Wait... What ??

Hi folks, I can't even say good morning because noon has come and gone.   Is it just me or is anyone else feeling like they are on a treadmill and not quite keeping up?  Life seems to be getting busier and faster by the day. Wow !

Ok enough about me and why I am late with this months Blog, sorry all.  Even the weather is a tad confused I think. It is supposed to be Spring and is in some parts of the country, but the Western Cape is receiving mixed messages.  Warm(ish) for a couple of days and then wham cold front.  There is a saying down here that when you leave home be prepared for all four seasons before you get home. So true, I have so many locations tabbed on my weather app, because the temperature can be 15 c cooler or hotter not even 50 km away.  You've got to stay prepared 😄. 

August, if that is what just blew past, was one busy month.   Sadly,  the Bears had to say goodbye to their precious, eldest fur child, Gandalf.  G was diagnosed as a diabetic some years ago and had been sick for some time.  Despite doing absolutely everything humanly possible, with the best Vets, they had to make the incredibly heart breaking decision to  let him go over the rainbow bridge. It is so difficult to lose a member of the family and has been enormously difficult for them both. Galdalf you were a true legend boy. As some of you may know from previous years we as a family are in what I call birthday season. We had three in the last week of August and more coming up.  It was myself, BigBear and BabyBear and we were all blessed to be able to meet together on the Sunday in Stellenbosch (for a change of scenery) and had a super lunch at a quaint,  Italian Restaurant and then wandered around a bit and finished off with the most mouth watering, decadent Italian ice creams.  This was quite an event actually as Hubby had, had his knee replacement on the Tuesday just 5 days before.

The surgery went exceptionally well, he was discharged the following day and his recovery has been nothing but amazing. I am so surprised and yet not because it is exactly what we prayed for.  He has had no pain in the knee itself, only muscular aches and tightness.  Still walking with crutches,  more for balance than actually taking the weight off his leg. I walked in on him last week and he was walking holding both crutches in one hard .... as he saw my face he said "I've got both crutches "  hmmm yeah they should be in each hand carrying you.🤦🏻‍♀️   He has done so well and we are super proud of him.  The watches and clocks proved too much of a temptation for him and he goes to his garage almost every day and spends time working on them.

I conquered my overlocker, yaaay,  as a result and thanks to some encouragement from the family I have started a small business doing Mending and Patching.   Right now I am feeling a little overwhelmed as I had my first non-family client here earlier and she has left about 10 pairs of kids and adults jeans and pants that all need mending and fixing. I am probably more surprised than anyone but there you have it, people need someone who can just repair the tears and rips and give the item a few more years, hopefully. Poppet has been more than generous in offering to be a guinea pig and has endowed me with a whole heap of clothing that needs re-making, not even repairing 😜🤦🏻‍♀️.

My Calcium Drip last month knocked me for a bit of a loop, painwise which added to the fibro flare and my right arm was incredibly sore, it was a tough month. I have been going for Physio which certainly helps.  Having stepped in for the Hubster has also been a challenge, but one that is a delight to see him recovering so well, is so worth it.  I am not in the best place physically but take each day as it comes. God has been and is SO good to us, without His strength I would not be able to cope.

For some of the funnier moments of the month, most were vehicle related.  On the day of Hubby's surgery, it poured the entire day and JB and I were in and out the whole day. Going in he had told me to get some Automatic Steering Fluid and the garage would put it in.  Well garages don't sell it, so I went to the spares shop.  Such a nice guy who served me and then, in the rain, showed me where to put it and actually did it for me.  On my way to the hospital later the car was jerking and spluttering which was concerning to sat the least.   I mentioned it to Hubby, and in his doped up state he suggested I go to the garage and get them to blow air over the ECU 🙄, in case it got wet during the pouring of steering fluid, which it  did.  So ... off to the garage and they obligingly blew the air which did the trick.  Score 1 for drugged Hubby and 0 for Citroen.  This past Friday I took JB through to the Bears as she was house sitting there for the weekend.  This time we used her car.  All good until we got close to Cape Town when there was an engine alert sound but no signs or visuals.  I took care and eventually the sound became consistent but still no clue as  to what it was.  I could not explain to Mr Hubby because he was without a phone ( he dropped his and shattered the screen. I had just dropped of shattered phone for screen replacement).   The car appeared to be behaving  itself, except for the flashing red line and the beep.  On the return as I neared Somerset West I noticed steam coming out of engine, yet the temperature was not going up, my stress levels were though, rampantly.  I stopped at the first available garage and low and behold the water tank was empty which we refilles - gauge still normal.  Being the resourceful woman I am, I bought a 2 L water just in case I needed to refill the tank, this however was not needed. Apart from the red line there was no further issue and on arriving home Mr Mechanic hobbled around and cleared the computer fault. When he checked the water earlier he had closed the lid too tightly and pressure was building up and there must be a sneaky leak somewhere 🤔 🤷🏻‍♀️.  The moral of both stories is I now know exactly where water, oil, steering fluid etc go on both Citroëns.   Yesterday I took  his car to CT to fetch JB and oh I did so enjoy the smartness and smoothness hehe.  No issues either what a pleasure.

