In typical Cape Town fashion the weather turned last Sunday and the sun made an appearance after days of rain and wind. We took advantage of this and Norm set up a workstation for me by the new succulent garden.
We planted the large planter the kids gave me for Mother’s day.
As well as the pot I bought myself to match it.
The big planter I bought from Takealot was also planted with lots of clippings and some plants I had ordered from Rusty Rose Nursery.
I ordered two of these hanging pots from Takealot which I also planted. One now has this string of pearls and one has dolphin tails, both of which grow long tendrils and will look lovely.
Norm did all of the planting of the ones which went into the ground. He planted all of the new clivias in our clivia bed, I want this whole area to be full of them so we are always on the lookout for new ones but they are not always easy to find, we bought all of the ones they had in stock at Stodels.
He also planted the large aloe with the spikes of bright orange flowers as well as my spekboom and the other baby succulent bushes, placing the big ones at the back and on the sides.
A lot of the new pots went onto my porch so it is all very full again. The new ones are the 2 ladies heads, the hedgehog and the 2 heart shaped ones.
As always, some will thrive and some may die, but luckily most of what I have planted in the past has done well. The plants we bought in person at Stodels were very healthy as were the plants I ordered online from Rusty Rose nursery but the ones I ordered as clippings from Takealot were mostly dead or withered up. The ones which came in this ‘terrarium’ were even mouldy but I planted them and will see if they recover.
Caitlin came by to get some boxes so that they can start putting away some of her things to declutter her flat for advertising. She hung out with us in the garden for a bit and the animals were delighted to see her. She said she felt like Dr. Doolittle.
We enjoyed sitting in the shade of the trees in the garden and watching the birds eating seeds from the feeder and drinking from the bottle of sugar water I hung. Can you see the bright green head of the little sunbird drinking?
Birds and plants bring me such pleasure. Especially in these times when we are spending all of our time at home. I feel so privileged to have this outside space filled with nature.
I have noticed that the birds keep flying up to the garage window and looking at the reflection of themselves.
Funny little fellows they are.
On Monday I went back to the dermatologist for the cyst on the back of my knee. She tried draining it but she said that it is too big for her to deal with and she has referred me to a plastic surgeon. If only I had not gotten fat again I could have had my primordial pouch chopped off at the same time #SnipSnip!
After I recovered from the doctor visit we popped over to Tiletoria to look at tiles for our bedroom and bathroom renovation again and make a final decision. We settled on Oak wood effect vinyl for the bedroom floors as it is the most practical solution with the dogs. We chose a pale greyish cream coloured tile for the en-suite bathroom walls and floors. We want an accent wall to break it up a bit and we dithered over the browny-beige mosaics and the greys and we decided the grey will be the one we use. Which do you prefer? These will go on the back wall of the shower which is at the end of the room.
We had booked Nic, a local carpenter, to come over on Tuesday to discuss the vanity we want made and to give us a quote. I want something similar to this. We have sourced under counter sinks and will then choose a dark grey slab of stone to go on top and we will have the unit painted a soft grey.
I feel like we are finally making progress!
Tuesday night we had no food in the house and I was craving a hollandse biefstuk from Papino’s but as we are still trying to isolate as much as possible we got it as a take away. The steak was a wee bit overcooked but I still really enjoyed it. The chips were crispy, the vegetables perfectly al dente and the sauce was rich. The dogs were very interested in a bite but were out of luck, I gobbled up every single bit.
On Wednesday I had a delivery of my early anniversary gift from Norm. We had seen someone post on Facebook about a local artist who works in metal and he had made a family of warthogs. As I have mentioned before I wanted a couple of them for my garden so I contacted Fanwell the artist and agreed on a price for the whole family and he delivered them to our house. They have captured the spirit of the warthogs with their little tails up.
I put them by the pool and Navajo is very interested in them.
Fanwell has some beautiful art if you are interested, a cheetah, a family of zebras, birds and many other designs, and you can contact him via +27 79 288 9816. He brought some other pieces to show me, a grazing antelope and a cheeky baboon complete with black face markings and a red bottom.
Later that night the heavens opened and it started pouring with rain which carried on for days. The wind was blowing it so hard against the house that the upstairs landing was full of water and even the porch was wet.
I made 2 pots of soup for our lunches as a steaming bowl of soup is just the best when it is cold. On Friday night I built a big fire to keep us warm.
Today the weather has cleared a bit so I want to get out into the garden and potter about. It is still a bit cold but not as bone chilling as it has been.
Now for my weekly Covid stats. On a global comparison of total cases there has been no shift for the 3 countries I track: SA is still ranked 20th with 1,628,335 cases, the UK is still 7th with 4,457,923 and the USA is still 1st with 33,862,398 total cases.
For total deaths the ranking has also not changed, SA is still 16th with 55,719 lives lost to Covid, the UK is 5th with 127,710 lives lost, and the USA is still 1st with 603,408 losses.
On the leveled out comparison of total deaths per 1 million population SA has dropped one place to 53rd with 929 deaths per million, but the UK has stayed steady at 17th with 1,873 and the USA is still at 18th with 1,814 people out of a million dying from Covid.
In regards to the progress in the vaccine roll out, SA has now administered 642,382 vaccines. One of Norm’s colleagues has already been called in to have his first vaccine, he registered in the same group as Norm so hopefully Norm will be called soon.
In the UK 37,518,614 people have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 21,659,783 have received the second dose. In the USA 161,278,336 people have had ‘at least one dose’ and 127,778,250 are fully vaccinated.
Norm and I started a new series on Netflix this week but have only seen a few episodes. ‘The Irregulars’ which Netflix describes as: “Meet The Irregulars: Bea, Jessie, Billy, Spike and Leo. Join this ragtag gang as they uncover the demonic and mysterious depths of Victorian London alongside the sinister Dr Watson and his enigmatic business partner, Sherlock Holmes.” I enjoyed the 1st few episodes despite the story lines being rather far fetched and ridiculous however I read online that season 2 has been cancelled. Bummer Netflix! (do people still say ‘bummer’? feck I am so old).
For a musical treat this week I revisit my old fave Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR for a performance by Lake Street Dive. The set list is: “Hypotheticals”, “Same Old News”, “Anymore”, and “Making Do”.
I am listening to a lot of the Mahogany Sessions playlists and really love the acoustic versions of so many familiar tracks. I love Jessie Reyez’s quirky voice and this is a soft version of her rather explicit NSFW song ‘Far Away’.
I hope you enjoy them both and that you have had a good week.
Remember to check in on friends and family – especially those who may still be isolating at home alone.
Until next time, socially distant air Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxoxox
Kitten in the City 
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