the kiepersols will see you now
Visiting Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on a cloudy day.
This midweek visit to Cape Town's botanical gardens is more pedestrian, less grandiose than a pilgrimage. A spiritual obligation of sorts though, yes – almost akin to churchgoing or plunging into a tidal pool.
I came to Kirstenbosch as a child, sucked on sherbet liquorice at the tearoom. I came here at 24, for the lunch where my mom would meet my ex-boyfriend properly for the first time (we weren't exes then; I had moved on from sherbet to shakshuka). I came here for sunset concerts, picnics, walks. And there is a brief (but I think rather wrenching?) scene in my novel, The President, set here.
None of that was on my mind as we walked there this time – no memories scudding over, no fictional flashbacks. Just – mountain-cradled breathing room, a steadfast holding above the city.
