You will remember from our previous post that we stumbled upon a beautiful garden on a morning stroll. A few days ago, I decided to walk a different route to see what else is hidden in this lovely suburb of Cape Town … and was surprised to find some animals and more lovely plants and flowers.

I smelled this garden long before I saw it! The sweet scent of *fynbos tickled my nose and I stopped to take a few pictures and enjoying these lovely smells.

*Fynbos: This is a distinctive type of vegetation that is only found on the southern tip of Africa. The name originates from an old Dutch word (‘fine bush’) and include proteas, daisies, legumes and vygies – many of these plants are shrubs with small, hard leaves.

The wonderful smell of a fynbos garden
Fynbos from closer (on the left is the well-known Spekboom, aka Portulacaria afar)
Flowers are not unusual where fynbos grows
It’s also a water-wise garden

From the fynbos garden, the street leads to a small park – this is quite common to find in the suburbs in Cape Town. I was fortunate to see quite a few animals enjoying the sunny weather.

An Egyptian goose walking to the nearby dam
Rabbits taking a morning nap
A squirrel balancing on a fence

There is also a small playground for kids and next to that a beautiful dam that was enjoyed by a few birds.

Kids playground
A bench overlooking the dam
A lonely goose on the dam

Close to the park is a newly built primary school and the gardens here are beautiful. It was great to see (and smell) more fynbos … and rows of the lovely spekboom.

Lovely spekboom garden opposite the school

On my way back to our friends’ house, I saw another water-wise garden. After a few hot summers and dry winters, the residents of this suburb certainly gave their garden layouts another thought and came up with beautiful designs.

Another fine-looking garden
Colourful succulents
Small shrubs decorating the garden
Colourful flowers and sweet smelling frangipani

Back in our friends’ garden, I took a last couple of photo’s to remind me just how great it is to enjoy nature – even though it’s in your own (or your friends) backyard.

A white feather that I found on my walk
Katryn (one of our friends’ cats) trying to catch the feather
Abby, the family dog, is keeping a watchful eye on the chickens
Last sunlight on a strelitzia
Another cat, this time Mimi, enjoying the sun and lovely strelitzias from the garden

We had a great time staying with our friends, who opened their house to us for two weeks while we were waiting for the call from Berto’s new company on where to we should relocate.

In our next post, we will share a last view of Cape Town on a hike in a local nature reserve. Which mean … yes, the decision was made and we are currently in our new city/town for the next year (which is not Cape Town) … we will tell you more about this in coming posts.