A wintry wander
Antiques in a barn, coffee, cake, and climate chats
This week we’re starting in Simondium, near Paarl, at Barn & Werf, with some window shopping and plant pottering. Glad we got to do this before the wild weather hit us.
Love the garden at the back of Barn & Werf. Inside it is packed with antiques and interesting upcycled pieces.
There’s an Ou Meul bakery next door, where we had delicious coffee, and almond and orange mini-cakes.
Climate chat corner
This week’s newsletter was delayed by climate chaos around the country and the declaration of a national state of disaster due to the damage to infrastructure.
The damage in our neck of the woods was minor compared with other parts of the Cape, but a very tall tree on a verge near us fell, taking down electricity poles and cables, cutting power to our small suburb.
The tall tree’s fall took out power lines for the lower part of Clovelly, and some of us were without power for five days (105 hours to be exact, says Dave). The tree fell in the early hours of Monday, and whipped out powerlines, snapping an electricity pole. Mayhem. All the overhead cables had to be replaced because they burnt out.
The teams sent out by the city worked for days. First, the clean-up crew arrived to clear roads. Chainsaws have been buzzing all week. Then the electricity team inspected the damage, and assessed what needed to be done. We followed them around, tracking their progress as they painstakingly pulled through the new overhead wires we needed to power our homes. Special trucks and cherrypickers were brought in to reach stray branches splayed across wires. They worked till 11pm every night, sometimes in the rain. Neighbours arranged hot food and drink deliveries.
It’s time for us to talk about trees, again.
Read City of Cape Town’s report teams respond to severe storm impact: “Fallen trees and related debris featured prominently among reported incidents, with the City’s Recreation and Parks Department receiving more than 1,000 service requests between Sunday, 10 May and midday on Tuesday, 12 May. Additional storm-related requests have since brought the total number of tree-related service requests to 1,764.”
Climate chaos
Climate chaos is causing more frequent and intense extreme weather events. These extreme weather events are also becoming more difficult to predict. Climate scientists warned us, we can’t say we didn’t know.
Sometimes I wonder whether we will be able to reverse climate change, or have we left it too late? I fear the tipping points have been reached. And so we have forecasts like this from Vox Weather Girls (follow them to stay up to date with weather in South Africa). More than 200mm of rain is a deluge driven by climate chaos.
We endured a truly terrifying summer of heatwaves and fires, and we’ve now plunged into storms and floods. Flood damage on the Garden Route, and in the Eastern Cape left infrastructure destroyed, infrastructure that will take years to rebuild. Communities in river valleys had to be evacuated. Overflowing Kouga Dam leads to evacuations along flooded river valley.
Dare I mention the Super El Nino heading our way in November, or the AMOC collapse?
Preparing to survive extreme weather events is going to be an extreme sport.
Cape Clawless otter sculpture encounters
I was helping Friends of Silvermine River Nature Area to transplant fynbos in the wetland area when I met a group of cyclists, the Trail Angels, who stopped to admire the Cape Clawless otter sculpture by Kommetjie artist Chip Snaddon.
Winter is here
Illegal dumping and littering clog stormwater drains and pipes, and cause flooding. See it. Report it.
Here’s how to report a blocked stormwater drain
• On the City of Cape Town APP
• Phone the City’s customer call centre on 0860 103 089
• Log a service request on www.capetown.gov.za/servicerequests
I’ve lived in many places, discovered green spaces, and found fellow greenies sharing our ecosystem. Sharing is caring, tribe. Corny, I know.
Currently living in Clovelly, Cape Town, within the Table Mountain National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Crazy storms and so much damage. 😢