My Life's Winding Roads: June ? What June ?

My Life's Winding Roads: June ? What June ?:   Good morning everybody, today's Blog comes to you from a very cold Hout Bay.  We have had a good number of cold fronts so far and  eac...

June ? What June ?

 Good morning everybody, today's Blog comes to you from a very cold Hout Bay.  We have had a good number of cold fronts so far and  each one seems a little colder than the last.  June was kind  of a blur of activity, all good but so much that it feels like it just evaporated. 

For me the month started off with the usual annual slew of medical tests. From Blood tests to MRI, CT Scan, Ultrasound and then finally an appointment with my Surgeon.  The really good news is that at the five year mark I am officially cancer free. All Glory to God for having brought me through this journey successfully. 🙏🏼

We did a quick trip to GB, to actually visit with Mom, Dad and our little Prince, all at the same time. This very seldom happens and was a true blessing. It was also good for little Munchkin to know we don't only visit when Daddy or Mommy go away. He is so very cute and growing cuter by the day.  The words are flowing , he hears it once and that's it he has a new word.  On the way home whilst on the highway, which is nicknamed " the hell run" because of all the criminal activities that take place on it, we noticed that the car was overheating. Seriously ???  I turned off as soon as I could and instead of finding a close garage faced a long road between off and onramps. I pulled over and couldn't see any steam but the needle was in the red. Eventually I called BigBear who was in Noordhoek (far away) for advice and he insisted in driving through to us.  A very kind elderly gent stopped his bakkie and tried to help. The radiator was full and not boiling. So grrr 🤦🏼‍♀️.  He wouldn't leave us there and followed us to the next onramp.  From there it was a couple of kilometers to the nearest garage. When they opened the radiator there very little water.  BigBear arrived with extra water and I decided to carry on. We did a location share and JB and I drive home at 40 Kph.  It took over four hours but we got there and didn't seize the engine. Turns out the thermostat was faulty and jammed.  Hubby fixed it that week and has also replaced the "O ring" .  Look at me and all my mechanical jargon 🤣🤣

Back home work came in and I was also quite busy making knitted beanies for the Wool shop that is stocking my Octopuses.  Things have become super busy with it all.  I have been very patiently waiting to finish all the "orders" to start making chunky blankets.  I got happily all set up on Saturday only to very quickly realise I dont have enough wool 🤦🏼‍♀️🥺 .  Therefore,  said blanket is waiting for me to get back home to get wool at the shop. It is so frustrating seeing the partly finished blanket and having time on my hands to do it. 😂

As I said at the beginning JB and I are in Hout Bay, house sitting whilst the family are having a well deserved holiday. It is very strange being here and not having our little treasure to look after. Although, the geyser element packed up on Friday evening and despite the cold front we could only get it repaired this morning.  Oh how I love hot water 🤣On Friday JB and I went adventuring in this side of time. We drive over Chapman's Peak and through to Kommetjie where we drove around looking at the beach, a little Bay and the Slangkop Lighthouse which was built in 1919. The wind was howling so from there we drove back to Noordhoek and went to browse the Noordhoek Farm Village and enjoyed a yummy coffee.  The most had started rolling in as we went from the Farm to the beach.  It was so absolutely beautiful and peaceful with the must coming in 😍.  We should have taken our scenic photos on the way out because with the most we couldn't see beyond the edge of the road. Getting back to GB and the Sun was shining, that's the Cape for you, but oh what a wonderful day.

The rest of the family are doing well, the girls are both recovering from the flu. Princess flew down earlier in the month on Uni holiday. She is also doing a three week Internship (down here) as part of her final year, and thoroughly loving every minute.  First Poppet came down with flu and then Princess - playing tag. Thankfully they are both much better and back to normal   Big guy is busy as usual and staying well 🙏🏼.  Hubby has done a fine job of eliminating most of our leaks. The clocks are keeping him on the run as they seem to be coming from all over Cape Town  and the Overstrand. Óur neighbour eventually managed to have all the storm debris cut away and removed. He is still planning on fixing the fence and we are both working on flower beds from  both sides.  For some reason Jasper our very huge and unpredictable tuxedo cat has become very loving towards me.  He is really a bully and scared of his own shadow. He is BIG, and weighs about 8kgs despite eating exactly the same as little Zeepha.  He has, historically, always loved me but very quick to bite me as well.  Anyway at the moment he is this huge, purring shadow and attachment to me. Mama bear has a saying in Afrikaans which translates means "like a mussel in a rock".  I, am somewhat cautious as he caused my last two Tetanus shots and many scars. Hmmm I feel a bit like a cameleon when I'm with him. Charlie's nose gets a bit out of joint as well when it comes to lap space. 

Well folks, that was what the calendar called June 🤣 in my life it was a busy blur.  I pray you (and I) all have a wonderful July. Please stay safe and well. Ciao ciao.

Some pics from our day trip. The iconic Noordhoek Beach and a look down one of the gorges along Chapman's Peak 

My Life's Winding Roads: Look at this, it is not even June yet

My Life's Winding Roads: Look at this, it is not even June yet: Good afternoon friends and family, I trust today's post finds everyone well and hopefully enjoying a wonderful Sunday.  Wow what a month...

Look at this, it is not even June yet

Good afternoon friends and family, I trust today's post finds everyone well and hopefully enjoying a wonderful Sunday.  Wow what a month and where to start - from a super quiet April we crashed into May with a blast.  The first week was a normal, steady week. JB and I went through to Somerset West for the habitual shopping trip, as you may remember we tend to stack up shopping needs until we actually go in and then run ourselves ragged, even more so now with the giant leap in petrol prices. I have the "privilege" of being old enough to remember when petrol cost 17 c in 1976 - yep you read that right. Sheesh, what we are paying now per litre would have bought 2 or 3 weeks of groceries back then.

Enough of the petrol price but on the age front, after being a brunette all my life, two years ago I took the huge step and went a few shades lighter (honestly, I got really tired of looking like a badger for 3 out of 5 weeks) .  This worked quite well until I got a bee in my bonnet about the colour looking more yellow and making me look beige.  So, after MUCH discussion with my hairdresser I booked the appointment and we lightened it some more, I am now a blonde for the first time ever and, believe it or not, am thoroughly enjoying it. At least my hair and my skin are not the same colour now 😂

May started out sedately as a mild, gentle autumn/winter'ish month. OH my word that changed violently and suddenly.  We received weather warnings, which is normal, and took the usual precautions. On Sunday the 10th the first cold front hit and initially wasn't too bad. All four Villages lost electricity at about 11.30am ( silly us, we ommitted to charge all devices)  Due to no lights, and torches dimming we went to bed early. Hmmppfff we barely slept as the wind blew, and blew and continued to blow. The speeds measured here in Betty's Bay ³ measured towards the early morning hours were 148 kmph with gusts of 177 kmph.  We lay there listening to the solar panels vibrating on the  roof, the geyser being buffeted, the neighbour's chimney flue twisting around like a dervish.  At about 3.30am Charlie jumped up barking, I got up and thought he wanted out, but he stood on the deck barking.  I could not see anything with the wind and rain hammering down. At 5.30 am we were awakened from a doze with an almighty snap up on the roof.  That had us on edge as you can imagine .... daylight came (sort of), still no electricity, no sun to charge the solar panels to power the inverter, and, totally unable to get out of the house because of the wind speeds and downpour.  The first thing we saw was the neighbour's tree, which over the years had grown through and over our fence had been blown over and snapped.  This landed on and broke the fence quite dramatically.  Other big bushes along the same fence were also uprooted and broken causing yet more damage.  I looked out a bit more intensly and saw that the Weber Braai had been blown along and upended against the same poor fence, together with my mop, and a stack of four plastic garden chairs that had been up against our bedroom wall.  The chairs hadn't even come apart and were still a stack of four, after being blown down four stairs and along the grass to ... you guessed it - up against the fence.  That was all we could confirm as it was impossible to get up on the roof to see what, if any damage had been done.  Obviously all this is what caused Charlie to bark during the night, the noise of wind and rain was so loud we never heard it. The first time we ventured out was Wednesday and as I reversed out of the drive I looked at the back door and saw that our PolyCarb awning had been ripped off it's brackets and was somewhere in the Atlantic ocean or lying in someone's yard. We sprung 17 leaks and spent most of our time replacing and emptying bowls of water. Still no electricity - in all four Villages.  Kleinmond was restored late Wednesday and on that evening our neighbour called me and offered to link us up to their inverter. They are off the grid and have a generator as well.  Oh what joy to have a light and be able to charge phones, LED torches and lamps. Our fridge and freezer were awfully grateful.  just the week before JellyBean eventually got her first Diabetic Continuous Glucose Monitor - every time she moved away from her phone, or the phone battery went low the App would beep incessantly, we have even named it haha.  Nothing much changed and on Friday, by prior arrangement, she and I "abandoned" hubby and  carefully drove off to Hout Bay, the weather was still foul and roads dangerous. What a joy to arrive to a non leaking, fully electrified home which also had HOT water.  After 6 days of basin, cold water washes we delighted in a hot shower. We spent the following week with the Bears and having a wonderful time with our little Munchkin.  The power at home was eventually restored on day 11, some homes in our 3 villages are still waiting for power. 🤦🏼‍♀️

