Today was one of those refreshing days, that left me with a feeling that everything will turn out ok. It is certainly not that something largely miraculous occurred that I felt this way. It was simply the realisation that nature is a force in its own right that can never be completely controlled, and then looking around me to see all the beautiful blessings that it was offering despite the trying times that we are facing.

My morning started off with a walk through the garden, where I saw that the jasmine was in full bloom. I decided to harvest some of the sweet smelling flowers to make a tea with at a later stage, as Jasmine tea is a really great stress reliever as well as an immune booster among other things. And I thought to myself 'How lucky am I to have natural medicine right on my doorstep' And in that moment I was already feeling a bit more positive about the day.

On the walk back to the house I also came across these lovely little wild leopard lily, that ever so resiliently decided to grown in a patch of completely barren hard earth, as if it was placed there to remind me that even through tough times and hardships, you always have the ability to grow.

I was so fascinated by the simplistic beauty of this gorgeous little plant with it leopard spot markings that I ended up just standing there appreciating it for a while.

Leopard lilies (Ledebouria socialis) are a harried plant that self propagates in this area. But because of its beautiful appearance and tough nature, it is not uncommon to find them in gardens all over the world. (aka little white soldiers)

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But it was when I got back to the hose and my nursery that I really got a feeling of hope and inspiration to carry on. And that sometimes all we need is time.

Quite a long time ago I was gifted some fresh coffee berries that I was very excited about, so of course I peeled, dried and roasted some to enjoy as fresh coffee, but I also kept some aside to plant, and promptly did so as soon as the seeds were ready for planting.

But alas - NOTHING

Months went by, but the seeds simply did not germinate, I felt a bit downhearted at first, but eventually gave up on the hope of the plants ever coming up, and eventually used the same bags to plant other seeds in seeing that they were already filled with good quality planting soil.

I didn't bother taking the coffee beans out of the bags, I figured that they would eventually simply rot away and form part of the compost, and I carried on watering the bags as usual, waiting for the new passion fruit seeds that I planted in them to come up.

Quite a bit more time passed until today, when I saw that a few of the coffee beans have started to germinate, and a few has even opened its leaves already.

It just goes to show that we shouldn't give up on something too easily, everything will happen in its own time.

And another thing that lifted my spirit as well was seeing my new mango trees doing really well.

I did a post quite recently on growing mangoes from seed, and seeing that I needed to replenish my mango orchard after the drought had claimed quite a few trees, I decided to document the process.

It has only been a few days since I have planted out the first prepared seeds, and they seem to be flourishing already.

If you would like to have a look at the original post you can go here

Here is what the young plants look like just a few days after planting; already boasting with their shiny deep purple leaves that you can come to expect of new mango leaves. I am hoping to have them ready to be planted out in the orchard by next year - however, I still have a few hundred more to plant.

I must say, that this was a great start to my day, and if this is only a fractional indication of what lies in store for this new year, then I am excited to tread into it!

Many Blessings!