At first we thought it was a rather strange cloud, but on closer inspection it was smoke coming from the ground. That area in the photo is vast and full of beautiful trees. It must’ve been at least 4 or 5 miles away, no one thought it would actually get any nearer to us. Everyone around who’d noticed it was more concerned about the green countryside…  

It went on for hours but didn’t spread any wider, so we came to the conclusion it was a “controlled burn.” Must’ve been, else there would’ve been planes with bowsers in the sky…

So while still on the subject of flora and fauna, that gorgeous flowering plant in yesterday’s post decided to do this after the sun had set:

Shut up shop for the day…

Note that meantime another one on the left of it had begun flourishing in the afternoon sometime… They both look dead? Not a chance, back in full bloom today.

I took the photos above at 11pm, well the big softy’s, it was still 25 degrees C. Even flowering cactuses do the same, how the latter can create such stunning flowers of all colours is beyond me.

Here’s the newest addition to the family…

Don’t be fooled by the “fluffy effect” of this cactus, looks quite cute doesn’t it? I once forgot about using protective gloves, and caught it with my hand while carefully chopping back (an ordinary plant) next door to it. Every piece of “fluff” that touched me caused what felt like wasp stings! Anti-histamine cream required…

Fortunately the “mean” buggers are all out of reach, placed in pots on top of the balustrades. Safe from them unless you’re faffing about with a harmless neighbour! Most of our other plants are of the large palm variety or the hardy flowering kind.

Still sounds back to front does that word “hardy.” When I was a Brit in the UK we used to refer to “hardy plants” as those which could survive wind, rain and all kinds of bad weather. Here, hardy plants are those that absolutely thrive in direct sunlight, which accounts for the major majority…