In closing folks I promised I would post pics of the plates Jelly Bean and decorated in our Sip and Paint class.  They came out tons better than we ever imagined whoop whoop.  We will be doing that again for sure.

Have a wonderful week all, wherever you are and please just remember a bad hour doesn't make a bad day, a bad day doesn't make a bad week and so on.  When the fan of life gets 'dirty' do what you can, step back, breathe and move forward.  If we don't do that we will forever be tossed around by the catastrophes and bad moments. Ciao Ciao

R.I.P. Gandalf the Great, 

Mine 

Jelly Bean's

My Life's Winding Roads: It was a long month

My Life's Winding Roads: It was a long month: Greetings everyone on this lovely mild late winters day.  July felt like it was a very long month in all ways; good grief, so much packed in...

It was a long month

Greetings everyone on this lovely mild late winters day.  July felt like it was a very long month in all ways; good grief, so much packed into one month that I am not quite sure where to start.  Weather wise July was COLD, there is no other way to put it.  We thoroughly enjoyed having our fire going most days and every evening as well. It almost feels like the weather knows the date because the moment August rolled over on the calendar it picked up a few degrees and has become a little bit milder.  I know I am definitely nowhere ready for summer 🌞.  

One of the highlights of my month was the most wonderful day out at a wine farm with the Bears.  They decided that it was Mom treat day and took both myself and BabyBear's Mom for the most splendid lunch and catch up time.  We spent the whole afternoon eating, chatting, laughing and then dozens of photographs were taken.  I came home on a high of love, feeling very special.  Thank you both again for such a special memory.

Another highlight was I just happened to see on Facebook a gentleman who recovers old Bibles.  My favourite Bible goes back to the 80's and is irreplaceable in terms of my notes, references etc. After having a chat with him I very carefully packed it and couriered it to him, here in the Cape.  Three weeks later I got it back, looking like new.  The original cover was so worn and even  torn in places and he has literally breathed new life into it, we are good to go for another 40 years.  If anyone wants his number please send me a message and I will be more than happy to pass his details on.

There have been lots of quick 'pop in' visits with the girls on various trips into town,  and in between her trips up to Pretoria we even have Princess come and stay for a few days which was very special.  I know that I am trying to squeeze in as much time with her before she moves as possible.    On her last trip up country she caught  flu which the Dr initially thought was swine flu, but turned out to be the RSV virus.bthank goodness there is no such thing as distance when praying.   She was really ill to the point that her return flight home was delayed by a few days.  Shame it was a rough month health wise for her  but thankfully she is now looking and feeling tons better.  

For those of you who are in South Africa you most probably know about the Taxi strikes we have had during the last week in the Western Cape.  Unfortunately Poppet had to go into the office last Thursday and the strike started sometime during the morning.  She left her office at 2pm and it took her until 6.45 pm to get home.  A journey of normally 40 minutes.  Every single road in and out of Cape Town was grid locked, the highways were at a standstill as the taxi drivers filled all lanes and then switched off their vehicles. So much stress and heartache. The roads are still being closely monitored by the authorities and not quite back to normal. More opportunities to pray unceasingly.

The culmination of all my tests and procedures was a visit to the Oncologist who is delighted with my results and has officially given me the all clear.  Apart from having the bi-annual calcium drip tomorrow I am done.  Hubby saw the Orthopaedic specialist and is booked to have a total left knee replacement on the 22nd of this month. We've known it was on the cards at some point which it turns out is now.  He has the same surgeon who operated on Princess and is excellent so we are praying for and claiming a successful operation with a trouble free, quick recovery. 🙏  There is still one final reconstruction operation for me, which I will schedule more towards the end of the year when Hubby is up and about.  This op for me is important in that I see it as the final, I'm done and dusted, door closed.

