Calm after the storm..

 

If you read my previous post, you already know we've been in for bad weather over the last days. Yesterday afternoon and earlier today we had a 'class 2' cyclone warning, which was lifted this afternoon.

'Dumile' was nearest to Mauritius at 1 o'clock this afternoon, about 300 km to the west. It gave off some great gusts at about 110 km/h / 68 miles/h and heavy showers. The highest rainfall recorded is about 95mm - very good for the reservoirs!   

 

satelitte imagery from www.wunderground.com



 

I took these photos at around the same time as 'Dumile' was nearest to us...

 

Dark and gloomy....

 

 

...gusts....

 

 

...and horizontal rainshowers...

 

 

We were lucky this time! French Reunion Island (next to us) wasn't that lucky; lots of damages and thousands of households without electricity.

 

I love these cloudy and windy days, such a wonderful change from the hot- and humid weather we usually have this time of the year.

 

 

 

Cyclone Dumile welcomes 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

 

As the subject line tells; 2013 is greeting us with nasty weather. I love it, because it's cooler! :)  

Cyclone #4 this season, named 'Dumile' is named and just off the Northeastern coast of Madagascar. Yesterday it was quasi stationary, but has now intensified to a severe tropical storm and is moving in a southwesterly direction. We thought it had taken the path through the Mozambique Channel - as they sometimes do when formed in this area - but it didn't want to do so! It's going at the Eastern side of Madagascar.

If you have a closer look at the map, Mauritius is the tiny island covered in yellow-orange clouds. To the left for us is the French Reunion Island.

Prediction for the next 5 days it will continue in the same direction and starts its U-turn on Thursday, which means we are in for bad weather over the next 3-4 days - still don't know if it will be a direct hit... Per this morning it will be a direct hit on Reunion Island - 5 days tracking prediction - but cyclones are rather unpredictable and can change direction any time... 

 

 Satelitte imagery from Wunderground.com

 

This is how it looks this morning.

The wind isn't that strong, gusts up to 80 km/h (49 miles/h) - meteo says.

 

Mountains to the west covered in clouds and fog

 

Corps du Garde covered in clouds

 

 

Not easy to take photos of moving branches, but I think you get an idea of the gusts...

 

 

A perfect day to snuggle up inside with a mug hot chocolate and just being lazy! :)

 

 

Cold and gray....

... it was this morning.

I'm out of bed early, most of the days long before sunrise. Sunrise today was at 06:26. I heard the mosque called for prayer one hour before sunrise. Shortly after the birds begin to wake up. It's a public holiday here today; the Muslims are celebrating EID al-Fitr. I can hear the difference from a business day and public holiday / weekend - less traffic on the road, people who rush to work, or those who rush to the bakery buying bread before their kids have to go to school etc - they don't have to rush today...  

Pristine quietness.

Half an hour after sunrise I went on the porch to take these photos...

Gray... rain in the air....

The birds coming to our trees for their breakfast...

How talkative they are! :)

The palm leaves are shiny wet...

... and while I was admiring the beauty of the palm leaves, I discovered our avocado tree is in full bloom! As I can recall, it had a few flowers last season too, but nothing came out of it... I LOOOVE avocados and hope there will be some this season - at the beginning of next year...

(click on the photo for better view). 

The bottle brush trees are in bloom too...

It was a cold and gray morning...

The fog, rain, birds...

made my day!

Happiness! 

Pristine day...

Solitude.



I woke up this morning...

... to an amazing sky...

We had quite some rain during Easter and still there are local showers.

Before Easter we did quite a lot in the garden; weeding, trimming branches etc, which was long overdue after the hot and humid summer. I'm always grateful for what I do in the garden when the weather allows it, because here you never know when it rains! :)

After the rain....

February has been extremely hot and humid, with temperatures up to 36C / 96.5F along the west coast. I shouldn't whine, but with +32C / 92F halfway on the plateau and add 80-85% humidity... Yes, it is way too hot and humid for me!

Some days ago we had such a nasty, yet such a wonderful days; RAIN - and the temperature fell with about 6 degrees - WONDERFUL!

I love to take photos in our garden. Flowers and leaves look amazing and different in the rain... like they are smiling...  Here I have captured some of the plants after they got wonderful showers.

