#southernwinter

Now THIS is how you spend a frigid evening. #winemakeseverythingbetter #winternights #fireplaceandagoodbook #southernwinter https://www.instagram.com/p/CaYeOpLMy7j/?utm_medium=tumblr

The Cape, unlike most of South Africa, gets nearly all its rain in the winter. This year the rains have come earlier than in 2018, when the drought was only broken in August; this time June saw the first significant rainfall, and the last week has seen 100 mm fall in 48 hours, with more in July. A normally dry stream bed on the way to our daughter’s house is now vibrant with the sound of gushing water, even though foliage and flowering shrubs are masking the flow. This is all very good news for water supply; less good news for the homeless, who seem to have lately increased in number. In the wasteland of District Six (where bulldozers have finally started to carve out some building sites) one can occasionally see a fire, where plastic sacks and oddments mark a bivouac, possibly for a whole family of indigents. Ed and Uma (not their real names), who used to live on the streets while they were addicts, say that in Cape Town you simply spend three months cold and wet, with little relief. When the sun is out, it seems you partially dry off and get down to tolerable dampness, just in time for the rain to start again ... and the temperatures do get down into single figures, which they are already doing at night, with two months of winter yet to come. Our church has started to hold a limited Sunday event back at the building; it is limited to fifteen at a time, without using the actual auditorium, and is only intended for those who cannot stream our online event. With the turn in the weather, we invested in a large Thermos flask and provided hot soup this week for the attendees to supplement the sandwiches. Even the volunteers manning the event expressed their delight! For some of the others, it could be the only hot meal they have had this week, and coming to our building the only two hours indoors (and dry) that one or two of them get. Uma is now working with a charity that reaches out to the addicts and homeless, and several days a week is risking her health going out on the streets, dispensing food, advice and hope.  She and Ed are examples to all of us.

Garden flowers and Devil’s Peak

Winter warmth

Hard to argue with this weather. #southernwinter #hipstamatic #lessonplans https://www.instagram.com/p/B8W7D3_Jig3/?igshid=1lini2otvmzhq

If only it would snow! 🥶⛸❄️#GvlToday #YeahThatGreenville #SouthernWinter #DowntownGreenville (at The Westin Poinsett) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7oFGZIjIdQ/?igshid=1i07j8nnokx9f

Pediu frio? Então toma!!rs #cold #southernwinter #couple 🧔🏽👦🏻❄️☃️🌲❤️

Because sometimes it's a ride bareback and watch the sunset kind of evening. #toohotforasaddle #awesomefence #sunset #southernwinter #tbmakeover2018 #liveyourfairytale #shefightslikeagirl