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Green Swansong

‘We are leaving these shores … we are leaving these shores.’
This mantra, paraphrased from a conversation Lord Elrond had in Lord of the Rings, has
been running through my head at odd times during the last two months, mostly during late
nights when sleeplessness has haunted me. It’s a long story that brought me to this point,
but the short version is that circumstance, opportunity and prevailing economic conditions
have forced my husband and I to make the painful decision to pack up and leave Botswana
and exchange the dry and hot Kalahari sand for wet, boggy and cold Scotland.

Scotland, land of myths and legends, of tartans, neeps and tatties, where the whiskey shops
open before the ice cream parlours, where deep fried Mars Bars are more popular than haggis.
I will be swopping Leadwood trees for Oak, Mopane scrub for Hazel thickets, Sour Plums and
succulents for Hawthorns and wee Alpine plants. We will see Red Deer on the rugged mountain
slopes instead of Impala and Black Faced sheep will chase us instead of elephants.

I will be kayaking again on the great glens and lochs of Scotland instead of boating in the
Okavango Delta. I will be cycling and hiking on the muddy trails of the West Highland
Way and hunting for mushrooms in the pine
forests instead of sweating on road trips
through the sandy bumpy roads of Khwai.
I will be living far from the sun, in a land
where the sky is filled with rain, sleet, mist or
snow, where we will be swopping heat stroke
for frostbite. And I will be leaving my beloved
garden and all its birds and beasts. But, as sad
as it seems to be leaving Africa, it will be a
new adventure and will require us to adapt,
and it will give me the opportunity to fall in
love with a whole new range of plants again.

And so … my Green Swansong is at an end
and all that is left to say is that it has been a
pleasure and a privilege to write articles for
the staff and the readers of the SC Garden
Magazine … … may your plants love you …
the rain soothe you ... and the great bounty
of Africa enfold and keep you safe. I’m off to
find my RHS Gardening handbook to check
if there is a chapter on how to garden under 6
feet of snow!

by Petra Strydom