After a long, dry summer, suddenly a cut-off low pressure developed over the country and has brought deluges and floods to much of South Africa, including the parched and desperate Karoo. With reports of over 100mm in less than a day from many areas, and rivers that haven't flowed in years bursting their banks, one can only wonder whether the old weather pattern of cold fronts and north-westerly gales is in the past and this will be the future climate. I don't think anyone knows. Weather experts are currently baffled by the tropical cyclone ping-ponging between Madagascar and Mozambique, which has developed into a Category 4 in a matter of hours. Keep those people in your thoughts that they may survive this cyclone.
Here in Cape Town and particularly in Kommetjie which mostly gets the least rain as first landfall, we have had a minimum of 35mm in the last day, a much-needed relief for the dry, dry earth. Only yesterday I was lugging bottles of water from the tanks around the garden to try and keep the trees, let alone the pot plants, alive for a few more days. I needn't have bothered, as the Norwegians were again spot on with their forecast (in fact, a little conservative) and I think I can safely say I won't be watering for a week.
I hope to report within days that new leaves are sprouting on bare branches and that the fiddlewood has not died - I fear for it. Of course, some plants have had too much of a good thing, and my George lilies are now flooded as the drainage was insufficient in their new home. They will have to be whipped out and a repotting done. I also discovered those dreadful curl grubs in the soil and have placed them strategically for eating by birds. None have taken the offering yet, and I am currently looking to domesticate a hadedah as a pest controller!
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| Waterlogged! |
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| Yuck! |
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| One of my favourite cloud formations |
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| Wraiths over Chappies |
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