A rather miserable day

It's raining cats and dogs - they are all inside! A black southeaster (very strong prevailing 'summer' wind, for those who don't live in Cape Town) has combined with weather conditions moving from the interior of the country to create a thunderstorm of note and exceptionally heavy rain. This is not the cold front of winter, which comes from the north west and is a fairly steady drizzle (or used to be in the old days), but a fairly rare phenomenon, and the air temperature is not particularly cold.

It causes chaos on the roads, though - you may have read about our particularly unskilled drivers - and it's best to stay off them if at all possible. The homeward-bound traffic from town to the suburbs is a nightmare, according to the towing companies, who are probably looking forward to a profitable day or two, and it's times like this that makes me exceptionally grateful to be working from home.

Early morning 5.40

Afternoon 5.40!

The upside is that I won't need to water the garden for at least three days, the hadedah poop is being washed off the walls of the house and the cars are getting a good wash. The windows on the south side of the house are also getting a much-needed rinse, as I need an extension ladder to get to them and what are the chances of that!

The guinea fowl are looking rather bedraggled as they peck at their reflections in the car door. They make an annoying racket, sometimes for hours, on and off, as they peck away on a metal surface. A man walking his dog yesterday chased one away from the neighbour's car as he passed by. I was bending down weeding and stood up to see what was going on and he said to me: "That bird's going to scratch the paintwork!" Really? "I doubt it," I said, and he scuttled off, hopefully never to return - he probably lets his dog do dirty deeds on my front lawn!