Glorious days of early Autumn.

 Hello, hello folks I hope this finds you all well today.  It is a beautiful early autumn day after a near perfect weather and quiet  weekend.  Yesterday whilst I was cooking I looked out at the sea and it was that gorgeous indigo blue that comes with a cloudless sky and once again I gave thanks to God for the privilege of living where we do, it is a blessing I never take for granted.

Well a somewhat stormy week in some ways.  The three of us had decided that we were going for our booster shots on Tuesday at the Clinic in Kleinmond.  That decision after many phone calls to find out just who and where was doing them.  None of our local chemists and apparently only at Hospitals, selected Clicks and Dischem; in fact when I called Dischem I was told they had no stock of the Pfizer vaccine in the Western Cape despite the other nominated areas being well stocked 🤷‍♀️.   So, off we trotted nice and early and on arrival at 9.05 the queue was a block long  👀, my heart sank AND I had Charlie with me.  Dear Hubby wandered off to find out if we were in the right place and came hurrying back to retrieve us from the queue and took off for the Town Hall 😁.  Oh yaaay.  It was cool, quiet and extremely well organised. I think we sat for perhaps 5 minutes before being called and then the obligatory 5 - 10 minutes after.  Charlie was a model dog and got loads of oohs and aahs, he does so love his outings.
Tuesday dawned and the Hubster bounced out of bed while I took a bone by bone, muscle by muscle inventory and came up on the minus side.  Pain down to and including my toes holy moly, Jelly Bean was also extremely sore and we both stayed very low hahaha.  She rallied much quicker, it took me a good 4 days to feel better but, happy days we are done.  After having Poppet fall foul of the 'dreaded lurgy' the week before, and then this week BabyBear was knocked flat into bed and seeing how sick they both were we are all even more grateful that we have had our shots, despite the immediate side effects.
I am so glad that BigBear and Sonshine proved to be such excellent nurses. 

 
Friday Hubby deemed it safe to take the Volvo into SW in order to do the monthly grocery shop, purchase wood, dog food, cat food etc, etc.  A little later I got a call to say the Volvo had 'fainted' about 7 km before Gordon's BAY - the turbo had failed and it has gone into 'limp' mode.  That is one of the most accurate descriptions I've heard of.  Quite literally the car cannot go beyond first gear.   OMW !!! Really ?? After all the fixing and time now this.  Charlie and I dutifully hopped into the little C3 (rescuer of every member of this family at some point) and went to pick him up.  On the way I borrowed a diagnostic computer tool from a neighbour, this failed to diagnose the problem and repeatedly told us there was no fault.  After roughly an hour we called it a failure, locked the car and came home.  A very dear friend fetched Hubby that afternoon and they towed our sad car home, poor old Hubby with another problem to figure out and solve.  The delay meant he spent most of Saturday running around Hermanus trying to get as much done as possible. Thank you my love.

On Saturday afternoon JB and I were standing at the door when suddenly I noticed a really gorgeous, shiny mongoose.  As both dogs and cats were in the house he was able to explore the washing and garden at his leisure; naturally as soon as I picked up my phone to take a picture he darted off into a bush, you can take my word for it he was gorgeous 😃.

Oh goodness ........ how could I forget ?  Last Monday our mattress topper arrived and it was with great delight that I opened the box and watched it unfurl. Poppet and Humph had come through for the afternoon prior to fetching Princess from the airport and she was able to witness the happy event hahaha.  We bought  a 7.5 cm Gel Memort Foam Topper and I can honestly say that it is an answer to prayer and makes the bed feel like a cloud.  I have slept every night comfortably in our bed and felt no remorse whatsoever in saying goodbye to the couch 👋🏻.  Most definitely one of our best investments which even Hubby who likes a hard bed, has found comfortable 👏🏻👏🏻 .

Well folks on that happy note I am going to get my week up and running.   I wish you all a good week, please stay safe and healthy.  Ciao Ciao.

Looking back along Clarence Drive to Rooi Els and then across the bay to Cape Point in the distance on Friday from where the car 'fainted'.

 

My Life's Winding Roads: Covid, Baboons and Birthdays

My Life's Winding Roads: Covid, Baboons and Birthdays:  Greetings all on this fine Monday morning which is a public holiday in SA.  I am crossing fingers when I say that I think autumn is making ...

Covid, Baboons and Birthdays

 Greetings all on this fine Monday morning which is a public holiday in SA.  I am crossing fingers when I say that I think autumn is making an appearance, in BB at least.  The heat has not been quite as intense this week and towards late afternoon there is a wonderful cool breeze / wind coming off the sea, oh how I cannot wait to cuddle up under a thick blanket mmmmm.

