When it's not raining, it's pouring....

Not the most wonderful photo to post on my first time back on Pretoria Daily Photo after a LONG break - I posted it for the following reason...

This particular Plectranthus ecklloni bush is flowering for the first time in the 5 and a half years we have been living here in Pretoria. Normally by this time of the year - late summer - it would have been sunburnt and shriveled to half its size. Now it is standing at full height (about 1 and a half metres) and is sporting beautiful spires of mauve flowers - this bears testament to the cool and very rainy weather we have been having.
Gauteng, in general, has had a deluge of rain since the beginning of the year.
So far in Pretoria we have had just under 300mm for February alone, and this includes 2 flash floods (on the 4th of February we received 180mm of rain, and some parts of Pretoria got as much as 200mm!).
Link: Rain chaos in Gauteng

Yesterday Johannesburg received the worst of the rain, and there are still people (including a 20 month old toddler) missing after being swept away by flood water. Click here for the latest about the rain in the news.

For more info on Plectranthus click here

So hello from me....from a not-so-sunny South Africa!