Autumn in Kommetjie

I hear that my friends have had lovely spring weather up in the north, but here in Kommetjie we have been experiencing autumn, the days are getting shorter and the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees to a chilly 18 or 19 degrees Celsius.  We've made fires on a few occasions already, and stocked the tins with ginger biscuits, because everyone seems to be feeling more peckish than usual.  I am wearing cardigans inside the house, because we don't have central heating in our homes here in South Africa.

The thing is that climate change has made our weather very unpredictable.  Here on the southern tip of Africa, we have a Mediterranean climate - dry summers with strong southeasterly winds and wet winters - but the southeaster has been blowing for the past two days, in autumn, when we are supposed to have still balmy days.  I have basil seeds that are sprouting in several pots, and a few sweetpeas will hopefully make it through the winter and grace us with their flowers in spring.

We are preparing for local elections on the 18th of this month here in South Africa.  Everyone aged 18 and over may vote.  This is a privilege that many people had been denied for several decades, but over the past 13 years the novelty of democracy seems to have worn off and many people don't vote.  The ruling African National Congress (ANC) had failed to deliver on promises of employment and education to the masses, but there is only one reasonably strong opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which appears to be mostly white and coloured.  The political clash is interesting because it pitches Jacob Zuma of the ANC against Helen Zille of the DA - black against white, male against female.  Several smaller parties are paticipating in these elections though, and they might weaken the opposition. The major issue is service delivery - many people in rural areas are still without tap water or adequate housing.