My Life's Winding Roads: Birds, birds and more birds

My Life's Winding Roads: Birds, birds and more birds: Well good morning folks wherever you are. As the longest month of the year is about to end I trust this finds you all well and more or less...

Birds, birds and more birds

Well good morning folks wherever you are. As the longest month of the year is about to end I trust this finds you all well and more or less back into the swing of things. After the disgusting heat of two weeks back this week has been absolutely wonderful, warm days but mostly with a lovely cool breeze coming off the sea which for me is a life saver, I have discovered I cannot live without the wind lol. As I mentioned last week we have our second brood of baby doves growing up on our deck, they hatched this week and I am guessing that mommy dove is not a first time mom. She takes time to have a little break but all the time watching from the garag roof or close by. Imagine my delight when I was looking at the house diagonally behind us and noticed they have four 'shelves' built just under their roof, so well sheltered from the south easter wind, all four have doves sitting on nests. I think it is such a clever idea and literally the easiest thing to do. Our fly through sugarbird feeder is also exceptionally busy because things are so dry here at the moment, if we fill up whenever it's empty they are going through three litres of sugar water a day, we try and keep it at two litres but when it's really hot we  keep it going. All in all our birds give us so much joy and a fair amount of work to boot. 

 I started off my week with a visit to the Plastic Surgeon on Monday (it feels like a month ago) and he did another fill. I can't say these are my favorite kind of visits as the expanders are hard as it is and with every fill, which is designed to stretch the skin, they become more painful and uncomfortable. It's amazing that about 150-200ml of saline alltogether can cause your balance to be off kilter and pain in the back as the body adjusts to the extra weight. This has not helped the fact that for some reason sleep seems to be a long lost friend at the moment, on Saturday night I got just over an hour, thank goodness for online books and sudoku is all I can say. Happily I have another weeks respite before the next fill 💪🏻. 

 After being in the house almost all week on Friday Jelly Bean and I decided we needed a coffee 'date' and took ourselves off to a restaurant which opened in Rooi Els in 2019 and we have been threatening to go there ever since. First of all from no wind here, it was pumping on that side and once we looked  at the menu coffee went on the back burner and we both opted for fish and chips. Oh my word........ the best battered fish and chips I've had in years, nom nom. We have decided we will need to go back and try the coffee at some point as well hahaha. After lunch we drove around Rooi Els just looking at the houses and were surprised to see that it is bigger than what it appears, altogether a well deserved and most enjoyable break. 

 Between clocks Hubby has been busy working on our cars, at the beginning of the month all three were giving trouble in one way or another. Currently my car is just needing a new  exhaust and Jelly Bean's car is about to come out of vehicle ICU. Sadly Hubby's car is needing a fair bit more of doctoring but is in the queue.  Thank goodness for a handy husband as well as the fact that he originally trained as a motor mechanic 👏🏻👏🏻.  The family are all doing well and Princess had an Athletics day at school on Saturday in which she shone in all her events, well done my angel we are always so proud of you. Our little grandsons in the U.K. have been playing tag with testing positive for CoVid, Praise God they have had no serious symptoms and are just waiting out quarantine times. 

That's all the news for this week folks, I wish you all a good week, may it be productive, prosperous, healthy and happy. Please take care and stay safe, Ciao Ciao. 

Our newest dove babies.

My Life's Winding Roads: Never a dull moment.

My Life's Winding Roads: Never a dull moment.: There is always something happening in this 'sleepy' Village of ours. Good morning all this has been an incredibly hot week culmina...

Never a dull moment.

