BioWise living - Nature reconnect

The cicadas have been in fine 'voice' these past few nights and I was fortunate enough to see this one in the morning on the trunk of my old plum tree, wonderfully camouflaged amidst the lichen and bark. I was struck by the size - I never realised they are that big. Their wings have a beautiful transparency to them, not immediately evident - I only noticed this when he climbed onto my hand. Their famous piercing high frequency sound is produced only by males who have a special organ called a tymbal that contains a series of ribs that buckle one after the other when the cicada flexes his muscles. Every time a rib buckles, it produces a click....how fascinating is that...a clicking rib that can be quite deafening! The males synchronise their calls to form a chorus that establishes territory and attracts females. Cicadas help to aerate the soils and improve water infiltration into the ground. They also provide a service to trees by pruning the weaker branches and are a very important part of the food chain. I greatly enjoyed meeting this fellow and sharing a calm, quiet encounter of mutual awareness of each other

Was thrilled to see this group of Ink Caps during yesterday's forest immersion with guests from Vala House. They've emerged in the very same spot where I had my first sighting of an Ink Cap mushroom five months ago. At that time, it was just the single fellow you see on the left and I've been keeping an eye out, wondering when next one might emerge. You can imagine my excitement when I was greeted by this family of 5! I recall that the single one was around only for a very short time - sporing very quickly and then decomposing in a matter of days. Such a treat and a privilege to witness the comings and goings of forest fungi!

Just had a friend forward this to me - such a special reminder of the childhood things we loved to do and the simple joys in life! When last did you do some cloud spotting, creek following, tree climbing, star gazing? As I post this, the rain is starting to gently fall, so I am going to add 'rain dancing' to this list and go out and do just that! Thanks for the share Willemien!

Biomimicry Online Live 13

We are LIVE:

Biomimicry Online Live 13 Biomimicry Online Live returns with episode 13 on Tuesday, 14th March 2023 at 6.30pm GMT / 8.30pm SASTSeries: Biomimicry Online LiveEpisode: 13Featuring: Sue...

A reminder of our live online chat with award-winning photographer, Alan McFadyen, on Tuesday the 14th of March at 20:30 SAST (18:30 UK time). Here is the direct link you can use to access it https://theexpeditionproject.com/live/biomimicry-online-live-13/
We look forward to you joining us and to your questions. Many thanks to Alan for the kind permission to use this photo - such a gorgeous one that says so much

I was out at my compost growing beds this morning after the brilliant rain of the last two days and was greeted by the sound of bees....and managed to capture the one who was there inside at the base of a gem squash flower, gathering pollen and nectar and then emerged with that healthy dusting of pollen all over her!! So wonderful to see (you have to look carefully at the photo on the left to see her inside at the base).
Now I got an amazing crop of gem squash - more than 30 of them, but the newly emerging ones are now being stung. I'm not really surprised as the plants have grown so big that they're their own billboard for insects. That said, I have decided not to pull up the plants, but let them continue for precisely the reason that the flowers are great for the bees and today's photo has confirmed my decision. Other plants....tomatoes, sweet potato and butternut....are starting to grow - all self-germinated with me just tossing the seeds in the compost and letting them sort themselves out. The greater diversity will likely/hopefully discourage the stinging insects - will wait and see. But for now, I'm simply enjoying the sight of all the diversity found in and visiting these grow beds and of digging in the soil with my hands and coming up with heaps of earthworms!

Can you imagine what it must have taken to capture this moment.....the hours of waiting, the patience, the excitement when conditions appeared to be just right? Well, you don't have to wonder too much....you can hear all about it on the evening of Tuesday, the 14th of March when Alan McFadyen, who took this fantastic, award-winning photo, will be joining Roger and me for a live... and lively chat as part of our Biomimicry Online Live series. Not only will we hear about how this photo came together, but we'll be chatting about his career as a photographer and the lessons learned witnessing Nature's resilience and patience in this time. We look forward to you joining us at 20:30 SA time on the 14th of March for this special episode.

I had a wonderful experience the other day when out in the garden. I suddenly heard a swarm of bees buzzing around the Monkey Plum tree near my porch. Thinking they were just showing interest in the newly emerging flowers, I was very excited to see, on closer inspection, that they were busy forming a nest in amongst the branches. It was fascinating to watch their singular focus and how it went from a calabash shape with a neck to a rounded structure in no time at all, with the queen bee sheltered in the centre. I shared the news with my wonderful bee conservationist friend, Grant Livesey who told me that this was a 'trek swarm' - formed when a hive has been disturbed or perhaps foraging opportunities have dried up and they go out looking for a new place where they can set up home. They spent the night and then slipped off the next morning. I felt enormously privileged that they had chosen a spot in my garden to rest up and I wish them well in their search for an ideal habitat. I was so in the moment, that I failed to take a photo, but Grant shared the one attached of a similar 'trek swarm' that had rested up in a tree right in the middle of Knysna town! If ever you need the services of a bee-keeper here in the Garden Route - Grant is your man - extraordinarily passionate and caring, incredibly knowledgeable and beautifully in love with bees. You can contact him on 082 896 2346

