Spring has sprung, but chaos abounds

The brightness of an orange gazania

Although the mountains around the city still have their layer of snowy icing covering their peaks, today the sky is clear and cloudless, a pristine blue. The sun is shining and the first coucal of the season has been warbling since dawn. The robin is sounding particularly chirpy this morning and even the boubou has been issuing a chirrupy mating call. The guinea fowl are at it all over the garden, much chasing which lasts until he finally catches her, hops on and it's all over in a second. Seems hardly worth all the running, doesn't it!

Guineas at the pond

All around there is the sense of things waking and stretching into life. The trees are already sporting new lime green leaves and the rock rose has suddenly burst into a profusion of pink flowers.

Thank goodness, it's been a long, cold and wet winter with an uncharacteristic amount of snow.

Sunlight on Hibiscus

Meanwhile the rest of the world seems to be falling into disarray. I read that the UK might now be expecting a depression rather than a recession. The US seems to be in a state of both financial and political turbulence. Here, government appears to be falling apart. Thabo Mbeki has been asked to resign following on "political conspiracy" in attempting to bring Jacob Zuma to trial on corruption charges. Although widely reported that said charges have been dropped, they haven't, but the process used against him was declared unlawful - the allegations of corruption stil stand. Meanwhile, it seems we're about to find ourselves leaderless while major divides within in the ANC (long overdue, frankly) are really shaking things up.

Sitting here with plans to move the UK early next year, we're suddenly wondering what to do. Face economic turmoil there, or stay and deal with political and economic turmoil here (not to mention the incessant crime and violence and affirmative action). Ho hum, eh?

Yes, well perhaps it is just best to focus on spring afterall.

West Coast daisies