Brian's Notebook

Cape white-eyes ( Zosterops virens ). Acrylics on Masonite, 15 x 20 cm. These are the archetypal tweety birds: round and fluffy and c...

After an evening storm, another batch of fallen leaves and blooms. Ballpoint pen and watercolor pencil on paper:

Autumn in the southern hemisphere. I have long loved weathered late-season leaves, and this time of year there is such a glut one doesn'...

My latest adventures in point-and-shoot photography...

Mexican poppy, Argemone ochroleuca.  Originally from Mexico, it is now a widespread weed in southern Africa.

Cosmopolitan weeds. Datura ferox : And Datura stramonium : In both species, all parts of the plant are toxic, esp...

Pretty, but very invasive in some areas of South Africa: pompom weed ( Campuloclinium macrocephalum ). Originally from South America, it has...

A species of Cestrum . Originally from the Americas, they are somewhat popular garden plants in South Africa. In some areas they have become...

Aloe veracunda.  It is one of a group of slender-leaved aloes known as grass aloes. The aloes have traditionally been classified under the f...

Ancylobotrys capensis,  Also known as wild apricot. The fruits are pleasantly sweet-sour. If the baboons leave you any, that is. They are fo...

Artemisia afra , also known as wild wormwood or, in Afrikaans, wilde als, a common herb in Gauteng. Used by traditional healers to treat che...

Protea caffra,  one of the most common species of Protea  in Gauteng province.

Saw two somewhat unusual things today. The first, a halo around the Sun, which I photographed from two different sides of a building, trying...

A sketch of a Black-collared Barbet ( Lybius torquatus ). Ballpoint pen and coloured pencil on printer paper, about 20cm x 20cm.

Photos I took earlier today on a trip to the highveld area where I grew up, near the town of Bronkhorstspruit in South Africa. Some typica...