Fynbos Fairies

Kate received a belated Christmas present in the post from Granny. All the way from sunny South Africa. It is a most magnificent book. It is called Fynbos Fairies. What is Fynbos, you may ask? It is a most curious phenomenon... (to paraphrase the back of our Fynbos Fairies book) Fynbos is a fine-leaved, shrub-like vegetation found only in the southwestern and southern Cape in South Africa. So special is this biome that it has been designated as one of the earth's six plant kingdoms. The Cape Floral Kingdom. At less than 90 000 square kilometers, it is the smallest floral kingdom on earth. Yet it is home to 8 600 plant species, some 5 000 of which occur nowhere else in the world. 

K and I have been pouring over the pages of this beautiful book. Each page features a fynbos flower and fairy and an accompanying poem by Antjie Krog who is one of South Africa's most prominent poets. Each page is charming and delightful and it warms my heart to be sharing this tiny part of my heritage with my american daughter.

These are the Erica Fairies. You will find Erica in most garden shops in America.

This is the King Protea Elf and little white-eye birds that I used to scold my long-gone cat, Snakey, for catching.
These are the butterflies that live in the fynbos.
This is the Sugarbush Fairy.
And here is my favorite, The Milkwood Fairies. 

I grew up around milkwoods, I climbed in their branches, I stepped in their sticky berries, I hung my shell mobiles from their silver limbs. At Kromme, my favorite place on earth, we sit in warmth in the window seat, looking out, through the milkwoods, at the Sacred Ibises wading in the river beyond. This is the place I go to often in my mind.