There is always something happening in this 'sleepy' Village of ours. Good morning all this has been an incredibly hot week culminating in an eye watering heat wave from Friday. As a natural result there have been a lot of fires in neighbouring areas, causing extensive damage to the Fynbos and pine forests. As you can all imagine, these conditions leave everyone on edge and on the lookout for the first hint of fire, especially since the Fire Storm in January 2019. Apart from the Arabella /Kleinmond fire last week which burnt for about 5 days I think, most have been dealt with fairly quickly. Then yesterday boom, Betty's Bay was back in the middle of it. As I said extremely unusual heat has made life almost impossible for the whole of the Western Cape which was declared the 'Hottest place on earth' literally on Saturday. I read last night that Table Bay broke all previous temperature records at a whopping 45.2 C. We had no electricity for 8 hours which only increased the discomfort. Yesterday dawned a few degrees cooler, but barely enough to notice and at noon 2 different substations blew up. The bigger one across the road from the garage up by the mountain caught fire and spread quickly, but thanks to a Mayor who is really on the ball and an incredible community it took 30 mins for three fire fighting helicopters to arrive from Stellenbosch and 30 mins later the fire, which had spread very fast was out. Compared to three years ago this is absolutely incredible and a huge thank you to all involved. We are still without power , so no guessing who is praying for a very early and cold winter hahaha Well folks, it has been soo hot that just moving is an effort there have bee a couple of times where I I have resorted to cooling off in the plastic pool. Our second little breeding dove family are still sitting on their eggs despite the heat, I just feel so sorry for mama dove one can visibly see her struggling with the heat, the eggs should be hatching any day now 👀 , I cant wait to see the babies. The clocks keep rolling in and then rolling out, keeping Hubby on his toes for sure and, I even managed to pick up my crocheting for the first time in almost 5 months, with the heat though I did not get too much done, I am busy making a shrug jacket for Jelly Bean. As many of you may know Charlie is not know for being the friendliest little dog when food is around but I was so proud of him on Saturday, the little container which we use to feed Sasha her raw food was left on the mist which I had not realize. I saw him pull it off and it landed on the floor with a very eager little white nose poised to dig in. I called him and told him "NO", maybe he is learning because he lay down in front of it, about 30cm's away, and just lay there staring at it for more than a half an hour when I got up and removed it without any drama. His was well praised and allowed to lick it clean 🤣🤣🤣 Today I have an appointment with the Plastic Surgeon for another fill and for some reason feel nervous, there is no reason at all to be worried as everything is doing well although I do find the stretching on my scars after the fills causes a fair amount of pain/ discomfort. Anyway, there shouldn't be too many more fills and then a 6 week wait before planning my exchange surgery, which again, on one hand I can't wait for it to be over and on the other, the last thing I feel up to is another surgery and recovery period. God has brought me this far and I know He will carry me through to the completion of this unplanned journey, I have complete faith in Him, just sharing 'my' human heart 🙂. The heat has been the main topic this week and also curtailed many an activity due to its severity. So folks, on that note I am going to bid you all a wo

nderful week, may you stay cool, safe and well. Ciao ciao.

Beautitull pictire showcasing the three helicopters saving the fire.  Credit to Adreanne Versveld,thank you a

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My Life's Winding Roads: Summer is here

My Life's Winding Roads: Summer is here:   Good morning everyone from an extremely hot Betty's Bay, it is a well documented fact that I don't like the heat and therefore I d...

Summer is here

 Good morning everyone from an extremely hot Betty's Bay, it is a well documented fact that I don't like the heat and therefore I dread the first three months of the year down here.  We even went so far as to put the plastic pool up on the deck😢😰, I tend to pull out all the 'tricks of the trade' that I know in order to keep cool and not melt.

We had a good week which started off with me going for a 'fill' of my expanders, thank the Lord there were no issues or complications as I was under very strict orders from Jelly Bean that I had to come home hahaha, there were too many times last year where I went for a fill and was sent straight to hospital without even being allowed to pass Go and collect R200 😂.

Apart from that trip, it was a first for me as Hubby and I managed quite a few stops together to get some necessary things for the house.  It was nice to be out doing normal things albeit completely exhuasting.

Hubby is overflowing in clocks currently and hopefully some will be going home this week, so grateful to the Lord for this income source and the challenge it presents to him.

We were quite surprised last Tuesday to see another dove scoping out the recently emptied nest on our deck.  This time it is a Laughing Dove  who has either made a rental ageement with the last dove tenants or just plain hijacked a readymade nest, she is now happily sitting on her eggs and I should imagine some time next week they will hatch.  The difference this time around is that she regularly serenades us which is lovely. It does kind of restrict building and banging on the deck 🤦🏻‍♀️ Oh my,  one of these days it will be finished.  Currently the deck is sitting third in line of repairs  ....... Three cars which all have various levels of problems from severe to mild, a cache of clocks, and then the deck.  Busy household this at any point in time.

Thursday was Big Guys 45th birthday, where does time go ?  Truly it seems to fly but when I look at him I could not have asked for anyone better as my firstborn.  He is one of the last  of a sadly dieing breed of true gentlemen, he and his brother treat all woman with respect, are compassionate and have integrity seldom  seen nowadays.  Happy Birthday Big Guy it is an honour being your Mom and I am so proud of who you are 🤗.

On Friday we fetched Princess for the weekend which was absolutely fantastic.  It has been so long since we had her to ourselves and for a weekend that we feel immensely blessed and happy.  We learnt to play Whist and played for hours.  Yesterday Poppet and Sonshine came through bearing all the makings of a fantastic lunch - chicken tacos and three puddings YUMMM.  I was also blessed with a gorgeous bunch of happy sunflowers , so very blessed.  After the enormous meal we all took our places at the dining room table and taught Poppet and Sonshine how to play Whist, we played all afternoon and then moved across to the family favorite of Nurch which Sonshine picked up very quickly and in typical fashion it became an extremely hectic and loud time.

