Morning Rain Magic

This morning we probably had the last rain of this year. I first had to take shelter at the Deer Park Cafe but could capture some impressions later.

Slowly the clouds were opening up. The forest is full of fragrances and everything looks different in a fresh wetness.

Secret views are revealed.

The wetness brings out female forms.

Wet love......

leads to new birth.

Rain drops decorate the  plants like jewels.

A frog is sitting in the stream all dressed up in its perfect camouflage.

Fluidity

Yesterday, the family still sleeping, I went for a short walk along the stream in Deer Park.

Taking time to reflect I noticed the fluidity, the constant flow of the life giving water.

I feel the need for a rest in this strong current. Holding on to something seemingly solid.

The hairy petals of a protea are cuddling together before the storm.

Others are ripe, ready to let go with the next wind to find new places.

Table Mountain is rising above, solid and strong.

I see a perfect image of a tree of life, anchored deep in the dry earth.

Among the dry grass I find tiny juicy flowers.

For some creatures the world is just spiky.

Others celebrate life and new birth like a hibiscus flower.

Life, a constant flow like the breath, in and out, up and down.

Summer in Deer Park

After a few hot days of summer it was a cool morning. Nature is going into sleep to survive the heat to come.

Only a few flowers try a last temptation.

A last colourful cry for love.

Most have completed the cycle and are ready to fly like stars in the summer sky.

A mandala inviting contemplation grows under the trees.

Small cycles of life are to be seen at the border of an seemingly endless cycle of mother earth.

It takes ten thousand years for the stream to wash away the stone. 

Once even the stone was flowing.

A cool pool invites me to take a ritual bath.

A river frog is guarding the entrance -

- to the ruins of an ancient temple

A lost world, overgrown.

Along the Rocket Rd and down to Sandy Bay

It was hot today. Just right for an early morning walk in my beloved Hout Bay followed by a skinny dip in the cool ocean.

At the beginning of the Rocket Rd lies a sea of sand, glittering in the morning sun.

The morning sun plays light and shadow with the grass.

Ripe and blown up, some plant shows its fruit like a lantern of Summer.

It is a time of seeds.

Grass swaying like a field of grain in the morning breeze. Ready to be harvested by the wind.

Others are caressing my legs as I walk past.

Last flowers are bathing in hot air and sun.

A rusted piece of a stranded ship between the rocks is slowly transformed to were it came from. The actions of men are reversed. Nature takes it back in its own time.

I meet two raven watching me, flying ahead and looking at me as I pass by.

I meet a lizzard ready for a jump.

In the bushes hides a horned monster.

I am longing for my beloved beach, backing in the sun. As I continue, I pack my camera away not to upset the people on this nudist beach.

It is hot today.

Summer is here.

Summer, the time for fruit and ripeness.

Up Platteklip Stream

We moved to Vredehoek on the edge of the city bowl last week. With a new base I will extend the range of my reflective walks and this blog will be the new home for my pictures and impressions.
This morning I walked up the Platteklip Stream from the Deer Park.

Lionshead greets me in the morning light.

The city is still sleeping.

Platteklip Stream is a magic place where the water flows over the border between the softer sandstone and the hard granite. There are places of hard black rock with white intrusions.

A place of boundaries and flow. 

Hard rock polished and formed by the steady flow.

Life giving water flows in abundance.

Plants showing their form against the bright morning sky.

Along the stream grow passion flowers.

I am not the only one enjoying them.

As the sun rises Table Mountain reveals its splendor.