At this time of year John Keats’ wonderful poem never fails to spring to mind:

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core… (more)

What a great time to be in the Mother City!

I love these calm autumn days. The earth starts cooling down, the trees (and vineyards) put on a spectacular display of fiery defiance before at last succumbing to winter’s persuasive advances, and that bossy south-easter loses its mojo for a while.

And, with the crazy summer season behind us, we Capetonians get our city back for a while.

Gone are the hordes of tourists milling about in our favourite places and clogging up the roads to beloved hangouts like Kalk Bay.

At this time of year, too, many restaurants and guest-houses offer us locals ‘winter specials‘ – discounted off-season rates – making it possible for the less flush amongst us to indulge in a little bit of luxury without having to sell an important body part to do it.

In honour of these great specials, I have created a page right here on Mother City Living – a page for the Harbour House’s annual winter menu specials, Monkey Valley’s luxury accommodation deals (oh how I wish I’d taken advantage of that last time around), and anything else that find its way onto the MCL radar.

Hooray for Autumn!

If you hear of any specials (and feel like sharing), drop me a line (email: pia [at] mothercityliving [dot] co [dot] za) or leave a comment below and I’ll post it right here on MCL.

DISCLAIMER: Please use any event information as a guide only. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy thereof, things do change – and the best way to make sure something is definitely on is to contact the event organisers themselves. Full bells’n'whistles disclaimer here.