Rain!

This is a short but very sweet entry...........

We have had rain!

Lots and lots of it. Pouring, filling the rivers and lying in puddles on the sides of the roads. Turning the yellowing wheat into fields of sodden green and leaving tractors bogged down between the rows of vines. Dirt roads look like muddy obstacle courses with deep furrows where cars have slid their way to their destination.

It's wonderful!

Last Friday it started, actually Thursday evening. I was booked to cat-sit for the weekend for my daughter as they were away, so I set off for Paarl on Friday morning in the murky mist! Luckily there was nothing between Jacobsbaai and Paarl but the closer I got to my destination, the blacker and lower the clouds were until the mountains and the clouds became one mass of oh-oh-I-am-so-glad-I-am-not-flying-in-that!! A rainbow appeared on Friday evening.......

A promise of things to come!

Apparently Thursday night was stormy with lots of heavy rain around the entire Western Cape countryside, and over the next few days Rob recorded just over 40 mm here in Jacobsbaai. Catherine arrived home late on Sunday afternoon, actually just in time for the first (but not the last) glass of wine, and from Monday morning until the time I left yesterday morning, it rained! Sometimes light and sometimes heavy, sometimes with wind and sometimes without, but every time it slowed or stopped, the clouds let us know that it was a temporary calm and more was coming!

The road outside our home in Jacobsbaai!

Their pool filled, the fishpond filled, Catherine had to place a bucket under a leaky spot in the garage, and water trickled under the door on the windy side. The frogs chirped and clicked all day and all night, and we valiantly struggled out to restaurants and shook our heads at the wonder of it all! And had a glass of wine to toast the rain!

The swimming pool!

And then yesterday when it was time for me to come home, the sun came out!

I drove home without another drop falling but all around were the signs of really good rainfall. The Berg River was running strongly but sadly there is no dam between Paarl and the sea, so all that precious water is now mingling with the ocean. Never mind, some good has been done and for a while nobody will have to water their gardens or wash their cars!
Our little 'puddles' on the way to town are full and there was one lone flamingo standing in the water!

Maybe someone heard me moan about the lack of water and answered my pleas!

Maybe next time I should moan about the lack of money and see what happens!!

Where is the Rain?

I am sitting here wondering what to write about today.

Do you ever get weeks that fly by, you wake up Monday and the next thing it's Friday? And you wonder what on earth you have done in between?

I actually know what I have been doing though.......praying for rain!

We are really getting desperate here in our corner of the country as we are steadily marching through our rainfall time and approaching our dry, windy summer, without much happening. Our average for April is 39 mm and we had one good downpour that delivered 33 mm all in one go! And that was that! (We were camping at the time......with a wet dog!!) But, last month (May) we had only 11 mm instead of our average 49 mm, and this month (June) so far, we have had the grand total of 0. Nothing, absolutely nothing. (The average for June is 68 mm, July is 77 mm, and August is 61 mm.)

Our collective dams for the Western Cape stand at an average 29% capacity, which means that they are actually 71% empty! Take into account the silt and other junk that lies at the bottom of dams, and they are more likely to be at about 15% capacity! Which also means that many of them are at less capacity than that! And that is extremely frightening.

We are doing everything that we can to save water. Every spare drop is collected in a bucket and then used on the garden. My garden is slowly dying apart from the succulents that are loving the dry weather. The countryside greened up beautifully just before the May rain and the farmers all rushed into the fields and ploughed for their lives. The wheat shot up in a bright green carpet and the wild-flowers started to push shoots through the dusty khaki ground. And we all waited for the clouds to roll in from the sea and do their thing!
We are still waiting!

To add to the gloom, for the last few days we have had a hot, dry berg wind from the NE that has seen our temperatures rise from the usual wintry single figures and low teens, to high twenty's, and we are back in our summer clothing. What little moisture was left in the ground has now gone.

We had some damp days and foggy nights when Rob's sister was here, I am sure she was missing the hot humidity of Cairns! That fog left enough moisture on the plants to allow them to survive, but  that has gone and the wheat is starting to turn yellow.

And still there are no firm restrictions in place! Watering is still allowed at certain times, although most people are aware of the need to conserve as much as possible.

After all, what do we do when it is finished?

Pop off to the local Supermarket?

Fantastic!

Following on from last week's camp out, Rob decided that what we really needed to keep us cool and calm, were fans.

When we built the house in 2006, we asked the builder to organise overhead fans while the electrician was on site to prevent hassles at a later date. But our builder 'persuaded' us not to bother as he said that the wind always blew and it never got hot.

Yes, well that was then.

Each year has been getting steadily hotter thanks to Global Warming! We bought a lovely desk fan a couple of years ago for the bedroom and it has helped tremendously, but what we really wanted was a steady downward draft, to help with two things, namely keeping us cool and preventing the ever vigilant mosquitoes from landing! Three fans would be perfect, for the lounge, the office and the bedroom. So on Monday Rob googled fans, found a company in Cape Town and we saw exactly what we wanted. But they didn't supply to the public, only businesses. No problem, there is a wonderful Electrical and Plumbing shop (that doesn't sound right does it really?) in Langebaan, so on Tuesday we went there to order (and have breakfast but not at the shop I hasten to add!) And on Thursday they arrived! That's service. So, on Friday we returned to Langebaan to collect them (and have breakfast (ditto previous brackets)).

However. Rob could not find an electrician. He phoned several but they were all busy for the foreseeable future and we wanted them installed ASAP obviously. So, on Friday as soon as we got home (after a really great breakfast), he set to work, helped by my daughter who was here for a few days. (How wonderful it is to have her close enough to 'pop' over for a quick visit!) Being (a lot) taller than me she was able to hold the fan in place while Rob was balanced up the ladder doing fiddly things with different coloured wires and screws, and I was trying not to think of things like electrocution, falling and hospital.

Home Comfort Camping!

Now, if you have all the comforts of home when you are camping, where are you?

Yes, at home!

For the last couple of weeks we have had the most glorious weather (apart from no rain at all), and we have bragged about our 'natural air conditioner' (aka our cool wind), and our low temperatures, to friends and family who have been suffering temperatures in the high 30 degrees C. My daughter has been heard to remark that its cooler in Dubai, so they have been dashing between the air-conditioned office and the swimming pool!

Anyway, I digress!

Yesterday the weather got its own back on us! By midday it was 38 degrees in Vredenburg and not a lot cooler here in the Baai. With no wind at all, not even a gentle zephyr to knock a degree off, by evening we were still hot hot hot inside the house. The fan was working overtime and the cats were splayed out on the tiles. Going up to bed, the higher we climbed the hotter it got, and our bedroom was like an oven. We opened the balcony doors wide and the cool air poured in.

Baby Steps!

It's been a funny old week all told, one step forward and three back, two forward and one back, but I think, taking all the forwards and backwards, we may be slightly forward!!

On Tuesday we dropped Kindle off at the vet at eight (in the morning!! A usually unheard of time for us pensioners!) and then we headed towards Riebeek-Kasteel, a village about 100 kms from us. Why? Read on. About 10 kms out of Vredenburg, we heard a bang from under the car, it sounded as though a stone had been flung up into the wheel arch by the tyre, but as we couldn't see anything and the car didn't wobble at all, we carried on to Hopefield, a little town that has a cafe that sells the most delicious toasted sarmies (sandwiches). As it was breakfast time, we decided to pop in, buy some bird food in large sacks like farmers do, and grab a sarmie to keep our strength up. It was 3 degrees!!! That's cold!! But with snow on the mountain tops, we understood why!

Snow dusting the mountain tops!

And we saw that we had a puncture!

Water Water Everywhere!

'Water Water everywhere 
And all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere
Except the bath and sink.'

(Apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and 'The Rime of The Ancient Mariner')

We have had RAIN!! Last week we had a humdinger of a storm with lightning and thunder, our roads ran like rivers, ducks were swimming in the puddles, and the wind blew the rain sideways, so much so, it was knocking on the front door! It also managed to find a gap in the chimney and splashed onto the top of our little stove! It didn't do much to clean the windows though, but it did wash a lot of bird poopies off the walls and the roof..................and it filled our two rain tanks!

The smaller of the two tanks.

I have mentioned our tanks before I think, we have one of 2500 litres and one of 5000 litres and these catch the rain off the roof. A week ago they were almost empty, so you can work out the volume of water that fell in one go! We had 15 mm in about 10 minutes and the tanks were actually overflowing.
Just as well as it turned out.

Dry and Dusty!

