Back in the real world

Gosh, at our end-of-the-year bash I won the Mike Tyson Award. Are you crazy?
I am a marshmallow. Please compare the image my niece drew of me, all heart, and correct, this is the real me.
That my colleagues would think I am a fighter. I am crushed ;-)

From the heart

I am making hearts for Christmas. I cannot make them without the quote by E. E. Cummings running around in my head.

MH signage recycled

About 3 years ago they changed the logo of the company, so all the signage was replaced. I couldn't bear the thought of the large sign that had been in reception lying on a landfill, disregarded and rejected, so I took it home. OMW, it lay in the ground for a while like a pimple on the earth, then it was propped up against the wall. Spiders spun undetected webs and mice hid from the dogs behind it. It was a great size for a fire pit, but the wrong material, certainly more of a melting pit should you start the fire. Eventually it was just annoying me and I thought it would be delivered to a rubbish dump after all, but I turned it over, filled it with soil and asked my nieces to transplant whatever they liked from the garden into it. Ta-da! I think they did a great job. They even added rose quartz for the finishing touch.

Just words, no pictures

The morning starts with burchell coucals calling one another, or calling the rain but mostly I think they talk about the weather. It's still dark but you can sense the sky is a blanket of clouds. We wonder how much the vegetables have grown while I have slept. I only put out the light just before 3 am. A book I have been battling to get into suddenly got exciting on page 241 and then I didn't want to stop reading. Exhaustion closed the book and switched off the light. Despite that we woke early.

I didn't have a car for a few days last week so I Ubered to work and back. I listened to a variety of radio stations on these trips and found it very interesting but when I got my car back I didn't explore any of them but stayed tuned to the preset station in my car. Hmm.
We drove with the windows down and a breeze accompanied us on the journey. I felt as though I were going on a road trip. It was great to look around and see things that you don't see when you're looking ahead, or looking in the rear view mirror hoping that guy will also slow and stop at the red light.
They train the drivers well. They know when to chat and when you prefer silence. It's great.

They said we would have a heatwave this week and no chance of rain. Yet the heavens darkened and water fell from the sky. The wind was fierce and raced through the house wanting to get outside again, while the trees moved in a frenzied dance to music I couldn't hear. The wind makes no sound really, just creates sounds in everything it moves, sometimes a gentle rustle, so soft you think you imagined it, sometimes with such force the strongest tree has to obey.

My vegetables are coming along very nicely. But growing from seed, although rewarding, is also a measure of patience. The butternut plants are getting taller everyday, the leaves bigger but still no butternut. Will we be able to harvest the tomatoes for Christmas salad, and how long does it take before a head of cauliflower becomes a meal? Did I plant sunflowers or mielies there? I guess we will have to wait and see. My dogs go directly to the vegetable garden in the mornings now, having adapted my pattern. They are not sure what I am looking for every day but they know it's this first before I will play with them.

It 02:41 now. In 2 hours my dogs will wake me to go out for a pee. Well, I am hoping to falls asleep before then; but who knows. I fall asleep on the couch in the evening but when I go to bed I cannot doze off again. So I swot mosquitoes and read a book until weariness suggests it's time to sleep.

Dogs and children prevent you from getting attached to material things.

Christmas colour palette

Getting so excited for Christmas. Have decided on this colour scheme, with lots of white. added the two green baubles just so 'it pops', as our clients would say.

Failed fudge

I wanted to make fudge with the girls. They said it was boring to stand there the whole time stirring. They went out to play and I was trapped in the hot kitchen. Sigh!
When the fudge had cooled only the centre was fudge and the rest was sugary somethingorother. How does that happen? I ate the fudge bit and cut the rest up into block, took it to work and they loved it. All gone in 20 minutes although there was a health warning attached: 99% sugar. No one seemed to care.

The sky is blue