Wow ....... what a week we had 🤦🏻‍♀️.  As I mentioned last week Poppet and Sonshine's flight was cancelled and they flew home Monday morning, what I did not mention was that from Saturday Poppet was really ill and despite everything Sonshine did and gave her she just got and sounded worse.  On speaking to her Dr as soon as they got home she was sent for an immediate CoVid test which came back that night as positive.  Gosh, not what we were expecting.  Thank the Lord for a good Dr who phoned with the results at 21.15 and immediately ordered Meds and vitamins.  The next day he put her onto cortisone and literally within an hour she sounded better, she has spent the week in bed and is extremely tired but due to good nursing, thank you Sonshine, and many fervent prayers she is well on the road to being 100%.  I would hate to think how sick she would have been if she was not vaccinated.  As you can imagine it was a stressful time especially with Princess still up in Pretoria, again thank God she has remained negative and will be home tonight.

On Thursday it was Jelly Bean's Birthday and a lot of last minute plans and adjustment were made due to the 'abcense' of half the family.  In the morning we took her to our favourite local coffee shop and took both dogs with us.  Sasha does not normally come with on outings as in the past she has hated traveling but, I feel bad leaving her at home so we loaded both of them up and off we trotted.  Such a gorgeous venue and very pet friendly, there we were sitting almost finished with our coffee and out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow about 3m away just beyond the short wall.  Immediately I was alert and was in the middle of standing up when one of the big males from the BB troop of baboons jumped over the wall.  I was holding Charlie and turned my back to him (possibly not the wisest thing to do haha), Jelly Bean had gathered Sasha up and was trying to get up when he calmly, in a split second, was off the wall and reached between Jelly Bean and Hubby snatching up the container with all the sugar/sweetener packets before jumping back onto the wall.  By then the Barista had come out and the Mr Baboon looked at him, stuffed EVERY packet into his mouth and abandoned the container, jumping away from us all.  The look on his face with all these different colored packets sticking out of his mouth was absolutely priceless.  There was absolutely no aggression despite both of the dogs, in fact he was scared but had gauged the reward to be worth it.  Whoever said retirement in a sea side village was dull - certainly not us.  It is a picture that is burned into my mind and I only wish I'd been able to capture it on the camera; but I was too busy trying to get out of his way and keep the dogs from going beserk, I'm not sure they even realized what had happened.  Anyway, the outing was a great success as far as Sasha is concerned so she won't have to stay behind anymore.  

That evening after a very long mysterious explanation we met up with BigBear and BabyBar for a fantastic dinner at  Cucina di Giovanni in Somerset West, to say JB was surprised was an understatement and we had a evening of fabulous food and catch up.

A couple of weeks ago you might remember I got my head caught in the gate trying to keep Charlie from squeezing through as we went out.  On  Thursday JB left carrying a treat for each of them and instead of giving it to them through the gate, we threw each treat away from the gate ........ it WORKED, 🤦🏻‍♀️ (you would think that I would have figured this out long ago) they were both so busy getting the treat the gate was closed before they realized it.

On Saturday Hubby was able to start his Volvo and take it for a very successful test drive - after about 7 months of standing and being repaired.  Well done my love on being so handy and persistent, I can't wait to go for a drive in luxury hehe.

Still the watches and clocks come rolling in and and ticking out, he is developing quite a name for himself in the area for being the 'watch guy'.

Big Guy also had a treat this weekend as he got back behind the DJ desk - one of his Happy places,  for St Patrick's Day celebrations. 

As for me ...... 🤦🏻‍♀️  on Friday night as I was readying for bed I plugged in the mosquito pad, the bedroom lit up with quite a spectacular 'pyrotechnics' display as the wire shorted.  I was so busy watching the sparks that it took a moment to realise that one had caught on the bed frill and all Hubby heard was a squeeze as my trusty slipped was used to put out the flame OMW !!!!   

At long last I picked up my crocheting - a thick shrug that I started making for JElly Bean last year, with yarn that I unwound from a never worn Aran Jersey.  I started slowly and have accomplished quite a lot in a few days so, hopefully with some determination it should be ready by next week - then we just need the COLD weather 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.  I am also eyeing the wooden unit outside and want to try and get some of the paint off it, I will use power tools as I don't have the strength to scrape -  it might not work but I at least want to try.

As I said,  what a week and, these  have  been literally just the highlights, there was a whole lot more which caused the week to pass in a blur.  I wish  all of you in SA a fabulous holiday Monday and a super special week. I don't know where March has gone but is has passed very quickly.  Please take care folks and stay well - don't forget your masks, sanitizer and social distancing; CoVid is still lurking around corners.  Ciao ciao 

Jasper pulling the cute card.

