My Life's Winding Roads: IMPORTANT NOTE.

My Life's Winding Roads: IMPORTANT NOTE.: Hi everyone, I am having to admit to a huge blip here on the Blog. All these years that I've been writing I have wondered how come no o...

IMPORTANT NOTE.

Hi everyone, I am having to admit to a huge blip here on the Blog. All these years that I've been writing I have wondered how come no one ever comments on the actual Blog. Mystery solved and it is all down to my lack of Techno Boff status. There was an unlocked selection in settings that never even showed me the comments much less reply to them - I only saw it just now and in a panic called MY Techno Boff aka BigBear who to his credit did not roll his eyes or call me old and speedily fixed it, thank you Son. I have now replied to all comments that I can find, my deepest apologies folks, I was not ignoring you on purpose and feel awful. I have often felt that I am typing this into the great big techno ether world and wondered if anyone besides close friends reads it. I truly to value and appreciate each reader and every comment is a blessing, please keep them coming now that I know how to find and read them. Enjoy the rest of your week and stay well ciao ciao 💕

My Life's Winding Roads: A quiet but tough week

My Life's Winding Roads: A quiet but tough week: Good morning everyone from a quiet and wonderfully windy Betty's Bay. We had a wonderfully quiet week with Hubby getting quite a few c...

My Life's Winding Roads: I love the wind!

My Life's Winding Roads: I love the wind!: Greetings folks from the little Village by the sea, I trust today's Blog finds you all well and ready to tackle the new week. I am not...

I love the wind!

Greetings folks from the little Village by the sea, I trust today's Blog finds you all well and ready to tackle the new week. I am not quite sure about tackling this week but, I am definitely more ready to deal with it than I was on the last Blog. To say last week was a bit of a non event would be putting things mildly. As you may remember I was on my way to the Doctor last Monday and that little visit caused quite a lot of stress. After going through the symptoms and the examination she could find no reason other than gastro to account for the way I felt but, given all the symptoms she insisted on doing a CoVid test, she did not even give me time to start stressing about the actual test itself. Anyway I can say this, it is not quite as bad as I had been led to expect - a minute or two of a stinging, burning nostril and we were done, the real stress came in waiting for the results. Naturally I prayed and was standing on the promises of God, but there is always that little voice of the devil whispering in your ear. I spent most of the week on the bed and trying to keep as far away from Jelly Bean and Hubby as was possible, went through loads of sanitizer, did a humongous amount of reading all with Charlie tucked up against me, bless his little heart. It was on Wednesday late morning when I received an SMS from the Laboratory saying there was NO evidence of CoVid in my test, hallelujah !!! It did not make the symptoms go away but we could all rest in the fact that I was not a danger to society and my family, and I could get on with the healing. Poppet and Princess were so relieved that they arrived early in the evening with supper for us all, thank you my precious girls. It has literally taken me right up until yesterday to even begin start feeling like myself and to start getting my appetite back. Hubby had to go to Pringle Bay on Saturday to collect two clocks for repair and I went with, purely to get out of the house and to be with him. We stopped at one of our favorite Coffee Shops and had some tea before coming home, I was completely exhausted, that was possibly the most frustrating symptom, the extreme exhaustion when trying to do the smallest task. Anyway, I am feeling better, am still taking it easy and am ready to face this last week of January with my chin up and armour intact. My heart and prayers go out to every family that are facing this 'plague' either within their family or through being on the front lines. It is scarey and very real and it happens quickly. If you know someone who is in isolation, recovering, waiting for results, whatever ..... please reach out in any way possible to assist them and encourage them. A text, a meal left at the gate, a delivery of essentials, a phone call - trust me it will mean the absolute world to them. I was and am so blessed to have had the prayers of my family, and Jelly Bean and Hubby were fantastic, without them I could not have taken the time to rest and recover and ........ I did not even have Covid 19, who know what I had, I all know is the test came back negative Praise God. Princess had her meet and greet at the new school which went well and I was so blessed to hear that some of the girls in her new class have already reached out to her and put her onto their Whatsapp group. As the starting date for school was delayed by a week she is currently up in Pretoria with friends and will fly home on Saturday ready to begin this new chapter next Monday. The rest of the family are all doing very well and it would seem that for everyone the year got off to a brisk and busy start. Clocks and watches keep on rolling in and then tick tocking their way back home which continues to amaze us, Hubby hasn't advertised for ages and currently it is purely by word of mouth, he's known as the 'watch/clock guy in Bettys Bay' hehehehe. We had the most awful weather last week , for me anyway, the temperatures were up in the 30's and not a breath of wind, even the dogs were listless and just lay around. Years ago we bought a portable air conditioner which requires the exhaust pipe to be put outside. In the old house we had modified a window for this purpose, but down here we have just squished it through the open window which sort of defeats the object. Hubby had a brainwave and took the cast iron plate off the top off our fire 'stove' and attached the exhaust pipe to the top of the stove causing the hot air to go into the stove and up the chimney, when the cooler weather arrives we will put the plate back and resume using the stove to make our fires. It certainly worked well and after closing up all the windows and closing curtains (I learnt that trick in Cradock) our house was a wonderful cool haven. Well folks that is all for this week, I hope you all have a good one and keep yourselves safe and healthy. Once again I would like to say thank you for your continued support, encouragement and readership, I appreciate every one of you, every comment and greeting. Ciao ciao.

