Flight Formation

On the Lula walk early this morning. Was fascinating watching about eight cormorants having a confab, and then taking off in batches - extra of the take-off. 

That's Monsaraz on its hill in the background, on the other side of our Lake, hazy with the heat and the Saharan dust we've had for the last couple of days, and four more to go. Then temperatures go down a little, but shoot up again next Friday - 40C (104F) is predicted. And it's only June. It's been around 8 degrees above daily average for a while now.

These sort of temperatures aren't really liveable - unless you have a well insulated house, or air con. We have air con, but not at night - batteries not enough to cope all night. So we get outside and do as much as we can for as long as we can stand it, and then come inside in the dark until it cools off a bit - at around 10pm, it gets bearable again.

Gratefuls:
- talking to my sister and coming up with alternatives for her, and other sister and niece's visit; they're not coming all the way from Florida to spend their days inside in the dark!
- more hacking at our overgrown and now desiccated garden
- Mike draping the house with shade cloth, looks like a Christo installation