Day 452 – “Winter”

Midwinter’s Day today. The winter solstice. The shortest day. The longest night.
That’s for us down here, anyway.

I hardly slept last night – THE WIND was something else. We lost several plant pots, flung around and smashed. This morning, we collected garden furniture from all around the property – only the front gate prevented a full on cushion escape. Local trees are damaged. It’s still blowing hard. Really hard. Gusting to near hurricane hard. But also apparently hugely localised, right down this side of the mountain.
I honestly can’t remember stronger winds in Cape Town in my time here. And I can’t remember stronger winds in Cape Town before my time here, because I wasn’t here.

But it’s also 26 degrees. I’m in shorts and t-shirt and I’m lovely and warm. And it was that temperature at midnight last night as well. Because it’s a berg wind, as mentioned yesterday. I was given a beautiful Fitzroy’s Storm Glass for Father’s Day yesterday, but it’s completely bewildered and confused as to exactly what is going on at the moment. The good Admiral evidently never saw anything quite like this sort of chaos.

Anyway, all this means that means that tomorrow, another sort of extreme weather will kick in, with heavy rain expected as a proper winter cold front makes landfall. Better late than never. Better never late.