That's a Wrap!

I shall never unwrap a gift, recklessly ripping off the paper and tossing it to one side, again, without thinking of the person who carefully wrapped and stuck for me! Mind you, these days I tend to use, re-use and re-use again, those clever paper bags that hold anything from wine bottles to tiny gifts of perfume and biltong!

And why am I carrying on about this? Read on.....

A couple of weeks ago, Ronel (the angel behind the Animal Lighthouse Shelter. Remember we delivered gifts for the animals in the Red-Nose Combi?) sent out an appeal for 'wrappers'... not 'rappers' I hasten to add, but people who would willingly and happily give up a few hours to stand outside Checkers store in the Weskus Mall and wrap gifts for charity. The animal charity that was offered the spot in the first place couldn't find enough volunteers (now I don't wonder why not....) so Ronel was next in line and she jumped at the chance.

I actually questioned why? Surely we wouldn't get any money and I knew from standing at Markets how little money came to us. But she said that we could make thousands of rand, at least five thousand and it would all come to her shelter in the form of vouchers to be used at Checkers.
And so she began...... begging, pleading, asking on Facebook for volunteers to work in shifts, one from 9 to 1 and one from 1 to 6!!

Guess what? A friend of mine from Bookclub put her name down, so I thought 'Ok, I shall join her, it will be fun'!!!

Fun?

Well.
Here are a few tips for anybody that is ready to volunteer for wrapping. I am not talking about the few little gifts that you can do sitting with a cup of coffee at home and no stress.

Me behind Jeannie... still smiling... we had just started!

Bah Humbug!

The shopping is done......what we haven't got now we can do without! Our little village is bursting at the seams and the shopping centres are bedlam.

Christmas is upon us once again!

(All cartoons are thanks to Google!)

Somehow, with each year that passes, I feel less and less 'festivy' and more and more like Scrooge and I have been known to mutter 'Bah humbug' (among other things) at every car that races past. It's just as well that I don't use a walking stick.....yet..... or I would be shaking it at people!

Yesterday (Thursday) was the last Hospice shop duty for the year, so I decided to 'nip' (ha ha) into a couple of places to get a few last minute things like special cat food for Morris and a box of prawns for us as our Christmas braai! (Does the term 'chuck another prawn on the barbie' come to mind after reading that?) But, the vet was out of pouches and he must not eat the 'cheap' food because of his struvite crystal problem (Morris that is, not the vet!) They were expecting a delivery, could I hang around for an hour or two, go to the Mall and come back maybe?

No. I could not.

Christmas Tinner!

Every year when I sit at my computer to write my Festive Jolly Christmas Blog, I can't believe that a year has passed so fast! And I am thinking exactly that again!

Where has 2015 gone? And 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011.......... In fact, where has it all gone? It seems just the other day when 1999 clicked towards 2000 and we sat with candles at the ready and wondered whether our computers would self destruct and all the planes would fall out of the sky! And of course all was well and we laughed and said well we knew that everything would be fine! But I digress!

Christmas always brings thoughts of food! (Mind you, every day brings thoughts of food and thoughts of 'what am I going to cook today?') I remember mum spending Christmas morning in the kitchen surrounded by turkey, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, mince pies, and pudding and custard, while the windows steamed up and the fire was lit in the lounge and we played with our new toys! Then after lunch it was washing up time! Piles of plates and pots and pans, knives forks and spoons, while mum reminded whoever was washing 'don't put the handles of the knives in the water'. Those bone handled knives are still going strong, we use them every day and every time I wash them I say to myself  'don't put the handles in the water'!

Our knives

The Twelve Days Of Christmas!

I know that this may be a day early for 12 days before Christmas, but because I didn't write a blog last weekend, I decided not to wait until the time was right, but to go right ahead and give you my version of that popular Christmas song (and no it is nothing that Boney M have ever sung....hopefully) called 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'. I thought that there must be some history behind what seemed to be a simple song, so, yes, I googled it! And this is what I found.

'According to Ann Ball in her book, HANDBOOK OF CATHOLIC SACRAMENTALS:

The two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments
The three French hens stood for faith, hope, and love.
The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The five golden rings represented the first five books of the Old Testament, which describe man's fall into sin and the great love of God in sending a Saviour.
The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit-----Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit-----Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience [Forbearance], Goodness [Kindness], Mildness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continency [Chastity].
The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful Apostles.
The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in The Apostles' Creed.

Original Source: Fr. Calvin Goodwin, FSSP, Nebraska
Printed with permission from Catholic Tradition.'

And thanks to Google.

I spent a lot of time mulling over typically 'Weskus' flora and fauna (lovely names for cats) so I hope that this meets with your approval even though there is no deeper meaning to my words:

So, here in reverse order from 12 days to 1 day.... and you have to sing it out loud please:
   
 On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve whales a blowing
Eleven crayfish growing
Ten springboks pronking *
Nine gypos honking **
Eight seals a swimming
Seven gulls a screaming
Six tourists leaving ***
Five tor-toi-ses
Four scorpions
Three mole snakes
Two francolins
And a boomslang in a manotoka tree.

* not our rugby team
** short for Egyptian geese
*** not you Michael and Hedwig

One thing puzzles me though. Are the twelve days supposed to happen before Christmas or afterwards? 

If it's before, well, go ahead and sing.

And if not, wait a bit!

Ho Ho Ho!