My Life's Winding Roads: Never boring.

My Life's Winding Roads: Never boring.: Shooo, it's been a busy time, good morning folks from a magnificent, cooler little corner of paradise. After the most unbearable heat w...

Never boring.

Shooo, it's been a busy time, good morning folks from a magnificent, cooler little corner of paradise. After the most unbearable heat we have had a little bit of rain here in the Western Cape which was enough to be counted as a promise of Autumn ...... winter please can you hurry and last long? 

Quite an interesting week behind us with some really quiet days and some really busy days. Things got off to a fairly normal start with a trip into Kleinmond on Tuesday during which I discovered a new store in 'town'. Not a new business (they began during Lockdown) and have now grown to opening a store, we have our very own Bakery which is all traditional Artisnal Sour Dough products. I will admit I splurged just a teeny bit, buying 2 fantastic Foccacia breads which are a meal in themselves and the most incredible sour dough Cinnamon Rolls/Chelsea Buns - absolute decadence yummm yummm. #BroodStories. 

Dear Hubby spent an entire day in errands in the City as well as collecting his laptop which went in for repairs nearly two months ago and, on collection is still not repaired, as well as having some of the Hardware missing 🤦🏻‍♀️. Such a frustrating journey, I take my hat off to him for his patience and long suffering, my lid was boiling and it is not even my computer. He has also just about finished working on his vehicle, that is going to be such a blessing to have on the road again. 

Our Inverter system is operating beautifully and has been a real game changer with Load Shedding being reimplemented, we can now almost carry on as normal when the power is off 👏🏻. 

The Poppet, Sonshine and Princess flew up to Johannesburg for a variety of social commitments and we took Jelly Bean across on Thursday to house sit our fur grand-babies. As usual we incorporated all chores and shopping into the trip and then spoilt ourselves with a delicious waffle lunch at a Coffee Shop in Gordon's Bay. Despite the mind numbing heat it was a super treat - I had a bacon and banana waffle (a flavor combination that I adore) and Hubby went for traditional waffle toppings. Yummmmmm! I then drove through on Saturday to join her and we also had a little 'pre-birthday girl' date which morphed. Due to a huge queue outside the restaurant and the blistering heat, we got what we wanted as take away hehehe. It was such fun getting to know Humph, the girls' newly adopted dog, who is just the most precious, gentle soul, with the saddest eyes. He, like Charlie, has come from a background of abuse and neglect and was so scared when meeting each of us again without his humans around. It didn't take long though before he settled down and accepted the change although it was very obvious that he was missing Princess and Poppet. Well what would a week be without a little excitement ? On Saturday it should have come as no surprise to hear that the Airline which Poppet and Sonshine were booked on to return yesterday had been shut down 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️. This is South Africa and nothing should surprise us anymore, and yet we still held out hope that it would indeed only be for the anticipated 24 hrs. By yesterday morning it still looked that way and expecting their return last night Jelly Bean and I duly locked up and came home. 😂😂. We weren't home yet when everything got turned around and 'we' all found ourselves in a logistical muddle. Their flight was cancelled; we had locked the house with the keys in it, as normal, and the animals were all inside. With a lot of prayer, a bit of logistical planning (a couple of phone calls and to cut a long story short), Hubby went in and met with the owner of the property who was able to use a remote to access the house. Hallelujah; It was then his turn to get to know the fur babies until the family land this morning. As Sonshine said to me "one can never say things are dull around here" hehe. 

As for me, I am doing well and busy with somewhat of an 'experiment'. Since my diagnosis I have been on a Hormone Blocker which I will stay on for five years, the hitch comes in the fact that my hair has been falling out literally by the handful, it has never been this thin. I had put it down to all the anaesthetics but on speaking to my Oncologist it could be the medication so, she has taken me off it for a month and if the hairloss gets better she will then change the medication and I pray we can move on from there....... it seems this the long haul part of my journey. 

Well folks, that has been quite a jam packed Blog and I am going to end off by wishing you all a wonderful week. With all that is going on in the world please take time every day to share some compassion and care with others as well as taking time to appreciate what we have in this life. Ciao Ciao. 

 Sibling love

My Life's Winding Roads: Always something new to learn.

My Life's Winding Roads: Always something new to learn.: Good morning friends and family as yet another new week is here and waiting to be 'painted' and filled in. Last week for me was qui...

Always something new to learn.

