11th. A catch up post as all of this has happened over the last 10 days but I have been too busy to post.
I finally got all my Christmas cards finished and all the overseas ones posted so I have now started to build a stock of birthday cards in readiness for 2022. Choosing European garden birds for starters.
Starting off with Gold Finches, chafinchs, citrine wagtail, bluetits and kingfishers.
In addition I decorated the tree in my driveway to cheer us all up as the latest variant of Covid erupts globally. And re-purposed some snack jars that I have been hoarding over the year to fill with home had apple and quince Membrillo and distribute to neighbors on Christmas eve. Membrillo, for those who do not recognise it, is a fruit paste. The apples and quince were harvested from the surrounding fields.
I also decided that I really did have to something about the huge framed Mgadigadi Salt Pans paining by my friend Ian Marshall that adorns, inappropriately to my mind, a wall in my bedroom. It should be in the Salon where visitors can see it but where there is also limited wall space. So I took it out of the huge frame which shrunk it by at least 20cm on every side, attached a narrow and plain beading to the edges to hide the staples and painted it red to match the frame on Luce’s painting hanging near by. While I was at it I decided to paint the frame of the Cuba photo montage red too, appropriately I thought!
My motivation for this came in part from the fact that I have moved everything except the hard furnishings out of my bedroom in preparation for the installation of an A/C unit, I don’t want clothing, bedding etc covered in plaster dust. In the meantime I am camping in the spare room. So here is a good opportunity to re-arrange my bedroom (when the delayed installation finally takes place!) I might also try and re-hang Di’s “West Coast” painting somewhere more visible. That left the question of what to do with my beloved chief’s chair. It is ornamental only since having been painstakingly re-assembled after a friend 6 year old jumped up and down on it, toppled it and shattered the carved back and it takes up a lot of space. However I did not want to loose that carving so I cut the legs off and have re-invented it as a wall panel in my Africa corner, I am pleased with the outcome.
16th. Lovely walk on the beach at St George de Didonne following delivery of Christmas cards to the post boxes of some friends in the town. Because the tide was very low we were able to walk along the cliff foot to beaches beyond Suzac that are normally cut off by water.
23rd. Made sweets, tartlets and trays of Apple and Quince Pâte de Fruits to stuff into my little re-cycled jars for delivering to my neighbors. A busy day!
I was pleasantly surprised when two of them bought me a potted cyclamen and an orchid respectively. I really had not expected such generosity in response to my hand made offerings. And then later in the day Anna and Salomé bought me a potted Poinsettia and Silvie a BIG box of dark chocolate cherry liquers. What a lick person I am to live in such a convivial Hood!
I am not sure if Domenique will join me for the main event! but I expect Martine and Michel to join me for the Christmas Pud. So the table is dressed accordingly.
30th. OMG what a way to see out the year. Yesterday I pre-sewed some 10 potential home made Christmas cards in readiness for NEXT year!!! I re-hung one of the photos from my bedroom into the lounge and this morning I finished off my coffee pot warmer (see below) I already have Jan and Feb 2022 birthday cards written and awaiting posting and enough hand painted cards in stock to cover the next few months!!!
Also yesterday I got a short Whatsapp video clip from Limpopo with the sun going down and the frogs singing. Then a phone call from my friend Peter on his boat in UK saying that he is not enjoying the UK winters anymore and did I ever think of returning to Cape Town.
Well I think the above goes to show just how bored I am with the winter and the available activities proscribed as they are by Covid…..so how have I been spending the rest of today? Why checking out property for sale in Lakeside….What else?
capetocarpe 