Colourful August

August in South Africa means spring is on its way - and whilst touring through the country we often saw many different species of aloes in bloom.







Another "type" of aloe growing "side-ways" instead of upright like candles.


Another promiment flower during the month of August is our National Flower = the King protea and we had the pleasure of "discovering" the first large blooms in the Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden (in Cape Town).




This is a King protea bud, of which there were many on display amongst the large (open) blooms.






Other than magnificent flowers we were privileged to also come across this colourful but tiny Little bee-eater sitting in the road in the Hluhluwe Game Reserve (= KwaZulu-Natal province).

Although many a colourful Crested barbet are "resident" in our garden at home in Johannesburg, I was happy to "snap" this one because it sat beautifully "framed" by twigs right next to our open safari vehicle in the Hluhluwe Game Reserve.

Even if Blackeyed bulbuls aren't very colourful birds, I was fascinated by the orange face of one of the bulbuls - the "result" of feeding on the pollen of some aloe flowers.