Friday 8 August 2014

Kicking my shoes off

And so the world continues to turn, with the sun sinking from view at the end of another perfect day in Kommetjie. It started early, with the rooster clearing his throat at 5am, then falling silent for another hour, leaving me as awake as I had been since 2am. One of those nights where the moon seemed to shine too brightly and it seemed wrong to be asleep with so many diamonds sparkling overhead. At 6am we heard the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, some three kilometres away on the other side of the mountain, indicating the wind direction and a particular clarity in the air, although I'm sure the loudspeakers on the mosque contributed.

The International Space Station zoomed overhead at 7am, always an exciting event for those of us who still go outside to watch aeroplanes go overhead (i.e. me). It takes about 6 minutes for it to cross the sky or rather, that is the length of time the sun shines on it before it disappears into the shadow of the earth again.

The air was balmy, and today I shed my shoes and walked barefoot in the garden - can't wait for summer when shoes will be only for going out. All the youngsters were in t-shirts and shorts and headed for Long Beach, where the first day of a surfing competition was to be held. I don't think the sea has been as flat as this for months. It would be no exaggeration to say that the shore break must have been all of three inches. If there was any surfing it would have had to be in the wake of a speedboat. A shark was sighted there yesterday, so perhaps there was a reason for the calm seas.

I was going to post an arty picture of a hadedah silhouetted on a rooftop with the glowing orange sky as a backdrop, but as I clicked the bird flew away and a picture of a roof somehow doesn't hold the same aesthetic attraction, so you will just have to imagine the magnificence of the sunset. Any of the pictures on this blog will do!

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