We are sweltering in the heat here in Cape Town, and even down in Kommetjie at the edge of the sea, it is almost unbearable. There is not even a 2 inch swell on the Atlantic - yachts are moored in the kelp beds where normally massive breakers tumble. It's not often a yacht can moor at sea and the crew catch crayfish. It must be bliss on board - sundowners, a little pot boiling in the galley to cook the red gold and later the cracking open of the shells and legs to suck out the sweet sea-flavoured flesh. The only way to eat crayfish!
Those of us lucky enough to have lived through the times of unrestricted and plentiful supplies, before poaching robbed us of a delicacy free from the sea and a healthy pastime, can only relate stories like our parents did of the old days. I have photos of rows of cooked crayfish cooling on the fence at home, ready for a feast. Nowadays you would probably have to pay me to eat crayfish, unless it was aboard one of said yachts.
The intense heat seems to be a taste of a hot summer to come, and with water restrictions in the offing, it really is time to get the garden waterwise, despite plentiful underground resources. It seems such a waste to water masses of lawn that no one ever uses. If it were not such back-breaking work to dig up a lawn, I would do so and plant a meadow of wild flowers and flowering shrubs - wonderful for attracting birds and bees. Perhaps I should start chipping away at the edges....
But now it is braai time!
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