I see skies of blue, clouds of white.

I looked out the window today and saw clouds for the first time in months - I think April was the last time they made an appearance here.  Today they have made their debut again.  Big, white, giant ones billowing across the sky in every direction.   Ones that you can contemplate and visualize into designs and pictures.  There are whisps of the fluffy stuff that hint at more to come.  Scudding with the wind, the clouds hide the sun for a bit. In front of the sun now, they light up in a luminescent shine with a silver edge. And what is that I see!! Shades of grey in some of the more cumulus ones - could rain be on the way? I can hardly wait!  (A note posted here six hours after first writing this - unfortunately those clouds went out to sea without shedding a tear. We will have to wait patiently for the rainy season - a temperamental event subject to no shows and cancellations in the land of sand).

Still on the topic of weather: I think winter has officially arrived - and for those of you raising your eyebrows - it's about as winter as we can get right now.  Not quite like winter in the southern states of the USA, or even those South African winters that everyone groans about when tempeatures dip into the freezing range at night, and you have to don an extra sweater or two, and maybe you can't swim for a few months.  And definitely!! not like our Canadian winters where car doors freeze, and earmuffs are de rigueur for months on end, and snow shovels sit at front doors in eager anticipation.....noooo, not quite like that.    

Temperatures are cooler and now hovering around the 25 to 32 degrees celsius range.  The humidity is history, at least for now; and the garden flowers are no longer wilting in the blazing heat.  I can walk in the midday sun without worrying about dehydration.  Everyone is getting in on the act - we see signs of winter at the souqs and malls where stores are hauling out the winter woollies and coats, no less!   I have to give my head a shake: coats?, woollen jackets? hats?, thick stockings??? What are they thinking?! 

Perhaps it's because we are tough Canadians, but I really don't see that I am going to use woollens, coats, hot water bottles, and even the much advertised heaters in the near future.  Perhaps I'm wrong...although I'm betting that winter here is hardly the real deal. 

What a Wonderful World! - Louis Armstrong said it best.