And for South Africans, in comparison to Westerosi and winter, this is a grand turn of events, not the most terrifying experience of our lives. It brings dog walkers, not White Walkers, out of hibernation.

What turns a South African's crank?

It might be cloudy today, but something which makes the South African heart go pitter patter even more than wedding bells (which will make sense if you've been reading the leadup to the Wedding of the Century - which I promise you I'll post about tomorrow) is the gentle sound of spring rains after the long dry season. The air smells of impending rain, and is bursting with the competing smells of flowering plants. Clouds mean rain, and rain spells relief from the long period of dusty, beige Highveld winter landscapes.

Spring arrived with force and splendour here in Johannesburg a couple of weeks ago, with trees racing each other into bud, leaf and flower. It's particularly heady in the late afternoons when @tim-beck and I take our little 4-km walk around our peaceful Johannesburg suburb.

Smells and spring just go together

The smells reminded me of a line from a set work we had to do in French in high school - Poussière sur la ville, by André Langevin. It's quite a depressing book about the gradual failure of an ill-fated marriage, but I remember two things specifically from the book: that the young wife was a fauve (she was wild) and that l'air embaumait d'effluves. This was my very first lesson in not translating French to English literally, because that can get you into trouble. If you look at the words, they seem to say "the air was embalmed with effluvia" - bleah. A more elegant and accurate translation is that the "air was fragrant with scents".

As always, something to be thankful for

Okay, so the photos aren't as dramatic without the beauty of afternoon sunlight to bathe the flowers in gold. But we'll get rain soon, and that will make the farmers happy and start to fill our dams again.

Sharing spring

Here are a few shots from the garden today (shot under a cloudy sky) to give you an idea of just how much flowering is going on.

This little beauty is covered in pollen from the tree above it!

Trees and plants the bees love

The bees go crazy for the bottle brush tree.

They also go nuts for this salvia.

Lavender really attracts bees too.

The lemon tree is irresistible to bees. It gave us a bumper crop last year, and it looks like this year might also be sweetly sour.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

That's what this bush is called. It's been flowering for a couple of weeks now so some of the blooms are starting to dry up - but it still smells heavenly.

It's called a Yesterday Today and Tomorrow bush because it flowers in three colours simultaneously.

Other beauties in the garden

Here's a sample of some of the other beauties enjoying our Joburg spring.

The pomegranate bush which gave me one fruit for my birthday last year is covered in red buds.

Irises are dotting the walls.

Ooooh! I just heard thunder.

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