A pocket of paradise

Today is one of those autumn days for which Cape Town is famous. Blue skies stretch from horizon to horizon, the sea sparkles with myriad glittering diamonds and mountain slopes are burnished in the late afternoon sunshine.
Down on the rocks, families pick limpets and mussels for a meal, competing with pairs of oystercatchers for the same morsel. Egrets and ibises wade in the shallows and cormorants dart after small fish in the stillness of the bay.

It's rugby season now and the beaches, lawns and rocks are almost deserted. This is a sign that this weather is not unusual, and it is still hot enough to want to seek shelter from the sun - there is no dragging the average South African male away from the game, no matter the weather. Later the braai fires will be lit and there will be celebration or criticism of the referee, depending on the outcome of the game, and another perfect evening will come to an end around the fire as the sunset turns the sky from blue to orange, pink to indigo and finally a blanket of star-spangled sky to remind us of the dying embers of summer.