Easing into Spring

Did some tidying up in the garden yesterday - well, mostly done by Daniel, the trusty gardener - but I supervised the pruning of the lemon tree so that I didn't come back to a tree stump, before going down to the rocks to collect a large piece of kelp to put around the trunk to encourage blossom. The very low tide due to new moon exposed vast expanses of rock which form the seabed in our little bay, and the high tide earlier in the day had deposited the kelp nice and close to the path, so I didn't have to jump from rock to rock too much. I selected a fresh piece, as it is pliable and easy to chop into chunks with a spade, but the moisture content makes it quite a dead weight, particularly with the fronds still attached. I passed a number of gardeners tending the neighbours' verges as I lugged my spoils home and they all agreed that they should also be going down to gather this bountiful fertiliser from the sea. I doubt whether they did.

Daniel made short work of what looks like a not very long bit of bamboo (that's what the stalk is called) but was actually about 20ft - the root that anchors the kelp to a rock is obscured by his elbow.

Today the southeaster, albeit a very gentle version, has returned to the Peninsula, lifting the already heavy swells into some monstrous surf off the lighthouse, and the bay is once again filled with surfers from presumably beginners in the Inner Kom to hardened pros braving the giants at the Outer Kom. How privileged I am to live next to this place that reveals a different scene every day, each one better than the next! After a pleasant interlude down at the rocks, I strolled home as the shadows lengthened, and from the neighbours' gardens came the drift of smoke from fires that have been lit for an evening braai - at the first sign of good weather, you can't keep a man away from his braai - and shouted greetings from balconies where sundowners are being enjoyed with the sea view. There's something really special about our little seaside village.

That is a really huge wave at the back! The surfer was just a speck.