Friends know that I am frog-o-phobic and we have a horrendous situation going on at the moment. We have a toad somewhere in the house. How do we know? Toad poop. If you know toad poop, then you are never mistaken about the origin of that poop. It has no sphincter marks like normal poop (other than rabbit or buck poop or other round poops, I am referring to tubular poops like humans, dogs etc.). Which makes you wonder how they poop? Do they just walk off from it and it drops out behind them? Oh lawd I am getting a bit agitated.
Why are we discussing poops?? Oh yes we found frog spoor by the dog’s water bowl so assume Mr Toad has been chilling in there. We washed the water bowl as the liquid the leopard frogs secrete can be toxic to a dog. We caught Finn playing with one outside recently but he seemed fine afterwards so I do not think he put it in his mouth, just nosed it a bit. He was fascinated by it hopping.
A friend also had an interaction with a leopard toad who jumped on top of her bed while she was asleep. Like, WTF toad??? Do they seek out warm spots like snakes? Why would he jump on her bed? Why was he not out doing toady night time things?
I am not a fan, they must just stay outside of my perimeter please. I know he is here, I was sure I heard him the other night. He must show himself! I do not want to relocate him as they are very territorial and are endangered. Maybe there is a toad person who rehomes them? I do not want to harm him, I just do not want to look at his face or have him near my animals.
This week when the alarm was triggered Norm looked out the back to check the area where the zone had triggered. He saw a big cat on the wall and thought it looked too big to be Blue, then he spotted Blue crouched down as low as he could get hiding on the other side of the wall. He then realised that in comparison, the visiting cat was huge! I wonder if it was a native wild cat but Norm is convinced it was just a wandering Maine Coon but I have never seen any Maine Coon cats in our suburb.
Last weekend was just so lovely. The weather was hot and muggy and this heat wave (aka summer) is carrying on. On Saturday I had one of my HIFU ultra-sound skin tightening treatments from Skin. It is a bit painful. It is similar to the feeling of laser treatment. It feels like a rubber band being flicked intensely against your skin and then it is over right when you think you might scream. For those of us who already have an overactive nervous system, it is even worse. I move my feet and legs continuously to try and dispel some of the energy. But I definitely saw results after the first treatment and this is my second.
On Sunday afternoon Caitlin popped by to help me to decorate my new hats. Caitlin, Norm and I all had a swim in the afternoon to cool off before we started.
I wanted my hats to be unique, I will mostly wear them when drumming or going to events or ceremonies. I had bought some feathers and I had a lot of beads in my jewelry box. Caitlin strung together the beads and made a string long enough to go around each. The feathers on the brown hat are a lovely green in the light.
Caitlin decided to make the black one a bit more rocker chick and used chunky turquoise beads and an old cross I had from another necklace. Page over to the next image and you can see that we used pheasant feathers on this one. It is a bit more flamboyant. The feather stems still need to be cut.
We ordered pizzas and sat outside to eat them. It was a lovely evening and it felt gorgeous in the cool breeze. Our house is at it’s best for sitting outside at about 6pm when the sun passes over the table and it is cooling off. South Africa is usually like a desert: day time is hot, the sun goes down and it cools off. But sometimes it stays hot all night and it is impossible to sleep.
On Monday I was sitting outside thinking about Pixie. I saw a cloud formation that looked just like her beautiful little face and I tried to snap a pic but the clouds shifted. I was still looking up and saw something out of the corner of my eye and spotted a feather drifting slowly down from the sky, straight down as if it were weighted, until it landed at my feet. I could see no birds anywhere around me. The fact that the feather has markings like Pixie Pie are not lost on me, the ginger brown colour with the black and white trim? A friend said it looks like an Egyptian Goose feather. If you all remember, that is my spirit animal! You cannot ignore so many synchronicities.
The Universe is always speaking to us if we listen.
This week I realised I had not seen my guinea fowl since we got back from the states. I heard them outside chattering so I called to them and told them again they are welcome but not to mess with Norm’s grass. The next morning the guinea fowl were out feeding when we woke up.
On Tuesday we finally got a bit of rain, not copious amounts suitable to fill our water collection tanks, but at least it gave the plants and grass a good soaking and it cooled off the temperatures a bit. It rained every evening this week, with me giving gratitude for the rain each day.
Norm took me down to collect my new eyeglasses from Tanya Seeber Optometrist. I love them. What do you think?
We did a quick shop while at the village and got some food for dinner for a few nights. We had a rotisserie chicken and a huge salad on Thursday. I ate at my desk with Panda willing me to drop a bite of chicken.
