Summer has returned with less intensity than before, although we still have January and February to go through. The sun is rising noticeably later and the birds seem to have got over their feeding and breeding frenzy of the last months. Things are relaxed and laid back in Kommetjie. School holidays are winding down and next week the morning traffic will be back to normal, causing stress and chaos which is absent during holidays. I would say that lays the blame squarely in a certain place!
Along the roadside, the flowering gums are coming into bloom, covering the trees with hues from cameo pink to deepest crimson. Except for the huge tree in front of my house, which has white flowers and is now half dead. Some parts are shooting out new leaves, but the branch overhanging the driveway will probably fall off in a winter storm! That will seriously unbalance the rest of the tree and it remains to be seen how long it will be before the neighbour's cars are crushed.
Tonight the sun sets at 20.01, the latest for summer, and then we start sliding down the slippery slope towards the shortest day - this is the best time to be in Cape Town - our long autumn lasts from March to the end of June. Which reminds me that autumn always starts on the Easter weekend - without fail, the temperatures drop from then, and this year Easter is particularly late on 18 April, so enjoy the long hot summer!
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Friday, 10 January 2014
Getting a life back in the day
Having spent two solid months working on 'real' work that brings in an income, as opposed to 'my' work, which involves writing, painting and doing the odd charitable work, it seems that a gap has arrived for me to catch up on life again. And what is the first thing I do? Rush into the kitchen and try out a new recipe! That speaks volumes - I have been just churning out the quickest meals I can think of at the end of each day, and that has started to pall in the palate area (not a painting palette, or a storage pallet - you see, I can't resist a little spelling lesson - it's always been a bit of an obsession). This is a cherry clafouti, which as far as I can see is a sweet Yorkshire pudding with fruit in it, but the recipe has very little sugar or flour and I used lactose-free milk, so the effects won't be too bad on the digestion! Time will tell.
The seafront is calling me - been quite a while since I took a walk, and I need to scatter the cobwebs from my brain. I heard that some imbecilic people killed 'our' cobra that had taken up residence along the path. It makes me very angry that the first reaction of ignorance is violence and the need to kill, even though the snake was in its own territory and the perpetrators merely by-passers. Unfortunately there is no hoping that they feel any remorse or will have a sleepless night over it. But a new snake will come along, no doubt, and once again allow us to experience nature in the raw to test our ability to co-exist.
I spotted the most interesting thing yesterday - butterflies mating. Here is a series of photos I took. If anyone knows of a lepidopteral society that might be interested in such photos, please let me know.
The seafront is calling me - been quite a while since I took a walk, and I need to scatter the cobwebs from my brain. I heard that some imbecilic people killed 'our' cobra that had taken up residence along the path. It makes me very angry that the first reaction of ignorance is violence and the need to kill, even though the snake was in its own territory and the perpetrators merely by-passers. Unfortunately there is no hoping that they feel any remorse or will have a sleepless night over it. But a new snake will come along, no doubt, and once again allow us to experience nature in the raw to test our ability to co-exist.
I spotted the most interesting thing yesterday - butterflies mating. Here is a series of photos I took. If anyone knows of a lepidopteral society that might be interested in such photos, please let me know.
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Change of food and weather!
Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmm! The cooler weather has heralded the return of curry to the menu! I have missed you! The little doggies won't be charmed, because this is the one dish that they are not allowed to lick or have leftovers from (leftovers! I don't think so!) because I doubt whether it's good for their digestion. Tonight I was lazy and just threw in a few tablespoons of good ol' Rajah and a teaspoon of Durban chilli paste to sort out the heat factor and it sure is delicious.
I thought we were going to have torrential rain here today and forbade my daughter from venturing out onto the roads (why look for trouble in a place that swarms with bad drivers?) and as it turned out, it didn't rain - in fact the sun blazed down. But the southern Cape seems to have had the weather, with 82mm at Cape Agulhas in an hour and a half, I hear. That is quite excessive. Rivers will all be coming down in flood and it's a good time not to going canoeing on any of them as it takes only minutes for the water level to rise and sweep everything away that's in its path. It's happened before and it will happen many more times. Extreme weather is battering the northern hemisphere, with chunks of the UK coastline disappearing into the sea, and lakes freezing in the USA.
On a lighter note, I'm off to make my speech now - just filling the coffee flask and must concentrate - last time I forgot to put the water in and poured out an inch of cold milk with a teaspoon of coffee in it! What a genius!
I thought we were going to have torrential rain here today and forbade my daughter from venturing out onto the roads (why look for trouble in a place that swarms with bad drivers?) and as it turned out, it didn't rain - in fact the sun blazed down. But the southern Cape seems to have had the weather, with 82mm at Cape Agulhas in an hour and a half, I hear. That is quite excessive. Rivers will all be coming down in flood and it's a good time not to going canoeing on any of them as it takes only minutes for the water level to rise and sweep everything away that's in its path. It's happened before and it will happen many more times. Extreme weather is battering the northern hemisphere, with chunks of the UK coastline disappearing into the sea, and lakes freezing in the USA.
On a lighter note, I'm off to make my speech now - just filling the coffee flask and must concentrate - last time I forgot to put the water in and poured out an inch of cold milk with a teaspoon of coffee in it! What a genius!
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Back in business
Things are looking up! I eventually got through to the fault reporting section for Telkom (turns out it is a company with another name) after holding on for more than 10 minutes, and the gentleman said he could see that it just needed to be re-set, so pressed the button and all was fixed! If only it hadn't taken them 3 days to answer the phone. So I'm back in the land of the living and can batter you with blogs again!
A cloud has lifted since reconnection, indicating how important it is to me (and probably everyone) that we are able to be in instant contact with anybody we wish - I'm sure you all remember those old days when you phoned someone and they were out and the phone just rang and rang and you really wanted to tell them something exciting. Technology has granted us instant gratification in that respect and it really is hard to go back to waiting more than two minutes for an answer.
The downside of being reconnected is that, while writing this, I completely forgot about the cheese sauce doing its rounds in the microwave and I now have a thick bottom layer and thin top layer! This will have to be beaten to a pulp with good old elbow grease and a hand whisk, but I think I can save it. Hold on...
Right, that's sorted - got the heart rate up. Now to throw it over a heap of vegetables, with some cubed, ready-cooked, extremely expensive gammon that we just couldn't find a gap for over Christmas, and into the oven for a quick and easy supper. We have pigged out on meat over the last few weeks (although strangely enough it didn't involve pork) and so are giving it a little bit of a miss for a while.
I'm still slogging away to fund my travels, and was feeling quite stressed about the speech I have to give tomorrow night at Toastmasters, but I spent the afternoon talking to myself and am now ready to go! As always, there will be the speech I have prepared, the speech I actually make and the speech I should have given, but it's all good fun!
A cloud has lifted since reconnection, indicating how important it is to me (and probably everyone) that we are able to be in instant contact with anybody we wish - I'm sure you all remember those old days when you phoned someone and they were out and the phone just rang and rang and you really wanted to tell them something exciting. Technology has granted us instant gratification in that respect and it really is hard to go back to waiting more than two minutes for an answer.
The downside of being reconnected is that, while writing this, I completely forgot about the cheese sauce doing its rounds in the microwave and I now have a thick bottom layer and thin top layer! This will have to be beaten to a pulp with good old elbow grease and a hand whisk, but I think I can save it. Hold on...
Right, that's sorted - got the heart rate up. Now to throw it over a heap of vegetables, with some cubed, ready-cooked, extremely expensive gammon that we just couldn't find a gap for over Christmas, and into the oven for a quick and easy supper. We have pigged out on meat over the last few weeks (although strangely enough it didn't involve pork) and so are giving it a little bit of a miss for a while.
I'm still slogging away to fund my travels, and was feeling quite stressed about the speech I have to give tomorrow night at Toastmasters, but I spent the afternoon talking to myself and am now ready to go! As always, there will be the speech I have prepared, the speech I actually make and the speech I should have given, but it's all good fun!
