Covid in the springtime

We've reached the end of September, and spring is in full swing. The Covid lockdown has lasted 6 months, and about 10 days ago here in South Africa it went from Level 2 to Level 1, but I wasn't even aware of that for about a week. The syringa trees are in full bloom, and its only when they are in bloom that you realise how many of them there are in our neighbourhood. 

Syringa tree across the road, seen from our bedroom

The syringa trees, with their pale blue flowers, are forerunners of the jacarandas, with their deeper blue, which appear about a fortnight later. The one in the picture above is over the road from us, near the railway line. There used to be several syringa trees over there, but most of them were chopped down by a mad axeman a few years ago -- see Mystery tree feller | Notes from underground

The thorn tree in the corner of our garden is also blooming, and it's only when they bloom with their yellow flowers that you notice how many of them there are in the neighbourhood. 

Our garden in spring, with blooming thorn tree

The syringa on the left is in a neighbour's garden across the road. 

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, so we went for tea at Cafe 41, where, before the lockdown, we used to hold our literary coffee klatches, and discuss theology and literature. -- see here Genius, shades, ancestors and more | Notes from underground. But since this time last year two of our regular members, Tony McGregor and David Levey, have died, and as we sat there I felt their ghosts haunting the place with fleeting snatches of old conversations. Even if the lockdown ended with Level 0, I doubt that we could recapture those days in their absence. 

We went on to Rutland Books, a marvelous second-hand book shop where I had previously found a book I had been looking for for 20 years, Orientalism by Edward Said, which is said to be the key to the mystery of postcolonialism. This time I took a list of books I wanted, that I haven't been able to find in other book shops or libraries, but sadly none of them were there.

We came home to our favourite syringa tree, no longer being stripped bare by the mad axeman. Bit just beyond were the posts that used to hold the catenary wire for the electric trains, stripped bare by cable thieves -- see Stripped bare: Looting till there is nothing left of Gauteng's rail network. About twice a week during the Covid lockdown the dogs would bark, and there would be gun battles between police and security companies and cable thieves. Occasionally one would be arrested, but there were always plenty of others to take their place. In our area most of this looting took place during the lockdown, when passenger trains stopped running, but the main line between Pretoria and Johannesburg (and Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town) was stripped of wires several months before the lockdown began. I don't recall seeing any news items about this before yesterday's Daily Maverick article. But this must also be added to the cost of the lockdown, and what has happened to the jobs of those who were employed by the railways? Where are they all? It is the kind of damage that one expects to be inflicted in war time, only it is far more extensive.  

 

Happy Spring Day! Happy New Year!

Today, we are told, is officially the start of Spring, and it is also New Year's Day -- welcome to the year 7519 (I think).

Of course to those on the old calendar, the new year won't begin for another 13 days (14 September Gregorian), and for those who paid attention in geography lessons at school spring won't begin until the equinox on 21 September, or thereabouts.

But according to our mulberry trea, it's already been spring for a couple of weeks. It seems to sprout its new leaves on about 19/20 August every year. And that's just about when the jacarandas finish losing their leaves -- they always seem to be the last.

It's been a warm winter. It was cold for a couple of weeks during the world cup, but it's felt like spring for well over a month now.

Twenty-one years ago the Patriarch of Constantinople, Dimitrios, urged Orthodox Christians to make 1 September a day of prayer for God's creation and for the environment. You can read his message here. His successor as Patriarch, Bartholomew, has continued to encourage the practice, and as a result has been named the first among the top 15 "green" religious leaders. The day has since been adopted by other Christian bodies as well, and the first day of spring seems like an appropriate time for it.

Wednesday 1st September 2010

* Tone 5 - Week after PENTECOST 14

CHURCH NEW YEAR - DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

• St Simeon Stylites (the Elder) (459)
• St Martha mother of St Simeon Stylites (the elder) (c 428)
• Martyr Aithalas the Persian (380)
• Holy Forty Women Martyrs and Martyr Ammon the Deacon their teacher, at Heraclea (4th)
• Righteous Joshua the Son of Nun (16th BC)
• St Fiacre, Hermit of Meaux (670)
• St Giles the Greek, Hermit and Abbot (8th)
• St Drithelm of Melrose, Monk (c 700)

Revised Julian (New Style) Calendar

Spring is on its way

Since the World Cup in June and July ("feel it--it is cold!") the weather has warmed up considerably, and now the camellias in our garden are blooming. Spring is in the air, and it feels as though winter is past, though past experience makes me think that there could be a couple more cold snaps before it's gone completely.


Unfortunately the flowers in direct sunlight seem to wither and drop almost as soon as they have opened.



And I'd heard about the birds and the bees, but no one told me about the ants!

Spring is here!

It's been a colder winter than we've had for a long time, though not as cold as those I remember from my youth, But a couple of days ago the first new leaves started appearing on our mulberry tree.



The mulberry tree is the second biggest tree in our garden, but was not here when we moved in 25 years ago, It must have been self-sown from one across the road near the railway line, from which the kids used to collect leaves in the days when they kept silkworms. We never see much fruit from it, though. It's too big, and most of the branches are too high to reach, so the birds get most of it. In about October there are huge flocks of very fat doves swarming over and around it. And when the fruit that the birds leave drops, our dogs eat eat it, spending days on end under the tree until there is nothing more to get.



Our oldest dog Ariel (in the picture) is the greatest lover of mulberries, but the other dogs enjoy them too. Ariel is a cross Alsatian-Border Collie, and we hoped when she had puppies they might look a bit like her. She had several, but we had to sell most of them, and the one we kept isn't black with white patches, but is black with brindled patches, and neaver learnt ear control, so we call her Squiffylugs. Her father is a pure Alsatian.

Spring is here

There's a big thorn tree in the corner of our garden, and towards the end of September it was in flower, covered with small yellow flowers.

A couple of nights ago the car was covered with the flowers when I went out to fetch my son from work, and out in the street there were gread drifts of flowers, though far from any of the trees, of which there are several in the neighbourhood. There had been a bit of wind, so perhaps that scattered the flowers.

We had been living in our house for twelve years before I actually noticed the tree flowering. I wonder if it flowers more in some years than others. It was certainly noticeable this year.

I'm not quite sure what kind of tree it is -- some species of acacia, but which, I don't know.

Transfiguration

Miss Eagle writes: The Eagle's Nest: Transfiguration:

To-day is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Three years ago, the fruit tree beside my home office window was covered in blossom (the picture is from 2005) but my fruit trees have very few blossoms at this time and my magnolia seems to have blossom as a permanent condition since they have been there so long without flowering.

And Miss Eagle's tree looks beautiful, and a reminder that Spring is around the corner, and soon there will be new life bursting out every where, and the world will be transfigured too.

Thou wast transfigured on the mount. 0 Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light shine upon us sinners. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee (Troparion).

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, 0 Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father (Kontakion).

But this year here too there is no sign of spring yet. Up the road from us the grass is still blackened from winter fires, and the willows are still bare and leafless. An image of the Church, perhaps, torn apart by fighting and disfigured by sin. But perhaps the fire is also a purifying one, and we will yet see some green shoots.