Time to Breathe !

Greetings everyone from a slightly frustrated / stressed Blogger. Please forgive the change in text and any other differences. The host for this Blog has changed the Interface, which does not work very well arghhhh ! Well a delightful start haha, but then last week started off with a blast so not too much has changed. Quite a week we had with confrontations with someone who came in onto a massive plot opposite us, which is an entire mini eco system, with a massive digger and started digging up everything in his path with plans to erect a house, brick maker to make his own bricks and a series of storage units. Very long story but after numerous calls to the Municipality and Town Planning Department I was referred to the Environmental Officer who came over and shut things down very quickly. This after us being threatened by the not very nice man / potential owner. I am praying like crazy 🙏🏻. We then had the "happy hackers" who are a volunteer group od people who clean up stands and roadsides of alien vegetation. We knew they were coming so were more or less prepared, although it is still a bit of a visual shock every time I look out of the kitchen window. we knew it was inevitable on the stand next to ours as the alien trees pose a very real fire danger. Strange as it may sound, it has brought a noticeable change in our bird population. We were worried they would all go away but in fact the sugar birds, sunbird and little white eyes have increased, the best possible outcome in spite of the loss of greenery and privacy. Apart from all the wild life news and changes we had an incredibly busy week making and sending off 10 Embroidery Lap stands, they have taken off more than we ever dreamed possible which can only be God. He has been so, so good to us. This week we are hoping to build up some stock to avoid the pressure of last week, although we have a pretty smooth assembly line going 😀. Yesterday we went through to Somerset West and had lunch with the 'Bears' which is always a very precious and special time. Poppet and Princess are busy with getting quotes from removal companies in preparation for their 'groot trek'. I cannot wait for them to be here in the Cape and close to us. I just wish I could wave a magic wand and have Big Guy closer as well.  Princess has also just finished writing her tests which means she can take a deep breath for a bit. Folks, I have just covered the highlights of our week, there is still so much news to share, but due to the fact I'm typing this on my phone and the current issues with the interface, I am going to bid you goodbye and wish you a wonderful uncomplicated week, filled with God's grace and protection. Please stay safe and stay well. Ciao ciao 

Zeepha doing packet inspection.

My Life's Winding Roads: A good week !

My Life's Winding Roads: A good week !: Good morning all from a happy Bettys Bay ��, I trust that this Blog finds everyone well. There are times that I almost forget that we are s...

A good week !

Good morning all from a happy Bettys Bay 😃, I trust that this Blog finds everyone well.
There are times that I almost forget that we are still in lockdown as life here just seems to carry on as normal, I know that things are far from normal and see the frustration just in my own family because of the limits and restricions, business wise as well as on a social level.  I know that this sounds like a platitude but we have come so long through lockdown and the end is definitely in sight, yes to a somewhat different kind of normal but we have to just hang in there and keep our eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel and on our Heavenly Father who  keeps us safe and provides for us continually 

For our part this past week was busy, busy.  I got the idea in my head that the Embroidery Lap Stand which Hubby dear made for me is such a success that we should put it out there onto the market, we had already sold one privately and placed one in a store in Hermanus. I did a bit of Googling looking for Embroidery Guilds and Embroidery stores and came up with a couple of names.  With much trepidation I sent off four emails giving a brief story on how the stand came into existence and within half an hour two people made contact with me.  Both have subsequently led to orders as well as a possible mention in a monthly Guild Newsletter. A third person made contact and has also placed a lovely order which we will ship up country this week. One of the orders has required that we alter the design to handle a different kind of embroidery frame, so we now had two different stands available.  The store in Hermanus called to say their stand had sold and ordered a further three.   I decided that I will  send out emails every week to various places around the country rather than contacting everyone at the same time. As we sit currently,  we have to clear the orders currently waiting which will take up until early next week.  Jelly Bean is handling the 'stock' needs i.e. Wood, screws etc, and Hubby is doing the building - an exciting time to be sure.

