And just like that (snaps fingers), you are in another hemisphere. Another season. Another climate.
The dark afternoons become long, light evenings. Fog-shrouded and brown winter trees become rich green summer canopies, roaring like rivers in the wind. Brooklyn to Constantia, home to home, but neither, and never.
To anyone closely tuned to plants and to the minutely unfolding sequence of the changing seasons (botanist, farmer, forager, gardener, grower, seasonal eater) this sudden contrast - happening within 24 hours - is as unnerving as it is miraculous.
I will be back in New York by very early spring, but for the southern summer month of February I am in changeable Cape Town. I landed in stifling heat, but as I type on this evening patio (where we ate by candlelight last night) in the lee of a cloud-shrouded mountain, it is now sweater-cold. On the other side of the mountain, facing the Atlantic, they are probably basking in the evening's golden sunlight.
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I love the distinct seasons and miss them in the Tropics. But this southern summer has turned this country completely upside down and so much will never return...
ReplyDeleteLovely writing, and such a tease!
ReplyDeleteThat is such a pretty patio scene.
ReplyDeleteKnow your mother is happy to have you with her for a few weeks. Enjoy your time together.
ReplyDeleteIt must be wonderful to return to your home and your mother's gorgeous gardens, and to escape winter in NY for a little while. Enjoy it!
ReplyDelete