It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. Eddie Cantor. Wise words from a comedian.

Dearest,

As this flower season slowly winds down, so will the postings on this blog.  Not yet but soon.

For those of you who are still to visit, it is important to realise that, even though the “fields of flowers” will soon be no more, there will still be a lot of flowers playing hide and seek and waiting for you to discover them in their natural habitat. Unfortunately you won’t see these little treasures whilst driving in your car, you will have to stop frequently and take long leisurely walks.  If you leave the high heels and shiny brown Barkers behind and instead pack a good pair of walking shoes, hat and lots of sunscreen, you will be thoroughly surprised at the amount of flowers still around. Take time to chat to the “locals” who are always the best source of the whereabouts of the “real” flowers.

It is also important to take note of the quaint habits of the Namaqualand Flowers, best illustrated by the following sketch:

Scene: Honnehok Chalets 10am on a chilly and overcast morning.
Enter Mr. and Mrs. Jones,  out of breath and awfully stressed.
Daisy: “Good morning, how are you?
Mrs Jones: “Not too well, where are all the flowers everybody is raving about? We drove all the way from Springbok to Hondeklip Bay and have not seen one flower yet!”
Daisy: “What time did you leave Springbok this morning?”
Mrs Jones: “We left quite late, 8.30am to be precise”
Daisy (flabergasted): “Springbok! That is at least a two hour drive!”
Mrs Jones: “We left Springbok early because we still want to see the flowers in Vanrhynsdorp and Clanwilliam today and we have to be back in Johannesburg by tomorrow! Sooo…..where are the flowers?”
Daisy: (cool calm and by now not very collected): “Oh dear Mrs. Jones, I am sooo sorry, I forgot to switch on the sun this morning at precisely 8am and thus the flowers will now only open at 11 am.  I also neglected to order the rains for early April so I will have to take the blame for an early/late flower season as well.”
Mrs Jones (indignant and higly upset): “But…..everybody assured us that the flowers this year was going to be excellent! Come Mr. Jones, we have wasted our time and money – lets go, lets go, we still have to get to Clanwilliam before lunch!”

I rest my case.

Have a good week, enjoy spring and slow down, it is the only way to enjoy and experience the real Namaqualand,

Yours as always,

Daisy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under Flower Report 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.