Fun and games

Greetings all from a wet and cool Betty's Bay, every drop of rain is precious because we have not had nearly enough. After all of the rain last Monday it was very mild and dry, some days not even needing a jersey, yesterday was unbelievable as we had a HOT South Easter blowing and it was like standing in front of a roasting oven, most unpleasant to say the least, thank the Lord our house is cool inside.  Today it is grey, cold(ish) and some rain every now and then.

Well, it was a busy week to be sure, after Zeepha's little visit for X-rays the Vet came back with a clear report, and after a lot of discussion we are taking her in tomorrow morning and they will attempt to spay her again, this time using gas or a much lighter Anaesthetic, I would really appreciate your prayers for her tomorrow morning and for wisdom for the Doctors.  She is being a real little madam at the moment and I am pretty much getting the cold shoulder, unless I have food in hand, needless to say my dear Hubby doesn't help in always being so welcoming when she is around, grrrr, it is common knowledge he steals ALL my cats and then feigns innocence.

After Doctor check ups required by all three of us and a series of trips into Kleinmond it turned into one of those weeks where it felt like all we did was run around.  One exciting thing though, when Jelly Bean and I went into the Doctor I needed to stop at KAWS which is our local Animal Welfare.  They have a fabulous little second hand shop with some amazingly good bargains and sell little doggie jackets for R5 which is for nothing, in the shops they are a minimum of R160.  Anyway Max kept walking right out of his old one and we stopped to get him a new one, while we were chatting to the staff I suddenly remembered Jelly Bean saying that she would love to volunteer there and asked how to go about it.  Long story short we are both going to volunteer at least once a week to go in and play with the cats and kittens, many people volunteer to take the dogs for walks etc, but no one plays with the cats.  We are both very excited about this and are putting together a small assortment of toys we will take back and forth with us.

On Friday evening we had our friends around for a delicious curry and some really good, long overdue catch up time.  We looked after their puppy last year when they were overseas and so he is very comfortable here, but what happened as they left had us all holding our sides with laughter.  We had brought his towel inside so he could lie in the lounge and when it came time to go we all moved towards the door but for some reason Buddy would not move past the sofa ????  We tried everything - calling, opening the door, cajoling, but there was no way he was walking past that chair.  He would take a half a step then dance backwards (to visualise he is a fairly big/medium sized Alsatian cross rescue, with long legs).  By this time all our attention was focused on him, when his dad tried getting stern and calling him he then began THE most hysterical movement to the door.  All four legs were bent out at the 'elbows', he was trying to walk on his tiptoes which made him look like someone had pushed him down a wet, slippery incline towards a huge pool of water.  It was two inches forward then brake, one inch forward then brake.  If we had taken a video it would have gone viral, I have never seen anything so funny in my life.  Needless to say it took quite awhile to get him out and once he reached the door mat he practically flew out the door.

My clever Hubby has at long last got the 'problem' clock working and it has been on test throughout the weekend, gee whizz this once gave him headaches, even to the point of constructing parts for it.  Well done my love !  I tried my hand at making some marmalad and oh my word, I will never again by it in a shop, so am feeling very chuffed with myself.  The family are all well, Princess has started writing mid year exams, the curriculum they set is ridiculous.  She has 16 exams in 16 days with not one block day, talking to Poppet yesterday she agreed that it is by far, more intense nowadays than it was when she was at school.  Good luck Princess and all the other children who are writing, take a deep breath, study hard and then do your very best.

Folks, that is all my news for this week, I will be glad when tomorrow is behind us and after that am looking forward to a hopefully quiet, peaceful week.  Don't forget in all the busyness to take a few minutes every day to stop and just breathe in and 'smell the roses'.  Stay safe out there,  Ciao Ciao til next week.

Bright and cheery bottle of homemad Marmalade.