My Life's Winding Roads: June and the onset of winter, eventually 👏

My Life's Winding Roads: June and the onset of winter, eventually 👏: Good morning family and friends. Seeing as today is the 1st of the month, I thought I would surprise you all with an early post 😉.  Winter ...

June and the onset of winter, eventually 👏

Good morning family and friends. Seeing as today is the 1st of the month, I thought I would surprise you all with an early post 😉.  Winter has finally arrived in the Western Cape, not as cold as I would like but it is here.  I said this morning,  out of all the different towns and homes I've lived in, in some of the coldest places of this country, I have only lived in one house that had a fireplace, which didn't work properly.  Ho Humm.  Now we have an awesome stove in the fireplace and it's not as cold 🥲.

Where has this year gone and on the other hand so much has happened that it seems New Year was forever ago.  May, as usual was a busy month, busy it seems is the new normal.  

JB and I went through twice to Hout Bay to assist with and babysit little BabyBear a.k.a. the Prince, Munchkin. He is growing so fast and reaching milestones so that every visit there is something new.  Now that he is crawling he is everywhere and yet stops as soon as he hears "no, shoo shoo, nee" (at least he doesn't laugh at my Afrikaans 😂) . It is hard to believe that in 4 days he will be 10 months old.  With each visit we have had the best time of fellowship with both BigBear and MamaBear. We are off again this weekend coming, yippee.

The rest of the family are all doing well. Hubby is out sailing today and as always busy with clocks.  One that he is working on was made in the 1700's.  Princess has had flu (more than once 😥), Poppet had some good news and moving around at work which is what she had prayed for. Big Guy has had a challenging month as his car (which is old) died over Easter. The timing belt had snapped and damaged the engine.  It took until this week to be repaired and delivered back to him. Then his company laid off some staff, of whom he was one. He negotiated a severance package and is currently looking everywhere for a new job. We are all standing with him in prayer. Then to top it off, he  had been given notice that the owner of his apartment wanted to sell 🤦‍♀️.  Good grief... his rental agent found another apartment which he viewed on Friday. He was in the process of accepting the new lease when the owner called, he had decided not to sell but to renew the lease for another year without an increase in rental. So two out of three challenges sorted and off the prayer list.  

On the four dotted family front  Dash and Charlie twice unpotted one of my snake plants I had in a pot on the deck 🤦‍♀️. It seems it is their payback at being left alone.  Little Zeepha has, I think the the sight in her right eye.  It does not seem to bother or hinder her at all and I am just keeping an extra eye on her (pardon the pun). 

There was some excitement locally this week when an Elephant Seal decided to go walk about in Gordon's Bay.  Gordy (now named) left the ocean and got himself through the suburb, over main roads, about 5 km inland. As you can imagine he caused quite a stir and became an overnight sensation. It took many hours of well coordinated work with security and animal welfare working together to keep him safe. The cars formed a moving wall keeping him on the sidewalks until the necessary equipment arrived,  loaded him and then released him about 20 kms away along Clarence Drive far away from suburbia.  The next day he popped up 45 kms away on the other side of False Bay, and then he settled further down the coast in Simonstown, at the Naval Base where he proceeded to sun himself and recover from his adventure. In typical South African fashion and sense of humor the social media posts and company ads had him front and centre before he was even relocated.  Stay safe Gordy. 

I had to eventually make the decision that it is time to go ahead with my right knee replacement.  Ugh.  This past week I spent half a day at the Hospital seeing the Anaethatist, sisters, Surgeon, pre admission and admission. It now done and organized.  I go in on the 10th June and am scheduled for theatre at 11.30.  I can't say I'm looking forward to this, but I needed to bite the bullet and get it done.