This and that
Still borrowing bandwidth at the coffee shop! So far I have spent R60 on my cellphone and have not got to the part where you actually speak to a telephone operator at Telkom! Talk about inefficiency and lack of service! If it was just about Facebook access and blogging, it wouldn't really matter, but I actually get all my work via email and cannot afford to be out of touch with the world like this.
The rainy weather is persisting, although it's not at all cold, but my car has decided to play up and won't start - something is draining the battery and I suspect it is something to do with the tail lights. It happened before and then a globe went and the problem was gone. Now HWCFA has fixed the lights, the battery is draining again! He hasn't fixed that! Looks like I'll have to take it to the auto-electrician once I've push-started it. It's funny how these things only happen when it's raining - almost as though it wants you to get wet.
The interesting thing is, I have dead straight hair, but I've discovered that if it gets rained on and it dries without me putting a comb through it, it has all sorts of kinks and curls. I have thought of not combing it after a shower, but that would mean looking like I'd been pulled through a bush backwards, and that wouldn't quite compensate for the extra body achieved!
By now, dear reader, you will have realised that I am still pretty much work-bound and have had little opportunity to go out into the world and have a bit of fun, hence the lack of an interesting topic. Oh, yesterday I was on my way out of the door to go to Tai Chi class (first time in about 6 weeks) when I got an sms to invite me to breakfast at the Foodbarn at Noordhoek Farm Village. Needless to say, I went into full rewind mode and reversed back to my cupboard, ripped off the Tai Chi clothes and donned some finery. Within 3 minutes I was on my way to a most delightful interlude, before resuming work mid-morning.
A well-deserved escape, I thought.
The rainy weather is persisting, although it's not at all cold, but my car has decided to play up and won't start - something is draining the battery and I suspect it is something to do with the tail lights. It happened before and then a globe went and the problem was gone. Now HWCFA has fixed the lights, the battery is draining again! He hasn't fixed that! Looks like I'll have to take it to the auto-electrician once I've push-started it. It's funny how these things only happen when it's raining - almost as though it wants you to get wet.
The interesting thing is, I have dead straight hair, but I've discovered that if it gets rained on and it dries without me putting a comb through it, it has all sorts of kinks and curls. I have thought of not combing it after a shower, but that would mean looking like I'd been pulled through a bush backwards, and that wouldn't quite compensate for the extra body achieved!
By now, dear reader, you will have realised that I am still pretty much work-bound and have had little opportunity to go out into the world and have a bit of fun, hence the lack of an interesting topic. Oh, yesterday I was on my way out of the door to go to Tai Chi class (first time in about 6 weeks) when I got an sms to invite me to breakfast at the Foodbarn at Noordhoek Farm Village. Needless to say, I went into full rewind mode and reversed back to my cupboard, ripped off the Tai Chi clothes and donned some finery. Within 3 minutes I was on my way to a most delightful interlude, before resuming work mid-morning.
A well-deserved escape, I thought.
Monday, 6 January 2014
A blog at last
So sorry for the blip, Dear Readers! Apart from working too hard and leading the most unimaginably dull life right now, I have no internet access at home and so have to rely on the local restaurant, and so have not blogged for a while now. This is going to play havoc with the statistics, but who cares? Every day is a new beginning and tomorrow is always another day!
The best thing about being too busy to blog (or even participate in the festive season which has just passed by totally unnoticed except for the day I had to do all the cooking!) is that I will have a spare cent to splash out on some serious holidaying later in the year! I can't wait to decide what it is I am going to be doing, but am looking forward to a surprise.
The cooler weather and very welcome rain has also given respite to the garden, which, despite being watered every day from the wellpoint, has looked dryer than ever. So much for the feeding and watering! I won't be needing the gardener for a while yet. In the meantime, my crop of tomatoes continues to blossom - all I did was put in a few plants and basically ignore them except for watering and this year's crop has been the best in 10 years.
