TO WHOM DOES CAPE TOWN BELONG?

I suppose it's fitting that my first blog since coming to live in Cape Town comes live from the Mowbray Town Hall where a Huma event, called "To Whom Does Cape Town Belong?", has just started. An interesting thing about this city is that events like these attract big numbers of people -- the hall is totally packed, and there are more black than white people in the audience. South Africa's recent history of xenophobic violence is going to feature prominently tonight: the first speakers are all making particular reference to how people from other African countries are treated here, and also how, for example, Sothos are regarded by Xhosas.

Now who, indeed, is a "true Capetonian"? There's no such thing as a true Joburger -- if you live there for 10 minutes you are a Joburger, end of story. That's not how many people in Cape Town think, though, the current speaker says, but it's changing. For example, 26 years ago, he points out, the vast township of Khayelitsha did not exist.

And right now the speaker is a Somalian refugee, a group of people who live without any protection or support in this city, and who, as small business owners, are especially vulnerable to xenophobic violence. When he and his fellow Somalians left their country, he says, they had an entirely different idea of South Africa than the one they encountered when they arrived here. As refugees under the South African Constitution they are entitled to state protection, but they do not receive it. (And five days ago Thabo Mbeki argued that the 2008 violence against foreigners was not inspired by xenophobia.) "I believe we do not belong to Cape Town," the speaker says. South Africans do not know why Somalians are in this country; they know nothing of the terrible conditions there; they don't even know where it is.

30 SECONDS WITH HUGH FRASER

HE's so famous, 30 seconds is all the time one gets with him. On a cold and terribly windy day late last year, we walked the High Line from West 12th Street northwards, Hugh with his Leica and I with my Flip. I've just pulled the clips from that day into Final Cut Pro, and edited Flip footage in FCP for the first time. It seems to have worked.

YESTERDAY I spent the first day of my 47th year by climbing Gaika's Kop -- the highest point around Hogsback, I think. It's steep, and the last stretch is an on-all-fours scramble not to get blown right off by the incessant wind up there. By the time we got back I felt 48. The second pic is of the view of the Tyume Valley from halfway up, and there's an arrow that points to the village where I go to school these days: Gcato Senior Secondary School, in Binfield.

IN CAPE Town last weekend, I spent time with my nephew, Simon, in his extremely cool bamboo house, which one reaches by climbing up a ladder and crossing a long bridge. Inside he stashes loot: a jewel-encrusted sword, a radio in the shape of a daisy, a pistol and a bell that alerts him to intruders. Later, we went to see "The Princess and the Frog": the princess is black, and when she kisses the frog, she turns into one herself; all set in New Orleans and featuring a vicious voodoo man. Take your children.

BOILING WATERFALL

AFTER more than 24 hours of solid rain, the waterfall at Pooh Corner has grown from a modest trickle to a raging gusher. Today we recover from cabin fever and from eating too much (which is the only thing one can do when one is trapped by the rain here), and from coping with two leaks in the roof. Yesterday afternoon, as the rain started lifting, I put on Wellingtons and the Muji raincoat Debra gave me years ago and slid down to the waterfall to take some photographs.

TODAY'S WALK

SORRY, but this is another of those today-we-did this entries. Well, today we went for a walk, the Back of the Moon walk; it takes about three hours, but we got hooked by some brambles and had to pick a hat-full of blackberries, so it took four. We left in big sunshine, and by the time we got home the entire mountain was enveloped in mist. The first two pics are of some of the landscape we walked through -- in the first pic you can see Tor Doone on the left and the Hogs on the right; then there's the "old white horse [that] galloped away in the meadow"; and then the hat-full of berries. Now, first I thought I'd make blackberry jam, but that seemed too involved and life is short, so tomorrow I'll make a crumble.

FLOWER STORIES

DURING a Skype chat with Piering and Bernard, we identified the drift of crocosmia below Pooh Corner. They are flowering everywhere on the mountain right now. And while we are on flowers, here is a pic of Neil's gorgeous water lilies at Damhoek, and one of Neil and Jonny admiring them.

THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER

HERE'S Jonny watching the sunset with the House at Pooh Corner in the background. A bit later we had dinner, and I watched him eat the lemon peels from the roast-chicken pot, then the mango skins, then the rosemary stalk, and then his and my chicken bones. Who needs a dog?