This heat is so enervating. Even the puppy can only bounce briefly before collapsing in a fluffy heap against a cool wall. My favoured temperature is around 24 degrees and with the forecast for the next two weeks in the high 20s to mid 30s, I can only say that an airconditioned room sounds most attractive, despite my penchant for lying under a tree on a sunny day.
The sky has been hazy with smoke from the devastating fires being deliberately set around the Western Cape, and although the wind dropped to nothing today - a sign of help from a greater power - the slightest breeze can rekindle the embers, and so the firefighters are on duty round the clock in teams doing shifts. As always, the local communities are doing their utmost to support them with refreshments, but they must be losing body weight by the hour in these scorching conditions, in their heavy clothing.
The heat combined with galeforce winds has put my garden into a sorry state, with a branch of 15 rosebuds snapping clean off and spoiling a week of keen anticipation of their beauty. Even the birds took a rest today. Not one made an appearance to feed on the juicy coprosma berries, even when I watered in the late evening. This is when the sunbirds, Cape white eye, robin and sometimes the boubou make their appearance to enjoy a refreshing bath in the spray, hopping from twig to twig and shaking their feathers fit to fall off a branch. Today, not a chirp.
Just as I am always so grateful for hot water in winter, so I am grateful for cold water in the shower at this time of year! I am not like the birds today - I'm ready to shake my feathers!
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