Greetings to you all from an extremely hot, humid and uncomfortable Betty's Bay. It seems that the moment the visitors left, the sun came out to play and has glared down day after day. Years ago there was never humidity in the Western Cape, that was a Natal thing; but my how that has changed. I have tried all my tricks to cool off and nothing works beyond a few minutes. Ughhh ! Winter you are welcome at any time.
Our New Year started with the best spoil when Princess and C arrived on the 1st and stayed until the 3rd. We packed so much into that short time and stored up as many memories as possible. We even went to the shell beach, its been ages since we were there. I have never seen more than perhaps 2 other people there and that day there were about 15 haha. We got a good collection of shells and Charlie played with the waves for the first time ever. He also came across his first toddler since he has been with me and was so gentle and calm, I was so proud of him. It was a very tearful goodbye not knowing how long it will be until we see each other again, shucks it is hard when the Grandchilden grow up.
The following week one of my very dear friends came down for a visit, oh my goodness. What a wonderful time of fellowship, laughs, sewing and sharing we had. She taught me all about making Kefir (I knew nothing) and within a day the Kefir station was producing exactly as it should. To learn more. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-health-benefits-of-kefir. Kefir has approximately 50 - 83 different strains of probiotics. Needless to say I now make Kefir every day which I have with my granola in the morning and in everything I bakes thats calls for milk. Hubby would drink it all if left to himself and JB is also drinking it in smoothies. A few days after my friend left I tried my hand at Kefir cheese ... DELICIOUS and then made Kefir cheese balls with chives which I keep in olive oil - I am addicted to these. Just another thing I've added to my daily routine, still much more to learn. Again far too soon we had to say goodbye but hopefully not for too long a period until she can visit again.
My business is growing nicely and apart from the 1 week I took off between Christmas and New Year I have had a small but steady stream of clients with things to alter, fix, replace etc. I truly can only give God all the glory. On that note, last year already, I had started looking for a sewing cupboard that I could keep both my sewing machine and overlocker in, ready to go, as well as storage for the growing pile of things. I had seen one but the lady proved to be difficult to communicate with, eventually she asked if I was still interested, I was and bought it. She lives in Hermanus so Hubby went off to fetch it, only to come back empty handed, it was too big and heavy for him to load into the car or even lift. So we organised a trailer and he hired someone to help him and after a lot of grunting and groaning, I now have a beautiful sewing cupboard on the deck - I just have to sort out the heat problem being out there.
The family are all well, being a large family there always seems to be some health issue or personal crisis but we ride the waves and stand strong in our Faith in God. Princess got everyone's heart racing one night when she stepped back in the kitchen and tripped over a carpet hitting the side of her head on the fridge door handle. Thank goodness for C's Paramedic Training as he got her down, kept her awake and stemmed the most of the blood flow before rushing her to Emergency. She ended up with 5 stitches over the top of her ear, thankfully in her hairline, plus numerous bruises and grazes. It took the Dr some time to close part of the hole and stop the bleeding before she was allowed home to rest up. Her stitches came out last week and although she is feeling a bit vulnerable with her ear she is well. I am busy with a number of projects currently - sewing, knitting, dotting, kefir'ing and about to sew new elasticised bench cushion covers for easy removal and washing (for the deck). I can't wait to show you all the beautiful material I managed to get, that belongs to next month's story.
Living in Betty's Bay we have come to expect burst water pipes which inevitably means a couple of hours of no water or worst case scenario, a day or so. There seem to have been many reported throughout the last month especially and the Municipality is hard at work in upgrading the infrastructure. Seeing brown water come out of the taps is not a shock to us because the fynbos also can discolour the water. So being somewhat unobservant, a couple of weeks ago I put all our white towels in with the washing and could only stare in disbelief when I opened the machine. My ENTIRE wash, including coloured items, was a consistent, medium shade of beige/ brown. It was hot, I was already tired and sore and was almost in tears. Can you believe that in this very technological day and age we live in it is almost impossible to find good old Steri Nappi. All of the clothing has now returned to its normal colours, with frequent washes, except for the big stuff and towels for which I am awaiting delivery of Vanish 02 white. I will then begin the process with returning my linens to bright white 🤞🏻. After asking on our local WA group I have discovered the simple solution of running the tap into the basin before switching on the machine. At first I blamed my machine, then later that day when the toiled flushed mud coloured water I realised where the problem had come from 🤦🏻♀️.
This all brings me to last week when we had another big fire which started in Pringle Bay, our neighbouring village. We were on our way home from SW when Jelly Bean saw the smoke. By late that afternoon we were having to consider evacuation as it had reached the dunes on our side and was in full flow. Once again huge thanks and kudos go out to our Fire Fighters and all those that came in from other towns. There was not one home lost after day one, where just after it started it raged through the point and burnt out most of the homes ( it is a very isolated area called Sea Farm with very few houses ). Sadly one of the homes belonged to the Caretaker of Sea Farm who is one of our Volunteer fire fighters and whilst he was trying to save other structures he lost his home and all they owned. There was a picture taken when he received the news which is heartbreaking in knowing what had happened and yet he carried on protecting everyone else's homes. As usual the amazing folks in Betty's Bay came to the fore and our Village Hall became the hub for feeding and sheltering fire fighters. The fire was only contained fully on Friday due to the winds which kept changing direction. God once again showed His miracle working power in sending rain (in January??) Which helped with giving those on the ground some lee way and protecting homes. It is at these times, when one sits and seriously thinks about what you need to take that you realise what is important to you. We had the cat boxes at the ready, cars turned around and in the driveway and I had mentally catalogued what would go. Thank the Lord we did not have to evacuate, although many people did both here and in PB.
Folks as you can see, January was 87 weeks long and packed full of things, every day, I was actually glad to see February arrive on the calendar. Here's hoping February cools down and slows down. I wish you all a wonderful week, thank you as always, for joining me on my Winding Road of Life. Stay safe and well. Ciao ciao
Charlie chasing waves
Sewing cupboard blessing
Kefir Cheese and chive balls.
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