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January
31 (Sunday)
This
is Blue Moon day - with a second full moon in the same month - and
once in a blue moon may become the length of time between keying
these notes about life on the cliff.
The
days have been hot, really hot, registering only 28 deg C, but they
say the unusual humidity accounts for the swooning weather. Wiseman,
a heavily-build Xhosa and one of the buildlers back on our property,
collapsed from hyperthermia. A golfer did so while we were on the
golf course they other day, and was rushed to hospital in a serious
conditon.
Just
when it seemed unbearable, the weather suddenly changed to mist and
cold wind. Now its misty - yet steaming as the sun breaks through at
10am on a perfectly still day. But this house has two
temperatures. Cool draughts on the south side by the sea.
Pulsating heat on the north side facing the mountain. It is
as we planned it in the alterations: a sea-side summer home facing
spouth, and a Tuscan courtyard and conservatory winter home facing
north.
While
I was watering the Buffalo grass which John and I 'borrowed'
from beside a stream along the beach, I looked over our garden wall
and saw, five metres away, our mongoose staring intently at me. I
could have sprayed him with the hose. While I was resisting this
temptation, he trotted off down the path - then out of the bush
stepped a Francolin family, which paraded past our front gate in
single file: papa in front, half-grown chick in the middle and mama
at the back.
I
surmised that the mongoose must have got one of the two chicks I'd
seen earlier. But this morning I encountered the other family I had
in mind; the 'famous
grouse'
francolin which I had seen posing on the cliff-face. He was there
again this morning. In the same pose. And lined up on the edge of
the fynbos behind him, were his mate and two chicks. In eight weeks
they were already teenage size, and able to fly off the cliff as I
quietly approached.
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