Sometimes by protecting other people, we end up inadvertently harming ourselves. This is something that I am personally working through at the moment. It becomes a self-blame game when things work out badly for you and you realise it is because you kept quiet about things that other people did. I protected my children from knowing things, but it ended up protecting the culprit in my attempts to protect them. But I keep reminding myself of the original secrets that were hidden and the lack of responsibility for those things and then begin to set boundaries. Sometimes these boundaries create problems for those who want to pretend that everything is just fine. I am no longer pretending. Just like any masking I was doing, the pretenses have been dropped.

I am trying to be authentically me.

Work is chaotically busy at the moment. The weather has been dreary all week. It was overcast and rainy for most of the week.

It finally cleared up a bit on Friday and I went out in the back to have a break midday and the dogs stuck to me like glue.

Friday evening it was really lovely weather and the sun came out in all it’s glory.

I’ve spent a lot of time faffing in the garden this week despite the rather gloomy weather.

I have discovered a plant which Norm will love! It just randomly appeared in this pot. I used my plant app to identify it. Plectranthus neochilus (lobster bush, fly bush, or mosquito bush) is a perennial ground cover and it repels mosquitos. No idea what it does to lobsters.

The plant I stole from Caitlin and Wes’ garden after babysitting has finally grown a little bit. I am thinking about moving him to a pot in the Peace Garden.

I have let all of the birdfeeders sit empty all week and I have seen zero rodents since they emptied. The first day they came back and looked around in a confused manner, but then they disappeared and they have stayed gone. Next week I will add some bird seed to the front garden but avoid this one at the back.

Norm shopped and cooked for us this week. He did steaks and halloumi and this time I made the salad. It is my fave home cooked combo. If it looks like I had half a steak I did because it was too big for me so I took half and left half. I prefer more of the halloumi.

One night we had the gorgeous eggplant parmigiana from Casareccio.

Last night Norm popped down to get sushi from K1 for me. It was delicious. I had my usual prawn roses (I have pulled off the icky seaweed), salmon roses and bamboo rolls.

I had another delivery this week and I ordered a little shopping trolley and plastic food for the playroom kitchen. It is very cute. Proportions are amusing, look at the size of that peanut!!!

Once again I did not measure the size of the trolley but Poppy thinks it is perfect for her.

One of my rebounding songs is another Izzy Escobar track, “Ego Talking“. The lyrics feel very familiar! It is about someone whose words are deeply cutting but are a result of her insecurities and her ego but she loves them dearly.

Poor Norm. I can flip from one extreme to the other like the toggle of a switch. I also flip back to the other extreme just as quickly. Buckle up Buttercup, it is always a bumpy ride.

Another song I enjoy bouncing to is the new Miley track, “Let’s Get Married”. I think this is such a beautiful video, I love the styling and the entire concept. The obvious lyrics that resonate with me are wondering what you do to deserve someone who treats you so fabulously, but also about turning your life into a holiday. Norm and I often say that we sometimes feel like we are on holiday all year because of the beautiful views and amazing food all around us. We are surrounded by the views and food that most people only dream of. A lucky few may get to experience it on their annual trip abroad. Everyone knows I am terribly spoiled by Norman and often wonder what I did to deserve him….. let them wonder.

Today was such a lovely day. It was my friend Yolande’s birthday today. This would appear that Louise is shocked by Yolande opening the champagne but I think it was just bad timing.

Yolande invited some friends to Kirstenbosch Gardens for a picnic. She insisted not to bring much so I asked Norm to get some easily portable snacks. I rocked up with a bag of popcorn and pretzels, then proceeded to sit on the pretzels and smush them. Meanwhile everyone else rocked up with home-cooked things, beautiful little displays of things, tasty snacks and all manner of goodies. And I had smashed pretzels.

Louise stopped to collect me and we left her car at Yolande’s so we all drove in together. I do not know my way around the gardens at all so I was grateful to have a guide! A few of us took some nice blankets, it was lovely to loll about and snack.

It is just the most beautiful of settings.

The weather was perfect, the morning drizzle and cloud on the Hout Bay side was not evident there at all. We spent all day and left after 4pm. It was a gorgeous day.

Next week Lily, Josh and the kids will drive down for Halloween weekend. We are all attending the local Halloween walk for Caitlin and Wes’ neighbourhood. I am supposed to work at a little event in Hout Bay but I am struggling to get information about it so it remains to be seen what will happen there. I cannot miss the grandkids all together.

I hope you all have had a great weekend so far and that you all have a lovely week ahead. Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox