure to behold and spend time enjoying.
Coral Leaves
The birds too are enjoying it in ways I have never seen here. Our little banana grove is a hive of activity with Cape Weavers building nests all over the place, and the Drongos, Bul Buls, Starlings, Hoopoes and Thrushes are simply everywhere on the ground making a feast of the hatching insects, while the White Eyes, Sunbirds and Orioles are attacking every stamen they can lay their eyes on.
As with every night for the past few weeks the little Scops Owl that now resides in our area made himself heard just outside our house. I think he knows I am determined to photograph him, and does this just to tempt me out of bed. So here I was at 3.15am, torch and camera in hand standing out in York Road trying to find him in the large tree over the Bathurst Arms’ driveway when suddenly he flies down onto a branch not three meters above my head ……………. then (little bugger), just as I get the torch and the camera both aligned onto him he shoots off - up through our Jacarandas, through the large Coral, and down to the big tree on George Street, where he immediately starts calling again.
Never mind …… I will get that pic eventually.
Right up the centre of the Coral Tree
Covid? Watching the news and seeing England and Ireland both going back to the equivalent of our worst lockdown regulations makes me wonder what exactly is going on here in South Africa. Are our numbers for real ………….. or or we simply being lead down a garden path of sorts?
Here in Bathurst where Pubs like the Plough and the Pig are almost entirely back to their pre-Covid levels of trading I see few (if any), masks being worn by the punters - all (or most), of whom are, to quote from Top Gun …….. “In the danger zone”. Yet everyone seems healthy, and to the best of my knowledge, no-one who regularly frequents these dens of iniquity (as do we from time to time), has tested positive or fallen ill. While there are reports of the odd Covid case in the area, they all seem to have been infected after visits to one of the hospitals for some other complaint. As things currently stand a conundrum of sorts definitely exists, and we can only hope that no ‘great big bogeyman’ is going to suddenly jump out of the closet and flatten us all.
Spinning the Lavender patch
Perhaps living in Africa has its advantages - perhaps many of us have been fortunate enough to have the generally unforgiving nature of our climate and our surroundings, along with the vast melting pot of people both local and here from all parts of Africa, to thank for establishing a resistance of sorts to these things that attack the more sterile countries and nations of the Northern Hemisphere. I fear only that complacency could possibly spell our collapse - but let’s sincerely hope not - and let’s be sure to keep the liquor supplies flowing.
With Christmas galloping down the road directly towards us, I fear that for many of those here (as probably with us), it is going to be a family-less Xmas, and that most of us will be putting crackers on the table for absent loved ones. I feel sure however that it will be a good Xmas and that most of us will get the opportunity (one way or another), to toast each others’ absent families.
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So everyone - please give a thought to all of the Bathurst ‘oldies’, and particularly that large community of ex-pats that reside here who almost definitely won’t be seeing their families this year. Stock up and raise a glass to them - again - and again - and again ………… maybe that way everyone will get sufficiently pissed to make it not matter.
I’ve been doing a (very) little bit more experimenting with Intentional Camera Movement, and thought I’d drop in a few of the more successful results. Enjoy!
