AUGUST is here with weather in samples. Some days we 

 battle with raging south-easters (much too early for these, 

 we say) ; then, before we realize the change, the wind 

 comes roaring in from the north-west, and rain and hail are 

 crashing down. Then a sudden smile : the sun is shining, the 

 flowers open, and we feel things are almost too good to be true. 

 And so they are. For one half-hour the rain-daisies (Dimor- 

 photheca pluvialis) are a sheet of glistening white in the blazing 

 sun, and the next they are almost invisible as the rain-clouds 

 sweep over. 



But through everything we have the feeling that time is short 

 and we simply must get on. Our inescapable duty is to prepare 

 for all the beauty that is about to be displayed, and to give it 

 a suitable setting. If we do not make ready at once, it will 

 be quite too late and another opportunity will be lost, for 



When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces, 

 The mother of months in meadow or plain 

 Fills the shadows and windy places 

 With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain. 



The new nursery is taking shape, the contour ploughing has 

 been done and the contour banks are to be permanently planted 

 with showy proteas and leucospermums, having as a ground 

 cover all the best of the Arctotis species and hybrids. So we 

 hope to avoid the ugly gashes on the hillside slopes, gashes 

 that are all too apparent on the neighbouring lands. The bulbs 

 have shown their appreciation of a remove to new soil. 

 Romulea, Sparaxis and Gladiolus species have flowers very much 

 larger than I have ever seen anywhere. The ground was well 

 manured the year before we took it over, and we gave heavy 

 dressings of home-made compost which seems to suit them 

 better than anything. 



The great thrill is the appearance of the wild flowers in 

 the parts of the farm that have never been cultivated also 

 around the fences and along the old dongas. First we had 

 Gladiolus gracilis (blue pypie), and then big groups of the dainty 



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