Last Friday was my Mom’s birthday so we rang her and had a long chat and she sent a picture of the adorable solar light we had sent her. You see I came by my rabbit addiction quite naturally. Her friends had taken her out for lunch and my uncle had taken her out during the week so she was celebrated.

Last weekend started out bright but the weather turned a bit miserable, it was cold but sunny on Saturday but in the evening the wind started howling and the rain came down fast and furious.

During the sunny part of the day I did a bit of bird watching and gardening at the back. I watched the birds build and listened to them sing. I filled all the feeders. I walked around noticing what was flourishing and what needed help. I am constantly tweaking and moving plants.

I have made a dish of some little succulent leaves I found in the hopes of harvests of new babies. Fingers crossed.

This aeonium arboreum zwartkop aka Black Rose is growing new babies where we chopped off a piece to plant outside. Now I wonder should I do more chopping to encourage more new growth.

While the sun was still out I went out to check on the areas outside of our walls as Norm said a lot of the plants we had added were blooming. These areas never grew grass and always looked a mess. The bark and plants we have added look fabulous. Many of these plants will grow quite large and we have added a lot of variety.

Norm said he was going to the garden centre to pick up more bark for the outside areas and he would also pick up something for dinner.

He cooked Gammon steaks, broccoli, asparagus and layered potato cubes for dinner. It was yummy and yes, I know I am very spoiled.

Last Sunday morning when we woke it was freezing. People do not understand that our South African houses are made to withstand the heat, so in the winter our houses are usually colder inside than it is outside. I sometimes sit outside on the porch in the sun to warm up.

Norm built a big fire once I came downstairs. I had my usual long lie drinking coffees, then I had a shower and dressed in warm PJs. I snuggled up in front of the fire with the cat and Poppy and logged onto my new WOW Presents Plus account and watched ‘live TV’ on our big screen. Not having to choose something to watch, just streaming. It suited my brainless mood and the pouring rain.

On Monday I sat at the back of the house for my morning coffee break and saw a pair of Robin Chat collecting bits and taking them into the vines. In addition to the area they had been building a nest in my fairy garden, they built a second nest in the upper vines. I watched them go from the ground to collect their bits and then fly from one spot to the other. I wondered if they make two nests to see which one seems safer before they actually lay their eggs? As I continued observing them through the week I noticed that they had stopped going into the vines by the fairies and were focusing their attention on the one up high. I think they had made two to see which had the least interference.

I also think I may have seen them with one of my little skinks in their mouths, I guess they have to feed their babies something.

Midday the rain came down again. It was freezing cold. When Chichi came to work she told me all about the different marches, protests and incidents going on around xenophobia. There are people on TikTok blatantly saying they will be coming for those who are not South African! I do not want to follow or promote their hate but here are some links to watch about what is going on. This was about a Cape Town protest. This is a good article about the background and what is being planned. The 30th of June was supposed to be a National Shutdown but the president claimed this was not true. It is frightening for people who live here and are not South African. I assume it will not spread to those here under specialist visas or spousal visas.

On the 30th there was not much of anything that happened. All smoke, not even a fizzle, much less the raging fires which had caused people to voluntarily expatriate back to their original countries.

I am also an immigrant, however I am not likely to have people walking into my home or my workplace. My home is my workplace and they have to scale a wall, get through the beams and get past our Finn.

And Poppy of course.

Poppy and I were sitting outside on Wednesday afternoon and the heavens suddenly opened! It poured down.

It has been a tumultuous week. The weather ran the entire spectrum from sunny and warm to freezing and rainy.

This week I have started taking a supplement which is supposed to help with my issues with cholesterol. Red Yeast Rice with CoQ10, plus milk thistle & alpha lipoic acid. I have no idea what any of these things are except milk thistle which I know is good for your liver. But it was recommended by someone whom I respect from a health point of view and the bits I read about it seem to say it is worth a try.

My rebounder arrived on Monday and Norm kindly put it together for me. He tried it out for me too. This soundtrack makes me giggle.

The dogs are very curious about it.

I bounced 10 minutes each afternoon after work and I found it relatively easy other than my right calf cramping up. I think it means I do weird toe things cos that is the foot that gets such bad calluses from me walking oddly.

But I am being persistent and that is what matters. When I get off I have jelly legs so that tells me it is working.

I have also been making more conscious choices when eating. I gave up my usual morning packs of breakfast biscuits for a tablespoon of Greek Yogurt, 4 strawberries, a tablespoon of dried coconut pieces and 5 walnuts. Walnuts are brain food. It took a few attempts to get the combination right but I add a half a teaspoon of honey into the tart yogurt, once mixed I chop the berries and the nuts and add those with the coconut. I let it get a bit warm as I cannot chew very cold things.

