Sun is shining

Bird of paradise

Today, the sun made a brief appearance before the rain came down again. But I picked some flowers – strelitzia and other pretty things – and this corner of the kitchen looks like sunshine to me.

A row of pretties

It’s no surprise that strelitzia flowers are called “bird of paradise” (these are from S. reginae; S. nicolai, otherwise known as wild banana, are those giants in the forest). They do seem like paradise in a blue and orange package that could take flight at any moment. Birds, of course, love to land on them and feast on the nectar and pollen. 

These strelitzia grow wild in this part of South Africa, and there is a massive clump in the garden. There is also a newer, yellow variety of S. reginae, called Mandela’s Gold. I’ll try it sometime.  

Sculpture by Genevieve Chorn

They are a joy to pick – I like to cut them with the stems as long as possible – and they last for a couple of weeks in a vase. A couple of years ago, I saw strelitzia for sale in a market in a village in France: they cost 10 euros each.

Single dahlias, a Barberton daisy and a piece of aloe fill the little bottles: there is a changing parade of pretties here, depending on what I can find. And they all crowd around a stunning sculpture by a brilliant Cape Town-based artist, Genevieve Chorn.