A fresh new start to a season of hope…..
What’s up with Joburg this time of the year? It never ceases to amaze me that we go from being in the depths of winter cold, to two days of ‘spring’ and then it feels like we’ve hit mid-summer without pause.
It’s a busy time of year, especially with all the strikes that have been taking place, so many people ended up doing so many things they wouldn’t normally have been tackling, such as helping out at the hospitals, cleaning, taking food – essentially doing menial work for no pay, because not only the nurses went on strike, but all the cleaners too… (Yes, the spirit of Ubuntu is live and well, just not apparently amongst the people who should be showing us how it works – but leave it to the Northern Suburbs Ladies Who Lunch to show that they can in fact do other stuff to benefit humankind! Big Ups to them – well done…)
And it's a hive of activity in the garden, even though, to date, we have not had any rain, so it’s still rather dry and dusty out there. But the jasmine and Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’s all out in full fragrance, and the trees look like they’ve grown little green afros and you can almost feel the sap rising – the promise of warmth, and fun, and sun, and … well, just hope I think.
Now that the kids are back at school – just in time to go on holiday again of course! – and we’re not walking security (in case there were any more cases of intimidation at the schools which opted to remain open during the teachers’ strike), it’s time to consider things like Guerrilla Gardening, which has taken off so well overseas, to ponder what summer flowering bulbs to be installing, and to work work work those butts and bugs off.
I’ve been fairly scarce because we’re shooting a new show – about gardening, natch – and have been at it since deep mid-winter (not the best time to be shooting, but you can make anything work on tv if you put your mind to it). What’s been so exciting, apart from showing off new design talent in the country, is the fact that despite seemingly insurmountable problems, such as no plant material, gardens looking terrible etc., it’s possible to make something look absolutely fabulous. With a little bit of perspiration, and a whole lot of inspiration.
Which of course makes me think that the rest of the country could take a leaf from our show, and get proactive – as the aforementioned ladies did – and instead of sitting and saying, well, there’s nothing I can do about the situation, find a way to make something work. If it makes gardens grow, no reason it shouldn’t do the same for a country…
