With the wonderful warm days we have been having, the wild flowers have been bursting into colourful blooms, and disappearing as the sun goes down. This shot is of the wild grass growing on the side of the road in Muizenberg. The verges are covered in these bright flowers as far as the eye can see. And adding that starburst effect you get when shooting directly into the sun, it makes for an interesting shot.
This bird spent the entire day knocking on our bedroom window’ I think that he is either trying to beat up or mate with his reflection. My suspicion is that he has spotted a rival and is not very happy about it. Hope he does not tire himself out and takes some time to chill a little.
Reflection of a jungle-gym in a huge puddle after the days of stormy weather; it look like it is in the middle of a river, doesn’t it? The huge area of water it is in is a massive puddle in a very water-logged park. I think it’s going to take weeks for it to drain (it is a lake in the background, it is not that wet).
There is still nothing to beat the taste of freshly cooked fish and chips, with a healthy dashing of vinegar. And one of the best places to get it is at Kalky’s in Kalk Bay Harbour. Hot, fresh, cheap and yummy!
No really, the name of this boat is the Titanic. While this boat did not sink, she has clearly beached herself. I don’t think she is going to be going out anytime soon.
Another lovely sunrise after a very wet few stormy days. I think that we are still going to have some more storms, and that this was just a brief interlude. The green belt around the vlei is completely waterlogged. Even the ducks have started using the puddles as paddling pools.
My previous shot was of the drying snoek. There is a fair chance that the snoek was caught off a boat that left from this harbour early in the morning.
Aside from the fishing boats, the harbour wall still has many line fishermen using the harbour wall to fish from. While it looks like this fisherman was taking a break on his phone, you can see his fishing rod pushed into a whole made for the purpose, and there is a line cast in the water.
We had a very late winter storm over the weekend, and finally today has dawned into a wonderfully clear blue sky. But the mountain streams are gushing with all the runoff, and if you look around you can find some wonderful waterfalls that are usually dry or just a small trickle.
It is snoek season. At this time of year, thousands of snoek swim past our shores, and many of them are caught and end up for sale all over the place. You can buy it dried and smoked in supermarkets, or buy a while fish on the side of the road to cook on the braai.They are also incredibly cheap; you can buy a while fish (easily enough for 6 people), for about R20 ($3) on the side of the road. They almost give them away.
The only problem with snoek is that it is full of tiny sharp bones, and no matter how careful you are, you always seem to end up with a bone sticking into your cheek as you eat. So eating snoek is slow process.
On Wednesday I saw something a little strange, About 2-300 snoek were literally being dried on the side of the road. Some enterprising person had strung up some fencing and was drying the fish on it, no doubt for resale later. I am sure that the local health inspector would not be too impressed with this open-air fish drying factory on the side of the road. But at least somebody is being an entrepreneur.
You can find out more about snoek on the I&J website.
(Update – comments closed because this page is not a marketplace for dried snoek).
Cape Town has a large Muslim population, and at the moment many of my friends and colleagues are observing the month-long sunrise to sunset fast during the month of Ramadan. While I don’t think that I could survive fasting every day for a month, I have a great deal of respect for my friends that can. It must take tremendous will-power.
While I usually steer away from politics or religion (and the two are tied tightly together), one of the things I love about living in South Africa is the enormous tolerance the different religions have for each other. It may be naive to say that we judge people by their character, and not by their social, religious or political background. But I feel that (perhaps because of our history), South Africans are accepting of differences than many other countries.
This photo is of one of the many Mosques in Cape Town.
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