Rob was looking up our rainfall statistics this morning, and the last time we had rain here was the 5 November. No wonder the bushes are running after the dogs!

The green has turned to khaki! 

I know that it isn't our wet season, but we should have some rainfall , the average over the last goodness knows how many years, shows that November's average is 12 mm (we had 17), December's average is 15.5 mm, (we had 0) and January's average is 13.7 mm, (nope, not a drop so far!) So when I tell you that we are dry and dusty here, you better believe it!

Jacobsbaai Junkers!

Do you ever have one of those days where you begin one task and then get side tracked to do four or five different things that you hadn't bargained on doing but were glad you did in the end? And never completed what you were doing in the first place? And if you are still with me after that ramble, well done!

We had one of those days on Friday.

Backtracking a tad, my sense of direction has never been a strong point. In fact, when I drove to Knysna, Rob fixed little strips of paper to the Garmin with 'left          straight      right' and arrows to show me what was where! So, when the lady said 'In. Five. Hundred. Metres. Turn. Left.' in that stilting way she has, I knew exactly which way to go. This stems from my years of teaching Grade 1 and Grade 2 children and standing in front of them saying 'Start at the left side of the page' and holding out my right arm!

So, back to Friday. I decided to clear a piece of garden that has been bugging me for a while. The moles have had a party there and half the plants were dying through lack of soil round the roots. I got stuck in. Let the side tracking begin!

Rob does a Marine Weather Broadcast every lunchtime on the radio, giving the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, cloud cover, sea state, rain, and wind strength and direction. Now, when he goes away, it is my job to take down the information and relay it to the man in Napier, so I have to know what is what. Rob has a fancy instrument for the temperature, pressure and humidity and for the rest it's stare out and have a look!!

Rob's fancy weather station!

Goodbye Winter............I think!

Last week we had some really foul weather. Huge rain, wind that cut through us like a knife, seas that pounded and crashed through the night, and if we were uncertain about winter having departed, we were reminded of it in no uncertain terms! We even had snow on the mountains inland and every B+B, camp site and Guesthouse was fully booked this weekend as everyone headed inland to freeze themselves daft by playing in the snow! And on Thursday, instead of staying in next to the fire, I had Hospice and Rob had a transfer from Cape Town to Wellington. He set off in rain and arrived home in rain. And in between? Yes, rain!

The Dutch Reform Church in Wellington, built in 1840.

But when we woke up yesterday morning, spring had arrived! A day early I might add! And Rob had to head off to Wellington to pick up the passengers and transfer them to Franschoek. So, I went along for the ride. My camera was charged and ready for me to capture the snow covered mountains, white and shimmering in the early morning light.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind!

(This is the post that was meant for last week. Since then, we have had more rain, storms and strong wind, and my poor garden is not looking quite so chirpy!!)

I have shown you our 'tree' before, it's the one we bought in Montagu a couple of years ago. Rob attached it to the house-wall facing the road, and many people have stopped to have a look. One or two have asked us about it, and laughed when Rob tells them that the tree was straight when he put it up! It was the wind that blew it sideways! Then they ask 'Does it really blow as hard as that?'

Our beautiful metal tree.

Rob always answers, 'No, sometimes it blows harder!' 

Look at this tree.

Looks similar to ours, but crafted by nature!

It is just round the corner right on the edge of the bay and gives you some idea of the strength of the wind and how our gardens struggle to stay straight! (Some of the inhabitants also find it hard to stay straight, but that has nothing to do with the wind!!) This last week has been quite a stormy one, with strong wind and seas so rough that the remains of the barge Margaret, wrecked here in 2009, are now barely visible. The night before last we heard the wreck banging late at night and when we walked there this morning we were not surprised to see further damage to the remaining bits. It's only a matter of time before she disappears completely and all that will remain is the wooden cross to mark the place where John Charles Mitchell died. (See 'Margaret Day' in the list of 'posts about')

In the Bleak Midwinter.................!

Yes, it's winter and it's cold............and wet! This is the view from the office window yesterday morning! See the rain running down the window panes?

We had 10 mm rain after this storm and two cats were out in it!

However, we are warm and snug inside, thanks to our stove that Rob had installed a few years ago. This was because the builder just couldn't get the chimney right and the fire place smoked so badly that we had to have the doors and windows open to clear the smoke! This, of course, defeated the whole object of having a fire. Eventually the builder told us the whole problem was due to our neighbours roof! After that, he wasn't allowed back and I was ready to kill him with a log! And Rob cleverly found a stove with doors that works every time!

