January 2024

With our holiday over and the long road to East London ahead of us, I reluctantly handed our last bags to Berto to put in our ‘bakkie’ (pickup truck).

As my mom and I share a few final stories, my eyes fall on her lovely succulents. I quickly got hold of the camera to take pictures. There are so many different succulents and none look the same – I’m always surprised to see how colourful these plants are.

I used Pl@ntNet to help identify the succulents, but if you see one that I may have misidentified, feel free to post that in the comments. Come, let’s take a stroll through my mother’s succulent garden.

Pig’s ear (Cotyledon orbiculate)

Mexican hens and chicks (Echeveria shaviana) – a frilled specimen

Painted Lady (Echeveria derenbergii)

Aeonium Starburst

Ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense)

Many of my mom’s succulents have been growing in one pot for years. They are compact slow growers (a few centimeters per year) and can test your patience if you enjoy seeing new growth, but the good news is that they can live for decades.

Mexican Firecracker (Echeveria setosa Rose & Purpus)

Pen Wiper (Kalanchoe marmorata Baker)

Flower of Campfire plant (Crassula capitella)

Aeonium Arboreum

Although most of my mom’s succulents look their best during late autumn, it was still lovely to walk through her garden on this early summer morning.

While I was taking a last couple of pictures of the succulents, my mom called me to come and see the guinea fowl and their chicks. They always come scrubbing in the bushes and grass behind our house early in the morning – it’s been fun to watch them these past three weeks while I enjoyed my first cup of tea for the day.

Guinea fowl and chicks

It was finally time to get into our ‘bakkie’ and say goodbye to my mom, our house and the beautiful town of Langebaan.

In next week’s post, we are taking you on (another) road trip back to East London. We are going to stop at some lovely places, but more on that next week. (You can read about our road trip here).