Miss Muffet and the family just came back from a summer holiday to Turkey and as the boys are on summer break and at a Camp for a week she and Mr Muffet jetted off to Ibiza for four days on their own - I'm not jealous at all 😉

Last Wednesday evening Jelly Bean and I whisked ourselves off to Kleinmond to do a Sip and Paint Pottery Class.  Oh what fun it was.  There were about eleven people and each person chooses an item to paint, chooses their paint colours and gets busy.  They provide wine and we had the most delicious sourdough breads with it.  Lots of chirping amongst everyone, lovely music and a general, all round evening of fun.  When we get our items back from being fired etc I will post a picture.  I must say that since CoVid there are now so many things to do in our area and surrounds, that we really do have the privilege of being able to choose whatever we want.  JB and I will definitely go back to the Sip and Paint evenings.

On the hobby side of my life I am 3/4's of the way through my biggest Diamond Dot Painting to date.  It is a custom picture I ordered of the sea and I cannot wait to see the finished canvas.  I was given another DDP on the Mom's day and have called that one the first of my 'stash'.  During a chat with the girls one day Poppet asked why I don't buy an overlocker and get to do more sewing.  It is something I have always wanted but never got around to making it a priority.  I know absolutely nothing about them and so phoned a friend who I knew years ago had one.  Well ... Within minutes she told me she hasn't used hers in years and promptly blessed me with it even though I wanted to pay for it.  I was speechless and on Friday my Overlocker arrived via courier, wrapped and stickered up with Fragile / this way up covering every centimetre of the box.  On Saturday I sat down with a YouTube tutorial and successfully threaded everything correctly, to my astonishment 😀.  Hubby then took it to the garage to give it a quick service but somehow broke the two needles.  I have now sat the entire weekend just itching to try sewing something / anything and looking at it.  First thing today is new needles and then the all important test......so watch this space folks 👀.  

On that newsy note I am going to end off (I need to get to the Haberdashery shop hehe) .  The last few weeks have been so busy that I have had a bit of a battle physically, in keeping up.  Apart from having the drip tomorrow my plans for the next week or so are all centred on catching up with myself and getting out of the nasty flare I've been in so that when Hubby has his operation I am ready to pick up his reins during his recovery💪🏻.  Folks thank you for your constant support, I wish you all a wonderful week and wherever you are please stay safe and stay healthy. Ciao Ciao

My gorgeous recovered Bible

Charlie back from the groomer sporting the latest Teddy Bear cut

My Life's Winding Roads: July has blown in

My Life's Winding Roads: July has blown in:   Hi folks, happy Monday to you all.  I am a little late today,  apologies it has been a rather busy month. With winter throwing all of its...

July has blown in

 Hi folks, happy Monday to you all.  I am a little late today,  apologies it has been a rather busy month.

With winter throwing all of its might at us throughout the month of June, the last two days have been like spring 🤷🏻‍♀️.   It has been the first proper winter since we moved down. Raining for days on end and gale force winds kept things interesting - I am absolutely revelling in it.  We lost a couple of plants but nothing serious.  My heart breaks for the people who were flooded and lost their homes and possessions .

Today was my last 'screening test' (I pray) for the year.  I had a Mammogram and Sonar and everything is normal. Gee it feels like the last six months have been one test or procedure after another. But, Praise the Lord I am fine and everything came out normal.  Fibro definitely upped its game though and so I have been trying to keep things as controlled as possible, not always successfully.
The girls moved on the 19th , we are praying that is is the last time in a while 🙏🏻.  They are now in a stunning apartment much closer to the sea in Somerset West and are so happy and content there.  The ten days before they moved both of them were in Pretoria and Jelly Bean, Charlie and I house sat and oversaw the packing up of the house.  We tried to get it to a state of just the big stuff to move on the day, and I would say on the whole succeeded. It was a smooth and hassle free event. By that night everything was unpacked, all boxes flattened and removed. Barr one or  two mirrors and art work they were done and dusted.  It seems that is just how we do it as a family. Haha. Humph flew up to Pretoria the day before the girls and is now staying with Princess' boyfriend in readiness for her move at the end of the year to go to Varsity.  I cannot believe  she is now 20 (she had her birthday in June) and on her way to study.  I know I am going to miss her dreadfully, we all will.
The rest of the family are doing well, working hard and in general keeping the work/play balance healthy.  At least Big Guy will be close to Princess when she moves.  She was an enormous blessing to her mom ahead of and during the move, organising, packing and doing the running around.  Well done my angel, I am so proud of you.  As a result of said move our house has filled up just a tad.  We are using Poppets huge fridge / freezer (ours is in the garage), her dining room table/chairs and benches have come here and look perfect on the deck, it is nice to sit and eat out there. We are storing quite a bit in the garage loft as well so it has been a bit of a knock on effect

