Snow seen.....

I believe it is the heaviest snow to have fallen in the area in twenty years. This was the view of iNhlosane and her mountains I awakened to this morning - and it was magnificent. The weather has however wreaked havoc with the local roads this week with the main N3 highway between Durban and Johannesburg having been closed since the heavy snow falls of Monday. We're simply not equipped to cope with this European type weather in these parts and the latest traffic reports spoke of a fifteen kilometre backlog of stationary traffic queued up at Van Reenen's Pass waiting for conditions to improve to continue on their journey. Stuck in sub zero temperatures, and totally unprepared for the enforced and unplanned stopover, my heart goes out to those poor drivers enduring this. I risked a drive out through the Dargle Valley closer to the mountains, and the iced over roads were treacherous - thank goodness for the quattro drive on my Audi - many other vehicles were slip-sliding across the slush and ice.

The rising sun reflected magically off the white of the snow capped hills, with the valley still sleeping in the early morning chill.

Paradise Road …

I have mentioned a couple of times how beautiful the autumn colours are in this part of the world, and at the risk of becoming boring, or repetitive … or both, I have a few more images that simply beg to be shared. Today’s shot is of the main road (imaginatively named Main Road) into Howick from the N3 highway Tweedie offramp. The trees lining the roadsides are the ubiquitous Liquidambar Styraciflua (imaginatively named Liquid Ambers ;-) which along with London Plane trees seem to thrive in the area. Natives of eastern North America these trees grow up to forty metres in height, and are sometimes incorrectly identified as Maples due to their very Maple like leaf shapes. The Latin name comes surprisingly not from their amber autumn colouring, but from the gum resin they yield which is a decidedly amber like substance when solidified; this also gives the tree its common American name of Sweetgum. The location of plants will cause some variation in the seasonal colouring which is partly affected by factors such as light conditions, watering and even wind, but there is also a wide variety of cultivars selectively propagated for their varying hues from burgundy through reds and oranges to pale yellow.

For a second time I was caught ‘parking’ in someone else’s driveway while I searched for just the right angle to shoot. Amazing – two autumn tree studies, two coincidental driveway blockings – my propensity to be in the wrong place at exactly the most inconvenient time is incredible. Hopefully the drive owners would concur – the image was worth the small inconvenience.