The little sweater I was knitting for Munchkin came out beautifully and what really surprised me was that it took just a little over one 100gr ball of wool. What my mind is trying to figure out is, what the difference is between the sweater and a cardigan.  The cardigan pattern calls for 5 balls of wool 🤔.  I may have alluded over the last couple of months, to something that I have been working on, and now I have taken the leap (a huge  one for me).  I have started a little online business, advertising on Instagram for now. It is called Hooked.in.Luv and the idea came from all the little things I have made since BabyBear was born.  I am making and selling 100 % Pure Cotton Olly Octopuses (named after my late Dad), Wooden Teething Rings treated with Coconut Oil, Worry Worms, and No Fall Snap Straps, which attach to highchairs, prams, baby seats, car seats, hiking seats etc and are adjustable. See the link at the end of this Blog and I will add it in my Bio.

Well folks that's the news for now, there won't be too much running around for me this month, just mostly recovery and getting mobile.  I wish you all all a blessed month, face your challenges head on and let your faith in God carry you through.  He never fails or leaves us.  

Ciao ciao for now.

Instagram Link :  www.instagram.com/hooked.in.luv    Please feel free to share the link to far and wide.

Shop Images.

Hout Bay warm and Cosy with Panda being curious.

👏

My Life's Winding Roads: May in a small seaside Village

My Life's Winding Roads: May in a small seaside Village: Good morning family and friends from my little corner of this great continent.  Winter is definitely making some gentle advances. I hear tha...

May in a small seaside Village

Good morning family and friends from my little corner of this great continent.  Winter is definitely making some gentle advances. I hear that there is snow on mountains not too far from us and we have now graduated to long sleeves during the day 👏🏻.  The nights are pleasantly cool so I am a much happier camper.

April seems to have been such a busy month in our Villages. South Africa has a huge amount of Public Holidays during April together with school holidays.  Many people were able to take just a few days of working leave and  have 2 and even 3 weeks of holidays.  That in turn brings an influx into our area and many people walking around and just a general busyness.  I am going to tentatively / very quietly say that Charlie and Dash do not have quite as much to bark at this weekend thank goodness - all the holidays are over.  It has been quite a challenge calling them in every time they get going, a lot of up and down for both JB and myself. 😂

We had a very quiet Easter weekend and had a wonderful visit from Poppet a day before the actual weekend.  It had been such a long time since she was here and we truly had a wonderful visit.  She is back to all her activities - yes including playing Paddel, camping etc, etc. the rest of the family are doing well, overcoming their challenges and living their lives to the full.

Being April it was once again time for my 6 monthly check up.  I made an appointment with my Breast Surgeon as I am not totally fond of my Oncologist.  My Dr gave me a complete check up and the required full panel of blood tests and I am delighted and so blessed to say that everything is 100% normal.  She has written out the request for the the annual MRI, CT, CAT scan and  Mammogram now I just need to find a date and make the appointment. God has been so very good to me in my healing journey.  The one thing about having Cancer is that it changes you. You look at life differently and realise just how precious and fleeting our time here on earth is.  There is no time to  'save it for later ' / 'tomorrow is another day' and all the usual platitudes we use  to excuse ourselves.  Whether you are healthy or have been ill, don't take any day or occasion for granted.

Work wise it continued to be a challenging month, I am sincerely glad to have torn April off the calendar haha.  One of the 'delightful' jobs I  did was to convert flat sheets to fitted sheets and extend fitted sheets to make them bigger. 🥴.  I have a couple of nice and normal items that have come in, requiring some good old fashioned mending which I will get to this week. After some really deep thought and consideration I have made the decision to only take in mending from now on.  I really dislike turning anyone away and am always 'ready' to tackle something new, however, the toll it takes on my health Fibromyalgia wise is not worth it.  

JB and I just got back on Friday after spending the most wonderful week with MamaBear and little Baby bear a.k.a. Munchkin.  BigBear is currently in the USA on business and we went through to support her as she was working as well.  Oh my soul, I am the happiest GranGran, this child is growing way too fast. He is 9 months old today and is crawling everywhere, he can stand on his own for about 6 seconds, is crazy about his books and will turn the page when asked to, waves goodbye and adores peek-a-boo. Even at this young age he has a sense of humour and will mimic anyone who sneezes or coughs. We truly had an amazing time helping with him and also just enjoying the special time with his Mommy.  Thank you family for allowing us not to babysit but to make wonderful memories, it is such an honour.🤗❤️