The veranda was awash!

Winter's Coming!

There's a lovely saying that goes something like this: 'You can tell the warmth of the day by the length of the cat' That being so, our cats are now becoming curled up like hedgehogs in a sunny patch as the days cool down and the autumn chill sets in! Basil tucks up so firmly that it's hard to tell where he starts and stops!

Dopey last week.

In fact, two nights ago Rob lit our little stove for the first time this season, a fact that is now recorded on our chalk board in the kitchen. Originally put up as a shopping reminder, it now records the facts that we need to remember, like the last rain figures, or when we defrosted the freezer or last but not least, when the 'Honeysucker' last came to empty the tank! More important than a simple shopping list, it's easy to go without milk, but it's impossible to survive with a loo that refuses to empty!

Dry as a Bone!

I know that I mentioned the heat in last week's post. Together with that comes the wind and the dryness. We haven't had rain for a while now and I think that we are as dry as we can ever be. Even the lamp posts are wilting! And my sister in Pietermaritzburg just told me that they had over 60 mm of rain during a violent storm that did lots of damage last night. We could certainly do with some of that...........without the damage though!

Dry and drab, dead and dormant.

This is what the surrounding 'green' areas look like now. Hard to imagine that in a few months time they will be a colourful carpet of yellow and white. Hopefully!

A tiny puddle left! (Pic thanks to Rob)

This is what our little waterholes on the way to town have shrunk to! The white that you see is salt, even though they are over three kilometres from the sea! In the seven years that we have been here, they have never dried up completely. But I think they may do that this year! The water is now too salty for even the flamingos! There must be a small fortune in rock salt lying there waiting to be harvested. With a fair amount of sheep and cow poo mixed in for flavour!

Arctocephalus Pusillus!

You'd better say that slowly or you could be in trouble! That is the larney name for our Cape Fur Seal, or South African Fur Seal as it is now known.

We have had some very warm weather lately, our 'air-conditioner' has not been working too well, and we have waited until nearly seven o'clock to take Alfie for his daily walk. Even then, he drags behind or finds any bit of shade that he can to sit in and catch his breath! When we stop to chat to people (which happens very often!) he sits in Rob's shadow to keep as cool as he can! (Rob is losing weight though, so the shadow is becoming thinner!!) Sunday registered 35 C on our veranda, but I know that it was over 40 C inland.

The sea has been calm and tranquil lately too, but over the December period we had some huge waves that we could see crashing on the rocks in the bay, and we could see Seal Island being bombarded and pounded, with spray lifting high into the air. Sometimes the young seals get washed off the rocks and we see the tiny corpses lying on the beach. One youngster arrived unharmed during the December holidays and managed to get itself onto the rocks where the fishermen stand almost daily. When we walked nearby, we could see the tiny glistening form lying on the rock in the sun and I was hoping that it would be safe. Some fishermen blame the seals for the lack of good fishing, and will happily beat them to death, or shoot them.

Seal Island is way beyond the houses on the right.

Caravan Chaos!

Last week was a very interesting one! We decided to put our beloved Gemsquash on Gumtree, the site where you can literally buy and sell anything that is buyable or sellable! There was nothing wrong with her at all, but we decided to upgrade to a slightly roomier one, and as she was thirty two years old, we thought that we could find a more modern one. We also decided that we were in no hurry and if she didn't sell, well, we would simply keep her. Well, we could have sold her fifteen times! We had several calls from Cape Town and one chap from MagGregor sounded so desperate to buy her that he was ready to do an EFT and literally walk here to collect her! The first person who came to view her handed over the money, hooked her up and drove off! We stood in the drive and waved goodbye to our old friend and we both had tears in our eyes!

So, that meant we had to find another caravan! Rob found a beauty on Gumtree (where else?) and phoned the owner. I was at the Hospice shop by then, so was on tenterhooks to find out whether it had been sold or not! And as it turned out, it was waiting for us to go and see it!

Friday morning we bundled Alfie into the car and snuck out so that Basil didn't see us go and set off to Worcester in cloudy, cold, very windy and occasionally wet conditions! The shorter route was closed due to flooding on the road, so we had to go the long way round via the tunnel in Paarl! The mountains had lots of waterfalls cascading down them and every farm dam and small stream was full to overflowing.

Snow and clouds!

Twas a Dark and Stormy Night!

The God of Rain has heard our prayers! However, so did the God of Storms and Wild Weather, and the pair of them have sent us a weekend of violent wind, rain and storms! We had lightning and thunder last night, unheard of in our part of the world, and as I write this it is raining again! Or is that still? Our monthly average for June is 68 mm, and so far this month (it's only the 2nd today) we have had 51mm!

Our waterlogged veranda. Even the wooden duck has had enough!

Yesterday (and today!) we lit the fire at about 10 a.m. and spent the day inside looking out! Alfie was extremely reluctant to go outside and had to be persuaded. I had visions of him using the cats litter tray, they were queueing up to use it!

Season of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness!

I remember learning this poem ('Ode to Autumn' by John Keats) when I was about ten! It matters not that I only remember the first few lines, I am impressed that I remember that much seeing as I sometimes forget what day it is and only realise when I read the TV guide!

We have had nearly a week of waking up to thick mist, or is that fog? And what's the difference anyway? According to Rob, if you cannot see further than one kilometre, then it's fog. But as I cannot visualise one kilometre then it doesn't help! Anything damp, thick and white is mist!

The view of the mist from our bedroom.

Rain!

We have had some rain!

Sometimes I feel like a farmer when I walk round my garden and see how dry it is. Now, I know that we are only supposed to have winter rain, an average of 390 mm spread over the year with the bulk being May to about August, easing off on either side of winter. Our driest months are February (average 8 mm), and November (average 12 mm), but we should have a splattering throughout the year and this summer has been unbelievably dry, dusty and desperate! We keep a record and write down every drop faithfully, and most months have had 'nil'.
But, on Wednesday, the wind changed direction from a south-easter to a north-wester, the clouds rolled in and we watched the rain head towards us over the sea. Our dust roads turned to mud and the animals decided that there was no need to head out at all, Alfie crossed his legs and hung on, and the cats found the litter tray that is always available but seldom used!

Dam it's hot!

No, it's not a curse or a spelling mistake, it was HOT! Last week we went to Clanwilliam Dam for another little mid-week break, we find that Alfie needs a change of scenery every now and then, so we oblige! Off we set on Monday morning with the usual south easter blowing to help us on our way. A nice cool temperature of about 21, lovely. We had booked at a private caravan park on a working citrus farm on the banks of the dam, only about 121 kms as the crow flies from home, but just over 200 as the road winds! We arrived at lunchtime and stepped out of the airconditioning to ........................40 degrees! And no wind. At all. By the time we had put the tent up, burning our fingers from the metal rods lying in the sun, I was seriously considering climbing back into the car and coming home!

Almost at the campsite.

Shipwrecks and near misses!

We have had our fair share of shipwrecks in the 5 years that we have been here. We have huge underwater rocks and large rocky islands close to our shore, one is home to a large number of seals and is called 'Seal Island', not very original, but, hey, it works! So, we expect the odd mishap every now and then. The first wreck happened to a little boat called 'Volante' that bobbed happily in the bay and was our mascot, so to speak. Visitors (and locals) took photos of her and she is in many paintings, keyrings and fridge magnets! Sadly one weekend a few years ago, we had a huge storm, she dragged her anchor onto rocks and ended up in several pieces scattered over the shore. A large bit of her hull remains on the beach, people still take photos of her and children climb in her, but it was a sad end to a noble little craft!

'Volante' in the bay.

Then we had a fishing boat that ended up on Seal Island in the middle of the night! I woke up to see a strange orange light in the room, and being me, I just went back to sleep! The next morning we saw the NSRI boat heading towards the island, and a helicopter hovering overhead. The orange lights that I saw were distress flares! Looking through the binoculars we saw a wreck on the rocks and men in orange suits waiting to be rescued. (A friend of ours looked through his binoculars and commented on how many men were wearing brown suits on the island. They turned out to be seals of course! I often wonder what they thought of the invasion!) Happily everybody was rescued safely. The boat had the unfortunate name of 'Silver Reaper' and quickly became known as the 'Grim Reaper'! Now, a few years on, there is nothing left of the fishing boat, the sea has claimed it all.