No one else in the family suffered any damage, Praise the Lord,  Hubby took a look at the roof and has started repairs up there. We are going to get someone in to repaint waterproofing on it. The huge snap we heard was presumably the ripping off of the awning.  Many people in BB lost parts of and for some, their entire roofs. There were corrugated roof panels, one entire roof, solar panels, awnings, jojo tanks, a trampoline and many other items found "walking" along the roads or laying on the bushes.  Our neighbour had the tree and bushes cut down and plans on repairing the fence and adding some new plants for replaced privacy.  Some of the Malls lost parts of their roofs, solar panel installations etc, many, many trees down across the entire city and a lot of damage.  Yesterday on our walk JB and I counted another 4 homes who have had their awnings rudely removed 😃

On the family front everyone is well, some recovering well from flu, and all being super busy. In 17  days my precious Princess will be landing in CT for the holidays. she will be doing a 15 day Internship whilst here, but I cannot wait to see her.  Little Munchkin started Playschool, for a few days a week, at the beginning of the month.  He is slowly settling in, he still finds some morning drop offs difficult but oh my goodness the words are like a waterfall.  About two visits ago JB was named NeyNey by him and I eventually got called Am.  This last visit he can say her full name but still calls her NeyNey and I have graduated to Gam, I take the wins people, believe me.  He is such a blessing and bringer of joy and laughter.

Workwise has been a bit slow but I have some possible good news with Hooked-in-Luv coming up.  I am also busy working on a slight transition under that heading and hopefully in next month's Blog will be able to show you the result, so look out for the announcement 😉. Currently 8 am halfway through knitting a jersey for the youngest member of the family. A.k.a. Munchkin. It has been awhile since I have knitted and it makes a nice change for a bit

The mysterious smell - for the last 10 days or so I have smelt a horrible, dusty, musty smell whenever I sit in my chair in the lounge. 🤔 I have half blamed the cat, the dog, one of the leaks in the carpet.  I have sniffed everything in the vicinity and could not find the source.  With Fibro, I am super sensitive to smells, and it has just about driven me crazy.  Just now I stood up and looked at my palm tree, next to my chair.  This tree has given me a hard time from the day I got it and it has moved all around the house.  I jumped up, sniffed and voila ... THE culprit.  It has little, minute gnats/miggie's in it. It is also now out in the deck. It has had less water lately because of the samp weather and I have no earthly clue how or why.  For now, on the deck it will stay, while I sit in my smell free zone.  Mystery solved, just not sure why.

Well folks after this "longer than usual" Blog, I am parched, off to put the the kettle on and make myself a delicious cup of tea.  Have a wonderful month of June and whatever life (and the weather) throws at you, remember you have got this.  Stay safe and stay well please. Ciao Ciao.

