Rosyfingereddawn on The Singemonkey

August 06, 2023

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 11:59:32 +0000

It’s the first time I’ve done this walk since March. So much going on with the cat boi going missing and then getting injured. I decided to take my camera. I just can’t get good results with a phone although some people can. I’ve also changed laptops and still haven’t sorted out my photos again. So I edited these on my phone.

June 06, 2023

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 16:31:38 +0000

It was almost as cold as Cape Town gets this morning. 6 degrees. We arrived amidst riverine mist. But, contrary to the weather report, the sun streamed onto the mountain which was flanked by a dawn moon.

April 03, 2023

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 18:55:47 +0000

Last Tuesday at my bird count with Jane. It’s been a miserable anxious week with my boy cat Crumb missing without trace since last Monday. We did see a bittern after the count though, which is still an absolute treat.

September 16, 2022

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 08:50:29 +0000

Hail Eos, goddess of dawn (that feeling when you realise you’re the cultist 😂).

I got to see a pair of lovely Boubou shrikes right by the path and said, “Hey Boo.

July 26, 2022

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 11:59:11 +0000

This scene again. It was a three kingfisher day today - Pied (which we see most days), Malachite (we see these little jewels maybe every three counts or so), and Giant (seen more rarely - although this lady has a fave spot in the willow so maybe we’ll see her again next week). This in a place that shills for the developers love to pretend is a ruined, lifeless dump.

July 19, 2022

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 20:56:26 +0000

Just after dawn at our bird count site on the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers. We’d just seen a Giant Kingfisher in the willow next to that date palm. The developers are flouting their court order to stop claiming they can just ignore it while they appeal. They seem confident that the courts will bow to their robber-baron capitalism destroying aboriginal heritage and sensitive environments. Let’s hope they’re wrong. People are getting pretty sick of these people ramping up their destruction just as we’re understanding how far it’s gone already.

July 04, 2022

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 08:53:10 +0000

Missed the mountain on the weekend thanks to weather. Got up long before dawn to get up there early. Was delayed by minibus taxis blocking the green light. Hurrah for private enterprise over public services! Got there though.

No cultists on a Monday. I found I somewhat missed them.

Thinking of my sibling who’s experiencing impaired vision due to COVID - a rare but not undocumented effect. Covid is real, it’s still here, and it’s still a serious disease. Holding thumbs.

June 26, 2022

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 09:28:59 +0000

I got to the mountain well early and got to see the first light hit Devil’s Peak. And yet I passed people coming down as I was going up. There’s a whole community of very fit people of all descriptions up there.

It’s nice being proper fit again. I think there’s a threshold of fitness beyond which most exercise becomes much more enjoyable - challenging rather than trying. But it’s not easy for most people to reach that in systems that relentlessly encourage sedentary living.

June 11, 2022

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 10:18:49 +0000

The memorial to ruthless imperialism and capitalism. Even sharks respect power - it’s a really basic thing to revere. It’s much more appropriate to a sophisticated primate to revere kindness and cooperation.

Well, at least people can enjoy the free public space and every generation of kids can ride the scaled down imitations of the Trafalgar Square lions - none of them thinking for a moment about a dusty old Victorian narcissist.

June 11, 2022

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 10:10:53 +0000

Despite having some expensive sunglasses ruined by the wind ripping them off my shirt and skidding them - lenses down - for 50m across a tarred road, the irritation I woke up with couldnt stand up to Table Mountain Park at dawn. This has to be among the best city parks on Earth.

I’m not quite fit enough to run up the steep mountainside to the “King’s Blockhouse” (a grandiose name for a very tiny little fort) so, since I was scrambling anyway, I could take my camera. I was remembering how this seemed like quite a big hike even as a teenager. I was clearly very unfit then.

June 08, 2022

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:26:09 +0000

The date palm at the confluence stands on a tiny island. About the only thing on that bank spared destruction by the diggers and dozers. A good thing too as the willow beneath the palm seems to be a nesting site for Night Herons. Hopefully the cranes will be hauled away as they begin to rust.

June 08, 2022

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:19:49 +0000

Dawn light on the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers where we do our bird count. Egyptian Geese fly by. The cranes behind the little undamaged island stand silent, hopefully haemorrhaging money into bankruptcy for a company that sought to wreck the place with the collusion of the city that ignored its own environmental impact assessment which declared that it was wholly inappropriate to build on this environmentally sensitive floodplain.