A day or two before JB and I went through we had coffee with a very old friend of mine from our Bloemfontein days.  Oh my what a wonderful catch up and chat time we had with her. It really recharged my batteries.
The last Sunday in June the girls, the Bears and the three of us all met up for a delayed birthday/Fathers Day lunch at the Spur steakhouse on the beach on Gordons Bay - it has been about 7 or 8 years since we went to a Spur and it was lovely and relaxed, and again soo good to be together as a family, as usual missing those who live far away.

After really dragging it out I eventually finished my abstract Diamond Dot Painting.  I had a very clear vision of how I wanted it to look but alas when it arrived there were no gold drills.  I placed an order for gold and the wonderful woman that I order from, knowing what I was trying to achieve added a packet of deep yellow Aurora Borealis - AB -  drills at no charge, she truly knows her products.  I had left the gold until last and when I put the first few in they just disappeared in the design.  Taking them off and placing the deep yellow AB drills was absolutely perfect.  I am so happy at how it has turned out 😁.  Now onto my custom print, I started last week and am thoroughly enjoying the diversity it is giving me.  It has given me a challenge in the way the symbols are marked, my normalbway of labelling just was not working.  On Saturday I sat and relabelled all 44 colours with a different system and that has made it much easier.  My next challenge is finding non reflective glass for framing them.   In between DDP and everything else I am learning new crochet stitches.  I have a few projects awaiting me and want to do something different with them.  I made JB a bath mat and want to do one for our bathroom, except I want it to look like it was knitted. It shouldn't surprise me but there are a number of stitches that will give this effect.  I have a sampler next to my chair and when i get a chance I practise on the latest stitch I have seen.
What would my life be like without a bit of 'drama' or the unexpected.  We had two enormous ugly spiders, one whilst JB and I were away and one last week. Oh my goodness they are not good for my peace of mind LOL.   Then last week I could not find Zeepha.  I kept asking if anyone had seen her and Hubby said he had heard her scratching in the litter box.  By supper time she still had not out in an appearance and we went around checking her usual haunts only to come up empty.  As I walked past the deck I remembered taking something out from one of the benches earlier that morning.  Upon unclipping the latches and lifting the lid, guess who jumped out ?  🐈  Little Z had been in the benches all day and the scratching Hubby heard was her, just not in the litter box.  This is a cat who can't meow above a whisper 🤦🏻‍♀️.  We also realised, after a visit from the girls that Jasper has picked up quite a lot of weight.  He has always been a huge cat and we had noticed he was looking definitely more avocado shaped but didn't realise it was extra weight.  A whole 2 kgs.  What makes this a mystery is that he eats the same as Zeepha who still only weighs 2.8 kg.  A mystery for sure. He is an indoor cat so doesn't get to eat from neighbours etc.  We have changed his food to a weight management type and are watching to see if it makes a difference.  ⚖

Well folks a little bit late but I got it out.  Have a wonderful week and wherever you are please stay safe and well.  Ciao Ciao.

Abstract Diamond Dot Painting

The latest addition to the deck.

My Life's Winding Roads: Winter in the Cape.

My Life's Winding Roads: Winter in the Cape.: Good morning one and all from a very wet, flooded and cold Betty's Bay. 😁. For the first time since we moved down we are having a norma...

Winter in the Cape.