A memory from December, Ficks Pool.
 

A quiet but tough week

Good morning everyone from a quiet and wonderfully windy Betty's Bay. We had a wonderfully quiet week with Hubby getting quite a few clocks and watches back to their owners, he also made a lot of progress on Poppet's server unit, all in all he had a very productive week. It was Big Guys 44th birthday on Wednesday, I just wish we could have been there to celebrate with him. After the birthday wishes etc we all loaded up and trekked around the mountain into town to stock up on dog and cat food, it's very seldom that we run out of all at the same time. I also managed to get my hands on five tins of the food that Charlie eats from our Vet, it has been out of stock for more than six weeks and due to that, of late we have been back to his old cycle of vomiting and fasting grrrr. I also stopped and bought some Preemie baby socks which I am going to put on his feet in an endeavor to stop him licking them raw, it will also enable me to put cream on them and hopefully he won't lick the cream off. We did all the shopping, Hubby went and exchanged some of the wood he had bought because it was warped and then we nipped in to see Poppet and also pick up a large wooden unit she has no space for and which I want to strip and use here. Quite a busy day it was and then AFTER getting home I realized I had forgotten to buy the cats their food 🤦🏻‍♀️🙀, not my best shining hour, to say they were unimpressed would be putting it mildly but wet dog food had to suffice. On Thursday I spent time doing my nails whilst Hubby went with his friend for coffee, restocked our Library books and bought cat food ...... the wrong brand because they had nothing else, well Zeepha just took one look and said 'nope not me' whilst Jasper ate his portion as well as hers. She is a fussy little madam this one. I woke up on Friday with incredible nausea and body aches - if my Fibro pain usually sits at about 7 or 8, this was 15. Saturday I was not as sore and yesterday about the same. The nausea is just constant - one way to lose weight I guess. Yesterday Poppet phoned me in tears because her kitty 'Boude' kept collapsing and vomiting, so we managed to find an emergency Vet and within half an hour Poppet had her there. They admitted Boude and put her on a drip as well as ran a whole lot of tests, at 1.55 she called me to say her and Princess were on their way back to the Animal Hospital because it was determined that poor little Boude was in Chronic Kidney Failure and so they had to make the very hard decision to put her to sleep and were with her through to the end. They are completely heartbroken and I know how they are feeling as it was the same with Gemma. Poppet got Boude as a tiny kitten a few months after her big surgery in 2011 and she weathered all the many storms that Poppet has faced since, being her constant little companion, the only comfort is in knowing that she is not suffering and went to sleep knowing how much she was loved 😢 I am going to end with this. As we continue to social distance, work from home, face various levels of lock down and ALL that goes with everything CoVid related, let us take joy in every day we have, make the most of every minute spent with family and loved ones, and explore new ways of spending time together and most importantly keep ourselves safe and out of harms way. I pray you all have a truly wonderful week Ciao Ciao. R.I.P. BOUDE.

Middle of the longest month of the year 🙃

Good morning world how are you all doing ? It can be a rather weird feeling asking a question to an invisible audience I must say, but, being the polite individual that I am I always feel the need to greet you all properly rather than saying "hey you out there" 😄 Well as we trot along in January I will say that so far from my side it has been busy but peaceful, sort of hehe. It has also been jolly hot made worse by the fact that there has been very little wind, I honestly do not know how I managed up in Boksburg where the wind was not a daily occurrence. Happily yesterday from lunchtime onwards it cooled down quite a bit and it was so good to be able to put a tracksuit on and wear my new sheepskin slippers (Christmas gift) 😌 We also bought our first load of wood which filled up the fireplace and I am now even more excited for winter to arrive, I hope it's an early one. I just have to get through to March first 😰 Yesterday Princess asked me how my week had gone and I replied that it had been quiet, that I had caught up with this and that, baked some rusks and some crunchies 💪🏻, did the mending that was sitting there, got all the throws washed and she looked at me and said, " that doesn't sound quiet Gran". It was quiet, I promise - I have now cleared all backlog items off my list with the exception of the bathroom wall which needs painting and I actually spent quite a bit of time reading and resting. It is a bit of a strange feeling not having a list of 'must do's' but I am sure this coming week will find its own things needing to be done. It is also Big Guys birthday on Wednesday and I wish we could be celebrating together, Happy Birthday Son ! I ordered and received my new Hurricane Scrubber and am actually very excited to try it out on the shower for a start so watch this space for an update. When I mentioned this yesterday Poppet laughed and said "you know you are an adult when you get excited about home cleaning appliances" 😂 So true and I sincerely hope this is going to do what I expect and save me very precious energy. Talking household about a week ago when the girls visited, just as they arrived I was removing washing from the line and as I was taking it off I kept thinking something was missing. By the time I was almost finished I realized it was the big fitted sheet for our bed, there was just an empty space ....... I did a quick look around and after a few minutes spotted it adorning a bush on the adjoining plot, shame, Hubby was instantly elected to go forth and conquer the escapee and bring it home, which required a little Bundu bashing on his part 🤣🤣. As you have probably gathered the girls and Princess' boyfriend C came over yesterday and we had a lovely braai, it was very special to get to meet her young man, my little granddaughter has grown up so fast. We had a lovely day just sitting around and chatting, playing with the pets and, oh yes, trying to remove two unwelcome guests who both made an appearance minutes before everyone arrived. 1. A really ugly looking spider who I am not entirely sure was removed or just crawled under the roof beam, and 2. A little Sugarbird, our first one for the year, it was seven hours before we managed to get her out. Speaking of the birds gee whizz they are thirsty at the moment, from 1l a day we are now averaging slightly more than 2l, I am thinking it is because most of the proteas have died and so their main source is no longer available, I try now to keep a full kettle ready with boiled water. Jelly Bean and I decided to have a girls outing during the week, and after popping into Kleinmond for one or two necessities we decided to stay local and went to our favorite local coffee shop with Charlie, where we sat outside and spent a lovely hour just chatting and enjoying the outdoors Charlie of course joined right in and made himself at home as he usually does. I dug out an old ball which I bought years ago that you put treats into and they have to figure out how to get the treat, well ....... neither of the other dogs even so much as held the ball in their mouths so it got put away. I decided the other day it might keep him busy for awhile so filled it and gave it to him, he had the treats rolling out in less that 30 seconds - so much for keeping him busy. He has developed a love affair with his soft football and is doing a good job of fetching and returning 😁. As for the itchy paws we still don't have a solution, I am seriously considering getting him little booties to see if they will at least stop him chewing. I did see the cutest little doggie sandals but the family are threatening to disown me if I put them on him 🤷🏻‍♀️🤔, It's not a fashion statement guys it's a medical treatment 😂 Well folks, that is all my news for today, I wish you and yours a fabulous week ahead, for those going back to work enjoy but most of all please stay safe and stay well. I now personally know of too many people who have had CoVid and a too many who have passed away as a result, so please, please be careful, sanitize, mask up and keep your distance, each one of you is precious and valuable. Ciao ciao Charlie enjoying tea with the ladies.

