Spring produces family responsibilities

It is that time of the year when nature abounds with signs of new life. Gardens respond to rain with vigorous new growth while mammals tend to their young and birds are building nests and raising chicks It is almost like watching a soap opera, trying to keep track of the comings and goings around you. The nest built by Greater Striped Swallows on my patio last year was taken over by a pair of White-rumped Swifts. The nest fell down at the beginning of summer and I was wondering who will be claiming the prime site this year when my neighbour informed me (with a certain amount of glee) that the swallows have built a nest on HIS patio.

“Forth with the grinding of couplings, the hissing and snorting of steam!” The Ambers Drama Group is bringing you a nostalgic entertainment of verse, recorded music, videos and pictures about the heydays of rail travel in South Africa. It comes in the tradition that the Drama Group has established over the years of unusual programmes of readings and music, such as the ones on World War One and World War Two, the Women’s Day programme, and “Easter Voices”.

“Planning has begun to devise a very different plan for the forthcoming Open Gardens Season. The theme we have chosen is NEW, LITTLE AND OLD. This gives us wonderful scope to include a wide spectrum of gardens but structured in such a way that a specific route will be followed for some of them, thus bringing cohesion and ease of access for visitors. In these frugal days of high travelling expenses, the Committee will choose four areas in which the gardens will be concentrated. These areas will be revealed as the master plan falls into place”, commented Jackie Kalley, convenor of the Harcourts Hilton Open Midlands Gardens.

Wildlife on your windowsill

They don’t nibble rosebuds or dig up bulbs in the lily bed, which is already a good reason why some residents prefer the smaller wildlife in their gardens. Watching the antics of reptiles can be as rewarding as counting the stripes on the side of a zebra.