Haut Espoir

News – Environment: Cape starts mopping up after floods

hautespoir — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:28:18 +0000

The Liesbeeck River and the Lourens River in Strand overflowed on Sunday.

Worst hit areas were on the Cape Flats, where the water table is high and many of the shacks are built on seasonal wetlands.

“There is an informal settlement in Durbanville that has been severely hit and we are evacuating people now,” she said yesterday morning.

The city was providing disaster relief to residents at many informal settlements, including Masiphumelele, Solly's Town, Pholile Park, Masakhane. Lotus Park, Morkel's Cottages, New Rest, Ocean View and Overcome Heights.

While snowboarders are eagerly waiting for the forecast snow to fall, Didi Greeff of Matroosberg Nature Reserve said yesterday there was only a light dusting of

snow on the high peaks.

“But no snow on the ground,” she said.

Reinhard Geldenhuys, disaster manager for the Overberg, said 143 people from formal and shack settlements, had been forced to leave their flooded homes in Grabouw.

“They're being housed in the Gerald Wright Community Hall and we will reassess the situation later,” he said.

Lucinda Seigels from Stellenbosch Municipality's disaster management said they had evacuated 19 families from Jamestown informal settlement and about 25 families from the bridge near Cloetesville.

“We're accommodating some people in the sports complex and feeding others. There was also an earth farm dam that broke in the Klapmuts area, but it did not flood any houses,” she said.

Mariano Bernado from Sutherland, one of the coldest spots in South Africa, reported that the mercury had sunk to 2,9C on Sunday night, and by mid-morning had risen to only 3,2C.

It was raining lightly yesterday. The cold front moved up the Garden Route yesterday, where residents of George, Sedgefield and Knysna, who have had water restrictions since January, welcomed the rain.

Gerhard Otto, disaster manager for Eden District, said yesterday: “It's been very dry here so the rain is good news for us.

The George Dam is only 39 percent full so we're hoping it will start to fill up over the next few days.”

Sapa reports that Gail Linnow of the SA Weather Service in Cape Town said the weather office at the airport had recorded the second-highest rainfall for a 24-hour period in July since recording started in 1957.

“The station recorded 55.2mm for the 24 hours from 8am on Sunday to 8am today (Monday). The highest figure recorded for a 24-hour period in July was 61mm in 1985,” she said.

The record for a 24-hour period was 93.7mm, recorded at the airport in April 1993.

The weather office has forecast snow on Western Cape mountains over 2 000 metres, but not enough to close mountain passes.

via News – Environment: Cape starts mopping up after floods.

Franschhoek Hospice and Bastille

hautespoir — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:21:39 +0000

The Franschhoek Hospice is a great organisation that is near to our hearts here on the farm. Every year there is an annual wine and art auction, the best the Vignerons have to offer, with proceeds going to Hospice.

Were having a bit of pre-emptive strike this year for a good cause, incorporating the Storming of the Bastille, and Franshhoek Hospice. For every bottle sold at Haut Espoir Cellar Door on Tuesday 14th July, Bastille Day, we will donate 20% of sales from the day to the Franschhoek Hospice.

And weve got some seriosuly good deals running..check out Spit or Swallow for more..

Stunning Sunrise this morning in the Bo Hoek

hautespoir — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:01:55 +0000

TIMBER!

hautespoir — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:16:54 +0000

Here is a clip of some major tree felling. The tree in question was by some estimate close on a hundred years old, and unfortunately for it: was a Stone Pine ( not indigenous). I personally do not like cutting any tree down apart from Port Jackson, Wattles or young Blue Gums, but this particular specimen had to go. It was a massive tree and part of our ecosystem, but given the damage we have had to our dam recently and the heavy rainfalls we have been experiencing, add to that the propensity for this species to collapse in heavy winds…we decided to have it felled. Before it felled our winemakers house. Or into the road, which would have been disastorous for all our neighbours.

TIMBER

Pretty intense. Hear the hooter and the tires squealing? That is the bakkie being pulled backwards by the trees collapse. And no birds or nesting owls were harmed in the filming of this clip. Only my neighbours prize winning vineyard block. Shame.

Tagged: bakkie, birds, hooter, indigenous, owls, Tree Felling, winemaker

Caterpillar on a Daisy

hautespoir — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:14:52 +0000

This is following somewhat of a theme now… this is now the second creepy crawly I have seen on this same daisy species

Common Brown Water Snake

hautespoir — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:39:39 +0000

Just found this little beaut in the shed, wrapped into one of our empty bee hives for the winter. Apparently this is a nocturnal, aquatic snake that swims very well. It is a very shy harmless snake, unless you happen to be a tadpole, small frogs, fish or rodent!

And what a time to try out my new Macro lens from Orms. What a cracker.

Die Trots van Franschhoek

hautespoir — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:57:11 +0000

Serruria florida.

Spit or Swallow at Haut Espoir

hautespoir — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:40:13 +0000

Spit or Swallow at Haut Espoir.

Some sunshine finally

hautespoir — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:46:13 +0000

Well, not really, but it is trying. I came across this snap of a sundew. Going through some old photos, and trying my best to organise everything, not much else hitting the headlines right now. Picked up some new hard drives from Chris@Sytec who kindly delivered to the farm. Anyone ever in need of a great networking crew, give them a shout, they come highly recommended.

So I thought I would take a little botanical tangent here to the weather reporting. This little beauty is called a Drosera. In Afrikaans the name is a Snotroos. (Snot Rose) This is one of the most accurate descriptions I could think of for a member of the sundew family. ( Think Little Shop of Horrors…feed me Seymour!) So in honour of this amazing likeness to the big green godfather of Sundews…I call this little forest up in our fynbos area klein Audrey 2. These are amazing plants, our Cape examples are fortunately not as bloodthirsty as the godfather.. they dont have flowers that eat humans. What happens is a bug will land up getting caught in the snot, which then eats the bug by drawing the nutrition out. Grueseome, but Africa aint for sissies.

Heres some more scientific stuff: plantzafrica

Rain rain and wait for it…. more rain

hautespoir — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:44:38 +0000

This seems to be turning more and more into a weather reporting site…rather than the focus on day to day activities which I strove for in the beginning, however, as we do live and work on this fantastic little piece of heaven its only fair to report back on what we are dealing with on a day to day basis. And right now while the weastern cape is the throes of a moerse cold front, we are having to deal with abnormally heavy rains. Now as you will have seen the dam is well and truly buggered. Thankfully, because if todays deluge was anything to go by, we can only expect more over the next two days. Our dry store aint so dry anymnore, our wood pile is growing less and less by the day and the farms topsoil has now taken up permanent residence in Paarl. In fact most of our hardly worked for topsoil has probably hit the ocean by now.

But I doubt you will ever meet a farmer who does not complain. If the communication seems sporadic and the little voice from up here in the mountain has gone quiet…. please wont someone send up some serious booze, stop by La Cotte and Ludwig should know exactly what the medicine is.. we accept any decent single malt, or gin, as long as its not wine and can jump start a bakkie then it should suffice.

Now all we need is our power cable or borehole to pack it in and then were well and truly FUBAR BUNDIED. Google it.