What I love about the forest immersions enjoyed with guests, is the gentle pace where the simple act of slowing down allows one to witness beings and moments in time that would otherwise go unnoticed...like a trampolining spider's web where you wouldn't even think there was a breeze....or the mating chameleons spotted some months back...or this beauty, and it's the second time I've seen him on exactly the same decomposing branch. Turns out, not many have spotted him (as in his particular species)! Thanks to Nanna Joubert who never fails to help with identification, it was exciting to learn that he is endemic to the Southern Cape (and the only other iNaturalist sighting is also in the forest) and is formally named "Liparocystis delicata" . He is absolutely gorgeous - very visually striking when seen in the flesh, and I shall greet him as 'My beauty' each time I hopefully see him. I look forward to those moments and to making and taking the time to quietly and deeply connect with him. What a wonderful privilege that is going to be, my beauty.

Had a special morning in the forest yesterday with beautiful guests from Vala House - we were treated to a feast of fungi, a gloriously camouflaged frog, a shy bushbuck who gifted us a brief glimpse before disappearing into the mottled shadows, the delightful chuckles of the green wood hoopoe, the cry of a forest buzzard, the wonderful dappled light, the soft sound of a gently flowing stream and, of course, simply being in the presence of trees, breathing the fresh air enriched with the airborne healing aromatherapy of the tree phytoncides (proven, among others, to lower blood pressure, reduce stress, improve sleep patterns). There's nothing quite like tuning into the sense of place and pace of the forest - you see and experience so much when you do and discover countless lessons from the forest in the process.

With the summer heat and the rain on occasion providing the ideal humidity and temperatures, the fungi have come out in their glorious diversity in the forest. What I enjoy noting afterwards when I look at the photos, is seeing the richness of the forest floor, something you don't necessarily pick up on when focusing on the mushrooms - Nature's colour palettes are stunning.

BREATHE by Becky Hemsley
"She sat at the back
and they said she was shy,
she led from the front
and they hated her pride

They asked her advice
and then questioned her guidance.
They branded her loud
then were shocked by her silence.

When she shared no ambition
they said it was sad
so she told them her dreams
and they said she was mad.

They told her they'd listen
then covered their ears
and gave her a hug
whilst they laughed at her fears.

And she listened to all of it
thinking she should
be the girl they told her to be
best as she could.

But one day she asked
what was best for herself
instead of trying to please
everyone else.

So she walked to the forest
and stood with the trees,
she heard the wind whisper
and dance with the leaves.

And she spoke to the willow,
the elm and the pine
and she told them what she'd been told,
time after time.

She told them she never
felt nearly enough
she was either too little,
or far, far too much.

Too loud or too quiet,
too fierce or too weak,
too wise or too foolish,
too bold, or too meek.

Then she found a small clearing
surrounded by firs
and she stopped and she heard
what the trees said to her.

And she sat there for hours
not wanting to leave -
for the forest said nothing,
it just let her breathe."

Such a stunning poem. Wishing everyone the opportunity to head into a forest, sit in her embracing silence, and just breathe!

Phone in the Wind - what an interesting and beautiful idea this is - an unconnected phone in nature that brings comfort and helps people to feel connected to loved ones they've lost.
The first such wind phone (also called ‘phone to nowhere’) was created in Japan, by Itaru Sasaki in 2010 to help him cope with his cousin’s death. Itaru set it up in his garden so that he could continue to feel connected to his cousin by ‘talking’ to him on the phone and having his thoughts ‘carried on the wind’.
His garden and wind phone were opened to the public in the following year after the 2011 Tohoku tsunami killed over 15 000 people. The wind phone has since received over 30 000 visitors.
This concept has been taken up around the world, with several similar ‘phones in the wind’ having been set up in healing gardens, parks and on nature trails. According to bereavement counsellors, externalizing the grief is an important part of the mourning process and for many who have used the wind phones, it’s the act of putting the phone to their ear, having a conversation and expressing their feelings that’s powerful and healing. The phone serves as 'an intermediary, offering people a place to channel their grief by letting them speak to loved ones who have died'
It’s interesting that it’s the old-fashioned corded phone that does the trick – but perhaps it’s no wonder. When cordless phones and mobiles came along, the attentive conversations focused on doing nothing else but sitting and talking and listening, often became replaced by distracted, multi-tasking chats and listening with half an ear. I wonder if the cord itself doesn’t help establish a sense of connection. And, of course, it is surely the natural setting that plays a major part – somehow I can’t see this having the same effect if the phone was set up on a busy street corner? But what a wonderful idea, made all the more special by its simplicity and tacit understanding of Nature’s healing powers.
These photos were found on the internet. The garden booth photo was taken by Matthew Komatsu, the phone in the forest by Ben Nelms/CBC and the white phone by Sterling Goulding