The morning after the storm plus how far the chairs travelled.

After the debris was removed

How the trees roots were torn up on our side of the fence

Part of someone's roof , not in our yard.

A beautiful evening in Hout Bay

Newly blonde 😊

My Life's Winding Roads: May is here

My Life's Winding Roads: May is here: Good afternoon everyone, oh my goodness me. My apologies for being late with this month's Blog.  A true blonde moment. All through the w...

May is here

Good afternoon everyone, oh my goodness me. My apologies for being late with this month's Blog.  A true blonde moment. All through the week I kept thinking of getting down to it and then come Friday I completely forgot, and I mean completely.  Just now I had just brought some washing inside and sat down thinking  "hmm, I've done everything I needed to do, and ... wham ... no I haven't, I haven't done the Blog."   This is a first for me. So here we go, hello May.

April was, most unusually, a very quiet month. To start I was on a mandatory recovery period which seemed to extend itself, maybe God was trying to tell me something? Recovery wise, things have gone very well. No complications or problems Praise the Lord.  They warned me that I might have some symptoms / episodes for up to three months and not to be worried about them.  I have had a few very slight feeling of faintness, until last week when I was walking across a room and wow, out of nowhere. I found myself a surface quickly until it passed and was fine.  I do find that I get breathless and tired more quickly but it hasn't stopped me from following my normal schedule. 😊

The little Penguin, Percy, that I had so much trouble with, was eventually conquered and is now ready for a new home, he is actually quite adorable if I do say so.  Princess has offered to help me create a bigger awareness of all the toys on social media and I am so excited for her help.  I have spent quite a bit of time edging Quilt Squares and am getting closer and closer to being able to finish.  I have calculated that there will be about seven short for the required size and so will need to embroider those extras when all the others are completed. Yaaay.

For the first time since we moved down to the Western Cape winter arrived on time. The first, minor cold  front arrived at Easter and the temperatures have been noticeably cooler, thank goodness. there are still one or two hot days but on the whole we are having much more comfortable weather and a fair bit of rain to go with it.  Sadly the Province's dam levels are still critically low and we need much, much more rain.

The family are all doing well and healthy.  JB had a major breathrough last week.  she was diagnosed 18 years ago as a Type 1 Diabetic and over the years we have repeatedly tried applying for the Diabetic Sensor and or the Insulin Pump.  The Doctors have applied, the Endocrinologists have applied and were turned down every time.    JB is Insulin Resistant as well and as a result has always had very unstable glucose figures.  A couple of months we saw a new GP who was recommended to us as she specialises in Diabetes.   This Dr added a medication and applied for the Sensor, last week the letter came through giving permission for JB to get it.  This is nothing short of a miracle and she will be receiving it this week.

The way that April played out we did not get to go through and see our little Munchkin, it was one of the longest 'breaks" we have had from him in a long while.  Due to a Business trip that BigBear had to make last week we went through last Sunday and came home on Thursday. My he has grown so much in a month, not in size but developmentally. New words are pouring out and he is becoming more and more of a little human.  His biggest love is music and he has his own way of explaining exactly which kids songs he wants.  If we get it wrong he will continue to "explain" with his words and hand signals until we silly adults get the right song.  It truly is an absolute joy and honour to spend time with him and watch as he grows and develops. The added bonus is that we get to spend special time with MamaBear as well.  Last Sunday we all went for a lovely walk in the Constantia Forest until the rain came down and all five of us got soaked haha.  It truly is such a beautiful place, we are really spoilt living here where there

is beauty all around us and always something different.  Between the oceans and the mountains, the forests and the fynbos there are surprises around every corner.

Folks that is all, given it was a quiet month. May is already starting to increase speed, but that is for next time.  Have a wonderful week, please stay safe and healthy.  Ciao Ciao.

Constantia Forest.

Percy Penguin

My Life's Winding Roads: Hello April

My Life's Winding Roads: Hello April:   Greetings everyone both near and far, known and unknown. I am always flabbergasted when I see how far my readership extends. That is such ...