It’s boiling hot in Joburg this week. But I’m in a winter wonderland in Colorado.
My best friend Claire lives in Colorado Springs and I’m visiting her, between visits to Washington D.C., Baltimore, Taos, Santa Fe, and Middlebury. It’s a long trip, happening right as autumn changes to winter, which means this year I’m kind of having 2Winters instead of 2Summers.
Dear Jon,
I wanted to do something to recognize your birthday. You would have been 47 today.
Two years ago, on the Sunday before your birthday, you took me to the top of Northcliff Ridge at sunset. We gazed down on a sea of blooming jacarandas and watched the sun drop behind the ridge in a red-orange blaze of glory. That was a really happy day for us.
Remember three days ago, when I was sitting on the porch in my pajamas at 7:30 a.m.? Those days are gone.
SNOW. Like, real snow. In South Africa.
As the South Africans say, “Sho!” (Roughly meaning, “Wow!”)
From the Melville Cat:
This afternoon I was sitting on the roof of the Lucky 5 Star, as I often do.
This is me, Smokey, on the roof.
Johannesburg has a unique meteorological phenomenon. I don’t know if there is a technical name for it. Jon called it “After-the-Rain”.
After-the-Rain happens the day after an overnight rain storm. The rains thunder through, clearing the dust and pollution from the atmosphere. The next day the sky is piercing, neon blue and full of cottony clouds. The clouds float across the sky in 3D and pile up along the horizon, layer over layer.