On the farm you often come across things that simply just captivates you, sometimes for no more than just a moment, but I believe that it is the small things in life that compiles into the beauty of it all.
Over the past week I have taken some pictures on the go of some such moments, and thought I would share it with you.
I will start this off with the wonderful - and work my way towards the weird...
The Custard Apple
Here on the farm I always try to plant as much as possible edible and/or medicinal plants, of course I always take the environmental impact of planting anything non indigenous into account, and with that said one of the plants I established in our garden quite a few ears back has recently come into fruit.
This strange fruit is known as a custard apple - and for good reason, the inside of the fruit tastes like a creamy squished fruit salad with custard, it must by far be one of the strangest fruits that I have ever eaten, and in fact, I was actually quite surprised that it would even fruit in our climate - yet here it is.
The Rose of Sharon
I went to visit a friend just the other day, and while walking out in the garden, this lovely hibiscus in flower caught my eye, I am very accustomed to seeing these gorgeous plants in a wide array of colors, more often than not deep pungent colors such as a deep red, yellow or even placid white - but I have never seen one of these in this specific color, and neither have I ever seen one with a solid white pistil.
I ended up trying to look up the cultivar of this hibiscus, and it turns out it is a syriacus rose of sharon
The Butterfly That Made Time Stood Still
I have no idea what it is about butterflies that fascinates me so much, but somehow they always make me stop and watch them flutter around every time, even if just for a short while - and this one was no different. It might not be brightly colored, but strangely its pale appeal actually made me leave what I was doing and kneel down for a closer look. Somehow it was a beautiful reminder of how delicate life is in its intricate balance.
In a way time just stood still for a tiny bit...
Strange Little Companions
While I was busy in the kitchen making some condiments, this gorgeous tiny beast decided to linguir around for a bit. Now although these little tropical house gecko's are generally living all over the house, and does great work minimizing all the unwanted bugs that make their way into the house, there was something a little different about this guy.
This specific gecko has become so used to people being in its space that it has become tame to a certain extent. Where the others would normally scurry under the first available object they can fit under in order to hide away from people this one would just carry on prancing around, and sometimes if I move real slow, it will even allow me to touch it sometimes.
Rat Tailed Maggots
But not everything I come across on the farm is wonderful. Inside a drum containing some garden waste that had stood out in the rain and had turned into a soup of rotting organic matter that I wanted to tip out into the worm farm, I saw these little monsters, it took me quite some time to find out what they were, but for all I could tell in that moment, in my eyes these creepy maggots with spear-like tales were intimidatingly hideous.
Rat Tailed Maggots much like any other maggots do their part in breaking down organic matter as best they can, and they are the larvae of the drone fly, which is also very beneficial to their surrounding ecosystem - but still these creepy crawlies still managed to get the hair on my neck stand up.
Fast Food
Generally speaking chicken necks and feet are not so uncommon as a meal in many cultures, and I have eaten my fair share of it over the years. However at the local market one day - I came across this little wonder LOL
Canned Chicken feet and necks.
I remember the first time I saw canned whole chicken, there is just something wrong about it and it never made the list of things that I am looking forward to trying, but this simply took the cake. Knowing the various cultures in South Africa, I believe that this could be good business for the canning company that produces this, however, I am still not sure that this should even be a thing!