Bulawayo Morning Mirror Edition 1162 - 24/9/2026

LAST WORD FROM MOTHER NATURE

Mother Nature must have taken affront two weeks ago when I suggested she was 'complicated and unkind'.

She literally hit me this week with her 'full force of nature' just to show me up!
The Bougainvillia that has been dilly dallying outside the driveway since the last rain suddenly burst forth with a brilliance unseen in many a long dusty month. A myriad brilliant cerise and cyclamen blossoms with tiny white stamens arrived unannounced, intermingled with a number of staggeringly beautiful white florets.

The Amaryllis, which have been slow in coming forth this year, suddenly erupted in a grandiose display of crimson, scarlet and white including the one I secretly stole in Sweden, and the very unusual green one which was a treasured gift from Bertha.

The Clivia! Well I was overjoyed when we came back from supporting the Boys in Baltimore, to find that the beds of Clivia had excelled themselves yet again with their brilliant tangerine colours, all trying to do one another, however the treasured Yellow Clivia will undoubtedly make a theatrical appearance later on, it would appear.

Suddenly, from a dusty, murky haze, the purple Jacarandas are slowly creating a vibrant violet haze across the horizon. Most of the Jacarandas are still 'hiding their light under a bushel' but those with courage are blooming brilliantly and even spreading
royal carpets prematurely under some of the trees.

Many plants refuse to grow in our garden, possibly because of our absolutely giant ficus tree. It sheds tons and tons of bitter berries and leaves twice a year, (much to the chagrin of our Loyal Horticulturalist,) and the soil is not to the taste of many shrubs and plants.
Home to numerous doves, fruit bats, paradise fly catchers and the occasional exotic like the Gymnogene and Hammerkop, this tree is undoubtedly the original Enid Blyton 'Faraway Tree'.

Apologies to Mother Nature for doubting her incredible, breath-taking abilities!!