When observant as only someone who is slightly obsessed can be, you can learn a lot about your subject of interest. I have a tendency to fill in the gaps between knowledge with my own imagination. Unfortunately for Norm he has to hear my theories about life.

I am obsessed with birds, past the normal level of Old Lady Bird Obsession, more autistic special interest squared with the obsessive old lady = off the charts obsessed. If I hear a bird call in the middle of a conversation my attention goes directly there and I often cannot return to the point of origin without some sort of navigational assistance. I am sure it appears very rude but I do not seem to be able to ignore the call of my birdies.

The Robin Chat Latest Chat is that both babies survived!! Norm had to go through my Mourning Era of the imagined death of the baby robins I mistakenly thought had been devoured by the visiting black sparrowhawk. Regular readers may remember I saw the 2 babies take their first flights the same day I saw the sparrowhawk near the nest. First, I was convinced both babies had been eaten when the nest was abandoned and I saw nothing of the robins. But then I kept spotting one baby with a parent assuming it was the same baby and that only one of them survived. I was partially elated. Norm heard all about it.

Now I understand that initially Mom must have had one with her and Dad had the other with him, until this week when Mom brought both babies to meet me! They are easy to distinguish when they are with a parent as they have not developed the beautiful bright orange chest yet, their grey is a bit more grey. They are easy to distinguish from each other as one is much bigger than the other.

Mom brought both to flutter about the garden catching insects and mom and Small Baby flew off through the gate but Big Baby got stuck behind the netting and kept trying to fly through it. I was afraid he was going to hurt himself and so I distracted him, then he realised the netting was only along the bottom and off he went flying through the bars at the top. I see Mom and Dad teaching them how to navigate things such as fences and the trellis. The fairy garden is an obstacle garden. They spend ages there hopping from object to object.

A southern boubou landed on the feeder and the mama Robin swooped him to intimidate him, despite him being much larger than she is. The fierceness of a protective mother.

I have now decided: the day I saw a small robin throwing things and flying wonky it WAS a baby! (Yes another change of story.) The parents cleverly moved their nest when they saw the predator and all lived happily ever after.

The end. Yes Norm heard every variation multiple times a day.

Then after dinner one evening we were sitting in the dark outside at the back and I said ‘you know the 3 fairy houses at that end?’ while pointing vaguely in the dark.

Norm just looked at me and said ‘I am not intimately acquainted with the contents of your fairy garden.’ For some reason this made me laugh for ages, probably the droll scots accent.

I have decided to paint the little house which is all chipped and raggedy looking. I turned it around so at least they all have the same shaped roof. Things like that speak to me. Like the 3 items with curved stairs live together.

Many of the things I talk about would drive people crazy. Many of the things I think are ‘important’ would drive people crazy. For example me feeling it is vital to buy some apples for the birds. We could be out of milk and bread but I might never notice that, but the birds out of apples?? What are we peasants??

When I was sitting on the loo, dripping in sweat while Norm held my hair back and held the bucket I realised this man really does love me. I knew he tolerated a lot but when they see you at your absolute worst and do not care about anything except your welfare? He’s definitely a Unicorn.

I like to always have apples in the fridge because I fill the Bamboo Boat feeder with apple chunks every morning. I have noticed that the birds then tend to fly in, grab a chunk and then off they go. They do not sit along the perches, grazing like they are at an All You Can Eat buffet. They want to drop in, grab and go. So I have learned to make the bits very small and easier to carry. The waxbills half heartedly peck the apple bits but they usually prefer the seeds from the hanging feeder.

Both air plants are looking stunning!

I gave the smaller air plant to Yolande to say thank you for her part in my healing journey. Yolande popped by to collect it on Friday. We had a coffee and she took home the air plant to her place while it is blooming so beautifully.

My little wild orchids are coming on. I hope they bloom soon.

Kim also redid this large planter. Recently several plants just launched themselves out and the earth was reduced. Kim topped it up and planted the Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’ (commonly called the Black Rose or Black Tree Aeonium) as well as the Aeonium arboreum (Green Tree Aeonium). I love these but they have not thrived in their previous pots so we moved them. We planted back the things that were already thriving there.

I am still rebounding. I have now lost 8kgs and my legs are much stronger. I have much more energy and far less pain. I noticed I have had no back pain in ages. One of the things I love is that I do not need to do anything to prepare, I can just kick off my shoes and hop on. I am jumping here in a dress and I still have on my work lipstick. I am now doing 12 minutes every day instead of 10 as 10 became easy and I want to slowly increase my duration.

Speaking of bounds, the outside playroom is coming on by leaps and bounds. #AwkwardSegue

The lights from elevenpast arrived on Wednesday and Sango fitted them on Thursday morning. He also fitted a new switch as the old one was a bit sparky.

You really see how little light the previous fixture put out when you see one that actually lights the room up! I was a bit disappointed in the wooden base looking a bit unfinished, it looks like the light was knocked out in the back of someone’s shed. I am going to have Kim varnish or paint the wooden base. I love the adjustable lights so we can point one on the kitchen and one on their table and one on the blackboard.

Kim repaired the damaged plaster yesterday and once that is dry he will sand it down and paint the ceiling bits that are exposed. He has painted the windows, the walls, the doors & the ceilings.

Kim has painted a marked off area with blackboard paint. Yesterday he removed the painting tape and it is perfect. We decided to paint high enough so adults can use it for Pictionary games too.

I have a little dinosaur shaped shelf we will attach for the chalk. The little animal faces peeking out at the top of the picture are hooks & I have cute little bags to hang on them for storing bits and pieces. One was broken on arrival but Norm glued it back. The creamy shelf is for books and art items. These items below all came from Superbalist.

Norm went to buy new curtain rails this week. The curtains arrived and Norm told me I was supposed to buy four of them, not two. I then repeated back the entire conversation we had about curtains because it made no sense to me at the time and I told him then that it made no sense but I would follow his advice. He then said that what he said was not what he meant. I told him my mind reading skills failed and now we have two. Now I have to make another order.

Along with the curtains, the throw for the sofa and other decor items arrived from Mr Price Home. The rug with the cheetahs is something made of magic, I love this rug! I bought a slip proof matt to go under it. The throw which is going over the sofa is a very light grey and is very soft.

The little bunny pillows are textured and will make nice things to cuddle if the babies are settled on the sofa.

The kids may chill out back here after swimming in the summer and when older they will have movie nights watching Disney classics.

Some of the bits that arrived are for my gardens. The little snail planter for example is going on my porch. The little mushrooms are slow watering devices for pots. The metal roofed item is this little birdhouse. I have added it to my fairy garden. The weather today is abysmal but once it is nice I am going to build a little fence around it with a gate.

Caitlin and Bree are back from their visit to my Mom in Georgia. They were laughing because Bree is saying ‘chay-err’ and ‘hay-err’ in Southern style. In our family chat Trevor teased me about always correcting when they used the South African pronunciation ‘Heehh’ which drives me nuts.

Yesterday was Finn’s 5th birthday. It is hard to believe he is 5!

Norm and I were supposed to go out for lunch today as a delayed celebration of my birthday since I was ill last Saturday, but he woke in the middle of the night and is also ill, so we moved it another week ahead. Caitlin and Bree were supposed to come by on Sunday but we decided rather not risk getting them ill too and delayed that until next week. Therefore I am having a lazy weekend.

Finn is lying upstairs with Norm but Poppy is my sidekick.

I find it so funny that I was sweltering in my sundress on Wednesday and today I am wrapped up like I am off up Mount Everest. Typical Cape Town for it to be so atypical.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and week ahead. Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxox