Photos from Stellenbosch Aug. 24-26 '09

I've had a lot of time to look at flowers and architecture in and around Stellenbosch so here's a sampling of what I've seen.

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the town hall

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the Minster

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Here's a puzzle: how many helmeted guinea fowl are in this tree?

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The photo below shows the aftermath of wildfire in the fynbos. This long row of mature protea plants may or may not recover, depending on the degree of damage to them.

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So many of the flowers we see remind me of the spring bulbs that are for sale in Ontario nurseries, e.g. this one that shall remain nameless, at least for now.

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I do enjoy the large pink sorrel that is flowering everywhere in the lawns and roadsides as well as in the fynbos. Here, with charred shrubs all around, it has somehow come up as mixed white and pink.

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I really like the "Cape Dutch" style of the older buildings here, some of them from the late 1600's and 1700's

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"Eikestad" means Town of Oaks, and it is. European oaks, like this giant just coming into leaf, line the streets. In this University town, the students believe that, if an acorn falls on your head, it is a sign of good luck, so they prowl the streets just before an exam, hoping .....

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Here's our home in Stellenbosch (the unit with the open door), right under the mountain and beside the Eerste River, so named because it was the first (eerste) one they came upon after leaving their Cape Town base