One of our little Grandsons in the U.K. turned 8 last week and his Dad had his birthday yesterday - Happy Birthday again both of you.  The rest of the family are all, busy with work, exams and just life in general.  Weather wise we had a bit of an Indian Summer from Wednesday through to Saturday until a cold front came blowing through yesterday, plunging temperatures and lovely rain. If last week was anything to go by, I am not looking forward to summer in the slightest - ughhh.
There are so many things I have to / want to do in and around the house that at times my head spins haha.  On Saturday I caught up on the baking - rusks and doggie biscuits.  A very successful day of baking until .......... early evening I had a heaped tray of perfect rusks standing on top of the stove cooling when all of a sudden there was an almighty bang, crash.  Dear, dear, Jasper had jumped up onto the stove and stood on one end of the tray - down came the tray, thand cat and ALL the rusks.  You should have seen us scramble in a race to beat the dogs and cats in picking up all the rusks, many now broken 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. 

Folks I am keeping it short today as there is much to do and in that doing I have a need to carve out some quiet time just for myself. I wish you all a wonderful week, may your challenges become victories, your mountains be made flat and your frustrations turned into dreams and positive endings.  Keep safe and stay well.  Ciao ciao.

Rusks as they are meant to be, before feline interference 

My Life's Winding Roads: An interesting week to be sure !!

My Life's Winding Roads: An interesting week to be sure !!: Wow let's see how this week progresses, after last week it is sure to be an under achiever in terms of entertainment and happenings.  We...

An interesting week to be sure !!

Wow let's see how this week progresses, after last week it is sure to be an under achiever in terms of entertainment and happenings.  We have had almost two weeks of back to back cold fronts bringing with them all sorts of unusual weather. Snow, rain, hail, gales, enormous seas, you name it and we've had it and obviously along with all that activity quite a few after effects.  During one of the gales last week one of the big (about 4m high) bushes on the street side of our fence was split in two with another smaller one having a big branch torn off.  I was standing in the kitchen looking out of the window and thought the hedge looked a bit sparse, on investigation I found it divided and lying in the ground.  On the Main road through BB an entire boundary wall is now lying flat on the ground, this wall was only built after the fire last year.  It does however, always provide a good laugh on the WhatsApp groups when people start reporting various objects found in their gardens - once it was a Jojo water tank. This week someone reported a black Pilates ball bouncing down the tar road, it was caught and returned to the owner. Also reported this week in a garden near the Caltex garage was the 'shelf' that goes in the boot of a hatch back car, hehehe never a dull moment.  Jelly Bean and I needed to make a quick trip to the garage shop hoping to beat the rain, hmmmmm that didn't work too well.  We rocked our way up the road as the car was buffeted by the wind, once there we could barely get the car doors open and while I was paying I saw that a big plastic wheelie bin had fallen over and been blown into the front of my car, just as we walked out of the store the heavens opened and down came the rain, such fun.  On arriving home we saw the sliding gate was open halfway, I thought  how sweet it was of Hubby to leave it open just enough for me to drive through - it wasn't open wide enough and I simply had to get out of the car to push it open (loadshedding was on which meant the gate was on battery power). The gate was standing upright but was blown about 14 cm's off the rail and there was no way I could lift it up, so poor old Hubby came out and did the heavy work.  We have become so adept at making fires it has become second nature now which is one good thing, haha.  Mother Nature won a few rounds but we  won overall as we are here, safe and well.
On Friday whilst my dear Hubby was out Jelly Bean came out of her room and looked at me as if I was a ghost. "What are you doing here?" she asked, I looked at her 🤷🏻‍♀️ ??? 
She had heard the 'baboon proof' garbage bin lid drop.  We looked out and would you believe it ??? We had TWO baboons raiding the metal garbage cage !!!  They have never come down as far as us before, but were sighted the day before at the other end of our road.  There this dude sat on top of the pallisaide gate like it was his armchair happily eating something.  He had somehow opened the cage, pulled the black bag out and then between the two of them settled down to a garbage feast.  Now folks ..... this is a whole new bag of tricks for us, no longer can we go out and leave the windows open, or just sit with all the doors wide open.  All openings bigger than 6 cm need to be hooked so that they cannot be opened further and the  baby baboons pushed through, we will also be putting a carabiner on the garbage cage.  I am praying they head back to their usual areas of foraging LOL.

As if all that had not been entertainment enough on Saturday evening our gas cylinder ran out which in itself is not a huge problem, BUT, we conveniently forgot that load shedding began in BB at 8 am yesterday morning.  So when we woke up there was no gas and no electricity to boil water for tea (I can just hear Big Guy saying "welcome to my world"). Hubby eventually got up and went to the village shop, no gas.  He came back home and we started the generator just to boil water, which we should have done  at 8.10am hehe.  The garage in Kleinmond said they had gas but could only pump it when the power came back on, by the time he got there they too had run out.  Oh how I blessed my beautiful Instant Pot because I was able to keep to my menu plan of a stir fry for dinner and hopefully today someone will receive a gas delivery.