It was so special having them here and doing more than just sitting with the tv on.  Thanks family for a wonderful afternoon 🤗.

Well folks, those are the highlights of my week past, I even managed to replant my terrarium with succulents, which has been on my to do list for months, yay me 😂😂.   I wish you all a truly wonderful week and pray that wherever you are the heat is not too bad.  Please stay safe and well.  Ciao Ciao.

Gorgeous happy sunflowers.

My Life's Winding Roads: And January gains traction.

My Life's Winding Roads: And January gains traction.: Happy Monday greetings to everyone both near and far. As the summer holidays are now officially over for South Africa, there should be some...

And January gains traction.

Happy Monday greetings to everyone both near and far. As the summer holidays are now officially over for South Africa, there should be some semblance of normal life returning although, normal has changed and been re-defined so it's going to be interesting to see how things unfold. However this year unfolds for each of us, I hope we have learnt enough lessons from the last couple of years to make each day count and to seize every opportunity to the good. Well, apart from the mind numbing heat we have had over the last few days here in the Cape it was a very busy but productive week. On Tuesday we had the joy of collecting Princess and her boyfriend C and having them over for the night and most of Wednesday. It was such fun and I believe I speak for us all when I say we had a ball. I cooked up a huge pot of chicken breyani, we chatted, we laughed and then after supper we taught C how to play Nurch, an old family favorite card game. This game inevitably ends up being quite a raucous affair just by its very nature, we had such fun and it is a night I will treasure. To back up a little, on Monday our remaining little dove took flight with her mommy and we have been able to catch glimpses of them, sitting on the bird feeder. I am so happy they both survived and were kept safe whilst they were on our deck. On Wednesday I had to go in for a Bone Density test which I have had to postpone four times, grrr. Off I went and duly presented myself at the Radiology Department, despite having a really lovely Radiologist doing the tests I could not help feeling quite unsettled at being back in the Hospital after having had no doctors or medical appointments for a whole three weeks, which felt a lot longer. I kept thinking "now what". The following day I received a call saying the results were in and that I have Osteoporosis and to that end the Oncologist is applying to Medical Aid for a Calcium Drip which I will receive however often they have decided that I will need it. It wasn't even worth getting upset about it, it's just one more thing I need to do in order to get well and stay that way. Jelly Bean and I also eventually both made looong overdue appointments with our hairdressers, what a treat for us both to come out feeling and looking totally fresh and new 😁. Between resuming almost all my normal home activities and all our outings it constituted a good and busy week. Hubby has so many clocks waiting for his attention that it is hard to keep track, unusually most of them are presenting unique and different faults so he is a very busy man at the moment, we currently have three clocks in the house for testing just for example 😄. I must congratulate BabyBear on successfully completeing her studies in the space of fourteen months and still,holding down her full time job. Well done honey, now it's your time to get back to normal and living your life, you did it and you did it well. 👏🏻🤗 On Saturday the Overstrand awoke to the news that a fire had broken out in the mountains on the other side of Kleinmond and about halfway between our home and Hermanus. The soaring temperatures on Saturday and very strong winds soon took the fire to the next level, and with memories of three years ago still very fresh in everyone's minds all the usual cogs and wheels started turning with the fire fighters, volunteers, choppers and spotter plane, collection areas for food, eye drops, water etc being well supported. By late last night it had reached the eastern side of Kleinmond and although five homes were evacuated as a precautionary measure there has so far been no damage to buildings or structures. By late afternoon on Saturday the smoke over our village, and as far as Room Els was incredibly thick having been sucked through the mountains by the wind, accompanied by a lot ash falling. Thank the Lord, during the night the wind turned and it was prevented from spreading further into the residential area. This fire is still not wholly contained with Cape Town Fire Fighters now also joining in, rain has been forecast for tonight which will please God, put it out completely. As my recovery timeline picks up again this week with my next appointment at the Plastic Surgeon, I am praying for a quiet and good week, not just for myself but for each of you. This means the year is in full swing and it's time to take it by the horns and make it ours. Challenges are always going to be there, it is how we handle them that determines the outcome so, to that end folks when every new day dawns, leave behind the frustrations of the previous day, embrace the new and the fresh and in so doing turn this year into a good year for yourself and your family. If you live in the Cape stay cool and hydrated hehe. Stay safe and stay well, Ciao Ciao. Sunset Saturday through the smoke.

My Life's Winding Roads: 2022 has arrived.

My Life's Winding Roads: 2022 has arrived.: Happy New Year and good morning to you all, well we did it, we survived 2021, all the challenges, all the fights, all 365 days, we did it. ...

2022 has arrived.