Our latest addition to our garden; Ixora Coccinea - known as 'Jungle Flame'.
The genus 'Ixora' was named by Linnaeus referring to species originating from India which was dedicated to the god 'Iswara'. The Old Indian for master, lord was turned into 'Ixora'.
(An Illustrated Guide to the Flora of Mauritius & Indian Ocean Islands - Ameenah Gurib Fakim)

Callistemom Citrinus - 'Bottlebrush' flowers

No idea the name of this one.... There are several plants with almost the same flowers...

Glittering and silvery banana leaf...

Caladium Bicolor - lovely colorful leaves.

Even a dry seed pod looks different after the rain...

'Pistache Malgasche' (known as this name by the locals)

It looks like we're in for a sunny day today (Sunday), but perhaps more rain next week. This is what the satellite imagery shows this morning.

If you don't know where Mauritius is situated; the island to the right (in the middle of the blue ocean, see photo). The tiny, tiny dot to the right (on the line) is Rodrigues and to the left of us; Reunion Island (French). As you can see, Madagascar is covered in clouds.

(Synoptic chart from MMS - Mauritius Meteorological Services)

Tropical Cyclone 'Giovanna'

'GIOVANNA' is the 7th cyclone in the west Indian Ocean this season and the second one to affect Mauritius.

We were worried about a direct hit, but fortunate the center ('eye') passed about 250 km North of us, yesterday (Sunday 12th) at around midday.
Today - Monday 13th - 'Giovanna' is moving towards Madagascar and is expected to make landfall late night...

Satellite image from www.wunderground.com 

View through the window this morning (Monday 13th).

We all expected 'Giovanna' to pour out rain, which we badly need, but it didn't...

We had gusts up to 100km/h / 62 miles/h.

Not easy to capture the wind on photos, but if you notice the palm leaves, you'll get an idea. 

I managed to pull those heavy pots as near the baluster as possible, so they could get some of the rain. Had a look at them today; they look so happy! :)

Palm- and banana leaves waving in the wind.

How boring is it on a rainy and windy day???

Here they are waiting (im) patiently for a pancake each! :)

A couple of days before the rain set in, we had such beautiful cloud formations and sunset. It's usually like this before a cyclone hits.

I'm a bit late in posting (Tuesday 14th). The I-net connection has been very slow the last days.

We seem to be in for another cyclone in some days... there's a forming southeast of Diego Garcia, northeast of us...

Tropical cyclone tracking map by www.wunderground.com

Let's hope for more rain to fill up the reservoirs!

 

It's winter in Mauritius

Yes, it is winter!

I'm sure you'll be thinking; 'hm... winter in a tropical island, that's not possible'! It is possible, but ofcourse it is not what I'm thinking of when I hear the word 'winter'. The locals say 'winter', but to me - who is used to real winter with snow and darn cold - find it ridiculous! I'd rather say 'the cooler season'.

The 'coldest' months are July & August, when the temperature drops 10 degrees or so; from about 34-35C/93F on the coast / +30-32C/87F inland to +26-27C/80F / +19-21C/68F and during the nights it can go as low as +8C/47F in certain places. Earlier this week we had +14.5C/58F one morning and when the humidity shows 80-90%, it feels so cold! We also get the 'winter-rain', which means rain and sun every second hour or so... At least it feels like that! :) During the 'winter' season we get wind from the Antarctic too - brrrrr! I'm freezing! Love to warm my fingers and body on a hot mug of tea with cardamom! And I'm wearing wool socks and wool sweater! Do you believe me?! :))

We're living halfway up on the plateau and therefore more exposed to rain. This is how it looked like this early morning... gray with rain...

...and when the sun was shining I spotted this amazing rainbow....

Rain! Rain! Rain! Wet! Wet! Wet! We need rain! The reservoir - Mare aux Vacoas - is down at 30% of its full capacity.

Don't know if you have spotted the flowers to the left? The neighbor has a big Datura in their garden, with apricot colored flowers.

Meet 'Henrietta the 2nd'!