Good morning friends and family as yet another new week is here and waiting to be 'painted' and filled in. Last week for me was quite a busy one but with a good amount of things achieved, not in the 'I stripped the wooden unit down' or did a major spring clean kind of way but, in getting some answers and actually taking a few minutes out for myself. I had an appointment at the Vet with Charlie and it was really a top to tail consultation, starting with the age old problem of finding the right food to avoid him being sick or fasting for 24 hours at a time, the fact that for weeks he has really been smelly, despite being bathed more and more frequently, his allergies which result in him chewing his feet until they are raw and *whisper* having his anal glands milked 🤢. The good news was a change in food which appears to be working well🙏🏻, his rear end being sorted out, an ear infection which was causing the smell and is responding to ear drops and an injection for the allergies, which are environmental. For that we have used a prescription tablet, allergex, colloidal silver, aloe Vera, pretty much everything around. Our wonderful Vet said she does not want to put him on cortisone as he is still young and therefore gave him this 'newish' injection (I forget the name), which he will have once a month, he has not chewed his feet since the day he had it. It feels so weird not telling him to stop chewing every five minutes and oh how much happier he is. Naturally it is costly but, after every other expense and product I've tried this is money well spent. So, although a very busy day because as usual we added in stored up chores which needed to be dealt with in town, it was a really good day. I eventually got my Blood Test results back from the Oncologist and thank the Lord, everything is exactly what is supposed to be, hallelujah. I remember every time Poppet had and has her annual check up, how the wait for the results feels never ending but the joy that comes with that good report is immense. I had a very 'scatty' week in terms of remembering things which is an ongoing challenge at the moment. For three nights when I took my medication I examined the pills, counted them, knew something was missing but for the very life of me I did not know what it was. For three days I felt progressively worse until on Friday it dawned on me. I was missing the tablet which after weaning myself off, the Dr very quickly put me back on ....... hmmmm here I did a three day cold turkey so no wonder I felt awful but even worse was realizing how silly it was and yet no amount of looking and counting made me remember arghhhhh !! On Friday morning as I hung out the washing I realized what a perfect day it was and immediately decided that going to the beach was the best thing in the world. Hubby went off to do the shopping and at the last minute Jelly Bean joined me and we took both dogs down to Silversands Beach for half an hour and it was absolutely wonderful, just the slightest of breezes, and warm which quickly started to get hot as we left and, an almost empty beach. The dogs splashed around in the little pools between the rocks and I just soaked in the view and the peace whilst making a promise to myself to do more of the same a LOT more regularly. I also found two very unusual shells which I have never seen before and later whilst having coffee with friends whom we haven't seen in ages, mentioned them and my friend knew exactly what they were. They belong to the very big black and white snail like shells that are found on the beaches, about 13 cms long, what I found is the 'trapdoor' that gets pushed out - I am fascinated. The family are all doing well and yesterday BigBear come through for lunch, BabyBear is in Johannesburg for work. It was so good to see him and just spend time catching up, the months seem to fly past so fast that we hardly realise it. Hubby has almost finished fixing his car and is waiting for one more part to arrive, but everything is back where it belongs and we are hopefully days away from having it back in use. The clocks continue to come in regularly and there is never a day where he isn't working on at least one, this week he even managed to get some work done on the deck and we are just that little bit closer to being finished 👀. Our latest brood of baby doves hatched on Thursday and mama dove is being kept very busy with their little bobbing heads demanding food - when they leave we are going to have to take the nest down so that we can install the glass and close that side of the deck completely, I have already been thinking of where it would be possible to build future dove families a nesting box 😃. Folks there are many people who are really struggling at the moment with feeling alone and inconsequentia, in particular and probably made more so since the CoVid pandemic started and everyone was isolated to varying degrees. The 'challenge' is, I think, that we feel it is something that should not be spoken about, is seen as a weakness, is labeled and judged. I remember my late husband saying that "one can be an island of loneliness in a room full of people." Please know that you are not the only one feeling like this, if it is possible for you to reach out and talk to someone please do - sadly though the very reason for feeling alone is that there is no one you trust to speak to. God says in His Word "The Lord Your God Himself goes before you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged". Deuteronomy 31 v 8. When you feel lonely God is still there with you, and He is not going anywhere. If possible try and write in a private journal how you are feeling and in so doing at least release some of those feelings, spend some time in prayer and allow God to give you His peace. Those feeling and emotions are real and you are not weak or a failure for having them, as hard as it is to do at these times, do things that make you happy. You will get through 'this', you are precious, you are worthy, you have value, you are loved. I will end on that note and wish you all a blessed week. Reach out to someone, share some love and care with those you come across this week, perhaps try and look beyond their smile. Ciao Ciao. PS. Can anyone tell me how cats know exactly what time it is when it comes to dinner. We feed ours at 6 pm and Jasper will come from wherever he has been sleeping within literal seconds of dinner time and sit on the arm of the couch staring at me, summer or winter makes no difference 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Unusual sea shell -snail trapdoor 

Silversands Beach, please turn sound up.