Towards a Better Environment...

I have a large front lawn at home and have to mow the grass every second week during the summer months. This isn't too bad as I have a ride-on mower and the whole yard takes about 2 hours to mow.

Over the past few years while going round and round in ever diminishing circles on my mower, I've noticed that there is a lot of the original wild veld grass trying to grow through the lawn. The land used to be open grasslands before it was proclamed a residential area in the 1950's. Most of this grass seems to be growing in an area sort of in the middle of the front lawn. So a few weeks ago I decided to stop mowing the centre portion and let the wild grass grow back (and make the mowing a bit less too!) Well, these photos are a result of about a month of no cutting. I have tried to landscape it a bit by cutting a pathway through the middle.

I suppose to the residents of my neighbourhood the lawn might look unkempt. But it is in fact an experiment in conserving the natural environment. It will encourage seed eating birds to my garden and hopefully the grey heron I saw there when I first moved in in the 90's might come back to catch 'noo-noos' in the long grass.

Click on the pics for a larger view.

UPDATE : November 2011

The Black-headed heron returned a few times in November 2011, and once I photographed it catch a blue headed lizard which it swallowed with great difficulty.

A Sign?

The company I work for is experiencing financial difficulties at the moment, probably mainly through "empire building" and it's finally caught up.

After a short rain shower early this morning a bright rainbow appeared over Kloof Gorge.

Let's hope the day turns out well.

Leaving the Berg

Some of us have to work, and so I had to return early on Tuesday morning. All the valleys were filled with fog as I left the farm.

When got to the higher ground near Bulwer behind me I could see the mighty Drakensberg rising out of the mist filled valleys at their feet. In front over towards the east was the Umkomaas River valley and this too was filled with fog.

As I approached the valley I took these photos.

Monday Flying the Umzimkulu River

Monday morning dawned clear and calm so Jeff and I headed out to the Himeville airfield armed with the video camera to try to film the starting point of the canoe race on the Umzumkulu. We took off and headed up over the Sani Pass hotel then turned left parallel to the Drakensberg and flew over Cobham camp site. The air was so still we headed towards the Bushman's Nek area and landed on a new farm strip out that way.

On the way back we headed up the valley to the bridge where the race starts and got some good aerials. Back at the farm I edited those shots onto the start of the material I'd filmed the day before and now the race organisers have a nice aerial tracking video of the river.

Our province is so lush and green at this time of the year. Other parts of the country are experiencing lower rainfall than usual and do not look this good.

See the videos here.
(Update: the video has been removed because it was reported by somebody as being inappropriate and misleading and I had my youtube account suspended for 6 months. I was furious about the incident and appealed against the decision stating that it was no more inappropriate than some of the junk one finds on youtube. I explained the reason for the video i.e.as a guide for canoeists but added that it was very old and no onger needed and if they really felt like it they could delete it. I complained that I had not been given any chance for an explanation and was treated like a naughty child. Youtube reinstated my account but I was unable to upload videos for 6 months.
Shame on you youtube.com

Last Underberg Adventure

Well, this may have been my last Underberg Adventure for a while. My friends at Pevensey Jeff and Brigid are moving back to their town home soon. I drove to the farm early on Saturday morning to spend the weekend.

On Sunday morning we finally had good flying weather to video the Umzimkulu River for the Drakensberg Challenge Canoe Race organisers. We headed up towards Drakensberg Gardens, but the Bantam fix winged microlight encountered nasty turbulence at the entrance to the large valley where the canoe race starts on the Umzimkulu River. We turned round and concentrated on filming from a bit further downstream where the air was more calm and would make low level flying safer. The 2 day race ends at Umzimkulu River Lodge about 60 kilometres from the start.

After flying the Umzimkulu, Brigid packed a picnic lunch for us and we headed up Mahwaqa mountain behind the farm on the quads. Low cloud was starting to roll in from the Bulwer side of the mountain, so we didn't stay up there all afternoon. We stopped and looked at waterfalls in deep ravines, flowers and skittish buck. Lunch was at a small stream. We were looking for 

one waterfall in particular, but didn't locate it because the mist was getting thicker. We turned round and went exploring on a lower stretch of the mountain, before heading for the farm house.

That afternoon a very mean thunder storm came up, but passed in the distance.

Happy New Year!

First of all, a very Happy New Year and may everything you wish for in 2009 happen.

Secondly, the neighbour's dogs saga ended well this morning. The tennant next door contacted me after reading the note I left stuck to his door and we managed to get all 3 dogs home. They just need to block the hole in the fence where the dogs got through and hopefully they'll stay home.

I didn't go flying because it was overcast and a bit misty earlier on. We'll have one day with perfect conditions soon.... I hope... it's been over a month since I last flew. The summer weather's not conducive to microlight flying.

New Year's Eve with a Difference

I've never been one to have the need to wait up till late just to observe one day tick into another, especially not on the last day of the year. This year was to be oh so different...

My friend Leon who does pyrotechnics and special effects for movies had asked me to join him at the New Year fireworks display at which he was doing in Durban. Due to a venue change he was doing an indoor event at the Convention Centre, so we decided as there was limited access I wouldn't go.

So I settled in at home to watch a very drab lineup of programmes on TV. (I think TV lineup organisers purposely keep all the best programmes off New Year's Eve because most people are waiting up to usher in the New Year with a bang and much drinking!!)

At about 10 pm I had a call from a neighbour to say another neighbour's 2 dogs had arrived at her back door in a state because of fire crackers which were being sporadically let off before midnight, and what should she do. Now these dogs are not really my favourites, the one has a rather irritating bark and barks loudly when it sees me walking around in my own garden, despite me going up to it to say hello. I knew the owners were away and the house sitter was also out, so I climbed over the fence to look for the 3rd dog which I found still at home. It followed me to Jan's house to join its siblings and Jan was quite happy to keep them there for the night. I went home only to find the 3 dogs had followed me a little later. I found them a spot to sleep in my outside laundry room. They settled down on the floor, but were suddenly disturbed and went thundering out across the garden, chasing my cat. She disappeared up a tree somewhere, 2 of the dogs ended up in Jan's yard again, and the other was still with me.

By this time it was getting close to fireworks hour, but I managed to get the dog to calm down and believe it or not, from sheer exhaustion, it fell asleep. It didn't even hear the cacophony of exploding fireworks at 12 o'clock. They're supposed to be banned, but people ignore the rules as usual.

I tiptoed out the laundry at about 20 past 12, wished it a Happy New Year, and went to bed. My thoughts of having a good night's sleep before getting up at 4 am to go flying had been dashed...