My Life's Winding Roads: May in a small seaside Village

My Life's Winding Roads: May in a small seaside Village: Good morning family and friends from my little corner of this great continent.  Winter is definitely making some gentle advances. I hear tha...

May in a small seaside Village

Good morning family and friends from my little corner of this great continent.  Winter is definitely making some gentle advances. I hear that there is snow on mountains not too far from us and we have now graduated to long sleeves during the day 👏🏻.  The nights are pleasantly cool so I am a much happier camper.

April seems to have been such a busy month in our Villages. South Africa has a huge amount of Public Holidays during April together with school holidays.  Many people were able to take just a few days of working leave and  have 2 and even 3 weeks of holidays.  That in turn brings an influx into our area and many people walking around and just a general busyness.  I am going to tentatively / very quietly say that Charlie and Dash do not have quite as much to bark at this weekend thank goodness - all the holidays are over.  It has been quite a challenge calling them in every time they get going, a lot of up and down for both JB and myself. 😂

We had a very quiet Easter weekend and had a wonderful visit from Poppet a day before the actual weekend.  It had been such a long time since she was here and we truly had a wonderful visit.  She is back to all her activities - yes including playing Paddel, camping etc, etc. the rest of the family are doing well, overcoming their challenges and living their lives to the full.

Being April it was once again time for my 6 monthly check up.  I made an appointment with my Breast Surgeon as I am not totally fond of my Oncologist.  My Dr gave me a complete check up and the required full panel of blood tests and I am delighted and so blessed to say that everything is 100% normal.  She has written out the request for the the annual MRI, CT, CAT scan and  Mammogram now I just need to find a date and make the appointment. God has been so very good to me in my healing journey.  The one thing about having Cancer is that it changes you. You look at life differently and realise just how precious and fleeting our time here on earth is.  There is no time to  'save it for later ' / 'tomorrow is another day' and all the usual platitudes we use  to excuse ourselves.  Whether you are healthy or have been ill, don't take any day or occasion for granted.

Work wise it continued to be a challenging month, I am sincerely glad to have torn April off the calendar haha.  One of the 'delightful' jobs I  did was to convert flat sheets to fitted sheets and extend fitted sheets to make them bigger. 🥴.  I have a couple of nice and normal items that have come in, requiring some good old fashioned mending which I will get to this week. After some really deep thought and consideration I have made the decision to only take in mending from now on.  I really dislike turning anyone away and am always 'ready' to tackle something new, however, the toll it takes on my health Fibromyalgia wise is not worth it.  

JB and I just got back on Friday after spending the most wonderful week with MamaBear and little Baby bear a.k.a. Munchkin.  BigBear is currently in the USA on business and we went through to support her as she was working as well.  Oh my soul, I am the happiest GranGran, this child is growing way too fast. He is 9 months old today and is crawling everywhere, he can stand on his own for about 6 seconds, is crazy about his books and will turn the page when asked to, waves goodbye and adores peek-a-boo. Even at this young age he has a sense of humour and will mimic anyone who sneezes or coughs. We truly had an amazing time helping with him and also just enjoying the special time with his Mommy.  Thank you family for allowing us not to babysit but to make wonderful memories, it is such an honour.🤗❤️

As for the work in my knitting and crochet bag, that carries on as I continue working on my project. I am also currently making Munchkin a pullover jersey for winter, I had forgotten how quickly it grows on the needles. 🧶

In true domestic style, after many years of excellent service our Bosch dishwasher decided to stop working.  Hubby fiddled and fixed then something else went wrong. Eventually last week we called time on it and I was really blessed to find a much newer machine (on marketplace). It is an LG and was at a good price which we could afford. This little helper arrived yesterday and oh how happy I am to see it. 😁 Now I need to get rid of or sell for parts the old one.  The other thing I am trying to find, after missing the bargain of the year, price wise, is Sheer material to make curtains for the deck.  You may remember I oh so proudly made beautiful curtains from calico, which promptly absorbed all the moisture and got mildew.  I still not replaced them and am looking for a synthetic/polyester sheer fabric but, not the very fine sheers which we used to call net curtains. Just a medium type sheer with a bit of texture which will block out some of the sun.  So far no luck but I shall keep looking.

Well folks that's my news for now, April really was a work, work, work and no play kind of month.  I pray you all stay safe and well and have a good month. Ciao ciao

Charlie playing the cute card

This is the second snail of this size I have found in as many months.  This one was in the deck window and truly jaw dropping in size.  Bigger than my hand. PS. The red stripes are a reflection from the cushions.