Even though we live by the sea, we are surrounded by mountains and we do not get an actual ‘sundown’ with a sun slipping into the ocean on the horizon like you see in romantic films. But on Sunday night when I was sitting on the back patio I looked up at the sky behind me and I saw this amazing purple and lavender vision.
It just brought home to me how easy it is to miss the wonders all around us. So many people walk looking down. I know I do because I trip a lot. You would think that looking down would stop that tripping problem, but in fact it is probably part of the issue! I should be facing the world front on.
Some people are so focused on themselves that they see nothing else, none of their blessings or their opportunities, they just seem stuck going around the same issues, over and over.
Most people are either Macro people or Micro people. By that I mean some people look at the overall strategy and how to get to an end goal, maybe defining each section of a strategy at a high level but they never delve into the details. Other people focus on each little section and break that down more granularly and even more granularly until you are down to a microscopic level and never think about the destination. I am the latter. But then sometimes I am the former and sometimes I am both!
Whenever I add something new to my fairy garden I have to sit and ponder the entire garden as a whole before I decide where to put it. Norm does not understand this and just plonks things anywhere at all. I have to make sure that when I am sitting gazing at the garden that it does not have any places that seem out of balance. Last week I mentioned the delivery of items from Future Decor not arriving and it arrived this week. He is adorable and I added him yesterday.
This weekend I spent a lot of time reorganising my fairy garden and taking clippings of my plants which were thriving and then planting them into my new planters. I had some things I needed to repair and Norm reluctantly trusted me with super glue. I managed to glue my hand to the item I was trying to fix. I finally resorted to using a toothpick.
I planted the new pots which are to go with my teapots on the metal unit at the back.
I also planted this pot.
Then the big flower next to it fell off so I had to do a quick adjustment to fit him in. I hope he takes root and grows, this is my fave plant.
The back garden has no bird feeders as Norm was convinced it would draw rats (sometimes you have to just agree with their nonsense to keep the peace). Therefore there are very few actual sightings but the other day I heard a bird chattering and looked over to see 4 Cape Bulbuls sitting on our fence. They are gray birds with a tufted head and a bright yellow belly and they are very chatty. Poppy was playing on the green just below the fence and the 4 birds reminded me of the Disney scene with the talking crows, they were obviously talking about Poppy. They were looking at her and shouting and chirping.
In my head they were talking about what a nice fat little rat was living in my garden and how much they could get from the birds of prey who are always looking for a tasty tidbit. Maybe they were debating the price they could get for information on a tasty pup or a broken legged cat? Maybe they were telling Poppy she needs to pay protection money?
This is the type of odd imagination I have. Trafficking of Pomeranians on the Bird Mafia Rat Highway.
Despite not having any obligations last weekend both Norm and I were very productive. Norm installed a trellis over the gap at the back of the shed. Finn goes back there and knocks over my plants and barks at the neighbour’s dog. Poppy can still get back there but she can get back out so no harm no foul.
He did loads of things that have been on his ‘list’ for a while which delighted me. When he popped out to the shops he even picked up some dahlias for me. I do not think I know about dahlias other than as a name! They look so beautiful with the lilies he bought the previous week.
Poppy has grown so much and is progressing in leaps and bounds. Norm built her some little steps out of stones at the back so she can get down both ends of the garden without having to go down her ramp. She was very cautious but now runs up and down like a racehorse.
She is so clever. She wanted to bring down her ball with her but if it is in her mouth she cannot see the stairs. I watched her sit and look at the ball, then look at the steps, then look at the ball. Then she lifted her paw and kicked the ball down the steps, then followed it. She was so proud of her innovative solution!
She can now jump off of the outside sofas which is a huge relief. She can run up and down our inside stairs no problem and there are a lot of them. She mastered going up the stairs first and it took a few attempts to be brave enough to come down them. She cautiously climbs step by step but she does it!
We have some little stairs for her to get onto the furniture and move them upstairs at night so she can get down to go use her pee pad. She is so good and so brave as it is a bit of a leap to the first stair. We are ordering a second set which is taller for the bedroom.
When I had a lie in on Friday morning Norm took her and Finn down to go outside. Afterwards he was busy and she disappeared, climbed up the stairs, ran to our room and climbed up to our bed and jumped on me with absolute delight. She is so proud of herself when she is independent.
It was so incredibly hot all week, hitting almost 30℃ (86 in ℉) and it was oppressively humid. It was too hot to even sit outside. Norm never wants to bother with the pool but I love the pool, but I cannot manage uncovering it and getting it non-green on my own, I have no clue!
On Wednesday Tamlyn came for coffee and my neighbour across the road from us backed into her car. It was not badly damaged but it was still not a happy situation.
The weather finally dropped on Thursday. It was still humid but the cloud cover meant it was not so unbearably hot.
We had a few sprinklings of rain. It is lovely when it rains softly as we have aluminium roofing.
Today we had a lot of rain! Poppy did not quite know what it was as she had never seen rain! She was very alarmed at the water appearing from nowhere and leapt around in confusion at first. She has had a blast playing in the water.
We had Friday off of work as it was Human Rights Day in South Africa. I had a late lie in and Norm brought me a coffee in bed. I snuggled with Poppy until I finished my coffee and headed downstairs to relax outside and potter about. Norm went to the shops and got a rotisserie chicken and some mash for dinner. I made up a salad as we had some fresh figs. It had figs, Emmenthal cheese, parma ham and peeled cucumbers. It was cool if a bit damp but we were happy to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.
Today a friend came for coffee and to see my fairy garden. Not that it is exceptional but I force it on anyone who is interested because it is my special interest. It is also very peaceful there and with the rain it was so lovely to sit and chat and get to know each other. She gave me a lovely gift of an African head, he looks like a prince.
She had repaired a dress of mine as well as replacing the zipper on a pillow cover for the patio. I had also asked her to try and see if she could salvage any of the remains of the wedding dress from my first marriage. It had been in a cupboard for years and the lace had disintegrated. Pearl managed to salvage so much of it and make a cute little dress for the girl’s fancy dress box.
Amazing to think the original dress was bought in an antique shop on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. ‘Aaardvarks‘ was a very cool antique shop where I bought the dress, some diamante and aquamarine costume jewels and some antique ankle height lace up black boots. It was the 80s!! I also had a mullet. I cannot find a pic of me at the wedding but here I am getting dressed at the hotel in Las Vegas.
It is fascinating to think the dress was handmade by someone for a wealthy socialite in Hollywood / LA, eventually sold to the antique shop in LA, flew to Vegas, back to LA, then on to South Africa. It has travelled well.
The rain is steady today and it is gorgeous and cool I am going to go back outside and enjoy this weather.
Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxo
Kitten in the City 
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