Autumn in the air

Everyone has been in rather a bad mood lately with lots of talk of greed and corruption and the Z-word followed by some bad language. So we were very happy to get out onto the mountain on Sunday with Sue and Honey and Siobhan from New Mexico (but originally from South Africa). Siobhan has two dogs but they are in the USA and couldn't come today.

It was a lovely warm autumn day, and I even found some water under the dry and dusty ferns and sedges. Can you spot the Scot?

The food lady also found some flowers - a late blooming Rooibergpypie (Tritoniopsis triticea) -

and the dead snowflake head of a Dilatris.

We walked from the carpark up the hill then down to the dam - (this is Siobhan's photo of me, Honey, Sue and the Phood Lady - many thanks!)

where we had tea and a few swims with the rest of Cape Town who had decided to come and picnic up here. You can see Sue, Siobhan and the Alph.

There were lots and lots of dogs.

Poor simple Lad was quite overwhelmed, or ubertudled as Norbert says.

and I had lots of Scottie-wades (we don't, as a rule, really like it when our feet are not touching the ground). This and the next photo are also from Siobhan.

Lad wishing he had the courage to launch into the water too.

Honey was happy to stay at Sue's feet.

And I went to look for treats from all and sundry.

Our German Pointer neighbours, Lily and Thembie, also arrived for a swim. At home we normally shout and swear at each other, but today, out on the mountain, we were best friends.

We then came home down the Riverwalk,

with some harbingers of autumn, Oxalis polyphylla, for the Food Lady to photograph.

Then it was back in the car

and home for a relax and a bite of breakfast for me 'n the Lad,

and gees and tees for the rest. (This photo of the Alph and the FL and the one of me stretching out above are also Siobhans.) So all in all, a lovely morning.

Hark hark, the Scottie dogs do bark

Come on dudes - time to wake up!

We are all waiting ...

At long last we arrived on Fish Hoek beach for the Scottie Walk. This time last year the Food Lady was hobbling around on a broken foot and this year it is Mac and Kenzie's mom's turn.

But no time for commiserating and admiring Mac's beautiful red bow tie - or Estea in her cricket whites -

 we were all most anxious to get walking.

There were puppies (eeeuw), like this one called Bonnie,

and lots and lots of crazy Scotties - this is Emma -

as well as other dogs that Lad and Harvey were keen to get to know better even if the sentiments were not returned.

One of the humans was even wearing a kilt.

I was wearing my bandana from Renate - Hamish and Findlay's mom,

as were several others. (This photo from Jenny-Lynne Brown Mynhardt.)

The highlight of the walks are the treats that get handed out!

Lad and one of his many loves, Lily.

but watch out Lad, these are just three of Lily's big brothers and sisters.

The Food Lady with me - I am not sure why I was on the lead but maybe the Food Lady thought I would wander off and get lost again. Sometimes I just can't help it. My nose just leads me astray. (Photo by Jenny-Lynne Brown Mynhardt from the Scotties Cape Town Facebook page.)

Then we bumped into Storm who we used to walk with at Wynberg Boys High School,

and her sister Sandy. It was good to say hello to them again.

All too soon we were at the end of the walk. Waiting to say goodbye and to collect donations for the charity of the walk, Tin Can Town, were Angus and Baillie with their humans, Melanie and Le Roux,

and my friend, old Mac who had a sore foot today as he has a torn toenail and had to have it in a plastic bag to keep it dry. Like me, he enjoys his snacks.

Angus and Baillie with Melanie and Le Roux, Snippie with Irene and Mac with Pam.

We then went to see Omie Domes and discovered that Maddie had been quite badly bitten in the stomach by the next door dog and had just come back from the hospital with a fancy pink bandage on. Tomorrow she needs to go for an operation so we are all sending her lots of doggy support vibes.

I spent the rest of the morning shouting rude names at the next door dog on Maddie's behalf.

Dogs, dolerite dykes and goodbye to Norman

Last Sunday there was no walk as the Food Lady and the Alph had a 60th birthday party in Camps Bay, followed by a wake for Paddington and Rupert's human granddad, Norman Rodseth, at the Rodseths home. When Paddington had finished swimming in the pool he helped Arti light candles

which they floated on the pool for Norman. Apparently, ancient Norwegians used to set fire to boats and send them out onto the sea to liberate the dead person's spirit and Arti's candles were to symbolize setting Norman's spirit free.

By the end of the evening, the whole pool was filled with floating lights.

Then on Tuesday it was a public holiday (Human Rights Day that commemorates a terrible massacre of South Africans by the police in Sharpeville in 1960) and we decided to hit the beach at Llandudno where dogs are only allowed until 9 am.

While I explored the nooks and crannies in the great granite boulders, keeping a wary eye on the cold cold sea,

the crazy Lad found lots of friends to frolic with.

Such a lovely day.

My "own god", the Alph.

Come on you lot! Lets explore up here.

We found another little cove called Logies Bay beyond the main beach as the witching hour of 9 am drew close,

just below a human poo farm. And as you know, I do so love poo.

Laddie pretending to be a dassie in Logies Bay. The Food Lady was wondering about the origin of the name Logies Bay as she thought it might be Scottish, but it seems more likely to be a Muslim name as all these coves and ravines were refuges for runaway slaves and Muslim leaders who had been arrested for anti-slavery uprisings in the Dutch East Indies and brought to the Cape as punishment.

The Food Lady remembered coming here with her Museum Club kids many years ago to examine the interesting dolerite dyke that is exposed in amongst the granite. The Alph and Lad stood on the dolerite for a photo, 

but I was more interested in the smelly kelp and dead fish and the odd chicken bone in amongst the flotsam and jetsam around it.

"Did you get a good photo Phood Lady?"

We then walked back up through the sedges (Ficinia nodosa),

and Grysbietou (Osteospermum incanum subsp incanum)

up and over,

and up some more. I see the Lion's Head!

The Food Lady wants to live in this house on the beach.

And me and Lad wanted to live in this one. Lots of lizards to chase!

The rest of Tuesday was fiercely hot - even if the garden thinks its autumn - and we all spent the day in the shade under the pergola, finishing off with a lovely braai.

And where was our bestieBostie all this time? He was spending a working long weekend with his mom.

Ok, blog done. Time to lick the braai grid now. Yummm.