Signs of Spring in Magaliesburg
A false spring in Magaliesburg, or an early spring? The signs of Spring are here now! Our guesthouse is at 1400 metres altitude in a hard frost area of the Witwatersberg. We expect spring to show its first signs when the August winds bring warm air from the North. That’s when migratory birds return from Europe and the first blossoms emerge. We don’t usually prune roses before the last week of July and seldom pack away our winter woollies before the Spring Equinox in September. This year there was abnormal weather in the second week of June. Temperatures plunged below 0C for several days during heavy unseasonal storms. By the winter solstice on 22 June the wind had turned from South to North. By the first week in July, poplar trees next to the Magalies River were in green leaf. At the same time, we noticed several eggshells lying on frosted lawns and pathways. They look like Cape Robin eggs. We have had robins nesting in ivy for years, but these eggshells are a distance from the usual nesting spots. This could be because we removed bushes near robin nests because the bushes were usually infested with bees pollinating the bright pink flowers. There are many Weavers, Loeries and other birds looking for food in the garden too. They have stripped the red berries off the Sacred Magaliesberg Bamboo bushes and purple berries off the Prunus trees. We haven’t been putting out seed because Vervet monkeys are seeking bird seed as well as fruit and other food from the guesthouse. Weather conditions have been such that the rose bushes never stopped producing new leaves and buds during the winter. It seems we will now have to prune the roses in the hope that this is a true spring and that Magaliesburg will go into bloom early this year.