I am so sorry if this starts off like another 'call back the past'! It isn't, it has a quick reference to the past and then fast-forwards to the present!

'Present' being the operative word!!

When I was small (skip through this next ramble if you are bored with my childhood bits), at the beginning of December every year, my sister and I would be given an Advent Calendar! I think my aunty Julia gave it to us, but that part is lost in the mists (more like fog) of time! We would take it in turns to open the little numbered doors, but we first had to find them as they were so cleverly hidden behind trees and rosy-faced children and snowmen!

Old Fashioned! (Pic thanks to Google)

And they were all covered in sparkly glitter that stuck to our fingers and rubbed off on our clothes and faces. Behind each little door was.....not a chocolate! There was a tiny picture hiding behind each one, angels, a sleigh, Santa Claus, and behind the last one, 24 December, was a tiny Nativity scene with donkeys and all!

Rosy faced children and sparkling snow.

West Coast Christmas Tree!

When you think of a Christmas tree, I am sure that this is the kind of thing that appears in your mind.

A beautifully decorated tree! (Thanks to Google)

It's certainly the type of tree that I grew up with. Dad brought a small tree home every year just before Christmas Day. We stood it in a bucket with soil to weigh it down and spent ages decorating it, hanging those delicate glass balls on the spiky needles (and hoping not to drop one), and festooning it with tinsel and the odd things that we had made at school, tiny paper chains and lopsided angels! Soon after Christmas the poor tree started dropping it's needles and mum would spend ages sweeping up the mess, until it was thrown out on 12th night! We never considered having a pretend tree and I wonder whether they were available in the early 1950's. One of the saddest sights to my seven year old mind, was the naked tree lying outside the back door waiting to be put on the next bonfire, and my dad saying to me 'Well, Christmas is as far away as it can be now!' A whole year to wait till the next one!

Dear Santa Claws!

Yes, it's That time of year again!

There are only a few days left for Christmas wish-lists to be up-dated, neatly written and posted off to the North Pole. The Malls are decorated with festive holly, fake trees, twinkling lights and surly looking Santas catching a quick smoke break round the back of the bottle store. There are frazzled parents trying to persuade their children that a G I Joe doll is as good, if not better, than an Ipod (Ipad?) or a Samsung Galaxy. (Or something in that line!) And what would Christmas be without the music of Boney M following you into every supermarket!

So, here is a lovely story that I want to share with you. It involves some very clever marketing on the part of a Pet Food manufacturer. Clever and humorous!

Remember Phez? The kitten who weighed less than a tomato when my sister brought him home? The tiny soul who lay on Boscombe's tummy for warmth and who wobbled his way round the house? Well, he is now a grown-up, handsome fellow with a spectacularly bushy tail like a fox! And every time I tried to get near enough to take a photo, he scuttled off!

A tiny Phez on long suffering Boscombe while Teazle looks on!

Fish Pond Paradise!

Soon after we moved into this house, we were given an old half-barrel that had, at one time, been a small fish pond. However, it had been standing empty for ages and had dried out to such an extent that we could see slits of daylight between the planks! We didn't know if the old pump still worked, and probably the best thing to do with it was fill it with soil and plant herbs in it! However, we like a challenge, so Rob filled it with water and gradually over a few days, the wood swelled and the barrel stopped leaking. And, amazingly the pump still worked! So we decided to buy a few goldfish. I had been given an old gieter or watering can, and Rob rigged this up with rope and cable ties so that the water flowed into the gieter and out through the spout back into the barrel!

A  Malechite male sunbird bathing at the gieter.

And it worked! We bought a few fish and left them to it. The only problem was, the water turned green within a few days and although we regularly changed it, using the pond water for the garden and filling it again from the rainwater tanks, we could hardly ever see the fish through the murk and algae! And after a bad start when we lost a few fish, the remaining two flourished! Eventually they were so big that they could literally only swim in a circle, and we felt really bad that they couldn't see where they were going! Even though they really weren't going anywhere!
So, we decided to buy ourselves an early Christmas present in the form of a new pond complete with filter and UV light! Rob ordered one from a company in Cape Town, and a couple of weeks ago, off we set to fetch it. Luckily it just fitted into the back of the Nissan, we thought we may have to put Alfie in it on the way home, but he sat on my lap and fidgeted all the way!

Let the games begin!

Merry Christmas!

Ho, Ho, Ho, it's that time of the year again! The 'silly season' is here and as I write this I can see our friends beyond the empty plot playing cricket in the road with their grandchildren. I always think back to my early Christmases in England, my sister and I waking up and seeing the present-filled lumpy pillow cases at the foot of our beds, mum and aunty cooking huge dinners and everyone going for a walk in the park in the afternoon. My dad would quietly come home from work in the weeks before Christmas and hide gifts behind the cushions in the lounge before loudly slamming the front door, and we would rush into the hall to see what he had with him! He would spend hours in his shed in the garden making wooden toys for us with mum suddenly saying that it was too cold for us to go and see what he was doing! It's certainly a time for families to be together and it's at this time of the year that I miss my children the most. Rob and I shall be together, alone, and that's fine, we enjoy our own company and the day will be spent being lazy, (so what's new?), having a late breakfast (cooked by Rob!), and probably a braai for lunch (cooked by Rob!), but I shall spend the day thinking about my far-away family and waiting for them to be available for me to skype them.



Our little wooden tree complete with red candles.