The cycle of life - witnessed from my backyard

I am fortunate to live adjacent to farm land, snuggled into the hills. In the past I have seen herds of horses nearby, and much more commonly, herds of cattle who can be quite noisy. For a couple of years we had a herd of goats which would come past the yard and casually invite themselves in to see what tasty morsel they could find in our garden. There is also a plethora of wildlife, but you need to be more observant to see them. 

I live in inland South Africa, where we are surrounded by grassland we call veld. (The land of my heart.) In summer the grass grows tall and golden. In winter when the weather is dry, the tall grass burns, sometimes spectacularly, sometimes rather halfheartedly, depending on the wind. This burnt grass feeds the soil and before you know it is spring and the previously barren landscape transforms into a delight of fresh green grass and all kinds of pretty wildflowers.

The golden grass!

The fire!!!

This time the fire curled around into the front of the yard and destroyed our ivy and bougainvillea. We hoped it would recover, but had no such luck and we had to cut all that dead vegetation away.

Signs of life.

After one or two rains the greening begins. And none to soon, because the ash from the fire makes a huge mess in the house for weeks afterwards, especially if the wind picks up.

From here the grass will continue to grow, until the wildflowers are obscured, and it becomes tall and golden once again.

@onetree