I am going to try and eat regularly instead of not thinking about it during the day so that I do not eat crap out of desperation and starvation. I have boiled eggs in the fridge and some healthy snacks. I am trying. I used to have a packet of jellybeans, an ice cream and probably a packet of crisps every evening after dinner. I am not having any of that.

We had steak and salad one night and Norm cooked a few nights for us. It might not be low carb or great for my cholesterol but our rationale is that anything home cooked is healthier than a take away. You may notice an excess of broccoli, I do not like very many different vegetables.

Norm also built a roaring fire for us every evening while we watched our evening bit of telly.

Now for the learning part of my post. The first of this week’s new words is Linguistic Convergence, but I guess that is two words. In autism this refers to how autistic individuals adapt their speech—including tone, vocabulary, and grammar—to match the person they are chatting to. I also do it when I am watching a series. I will absorb random accents which only apply to specific situations. I had a specific accent when I prayed for a while. I was busy watching Reservation Dogs and I think I was mirroring my fave character from it. William Knifeman is played by Dallas Goldtooth and is an eccentric, often unhelpful 19th-century Indigenous spirit guide.

I also do what I call ‘Mirroring’ when I speak to people. I speak to my Mom and I morph into Scarlett O’Hara. I speak to my friends in Belfast and I pick up that accent, I visit Scotland and my accent morphs again. I am not conscious of it, it just happens.

The second is an article posted by Neurodivergent Rebel, aka Lyric Riviera on Substack about Hyperlexia. Lyric says that “There are two parts to reading: Decoding (recognizing words/symbols) & Comprehension (understanding context, inference, and subtext of what we read).”

I taught myself how to read very early, around 4. I read voraciously as a child. I finished multiple books in a week. I read every opportunity I had. One day a few years ago someone asked me about a book I had just finished and I realised I remembered nothing I had read. If you only asked did I enjoy it I would say yes! This was long before I was diagnosed. Even after diagnosis I had not put all of these things together until I read this article.

Lyric also says that people with hyperlexia do better with written communication than verbal and that is very true with me. I never answer a phone. I do not mind a voice message as I can listen to it multiple times if I do not get it but I always prefer a written one if there is retainable information within.

Lyric also mentions that it is common to read dictionaries and encyclopedias for fun for those of us with hyperlexia. My grandparents had a full set of encyclopedias. Owning a set was a sign of prosperity in the 50s & 60s and it was also representative of understanding the power of education. I read every one of them from cover to cover when I was very young. I then focused on the animals and knew every breed of dog and horse. I still love a good reference book.

Our little Roo is 6 months old. He is such a happy baby.

I have mentioned that I am going down to George on the 10th of July for Amelia’s 3rd birthday party. It is a Princess Theme and I have the perfect dress which I have had no occasion to wear as yet. It has multiple layers of a soft pinky peach tulle and embroidered tigers and flowers. I love this dress so much.

This week I ordered little ballet shoes to wear with it from Leluya. They are a creamy cocoa coloured velvet with a pale pink trim. They arrived on Friday and they fit perfectly.

I love the burgundy pair I ordered too. No idea what I will wear them with but they bring to mind lush velvet seats in an old movie cinema.

I needed to get my dress altered so my bosoms did not fall in the cake, so I emailed the shop ME&B and they were absolutely brilliant! They phoned me and said I could bring the dress in and their seamstress could fix it. First thing on Thursday morning Norm and I went to their shops in Wynberg.

They asked me to put the dress on and the lady came to me, she took one look at me and asked ‘what size is this dress??’ because it literally hangs on me. I explained my autism and that I cannot wear tight clothing. She nodded and started walking around me and pinning things up and tightening other bits and clipping them and tugging and pulling on this and that and she said ‘OK take it off and I will get busy!’. I felt like Cinderella.

I was messaged by the shop the next day to say the dress was ready! How she did all of that unpicking the shoulders and the waist and making the bodice ‘tighter’ with her magical skills in a day I have no clue. I am going Monday to pick it up and I suspect the fit will be perfect.

On Friday morning I made an appointment for a Pedicure at the new Hout Bay salon Pamper Me Pink. The salon is adorable and the staff were so lovely. They have a photo op wall over their pedicure stations.

Of course I had to take advantage of that lighting.

They also have a lovely nail bar for doing manicures.

They do all of the usual services, lashes, waxing etc. I liked the calm vibe and will definitely go back. I recommend them.

This morning we met Caitlin, Wesley and Bree at the World of Birds here in Hout Bay. It is a wildlife sanctuary and Monkey Park.

It has local and international birds, monkeys, serval cats, lemurs, tortoises, meerkats, alpacas and all sorts of creatures.

Bree loved it but she kept saying some of the large birds were ‘scary’ so she was carried for most of the day by her parents or Papa Norm. She repeats everything and at one point she said ‘oh mahh goodness’ in the strongest southern accent, directly after I had said it which made me giggle.

Next week I am away so my post may be later than usual. I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead. Until Next Time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxox