Winter has arrived in South Africa. We experience pouring rains, clouded skies, and chilly temperatures. Yet while we spend time indoors, beauty springs up all around us. The bountiful rainfall upon the land encourages plants to grow, thrive, and, on the occasional sunny day, to bud and bloom. Although they are mostly not as spectacular as those in spring, these wintertime flowers brighten up the gloomy days.

One of these flowers that grow at Somerset View inspired me to write a poem of the oncoming spring:

The Little Seed

By E.G.K.

One chill autumn noon, a seed takes flight;

It floats over the hills and out of sight.

As the wind slows down in the silvery night, 

Our friend the seed settles down, sits tight.

After the cold winter weeks,

Spring took over with rosy cheeks.

One morning, the sun shone out a golden coil,

And a little sprout surfaced from under the soil.

As the days and nights came and went,

The little sprout grew on without relent.

Its stem thickened, its leaves widened,  

And a bud grew, so I was excited!

What will it look like? When will it bloom?

I hoped it would open very soon.

Later, as I walked to the pot over there,

I saw something delightfully gorgeous and fair.

Where a bud had been was a frilly head

A fiery ball of yellow and orange and red.

It was a marigold: a flower so small, yet grand,

For its mighty scent helps it to withstand

The beasts Beetle and Aphid and Whitefly.

Later in autumn when the flower dies,

More little seeds will take for the skies.

Then, when Winter takes leave and Spring arrives,

Multitudes of marigolds will again come alive.

Here at Somerset View Guest House, small things matter, whether it be a simple little flower or a warm, homemade breakfast on a misty winter’s day.

Also, as part of the guesthouse’s garden revamp, host Carl has found new garden pots and placed some new residents in them. We hope that they will grow and bloom in their own time and bring more colour and beauty to Somerset View’s gardens.