The bromeliads are looking magnificent and the stunted hibiscus up the driveway that everyone has driven over through the years has put on a growing spurt like never before. That's a determined plant if ever there was one. It's peach-coloured blooms are a delight to the eye, and it is surrounded by swathes of white and pink wind flowers, creating a splash of colour to greet visitors to this far corner of the world.
All is back to normal with HWCFA at work again, having completed a surprisingly large number of projects in the garage and home. Things move slowly in our household, but when they get done, it lasts forever. I maintain that one day, when the original house has crumbled to dust in the mists of time, the extension that he built on will still be standing as good as the day he did it!
Another book has just been sent to me for editing, so it's enough frivolity (!) and back to the grindstone. Thank you, grindstone! What a blessing you have been.
Chat later...
The best thing about being too busy to blog (or even participate in the festive season which has just passed by totally unnoticed except for the day I had to do all the cooking!) is that I will have a spare cent to splash out on some serious holidaying later in the year! I can't wait to decide what it is I am going to be doing, but am looking forward to a surprise.
The cooler weather and very welcome rain has also given respite to the garden, which, despite being watered every day from the wellpoint, has looked dryer than ever. So much for the feeding and watering! I won't be needing the gardener for a while yet. In the meantime, my crop of tomatoes continues to blossom - all I did was put in a few plants and basically ignore them except for watering and this year's crop has been the best in 10 years.
The bromeliads are looking magnificent and the stunted hibiscus up the driveway that everyone has driven over through the years has put on a growing spurt like never before. That's a determined plant if ever there was one. It's peach-coloured blooms are a delight to the eye, and it is surrounded by swathes of white and pink wind flowers, creating a splash of colour to greet visitors to this far corner of the world.
All is back to normal with HWCFA at work again, having completed a surprisingly large number of projects in the garage and home. Things move slowly in our household, but when they get done, it lasts forever. I maintain that one day, when the original house has crumbled to dust in the mists of time, the extension that he built on will still be standing as good as the day he did it!
Another book has just been sent to me for editing, so it's enough frivolity (!) and back to the grindstone. Thank you, grindstone! What a blessing you have been.
Chat later...
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Planning a sunset stroll
All work and no play makes Jack an awfully dull boy, I'm afraid. I've spent the last two months slaving away, admittedly for gainful reward, which does make a change, but we have had such a perfect summer so far that I fear I have missed a great deal. The only consolation is that most people have been spending time with friends and children at this time of year and wouldn't have been available for exciting outings anyway. As I stand on the balcony looking at the back of Table Mountain, the sun is lowering itself towards the horizon at the end of a wind-free day over Cape Town, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world - no wait, that's Louis Armstrong - but the place that I should really be right now is on top of Table Mountain, perched like an eagle overlooking its hunting ground.
There can be few more spectacular sights than the far distant mountains stretching into the hinterland to the north east, and the gradually descending chain of peaks that wind down to Cape Point at the tip of the Peninsula before slipping beneath the waves. The beaches of the Atlantic seaboard, best viewed from on high at this time of year rather than at sea level, skirt the bays below, separated by the granite boulders that form the base of this appendix of Africa that is one of the most sought-after places to live among those who are well travelled.
If I had left my work and gone outside a little earlier, I have no doubt I would now be speeding along the freeway into town to join the no doubt hundreds of others with similar ideas. Perhaps next week, after the rain has cleaned the air and the visibility will be at its best.
There can be few more spectacular sights than the far distant mountains stretching into the hinterland to the north east, and the gradually descending chain of peaks that wind down to Cape Point at the tip of the Peninsula before slipping beneath the waves. The beaches of the Atlantic seaboard, best viewed from on high at this time of year rather than at sea level, skirt the bays below, separated by the granite boulders that form the base of this appendix of Africa that is one of the most sought-after places to live among those who are well travelled.
If I had left my work and gone outside a little earlier, I have no doubt I would now be speeding along the freeway into town to join the no doubt hundreds of others with similar ideas. Perhaps next week, after the rain has cleaned the air and the visibility will be at its best.
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