My Life's Winding Roads: April is underway.

My Life's Winding Roads: April is underway.:   Good morning all, apologies for being a couple of hours late.  It has been somewhat of a whirlwind, very long month.  We have still not le...

April is underway.

 Good morning all, apologies for being a couple of hours late.  It has been somewhat of a whirlwind, very long month.  We have still not left summer completely behind, much to my chagrin.  Most of the days are still very hot but the nights are a little cooler.  For someone like me this is "hard" 😭  According to weather News we are going to be in for a drier than normal winter, also SAD news.  The rest of the country is literally in flood and we are dry as bones. hmmppff.

What happened in March ?  Oh my goodness, it seems like such a long time ago. Let me start with the beginning.  Two weeks after my knee surgery and 5 days after my last blog, Jelly Bean had a house sitting job over the weekend in Pringle Bay, a neighbouring village.  The day before she started, we went to fetch the keys and the house was in an uproar because one of the young cats had disappeared. it was found soon after.  She left in the Friday and on the Saturday night at sunset I got a phone call from a sobbing JB.  Said cat had escaped and she had spent 45 mins looking with no results.  Hubby and I packed the dogs in the car and went off to help search .  I got out of the car and she and I found the cat hiding under the deck. 🤦🏻‍♀️.  It took us over an hour to coax the cat out and I managed to grab hold of it.  The next step was to get it inside.  Yeah right....  She started biting me so I used my left hand to hold her by the scruff and right hand holding her body. Then we went up the deck, only 3 steps .  I took the first too but neither leg was able to take the third step. There was a concrete column on my left and I "assumed" another to my right.  I learnt against the right column ..... There was nothing and I fell straight off the deck like a tall tree -  timberrr !! The cat got away, my head bounced as I landed, thank goodness it was grass.  It took me a few mins to shake the black dots and figure out what happened.  JB nearly passed out with fright. Then I was up and the search started again but now in the pitch black garden. Said cat was - you guessed it , black and white.  Eventually we saw her in a wire built gardening cage/shed.  I couldn't maneuver around the planters so JB went in and I stood at the gate with a small towel to catch kitty.  Hmmm kitty shot off under a corner of the cage and flew up the high staircase to the top deck.  We had tried cornering her up there a few times already.  JB went up one side and I went up the other.  By some miracle she didn't run and JB was able to slide a door open .  YAAY cat safe, the other 4 animals intrigued. JB shaking and mother bleeding up a storm and still a bit woozy.  For the next 4 or 5 days I felt like a freight train had travelled over me multiple times.   Beyond that no damage to my knee and apart from a tetanus shot I was fine.  Sheesh I  did not know house sitting could be so dangerous 😂

Happier times were coming as JB celebrated her birthday on the 17th.  She requested a certain meal, as is our tradition and we had a lovely day.  She and I went for a lovely coffee as well. In between all of this was the usual work and catch up daily routine, in between trips to SW for various reasons. I had some extremely frustrating work come in, twice in a row. The first was to hem 8 square pieces if chiffon, big pieces.  After declaring "never again" about seeing chiffon and sending blessings to all those ladies who work with it all the time (you are saints), I received another call from a very stressed bride-to-be awho needed 3  x 16 m x .50 m edged. 🤦🏻‍♀️😭. Of course I said yes and spent days edging them, cutting off little slivers of threads etc, etc. I had to do the one twice so at the end 132m of chiffon, enough to give me nightmares.  During all this I am still trying to accumulate a little bit of stock of octopus, worry worms, etc for a future project. I also experimented and made some straps for BabyBear which attach to his highchair or pram and the other side attaches to his toy. So he cannot toss things overboard, and they end up getting lost.  I used Kam snaps for these and our dentist had a whole box of them, not being used which she gave me and them said to keep half of all the snaps.  I just need to top up on a few colours and get the Kam snap tool. JB was having a root canal when we spoke about it and she (the dentist) blessed me with them.  God is so good and always looking out for us in even the smallest ways.

Apart from JB's birthday the highlight of the month was the Bears were celebrating their anniversary and we went through to babysit our precious little BabyBear.  He is growing and developing si fast, that every day/week we don't see him we feel like we are missing out.  He is sitting like a champ, clapping hands, on the cusp of crawling, he does a good leopard crawl and has just discovered peek -a-boo.  That weekend he cut another 3 teeth and was so happy in general.  He truly is one of the most content babies I've ever known and is happy to sit and play with his toys or 'read' his books  by himself.  Our weekend there was amazing. Mon and Dad went out for the day and treated themselves to a night away.  Junior was as good as gold, his parents came home looking refreshed and happy. We had such a wonderful time of chatting, exchanging stories and just enjoying each other's company.

The last weekend of March we all met at a Spur Steak Ranch and had a late celebratory birthday lunch for JB.  It was noisy and busy but oh so good to have all the Cape Town family together in one place at the same time.  Being with my family, whether it's all or just some fills my heart and soul.  I miss Princess and Big Guy immensely, especially at times like these.  

On the home front we eventually had someone come in and paint the house.  I cannot tell you how long overdue it was.  Even now when I drive up to the gate I get a thrill to see how pretty it looks.  There are a few areas where our dear painter didn't completely finish so Hubby is going to have to get his paint brush out and add a touch here and there . Our house no longer looks like the worst on the street. 👍🏻 

The family are all well, working hard, playing hard and enjoying life. Princess doesn't have time to lift her head with the 2nd year Uni work load and is currently fighting a cough and cold as well. Poppet is back to normal, somewhat restricted because of the titanium plate in her wrist, but otherwise good and back in the swing of her life.  Big Guy is busy with work and chasing down deals on a daily basis.

As for Charlie and Dash, OMW life has become a lot busier.  They are the best of friends, joined at the hip.  They play hard and then collapse.  We are still trying to control Dash's barking, but in the whole I believe we are making progress.  When we were away for the weekend we have now instituted a routine where they are left only on the  deck with ALL their toys and, a cardboard box or two to destroy.  That seems to work and the mess is contained. One must do what one needs to do to stay sane 🤣🤣🤣

Well folks I have a washing machine with a full load waiting to be hung up to dry and need to get my house in order.  I wish you all a wonderful week.  Please stay safe and healthy. From the little Village on the east coast of the Cape Ciao Ciao for now.

My finished crochet project, a tote bag for JB.

The incredible view when Baby sitting 

Charlie and Dash aka Ebony and Ivory