Lying in later

We must be getting old. No longer do we leap out of bed at 6 o’clock on a Sunday to take the dogs for a walk as the sun comes up. Maybe it’s because the days are getting shorter and the sun is rising later, but I don’t really think so. I think it’s just nice to have a bit of a lie-in!

He Who Can Fix Anything has always lived by the ‘get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun’ maxim, and in some ways that is a good path to follow. There is no doubt that the best part of the day is the hour with sunrise in the middle, particularly if you are out walking and you are entirely without other human presence in nature. Then you can stand and listen to the silence – a great restorative in a time of constant noise pollution.

This morning the wind is from the north-east, a sure sign of a change in the weather and the early glassy sea has already turned into a slight chop, no white horses as the wind is negligible. The next few days will bring another taste of winter and a respite from watering the garden, and before we know it, we will be planting spring bulbs in pots on the balcony (to fool the porcupine) and eagerly watching for the first green shoot to appear.

Winter is a fleeting season in the Cape, preceded by a long autumn which extends to the end of June. July can still be good, but August is expected to be wet and windy, and then suddenly the spring flowers are out and it’s September. Spring is probably the coldest season, with icy southerly winds coming up from the Antarctic, but the sun shines as long as you haven’t planned an outdoor event (even in mid-summer you should always have a Plan B in Cape Town!) and thoughts soon turn to lazy days at the beach.

Those who live in Johannesburg are always stumped on what to wear in a Cape autumn. In Joeys, they can pack away their winter clothes on 1 September but here we need to start off with layers that can be peeled off as the day progresses and then put them back on again as the afternoon shadows lengthen. You need big cupboards here!