She has become kind of 'pet' now. She lives just outside our kitchen window and I have to check every morning if she's still there! It shouldn't be any reason why she shouldn't, because these spiders rarely leave the web for the ground. I have noticed she is most active before noon. I've seen her hunting other insects and today she was busy repairing her web. I think you can see the 'thread' from her belly if you click on the pic to enlarge. Amazing!

You may wonder why on earth I have given the spider a name?! Well, I do not suffer arachnophobia, but I kind of don't like any kind of insects inside our house. Well, spiders are not insects though, but still........ Our first 'Henrietta' was another kind of spider that comes inside looking for small insects to eat. 'Henrietta #1' stayed in our bedroom for some days and it felt a bit more safer after giving it a name - lol! I know it sounds very silly, but that's part of me in a nutshell! :))

Did you miss this comedy/horror film with Jeff Daniels? :)) Hilarious!

Clouds at dawn

Have you ever noticed how fascinating and amazing clouds can be? Do you ever look up into the sky to admire the clouds, or are you too busy for that?

Clouds are so inconstant, and there is never clouds that look the same - they are all different.

It took me some years to discover the beauty of clouds. It must have been something latent in me; after reading Donald Duck & Co from the year I learnt to read. :))

I remember Chip'n Dale - the two squirrels - once were looking at the clouds, because they didn't want to be outside when the rain set in. Dark clouds appeared while they were watching, and suddenly they noticed a huge cloud that looked like a watering pot - and guess what - it poured out litres of water so the poor squirrels had to run hiding in a tree! :)

Perhaps it was this cartoon I remember so very well when thinking of and watching the clouds?!

I have taken some shots at dawn, which I'm going to share with you today.

(You can click on the photos to enlarge them).

Cloud's reflection on the sea - you can see the horizontal line separating the ocean from the sky, can't you?

Montagne Corps de Garde (720m / 2362 Feet).



Morning glory over town.

Isn't it amazing how clouds change within a few minutes....

These three views are facing Northwest.

The next three views are facing Southwest.

Fascinating how the clouds and color change from one direction to another..



Morning glory to the west; facing Montagne du Rempart (777m / 2549 feet) and Trois Mamelles (632m / 2073 feet).

Montagne du Rempart.

Tree's silouette to the Southwest.

All photos taken February 26, 2011 - at dawn.

I've been busy sewing too, take a look here.

The Rainy- and Cyclone Season

Humans always talk or whine about the weather, don't we? I have yet to meet one person who is 100% satisfied with the weather 12 months in a year! When I settled here in the tropics, I had the fixed idea the inhabitants never complained about the weather - how wrong was I?! Mauritians whine as much about the weather as anyone else! :)

I grew up on a farm, where the weather - in the summer - always had an impact on harvesting whatever we had, especially during the autumn harvest; potatoes, oats and barley. If the fields were too wet, not only the grains were wet, it made difficulties for the harvester too. For me; that's all history.

After living here for almost 8 years, I have noticed February is the "worst" month of the year, when it comes to heat and humidity. A couple of days (Sunday) ago Le Morne (Southwest) had +34.4C / 93.9 F and Port Louis (the capital) +34C /93.2F. We are living halfway on the plateau, where it is always cooler; +29.7C / 85.4F. Add 90-100% humidity and almost calm; you get the idea! Suffocating! As far as I know, this is the hottest day so far this season. Our poor dogs and cat didn't know where to find the coolest place!

After such a hot and humid day, we were not surprised having a couple of "terrific" thunderstorms yesterday! Mauritians use to say "there's something wrong" when it's calm, because being an island it always blows here.

It's not easy to photograph the rain, but if you click on the photos, you'll see it better.

Rainwater pouring down the trunk of the coconut tree.

Fresh leaves of the passion fruit tree enjoying the rain (I believe!) :)

 Passion fruit leaves.

Rainwater pouring down the trunk of the bottle palm.



Filao tree with its long needles and cones glittering with raindrops after the rain.

Raindrops on Tristellateia leaves.



I would have loved going out in the hot, tropical rain taking more photos, but my camera is not waterproof - not a good idea after all!

Unstable weather today too, and we don't know how the tropical disturbance Northeast of the island evolves the next 24 hours.

An update; tropical cyclone "Bingiza" - as I mentioned here - killed 15 people and made 85000 homeless in Madagascar! (Le Matinal - February 22nd 2011)