Friday 1 February 2013

Summer garden crushes

Summer in the gardens and homes of Cape Town's suburbs will always have these associations for me ... 

Red, pink and white bougainvillea against white-washed, sun-faded walls; the iconic flat-topped Table Mountain as a backdrop


The lushness of my mother's cottage garden, planted only with indigenous shrubs and flowers that thrive with little water, with concealed places to sit and enjoy ...


... grape-vines frame the stable-door entrance to the house and a collection of succulents thrives beneath the green window shutters.

The sound of water; unstructured, informal gardens with love and care in the nurturing of them


(a not so polite injunction to dogs)
deep blue agapanthus


Europe meets Africa everywhere ...

a pair of French garden urns stand beneath a vase of bright pink proteas, indigenous to the Cape 


Ex-colonies also meet: at India House, a typical Cape Victorian style semi-detached cottage with covered porch and shuttered windows, stands colon (typical colonial African wooden sculpture popularised in Ghana and the Ivory Coast).


 Near a French-style table and chairs for outdoor eating, a wire bokkie lurks in the foliage (this one seemingly a not-so-African reindeer!).



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