My Life's Winding Roads: We did it, welcome 2021

My Life's Winding Roads: We did it, welcome 2021: Happy New Year folks, I pray and trust that as we move through 2021 it will be a kind, gentle year of restoration and healing in all our li...

We did it, welcome 2021

Happy New Year folks, I pray and trust that as we move through 2021 it will be a kind, gentle year of restoration and healing in all our lives. I hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful New Year and where possible the time you spent with those you love and treasure. We have a had a lovely quiet week and start to the year, after taking Big Guy to the airport last week, doing all the shopping necessary as well as a quick cup of coffee with the girls, I have stayed home and busied myself with the last catch ups and sorting out in and around the house. Jelly Bean was not at all well and after some concentrated and consistent medicating I am super relived that she is feeling much, much better Praise the Lord. Poppet and Princess have visited a couple of times which is absolutely wonderful, the freedom to visit whenever we want without planning months in advance. Big Bear and Baby Bear has been non stop busy with organizing and moving into their new apartment, as far as I know within the next three days they should be in completely and able to start this new phase of their lives and I cannot wait to go and visit them in their home.👏🏻👏🏻 Big Guy went home and straight back into work and routine and we still adjusting to how quiet and empty the house is without him, little Max kept going to the couch where he sat and looking at it to see if he has materialized yet. Hubby has been busy clearing the backlog on watches and cuckoo clocks - there is one particular little cuckoo who insists on leaving his door open which has taken a fair amount of fiddling to sort out. He also managed to get a Lap Stand out which was ordered the day before Christmas and is planning a trip into Somerset West this week to purchase the last of the wood needed for Poppet and Sonshine 's sideboard. Talking about Sonshine his CoVid test last week came back negative after fourteen days of isolation, thank the Lord and now he waits for the U.K. to lift the ban on travel within its own Burroughs and to SA. Princess's boyfriend C is flying down to CT tomorrow with his mom on holiday so the excitement in that house is running into danger levels hehehe. Apart from collecting four or five Cape Ash saplings from a local lady who was removing them I got in some good cooking - I was even able to freeze a couple of meals, baked another fruit cake and got back into the swing of things with my quilting. Yesterday by chance I discovered yet another method of stitching which I have never done, needle punch Embroidery ....... who knew ? Already I am looking to see where I can get the needle kit and figuring out how soon I can finish my quilt in order to begin experimenting with it.😁 I am not a person who makes New Years resolutions but this year I have made the decision that Fibro or not I am going to get out and about, do more of the things I enjoy and see more of this beautiful part of the country I am so blessed to live in. I get so busy doing housework etc that when I do rest I'm exhausted and recovering. This year it is my very sincere desire to change that and make memories wherever I can. I have all sorts of ideas buzzing around in my head of things I would like to do both in and out of the house and plan on getting started as soon as possible. Thankfully Charlie is now handling car travel much better and is in fact better all round so he will join in on all or most of the adventures whoop whoop. Well folks I am keeping it at that for this week, for those of you traveling back home please be safe. For those who are going back to work I hope that it will be a good year and less stressful than in the past. In the last few days I have heard of / know far too many people who have tested positive and quite a few people who did not make it through, So everyone, please stay safe and intensify your sanitizing/safety protocols and please stay healthy, you are all precious, love and appreciated. I am looking forward to sharing where this year takes us and hearing of all you adventures and escapades. Until next week Ciao Ciao. View on the drive home