Now this is fascinating to see - all the trees growing under this old gum tree....are indigenous keurbooms that have come up and are thriving. On the farm where I live, many gums were planted in the late 1880s as a windbreak - much to the delight and benefit of the bees, I have to add. In the 2017 fires, many of these old gums died - the fire got into their roots which smouldered and burnt for days and then these huge old beings toppled over. Some gums managed to hold on and this is where it has got interesting with all these Keurbooms having emerged underneath them. In places, there are a couple (literally) of young gums that are growing amidst the Keurboom, but the latter are the stronger. So perhaps, as gums get older, they mature naturally from their pioneering competitive phase and move into a more collaborative state of being? I saw this same thing happening in Brackenhill where apparently the oldest gums in SA are growing....and doing so in the upper reaches of the Noetzie River watercourse. Under these huge old gums were emerging candlewoods, monkey plums and indigenous shrubs.
Nature always evolves towards greater diversity (diversity being her insurance policy) and perhaps this is exactly what is playing out in these cases? Perhaps we just need to trust that, over time, things will start to balance out again. Perhaps the more we declare war on alien species and continue to cut them down in huge swathes, the more we keep them in the pioneering competitive space and mindset. What if our approach was a gentler thinning out, giving our indigenous trees some breathing space, allowing them to flex their limbs and gain home territory advantage again? Perhaps, in this way, we can help to 'naturalise' the non-indigenous trees - encouraging them to learn to grow in collaboration with the indigenous as opposed to them seeing their role as needing to take over? And by so doing, indigenous biodiversity as a whole can recover and thrive? I understand the challenges posed by the underlying seed beds and the potential for germination and the process starting all over again, but somehow, I think Nature has got this...but she operates in time frames that take longer than our impatient toddler mindsets can accept. However, when it comes to alien trees (as opposed to faster growing shrubs), is the strategy of clearing whole landscapes of vegetative cover really the best strategy to pursue...exposing soils, resulting in erosion and topsoil loss, causing increased temperatures? Anyway, just some thoughts inspired by the scene of Keurbooms and Gums who seem to be enjoying each other's company.

Look at the wonderful bounty I just harvested from my compost grow bed. The result of not having purchased veggie seedlings, but having spent some time on nurturing the compost grow bed (gathering animal p**p from the fields and layering this with fresh grass cuttings and repeating and letting Nature do her composting thing while watering on occasion...and then simply scattering seeds from a gem squash some time ago, and allowing things to play out in their own way). I didn't plant the seeds as such, nor did I space them - I scattered and let them sort it out between themselves. The only weeding I did was that of some grass that came up and removing some castor oil seedlings that must have been deposited by a bird. All insect and animal life was embraced and I must say I am amazed at the number of small spiders that are part of the system.
I had picked one gem previously and, at the risk of sounding biased, it was the tastiest one I've ever had - no need to add salt or spices or anything!!
Oh yes, and I've made these compost beds on an unused section of concrete/slasto - so just think how much food we could be growing in sections of our concrete jungles.

I was given this lovely cycad (together with the permit) more than 12 years ago as thanks for a presentation I'd given on biomimicry. And I am so thrilled to be witnessing the first blooming of this special plant. These photos are exactly 2 weeks apart.

Isn't this simply extraordinary? Came across this bird's nest that had fallen to the ground. I'm pretty sure it is that of a wagtail - but irrespective - the artistry and intricacy of the design is breathtaking. Imagine the loving care with which each small twig would have been selected, each bit of lichen, moss and bark gathered. Imagine the time taken to weave the different elements together in such a way as to provide a wonderfully camouflaged outer and a warm, gently sheltering inner...and done without the benefit of hands and fingers. It is as humbling as it is beautiful....it is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. And, having served its purpose, it will return to the earth to nourish the trees whose branches would have sheltered it.

So, yes indeed, it was a chameleon....well, actually two of them...on the job!! The red arrow is pointing to the one that was on top and is now busy moving off, stretching out his/her right forelimb. The yellow arrow is pointing to the head of the 2nd chameleon. The eye is facing away from the camera but it was the eye that made me realise what I was seeing - at first all I could make out was a fleshy bundle. They had the strangest of colours and patterns. It was a truly extraordinary sighting.