Fire season

A plume of smoke rises over the Kogelberg mountains on the other side of False Bay where a fire has been raging for the last three days, although I hear that it is under control now. Fires are raging all around us and the weather is scorching hot and windless. The fynbos vegetation of the Cape is adapted to fire, but too-frequent fires caused by arsonists can be too much of a good thing even for the fynbos.
In the foreground, on the slopes of Muizenberg (part of Table Mountain) you can just see the circular monument that marks the grave of Abe Bailey, one of South Africa's mining magnates or Randlords who made his fortune in the early gold and diamond mining days in South Africa. He was a great benefactor of sport and the arts. Bailey's Muizenberg house, Rust en Vrede, was originally intended for his friend, Cecil John Rhodes, but Rhodes died before it was built.

Some Kalk Bay local vandals seem to have a sense of humour! (The original brass plaque long since stolen.)