Vanessa came on Friday afternoon to give my hooves a pedicure, they looked like I have been going barefoot for months (which I have). Norm cooked steaks and made a gorgeous salad.
We sat outside to eat until it started raining and we had to dash in. Finn loved us sitting outside and kept bringing Rudolph for us to throw for him.
This week my daughter sent me an interesting article about women with ADHD, particularly in reference to those of us who have been diagnosed later in life.
There were several things in the article which really resonated with me: 1) “Children get diagnosed because they’re disruptive and a pain to other people. The adults get diagnosed because they’re a pain to themselves.” 2) Many women with ADHD may appear externally as high-achieving perfectionists. 3) Compared to their neurotypical peers, women with ADHD are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, substance abuse, and eating disorders. They are also five times more likely to experience intimate partner violence, seven times more likely to have attempted suicide, and have higher rates of unplanned or early pregnancy. 4) Getting a diagnosis as a woman can be a challenge due to outdated ideas in the medical field. One woman said “My doctor told me she didn’t think I had ADHD because I graduated from university and had a job”. 5) Women are also more likely to have their ADHD mistaken for anxiety or depression (than men).
I was first diagnosed with anxiety due to panic attacks at work, now I wonder was I just shutting down emotionally from the stress of masking? My doctor never ever mentioned ADHD and in fact when I told him I had been diagnosed he said ‘ADD maybe but definitely not ADHD’ while being unaware of my feet quietly tap-dancing in my shoes or my hands twitching at my hair.
When I look at the statistics mentioned I have / had anxiety, depression, substance abuse and eating disorders and indeed suffered intimate partner violence, suicide attempts (and suicide idealisation), and had an early pregnancy (refer to impulsive behaviour also linked to ADHD).
We have been watching a show about autism and everyone said that they felt relief when they were diagnosed. I completely agree. I had always been called crazy or impetuous or accused of bad judgement, so understanding that it is just the way my brain works is such a relief from self blame and even self hatred about my past behaviours.
The thing which has been most healing for me, possibly due to my belief system being Animism, but Ecotherapy has been incredible for me. It is a very grandish term but it basically just means using connections to nature to assist in healing. Connection with the earth and its systems are at the core of ecotherapy. Ecotherapy is based on the idea that people are connected to and impacted by the natural environment. I had never really understood the term until I saw my teacher Tass posting about her courses and she mentioned the term in relation to her offerings.
I realised then that even though the majority of the time was spent in my garden sitting on a my sheepskin, it was still in nature. I spend hours sitting and watching the birds in our garden, watching the clouds move, chatting to the faces of the stone people I can see on the mountains surrounding me. Meditating outside is so much better in my opinion. We used nature in so many of our ceremonies and it is such a part of my life now. Maybe I need to make peace with frogs, that is the message from the universe?? I can tolerate them from a distance, as long as they do not hop on my bed. The big cat however can have all the petting it can tolerate until it rips my arm off.
Tass teaches amazing courses. Her website can be found here: Goddess Tass
This week I was listening to a song which was talking about “Having it All”. I started thinking about that feeling of being foot-loose, itchey footed or whatever you wish to call it. I have had that my whole life, that feeling of being in the wrong place, looking for the right place, always misplaced. I realised I no longer have that feeling. I thought about all of the places that so many people yearn to visit and I have lived in several of these places or at least visited them. I know for certain there are few places to rival the beauty of Cape Town. I have had a pretty amazing life and I think my soul has finally found it’s resting place. I love our home. There are things about SA that make me crazy (corruption, incompetence) but those issues persist everywhere they are just so in your face in SA. I feel that wherever I may end up will never be perfect, for now I will appreciate being exactly where I am meant to be.
One great thing about Spotify is that it exposes you to artists that you might otherwise never experience. For example, Henry Nozuka. I heard him on a playlist when I asked Alexa to play ‘happy music’ and now I can find very little about him but I did find his website except it appears to have been hacked. Isn’t his musical style lovely and calming?
I also found this live video of a song called ‘Rain Fall’ which has a studio version on Spotify. So gentle.
I found that Henry is a NYC born Singer/Songwriter/Producer based in Toronto. I cannot find out his age or anything else. A very talented mystery man!
We have nothing planned this weekend. A friend may pop by for a swim this afternoon. We went to bed at midnight last night and the power was off for load-shedding then until 2am. We woke at 6am and the power was off again until 10:30 this morning. Tomorrow is supposed to be super hot so I will most like stay in submerged hippo mode all day.
I hope you have all had a lovely week and weekend – until next time – Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
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