African sunrise.

Looking out of my front door at about 6 am yesterday I saw the beginning of a beautiful sunrise. The sun would only show above the horizon at +/- 6:52 am, but the sky was already starting to glow.

Click to enlarge.

Stopped at the spot where the farm road enters the main road to town. Took this photo looking south east at about 6:35 am.

Pulled off the road about 1 km from town and saw this cloud formation in the west turning a rosy pink as the sun rays lit it up from the east.

Looking south east.

And another day about to be born. 

Evening walk.

There are some evenings when I'm just not in the mood to go for a walk, then I look at the bright eyed, expectant faces of my four dogs and I know I can't let them down. They enjoy it so much and I'm never disappointed. 

The first thing I spotted was this amaryllis lily in the distance, made a long detour over some very wet and muddy terrain to get to it. It stood out like a bright beacon in the green grass.

Click to enlarge.

Amaryllis lily's, (not really a lily) are native to South Africa but have established them selves in many other countries where similar conditions occur.

Amaryllis grow very well indoors in pots.

A heron heading home after a busy day at the office.

An eagle (?) against the clouds.

Mother goose leads her brood of seven Egyptian goslings to safety. (count carefully, there are seven).

And last but not least, this little beauty hidden in the grass. A perfect little wild flower, not much bigger than my thumb nail.

Look up, look down, look all around, God's beauty surrounds you.

Last look.

The sun taking a last look through a hole in the clouds yesterday before heading of to do duty further west.


Click to enlarge. 

Half moon and vagaries of the weather.

Last night the Italian Leprechaun and I had one of our regular "braais", (BBQ). This is when we open a few beers, chew the fat, (literally and figuratively), and generally solve the Worlds problems. The sky was overcast but it did not look like rain, suddenly - it took only a few minutes - the clouds disappeared and the moon became visible. I grabbed my camera and took a few photos.


Click on photos to enlarge.

Just as fast as the clouds disappeared they gathered again.

The photo above has a hazy, almost halo effect around the moon due to the rapidly gathering clouds. These two photos were taken minutes apart. Within minutes it was completely overcast and it started to rain. We carried our BBQ equipment onto the far edge of the veranda and lit the fire. 


It's 09:45 am and still raining and cold, just letting us know winter is on it's way.

Over the past weekend we have had some very stormy weather, with 50mm, (2") of rain measured. The first half of summer in Northern KZN has been quite dry and now in the second half we seem to be making up with lots of rain. The changeable weather has provided some very interesting cloud formations.

The photo above was taken at about 6 this evening.

Golden lining.

Sometimes clouds have a golden lining.

Took this photo at about 6:40 on Wednesday evening.

Last light.

Took these photos a couple of evenings ago. 


Click on photos to enlarge.

T

The clouds above just caught the last rays of the setting sun.

Almost gone, a few minutes later it was completely dark.

Dramatic sky.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Cold front 2.

I was right about the cold front, temperature tomorrow will range from minus one to a maximum of 12 degrees Celsius. To some of you in the northern hemisphere, this might not seem very cold, but to us here in this part of Natal this is positively Artic weather. This cold weather will persist until next week Thursday.


Took this photo of the same cloud formation, as in the earlier post, now pointing, west, north west. 

Looks like an arrow pointing at the heart of the country. Harbinger of bad news but beautiful non the less.

If you painted something like that, it would be called kitsch. But when God does some finger painting, it can't be beat.

Cold front

Took the dogs for a walk this morning. While sitting on the dam wall of the bottom dam I noticed this cloud formation to the south. This type of cloud, at about 30,000 feet, always means an approaching cold front.

Strange how bad weather always times itself to coincided with the approaching weekend! Not that it bothers me at the moment, I still have two and a half weeks holiday left. Can already feel a drop in temperature, 16h00.