Another stunning day in Cape Town

Today started off cloudy and cool with threatening rain, yet nothing fell from the clouds, and by late morning the day had developed into one of summer's best in Cape Town - blue skies, no wind, calm seas, moderate temperatures - a perfect day for giving the garden a good soaking without the water being blown away in the wind or evaporated by the sun before it can reach the roots. The summer blooms are good this year, although the agapanthus, which were so prolific last summer, have not flowered at all this year due to an attack by a worm that has decimated the population of this usually hardy plant. Hopefully a cocktail of Jeyes' Fluid and liquid soap will rid us of this pest and the plants will recover.

Kommetjie is a funny place. It has such an over-abundance of natural beauty that, whenever I go away for a few days or longer, I start to miss it before I have left! Today was no exception, and my friend and I took a walk along the boardwalk to the lighthouse as if to get a last glimpse of the view we enjoy just about every day. A constant procession of Hout Bay fishing boats was chugging home from the fishing grounds, accompanied by a small flotilla of skiboats that had gone out in search of something for the table. (Another of life's coincidences - I mentioned to someone this morning that it was probably 25 years since I had eaten a mackerel fresh from the sea, and at lunchtime a friend turned up with one he had caught this morning in False Bay - a tasty morsel, indeed.)

The sea glittered as if spread with diamonds and the air was so clear that we could see the rocks at the very foot of the Sentinel. I took a photo to capture the moment, and when I posted it here, I was amazed at how different the scene was to what I remembered it to be just a few hours before! The sea was actually quite rough. Now there's something for the psychologists out there to work on!