The Power of Understanding

I've mentioned how happy Amelia gets when one of us understands what she is trying to say and I thought about that and realised that being understood is what many of us strive for in our lives, even once we are adults. Maybe that is why I relate to Amelia so, the lifelong misunderstanding of …

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Luminous ‘Lisi

While I was in George, I loved having my morning coffee outside watching the birds while Amelia pottered about. There were so many lovely birds we do not see in Cape Town. There was a rainbird aka a Burchell's Coucal, which makes the funniest sounds as a warning of rain. There was the black African …

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I Just Kept Going

I discovered a tiny little caterpillar who is the culprit eating one of my plants. I picked the entire leaf off and put him with his leaf on the concrete on the other side of the fence by the rubbish bins. I do not want to kill him. Even slugs or snails are still Mother …

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The Soil of South Africa Clings to You

Last weekend was really cold and overcast. As we have no heat in our house other than a wood fireplace that we could not be bothered to light, it was really cold in the house too. I was wearing 4 layers of tops, wooly socks and fur lined boots and was still wrapped up in …

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Speaking in the Love

This week Norm was travelling again and I was trying to remember where he had gone but all I knew was it had a lot of vowels in it. He was in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. I kept telling everyone he was in Abu Dhabi which is the capital of the UAE. This …

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Tin Lizzie and the Backyard Safari

I mentioned that April is a month of many public holidays in South Africa and it was lovely having 3 days off last weekend and another day off on Thursday and nothing to do except whatever I wanted to do. I did a lot of gardening in the mornings on the first two days while …

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The Bird Mafia

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 …

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River of Denial

This week I heard a term which really resonated with me. Once again I cannot remember where I heard it, but the theory is that the reason that we cannot see the future impact of the actions or decisions we make today is due to 'dissociation from our future selves'. So we struggle with visualising …

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Happy Trails To You

This has been a week of chaos of the best kind. My daughter Lily and granddaughter Amelia were here all week again but they left on Thursday morning. I mentioned in last week's post that Norm and I were off to the theatre to see My Fair Lady. We were both excited for a night …

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Growing Into It

I have had such a brilliant week! I mentioned that my daughter and granddaughter were staying with us so that she could be here to support her sister with her new baby. I have been looking after Amelia Ray when Lily goes to Caitlin's and she and I have had such fun. We have read …

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