{"id":12808,"date":"2013-08-27T16:00:37","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/?p=12808"},"modified":"2013-09-02T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T13:40:16","slug":"west-coast-daisies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/west-coast-daisies\/","title":{"rendered":"West Coast daisies"},"content":{"rendered":"
21 & 22 August 2013<\/div>\n

An annual harbinger of Spring, the carpets of flowers that decorate the West Coast (usually from late July\/August onward, depending on the weather) are really special, beautiful and always worth visiting. I spent some time in Langebaan and Saldanha last week doing just that…<\/p>\n

\"Langebaan's<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Langebaan's<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Postberg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When I was a kid my family owned a house in Langebaan and we’d often spend weekends up there. So I remember the place well…except that it’s changed a hell of a lot in the 19 or so years since we sold the house. Going back was strange – if I’d been blindfolded and dropped in the centre of the town I’d have no idea where I was. Some things are the same, but the most obvious change is that the sleepy village of my memories is now bursting with houses and shops.<\/p>\n

Our old house is still standing, unchanged except for the garden and a small fence around its perimeter. Everything’s bigger when you’re 5 years old, but even so, what I remember most about the place, the sprawling, open space between our house and the neighbours, is gone…and looking at the amount of buildings crammed in everywhere made me feel quite claustrophobic.<\/p>\n

There are open plots for sale all over the place – and right now they’re all covered in daisies, which is sad, as most of the houses I saw seemed to choose their own garden plants and very few seemed to embrace the indigenous ones surrounding them (one house was amazing though and had a whole yard filled with daisies, it was wonderful).<\/p>\n

The weather was lovely and, rarely, not windy (another thing that sticks in my memory is hot, windy summers…). The beach was beautiful and very quiet.<\/p>\n\n\t\t