So this is my first blog for 2026. A belated piece that has sat languishing in my draft box for over a month. The title is borrowed from Athol Fugard’s (South African playwright) A Lesson from Aloes. Ok, I’ve replaced aloes with cactus just because I have some splendid plants in my garden. (well I did, a few months ago). Aloes or cactus, both are survivors with a rare, short lived beauty.

“Aloes are distinguished above all else for their capacity for survival in the harshest of possible environments” (Fugard, Introduction to Aloes,)

Whilst I’m not claiming to live in circumstances challenging our very life, as did Fugard’s characters in the apartheid era, I am fascinated by the cactus’ sudden, glorious flowering after a long period of ugly, fierce and prickly inactivity. Cactus, like the succulent but less prickly aloe, only flower once in a while. The flowering is spectacular.

Actually, right now the garden is regenerating in the few days of cooler weather after the intense heat. Plants can bide their time, survive with very little water and attention, and recover when circumstances are right.

Not sure where I’m going with this. I think it’s about the presence of beauty and gentleness in the midst of turmoil and ugliness. Nature prevails. I’m thinking, as many of us do at year beginnings: well it’s a clean sweep. Let’s get on with living. Prickles out to get us still but we’ve seen the flower. There’s grace.

I would like to share a photo of successful tomato growing, even though there are only a few. And a favourite flower, frangipani, rescued from the ground and placed in the blue bowl. May light and colour stream into my house.

So blessings on all of us for 2026.