The family are all very well and I for one am looking forward to a event/stress free week, just for once 🤞🏻.  After all the above I am going to bid you Adieu and wish you all a wonderful week, may it be filled with blessings, good health, love and laughter.  Ciao ciao and stay safe.
Our uninvited guests.

The fallen wall.

P

My Life's Winding Roads: Water, water, hail and snow

My Life's Winding Roads: Water, water, hail and snow: Good morning everyone and here we go again into a new week and a new month.  As far as BB is concerned we have had a very cold and wet week,...

Water, water, hail and snow

Good morning everyone and here we go again into a new week and a new month.  As far as BB is concerned we have had a very cold and wet week, gee so much rain and even hail which is rare for our area.  Speaking of the hail, on Saturday during a very heavy hail storm Max decided that if he barked at the ceiling long enough the noisy monster would go away  #tinroof #noisemaker.  Currently there is snow on all the mountains (except those right behind us) - The Helderburg, Gordon's Bay, Kleinmond,  even Table Mountain has some, yesterday morning we measured it was 9 c inside the house at 9.30, our little fire place has commendably done double duty.  We have also discovered that Charlie is not the happiest little chap when the mercury drops too far down, he curls into such a tight little ball that I am surprised that he can still breathe haha
Water, water everywhere, after being without electricity on monday due to a power pole catching alight,  late Tuesday afternoonon  all of a sudden there was a loud noise accompanied by quite a lot of other noise which I thought was Hubby was dragging the generator, after a few minutes I decided to investigate and we discovered that the geyser (above our bedroom) had blown its 'gasket' or correctly put, the Air Valve on top of the solar system blew off and we had a geyser of hot water spewing up in a glorious fountain.  Out came the ladder and up went Hubby to fix and stop the fountain which by then had emptied the geyser, a piece of plastic had perished 😬  It happened again in a different place while he was up on the roof a couple of days later .... such fun.  Two days later I kept noticing wet splotches on the fleece on our bed, I wasn't sure if one of the animals had had an 'accident'  or if Hubby had spilt my morning drink - I sniffed = no smell so dried it up.  Every time I walked through it looked wet until that evening I looked up at the ceiling and ....... you guessed it, water was dripping slowly through the pine ceiling, such joy NOT!!  Living down here AND having a flat roof,  leaks are an ongoing issue, hardly a week goes by that we don't see someone on a roof doing repairs or a plea on one of the Groups for someone to recommend a roofer.  This bedroom drip was most unwelcome but on investigation the 'gap' was located and repaired so here is holding thumbs.

I was thoroughly blessed on my birthday with the family time on Sunday, gorgeous gifts and so many, many beautiful messages, thank you everybody.  One of most unexpected gifts received was an Instant Pot, so there has been quite a bit of experimentation going on as I learn how to operate all the different functions.  So far I have steamed a half frozen spatchcock chicken, stewed a meat dish and made yoghurt all successfully,  although having said that perhaps I should have let the yoghurt go double the time as it is a little more liquid than I personally prefer - I just drained the liquid off and  it tastes delicious - the pot is soooo quick and saves a lot of dirty dishes.  I was sceptical when I heard friends and family talking about their Pots but I can say every word was true (pics below)
It was also both of the Bears birthdays so in general so very much to be thankful for and rejoice over, they were able to spend the weekend in Kommetjie with friends even managing a swim which could only have been freezing brrrrr.
Eventually I managed to get my rear into gear and bake Hubby some rusks, it's been awhile lol  - and all this after promising myself I was going to have a slow week to try and ease the flare, I am now at the point where I have no option but to slow down for a few days and play catch up, I will even slow down with my embroidery and get in some more reading as I have lovely new books to read hehe.  
Also, on Saturday all of a sudden we realized that the Tour de France started, I have no idea how it crept  up on me, I knew it had been delayed but wasn't expecting it now haha - my favorite sporting event of the year, so it gives me a good excuse to sit awhile. 😉

Enough rambling from me, have a wonderful week folks, stay warm (and dry), please stay safe and stay healthy.  Ciao ciao

Spatchcock chicken cooked from half frozen on a trivet in the Instant Pot, I did not brown it in the oven.

Homemade Yoghurt