As for the work in my knitting and crochet bag, that carries on as I continue working on my project. I am also currently making Munchkin a pullover jersey for winter, I had forgotten how quickly it grows on the needles. 🧶

In true domestic style, after many years of excellent service our Bosch dishwasher decided to stop working.  Hubby fiddled and fixed then something else went wrong. Eventually last week we called time on it and I was really blessed to find a much newer machine (on marketplace). It is an LG and was at a good price which we could afford. This little helper arrived yesterday and oh how happy I am to see it. 😁 Now I need to get rid of or sell for parts the old one.  The other thing I am trying to find, after missing the bargain of the year, price wise, is Sheer material to make curtains for the deck.  You may remember I oh so proudly made beautiful curtains from calico, which promptly absorbed all the moisture and got mildew.  I still not replaced them and am looking for a synthetic/polyester sheer fabric but, not the very fine sheers which we used to call net curtains. Just a medium type sheer with a bit of texture which will block out some of the sun.  So far no luck but I shall keep looking.

Well folks that's my news for now, April really was a work, work, work and no play kind of month.  I pray you all stay safe and well and have a good month. Ciao ciao

Charlie playing the cute card

This is the second snail of this size I have found in as many months.  This one was in the deck window and truly jaw dropping in size.  Bigger than my hand. PS. The red stripes are a reflection from the cushions.

My Life's Winding Roads: April is underway.

My Life's Winding Roads: April is underway.:   Good morning all, apologies for being a couple of hours late.  It has been somewhat of a whirlwind, very long month.  We have still not le...

April is underway.

 Good morning all, apologies for being a couple of hours late.  It has been somewhat of a whirlwind, very long month.  We have still not left summer completely behind, much to my chagrin.  Most of the days are still very hot but the nights are a little cooler.  For someone like me this is "hard" 😭  According to weather News we are going to be in for a drier than normal winter, also SAD news.  The rest of the country is literally in flood and we are dry as bones. hmmppff.

What happened in March ?  Oh my goodness, it seems like such a long time ago. Let me start with the beginning.  Two weeks after my knee surgery and 5 days after my last blog, Jelly Bean had a house sitting job over the weekend in Pringle Bay, a neighbouring village.  The day before she started, we went to fetch the keys and the house was in an uproar because one of the young cats had disappeared. it was found soon after.  She left in the Friday and on the Saturday night at sunset I got a phone call from a sobbing JB.  Said cat had escaped and she had spent 45 mins looking with no results.  Hubby and I packed the dogs in the car and went off to help search .  I got out of the car and she and I found the cat hiding under the deck. 🤦🏻‍♀️.  It took us over an hour to coax the cat out and I managed to grab hold of it.  The next step was to get it inside.  Yeah right....  She started biting me so I used my left hand to hold her by the scruff and right hand holding her body. Then we went up the deck, only 3 steps .  I took the first too but neither leg was able to take the third step. There was a concrete column on my left and I "assumed" another to my right.  I learnt against the right column ..... There was nothing and I fell straight off the deck like a tall tree -  timberrr !! The cat got away, my head bounced as I landed, thank goodness it was grass.  It took me a few mins to shake the black dots and figure out what happened.  JB nearly passed out with fright. Then I was up and the search started again but now in the pitch black garden. Said cat was - you guessed it , black and white.  Eventually we saw her in a wire built gardening cage/shed.  I couldn't maneuver around the planters so JB went in and I stood at the gate with a small towel to catch kitty.  Hmmm kitty shot off under a corner of the cage and flew up the high staircase to the top deck.  We had tried cornering her up there a few times already.  JB went up one side and I went up the other.  By some miracle she didn't run and JB was able to slide a door open .  YAAY cat safe, the other 4 animals intrigued. JB shaking and mother bleeding up a storm and still a bit woozy.  For the next 4 or 5 days I felt like a freight train had travelled over me multiple times.   Beyond that no damage to my knee and apart from a tetanus shot I was fine.  Sheesh I  did not know house sitting could be so dangerous 😂

