Variables and Contrasts

With all the hype about Global Warming and Climate change it is amazing how many leaders, who have the power to implement positive change urgently, are still sitting on the fence and waiting for irrefutable proof.
Just a look at our weather forecast tonight gives an idea that something wacky is going on. (Excuse the tatty pic taken from the TV screen)
3 major cold fronts have swept through the southern part of the country in the last few days, leaving Capetown reeling under severe flooding and snow on all the southern and eastern mountains. (And as if it’s not bad enough for them another cold front is on its way tomorrow.) There are huge seas running, with swells of over 5 m, and gale force winds are forecast again tomorrow. Then we move to the north east coast, and there they are having dry hot days with raging veldt fires all over!
And of course spare a thought for our friends in large parts of the UK who are also battling with terrible flooding.
On the lighter side of things, I love this pic that a friend e-mailed me last week, the latest trend in England!

In PE we often find that days which start misty turn warm later, and cold crisp days bring a peculiar clarity to the air. We experienced both last week!
On Monday we woke up to this lovely misty outlook.
By 5.15 it was already getting dark, but it was a lovely warm day.
Fast forward to Friday, after the first cold front had already swept through and the 2nd was just arriving….
K took these photos from upstairs in Croick Cottage, the air was so amazingly clear that Saint Croix island, 18km away was as clear as a bell.

Usually it is quite hard to spot across the bay. Here is a google map to show how it is positioned in relation to us.
Don’t you just love this one, with the sun beaming down like a spotlight!

NOW AND THEN:
This is Albany Road, which is in the Valley we overlook when we look across the park and down onto the street below. There is a rocky cliff edge at the end of the carpark which you see so often in my photos, and below it is the old fire station building, now used as business premises.

Here is a panoramic view of the bay, taken from the edge of the cliff, next to the old Erica School Building. (The dome on the right is part of the old fire-station.) click if you need to see any of these pix bigger.
Here is the road in 1939, (You can see the Erica school on top of the hill. On the left is St Pauls church which was demolished in the 60s and replaced with business premises)
again in 1980 (the fire station was in use then, and there are still bare cliffs behind it)
and last week, (with much more vegetation.)

Since we are speaking about global warming, here is a bonus, but worrying, now and then:

Kilimanjaro, despite being on the equator, is so high that it has a permanent ice cap. Well, to be accurate, it DID have one. It is really sad to see what has happened to those glaciers.....

1930

1974

2000

2001...... And still the powers that be sit back and debate whether we really have a problem! Humph!