Happy New Year and good morning to you all, well we did it, we survived 2021, all the challenges, all the personal wars, all 365 days, we did it. In my opinion given that it was 2021 I think we can all pat ourselves on the back and take a moment to reflect on the victories. I know that I surely did that, with a great sense of achievement. My year started with great promise last year and also great energy with the restoration of my gorgeous kist, that gave me such joy and pride to do and I had another piece of furniture lined up, which is still awaiting my ministrations. I learnt many lessons last year which I could have done without, but obviously needed to be exercised and stretched. Never did I ever think I would hear the words "you have cancer" and yet moments before I did hear them God placed a peace in my heart and I knew that was what I would hear. From being told it was so tiny and would be a simple and quick situatio it turned out to be 'small' yes, but from there on the very opposite of simple and nothing I could have ever prepared myself for. Lessons in faith, patience, drawing in right under His wing, being the one needing prayer and not the other way around, having to rely completely on other people for the most mundane things like getting my hair washed as well as literally my life, etc. A BIG year without a doubt but, I can say I am cancer free and thank God daily that no chemo or radiation was added to my treatment. My journey is not quite over but I am slowly recovering to be strong enough to face the last part, without any complications, I pray. Not a year I or anyone I know would like to ever repeat.  

While I was in hospital I remember Hubby telling me that a pair of doves had made a nest on one of the beams on the deck and the day I was discharged their one little egg hatched and the second hatched a day later. It has been such a joy watching these two precious little birds grow up, Mom and Dad look like babies themselves but have done a very good job. Yesterday Baby No 1 flew off into sunlight with his parents, leaving baby No 2 alone in the nest. I felt so sorry for 'her' suddenly all alone and just after lunch she tried to launch herself but fluttered down onto the deck. When Hubby tried to catch her she kept flitting off until she was under the car. I could not rest and eventually we went out with a mop handle and she flew out onto the wire fence where she wobbled back and forth, I was able to quietly catch her and put her back in the nest, waiting anxiously for mommy to come and feed her, I wasn't sure she would. Just after 7 pm she flew in and fed her little baby thank the Lord, this after me managing to find some seed within the village and pronutro just in case hahaha.  This morning she flew off with her parents so the proverbial nest is now empty. 

It was a day of answered prayers because, Jelly Bean had looked after Poppet's house over New Year and when they got home on Saturday one of the cats was missing, oh my word, poor Jelly Bean as well as myself, we felt so bad and as the day wore on he stayed m.i.a. Yesterday morning at 4.30 am the little blighter arrived back home minus his collar and disc, so we are left to presume he got himself caught somewhere and eventually managed to get free. Oh Lord, thank you, I could not have stood it if he had not returned. 

As for myself I have become ever so slightly stronger, I still shake and wobble all over the show and sometimes getting food from the plate t my mouth is an accomplishment haha, but day by day it is a journey. My goal for this week is to actually get to a hairdresser and have my hair cut. 🙏🏻 Since I was in hospital I have had a tightness on the edge of one scar which has caused much discomfort. I was concerned as to how this would feel once I start with my fills but yesterday (it was a busy day) when I showered I was sure I felt a stitch and on investigation, I was correct. One lonely stitch had been left behind and got itself nicely grown in over the 5 1/2 weeks 🤦🏻‍♀️. Hubby supplied the tweezers and after sterilizing everything Jelly Bean with her steady hands performed the removal, which was jolly painful but oh the relief, I can actually lie on that side for a short while now. Thank you guys 👏🏻👏🏻

 Folks I want to encourage each of you with these thoughts, as we all know nothing in life is guaranteed. The only guarantee we have is that God is never moved, He is never absent or too busy, He is ALWAYS available to us for the smallest to the most life threatening or changing event. The only guarantee we have is that if we stay plugged into Him, no matter what the world throws at us, we will overcome and be victorious. The other thing is family, there is so much division in families for one reason or the other. Family is the one thing in our lives that we have no choice over, but, God in His infinite wisdom hand picked and chose each member of your family to be YOUR family. In this day and age friends tend to come and go but your family will always be just that, always there, whether they are appreciated or not, nothing can change your position in that family unit. We need to treasure our families, where there are cracks, breaks and rifts, where possible to bring healing and most of all unconditional love. Not love based on what they can do or did not do for you or visa Versa, but unconditional, non judgemental love. You may not even particularly like certain family members but you are called to love them and for my tuppence worth, pray for them, pray for yourself to be able to love and accept them for who they are. There is NOTHING that cannot be accomplished and changed by heartfelt prayer and any family is worth at the very least your prayers. 

As we ease into 2022 I wish you all a wonderful year in every way. May this year see some sense of a return to 'normal' life for the world, may the struggles and challenges of the last year be behind us. I pray that 2022 will be a kind and gentle year to us all. Please stay safe and stay healthy. Ciao ciao. 

 A gorgeous surprise gift from Poppet.

Our precious little dove babies.