Happier times were coming as JB celebrated her birthday on the 17th.  She requested a certain meal, as is our tradition and we had a lovely day.  She and I went for a lovely coffee as well. In between all of this was the usual work and catch up daily routine, in between trips to SW for various reasons. I had some extremely frustrating work come in, twice in a row. The first was to hem 8 square pieces if chiffon, big pieces.  After declaring "never again" about seeing chiffon and sending blessings to all those ladies who work with it all the time (you are saints), I received another call from a very stressed bride-to-be awho needed 3  x 16 m x .50 m edged. 🤦🏻‍♀️😭. Of course I said yes and spent days edging them, cutting off little slivers of threads etc, etc. I had to do the one twice so at the end 132m of chiffon, enough to give me nightmares.  During all this I am still trying to accumulate a little bit of stock of octopus, worry worms, etc for a future project. I also experimented and made some straps for BabyBear which attach to his highchair or pram and the other side attaches to his toy. So he cannot toss things overboard, and they end up getting lost.  I used Kam snaps for these and our dentist had a whole box of them, not being used which she gave me and them said to keep half of all the snaps.  I just need to top up on a few colours and get the Kam snap tool. JB was having a root canal when we spoke about it and she (the dentist) blessed me with them.  God is so good and always looking out for us in even the smallest ways.

Apart from JB's birthday the highlight of the month was the Bears were celebrating their anniversary and we went through to babysit our precious little BabyBear.  He is growing and developing si fast, that every day/week we don't see him we feel like we are missing out.  He is sitting like a champ, clapping hands, on the cusp of crawling, he does a good leopard crawl and has just discovered peek -a-boo.  That weekend he cut another 3 teeth and was so happy in general.  He truly is one of the most content babies I've ever known and is happy to sit and play with his toys or 'read' his books  by himself.  Our weekend there was amazing. Mon and Dad went out for the day and treated themselves to a night away.  Junior was as good as gold, his parents came home looking refreshed and happy. We had such a wonderful time of chatting, exchanging stories and just enjoying each other's company.

The last weekend of March we all met at a Spur Steak Ranch and had a late celebratory birthday lunch for JB.  It was noisy and busy but oh so good to have all the Cape Town family together in one place at the same time.  Being with my family, whether it's all or just some fills my heart and soul.  I miss Princess and Big Guy immensely, especially at times like these.  

On the home front we eventually had someone come in and paint the house.  I cannot tell you how long overdue it was.  Even now when I drive up to the gate I get a thrill to see how pretty it looks.  There are a few areas where our dear painter didn't completely finish so Hubby is going to have to get his paint brush out and add a touch here and there . Our house no longer looks like the worst on the street. 👍🏻 

The family are all well, working hard, playing hard and enjoying life. Princess doesn't have time to lift her head with the 2nd year Uni work load and is currently fighting a cough and cold as well. Poppet is back to normal, somewhat restricted because of the titanium plate in her wrist, but otherwise good and back in the swing of her life.  Big Guy is busy with work and chasing down deals on a daily basis.

As for Charlie and Dash, OMW life has become a lot busier.  They are the best of friends, joined at the hip.  They play hard and then collapse.  We are still trying to control Dash's barking, but in the whole I believe we are making progress.  When we were away for the weekend we have now instituted a routine where they are left only on the  deck with ALL their toys and, a cardboard box or two to destroy.  That seems to work and the mess is contained. One must do what one needs to do to stay sane 🤣🤣🤣

Well folks I have a washing machine with a full load waiting to be hung up to dry and need to get my house in order.  I wish you all a wonderful week.  Please stay safe and healthy. From the little Village on the east coast of the Cape Ciao Ciao for now.

My finished crochet project, a tote bag for JB.

The incredible view when Baby sitting 

Charlie and Dash aka Ebony and Ivory

My Life's Winding Roads: February came and went

My Life's Winding Roads: February came and went: Good morning folks on this first Monday of March and autumn is coming 👏🏻 soon, thank goodness.  It really has been a brutally hot and humi...