Vibrant Rietvlei Park in December

You can't help noticing how some of the trees in our complex come alive with a lavish display of colour during December.  Following on from Mark's close up look at the flowers in the park, Glenda and I decided to go walk about in the park with our cameras'. Since it is the silly season, I decided to have some fun by using a polarising filter which helps to enhance the sky in a few of the pictures below:

Click picture to enlarge

Not our sign, but close enough

I hope you are enjoying the photo blog as much as I am, if anyone has any ideas or theme's they would like added, please let me know via email.

A closer look

Resident owner: Mark Romburgh; AKA: 'Macro Mark', has been getting up close and personal with the flowers in Rietvlei Park.  Here is his selection of "Close Ups"

Click to enlarge

Thanks Mark, I really enjoy these pictures.

While walking around the park on Heritage day, I noticed that some of our residents have really stunning gardens. So I got to thinking, it would be great if people would take photos of their gardens and submit the pictures via email to our rietvleiparkbc@googlemail.com address. I could then upload the pictures and share them on this blog.  So get out there and start snapping away. . .Hey, maybe we could even have a garden competition. I'm just saying. . .You know. . .Putting it out there.

Noisy Neighbours

It looks like the picture blog is really taking off, (pun intended). In this post we feature the Hadeda Ibis.

I enjoyed Mark's email to me so much. that I decided to share it with all of you. The subject line of his email read:  "Noisy neighbours":

Hi Steve
No not a complaint this time. Following on from Brian's theme, just a few snaps I took of our "noisy neighbours" of the feathered variety. And just for a chuckle; for some time after my niece moved to Jo'bug and first encountered these acoustically ebullient fowl, she thought they were called 'La-di-das'.

Once again I have added a link in the bird name above, for those who are interested in learning a bit more about our feathered gardening assistants.

Pictures by Mark Romburgh

Birds in the Park

Resident: Brian Barrath, has submitted a selection pictures of birds that can be seen in and around Rietvlei Park.

The first picture is one of the "Spotted Thick-Knee" (Dikkop Kiewiet) - Brian's attention was drawn to the bird because of the load noises it was making. Fortunately it wasn't the usual 2 am noise making slot. He suspected that the bird was trying to distract someone or some animal from the location of its nest.

For those who are interested in reading more on the Dikkop Kiewiet, I have added a Wikipedia link. You can access an article on Kietiets' by clicking on the birds name in brackets above.

Dikkop Kiewiet

Below are two shots of Pelicans flying overhead on their way to the Rietvlei wetland:

Could this be the start of a community photo blog? I sure hope so.

Here is a selection of random pictures shot around our park, (click pictures to enlarge):

Wind swept trees

Wide open space

To me these Monkey Puzzle fronds have a Christmas feel to them.