Good morning one and all from a very wet, flooded and cold Betty's Bay. 😁. For the first time since we moved down we are having a normal winter, and oh boy is Mother Nature making up for being late the last six years.  Last week in the space of twenty four hours we had 165 mm of rain, and it has rained every day.  Seeing the sun has actually become a novelty haha.  Praise the Lord we have been fine and only had a couple of small leaks appear, there are many homes in our Village and Pringle Bay who have not been so fortunate and have been completely flooded.  Given that most of our roads are dirt that has compounded the problem - some were washed away completely.  Our local municipality and Fire Volunteers are really on the ball and have provided sand bags, shelter, etc, where needed. Our beloved Clarence has been closed and re-opened couple of times due to rock falls and mud slides.  Last Monday JB and I drove into Somerset West amidst one of the strongest winds I have ever driven in.  It was fascinating looking across False Bay because the wind was so strong that it whipped up spray making the Bay look like a huge pot of steam.

May, like every other month recently was a busy month but in a super way.  We had the Bears as well as Poppet and Princess over for lunch on Mother's Day and were able to 'christen' the deck with family.  I am most confused re this deck as I have discovered that in choosing cotton calico for the curtains, they absorb all the moisture in the air and get so wet that at times they leave damp patches on the cushions ... what on earth??  Apparently cotton and towelling absorb the humidity and voila - wet curtains.  Having said that, after the last few days of non stop rain they have remained bone dry 🤷🏻‍♀️.  It would seem that we are going to have a investigate dehumidifier options.

We also had Princess come and spend a few days with us which was absolutely awesome and such a treat.   She was busy working on a model for her University application and we heard this past week that she has been accepted for her Interior Decorating studies. Very sadly that means she will be moving back to Pretoria at the end of the year, I can hardly believe it. 😢 Oh how she is going to be missed.

As for the whole family at least half of us have had and recovered from a nasty type of flu grrr, Princess is still shaking hers off.  The girls are moving in the middle of the month so there is a lot happening on that side of the mountain.  Hopefully this will be the last move for quite awhile and I pray that they settle quickly and happily in their new apartment, there is a lot happening in their lives.  Hubby has had an absolute influx of clocks and watches, he has been churning them out at quite a rate.  

On Friday I had to take Sasha (JB's little Maltese poodle of nearly 14 years old) to the vet because I could hear a wheeze when she breathed.  Thank the Lord she is a sturdy, healthy little girl and it turns out she has Bronchitis and is on a handful of meds, I'm not hearing anymore wheezing 🙏.  On the subject of dogs Charlie also had an interesting event earlier on in the week.  He had the zoomies and didn't see or didn't realise that the glass sliding door to the bedroom was closed and ran right into it. Well, you can imagine, there was a mighty yelp and cry and he was very subdued for a couple of hours and somewhat less energetic for a couple of days.  I felt so sorry for him, but we also couldn't help laughing because he wouldn't go anywhere near the door for the rest of the the night.    He just said stood staring at it with great suspicion.

 Last weekend I got down to making both of the dogs some new jackets which are a 50/50% success haha.  They are fleece and somehow at night when he snuggles down under the duvet he manages to get one leg out of the neck.🤷🏻‍♀️ The first morning when I saw him he was lying in his back and the jacket had wrapped around him so it looked exactly as if he was wearing a nighty 🤣  We have seen Tilly the tortoise a good few times, but she is really good at hiding, I was so worried about her with the cold and rain and have has to console myself that in the wild she would be no better off. Oh my word there are never two days the same in this house.  On a quick side note, my Bamboo tree survived and is looking fairly happy despite being accidently poisoned, whew.

As for hobbies 😉 I finished JB's gorgeous socks.  I also finished my big Protea diamond painting.  I know you are all waiting for pic's but I want them all framed before I do that.  The Protea is framed but I am going to paint the frame with a pewter effect.  The scarry part of finishing it, is the abstract that I had waiting is small in comparison.  I have ordered a custom print painting which will only be ready on the 27th June and so here I am trying to drag out doing the abstract or I will have nothing to work on.  I can tell you now it's not going to work  because it is 3/4 done.   I am also going to substitute one of the colours with gold Drills/beads and they will arrive with my new one.  Oh what a horrible position to be in 🤔😥

I had my last investigative procedure on the 8th May and the Dr was happy to report a clean and healthy colon and a not so happy tummy.  Apparently I had the Helicobacter Pylori bacteria which caused lots of small ulcers.   He put me onto two antibiotics as well other meds and I trust and pray it is all sorted. 🙏

Well folks, as they used to say in the Disney cartoons, that's it for this month.  Already June is looking to be varied and busy.  Wherever you are please stay safe and healthy, if you are in South Africa stay warm and dry.  Ciao ciao.

Not my photo or videos.  Bettys Bay last week.

One street below us