Not much to report today other than these small happenings:

* Jess had a really big bug on her forehead at Kirstenbosch. I said as much and reached out to get it – she panicked, shook head quite violently, all the while saying, in a rather high pitched voice, I don’t know if you’re joking or not. I was not.

* I put in a lot of effort into making a picnic for us to take to Kirstenbosch. We had chosen a spot on the grass by the time I realized I had left it behind. Our friend Kerry said she’d run down to get it. But we had to explain that it was not in the car – it was on the kitchen counter. I needed a moment to get over it, and then Kit and I made our way slowly (because Kit walked some of the route) back to Vida (we had already made one stop there for a coffee and a croissant).

* Kerry and her Gemma (just shy of six months’ old) came with us to Kirstenbosch. When I was finally back from Vida with the goods (a toasted zaam, banana bread and mango strips), we spoke a little about how with some friends – even close ones – you never really know what’s going on in their lives because they won’t tell you. Kerry said that even when she tells herself she’s not going to tell anyone (for the same reason everyone tells themselves this – fear of vulnerability, judgment … to try keep up with appearances), she doesn’t manage it. One minute later she’s all, “Do you know what happened to me…”

I adore that about her. In those stories, she tells me, again and again, that it is safe for me to share mine.

* I’m never quite sure which wind is blowing, only that it is. If it is blowing, we mostly bet on Clifton 4th but this afternoon we found a small nook of stillness at Beta – the water so clear and so cold. The first two photographs come from there.

* The third photograph is from our courtyard after the wind had had its way with our bougainvillea for the whole weekend. That sounds oddly sexual but I’m leaving it like that.