Update On Auguste The Flamboyant

I started writing this blog in December 2008. My first post ever was about " Auguste The Flamboyant ", a massive old flamboyant tree in my garden. 

I wrote a story entitled My Fathers Flowers Are Always With Me. At the time my blog was just an experiment but now it is a book with many short stories.

Three years later. It is shocking how the time passes and amazing to see how some things have continuity. There are people, plants or animals that will never let you down in life.

Here is an update on Auguste The Flamboyant.
He is beautiful and mighty as ever.

It's December. African Summer. The last days of December.

Something new to come. Better.

More powerful, I hope.

He is a dense and large shelter for The Spirit in the Sky.

And he still has only one true color competitor !

My thoughts not worth a penny in this mighty universe.

Or are they ?

the only competitor

the sky over Africa ...

which is a sigh of God on a warm summer evening
eternalised.

I am telling you, you will be fine !

My Father's Flowers Are Always With Me

This is the chair everybody is ready to fight for. It stands right at the edge of the verandah overlooking the green valley. It is a dreamer's place and it has two beautiful arm-rests to place a cup of coffee or a glass of wine on top. It is my father's chair.

Once a year my father comes from a colder Northern country to visit me. He knows the secret life of plants.

Once here, he plants and replants, transfers flowers and bushes from one place to another, talks to them and convinces them that they should grow where he places their roots in the grounds. He heals and cures the damage inflicted to the plants through my neglect during the year.

He made the lavender and roses grow into giants in the shortest of time.

My father's flowers are always there and remind me of him when he's gone.

I found these little fellows in a junk shop in town.

My family and the friends, who have been staying in December with me for a while know him or her well. The Flamboyant in my garden "called Auguste ". Him or her, because somebody explained to me that this tree can be male and female at the same time. Not a bad choice I think. But I like to think of Auguste as a male.
Every year when the South African summer approaches, after windy and stormy days, he delivers the same spectacular show. Auguste, against an azure-blue sky becomes blindingly beautiful in his bright red flower dress. He enchants us.

Auguste is particular about the way he blossoms. Starting on one side, he blossoms in a very orderly manner from one side to the other. No, it is not a simple tree like the others. It's Auguste. He takes all the time that is necessay to become beautiful.