Blog for Thursday 14th September 2023

I only climbed out of bed at twenty to five this morning. Hmm, making this a bit of a habit Gail Morgan. Stop it!

Shamara was a bit miffed to be eating her first meal of the day a little later this morning, so my popularity in her eyes waned considerably! Tsch! Best I up my game or feel unloved by her!

Yahee! Today is one of my little sister's - Dee's - birthday! She is turning seventy-one today - much to celebrate and I wish I lived closer to be able to join her on her special day.

I went up to my studio to have my Quiet Time and begin my day in earnest.

This morning I tidied our living area as Ken and Paddy were expecting a visitor – a gentleman who was coming to see our bulls and to suggest some marketing ideas for selling them online. I cut some Madeira cake for them for their morning teatime as I was not going to be here, (I thought!)

My morning was a bit of a hurry-scurrying here and there, then a shower and I got dressed to go to our Bible Study Group meeting in Ellenborough. In the meanwhile, Paddy went out to do some more fencing at the back of the farm, (but he was on radio call for when the guy coming to see the bulls arrived) and Ken went out to move the bulls into one of the River Camps for easier viewing.

Next thing, I saw Ken and this guy John inspecting the bulls after which they came up to the top shed. I served them tea and then at the time was ticking by, I told Ken that I would take the quad bike and cross the river to my car as I did not want to be late for my meeting.

So, after saying my “Fare thee wells!” I climbed onto the quad bike, with the bag containing my notes, Bible, phone, car keys and the date and nut load that I had sliced, buttered and put onto a plate with some cashew nuts, behind me and set off down the road. Good idea but oh my heavens, the banging and bumping down the road did no good to my bag which tipped over and my phone almost fell onto the ground, so I slowed down and thought I had righted everything and was about to set off again when I saw Paddy coming home in the ute. Now, that was a far better idea than whizzing over the river on the quad bike, so I did a huge U-turn into the longer grass and returned to the top shed to meet up with Paddy and take the ute' across the river instead.

Wonderful idea Gail, except now I could not find my car keys in my bag containing all those things I mentioned above! They had obviously fallen out when my bag fell over. Oh rats!

Paddy, bless his heart ran into the shed and grabbed his cars keys and told me to take his car and we could look for my car keys later. Thank goodness someone in the family has brains!

I did not arrive late for our Bible Study meeting – I got there first! Hallelujah! It was my last Bible Study Group with them before I fly out to South Africa, as next week Ken and I have a doctor’s appointment so cannot attend our normal meeting..

When I got back home Paddy was still out fencing but Ken was home. I got myself a cool drink, a stick and began to walk down the road, to try and trace my quad tracks, Paddy saw me as he was coming home and joined me. His eyes were far better than mine in picking up the quad tracks – I was looking to high up, but … Paddy found my keys on the road where I had turned into the longer grass. Yahee! Plus, I had also looked in the “Vehicle” drawer in Ken’s filing cabinet to see whether I had a second set of keys for my little car. I did not think we had, but … yes we do! So, all in all it was an excellent outcome. “Thanks Paddy!”

In the afternoon when Ken and Paddy were having a siesta or relaxing, reading, or snap snoozing, I sat outside with the chooks, allowing them to have a stroll around outside their hen house and to peck and nibble on the greens I put out for them.

When I came back inside, I baked another batch of rusks to go with our early morning coffees. I also prepared some things for our evening meal as I had a Church Board Meeting at 5.30pm. Paddy was going to light the fire outside and braai the meat (some beautifully thick and juicy steaks he had bought from the Holy Cow butchery for us). I boiled some potatoes, made a tossed salad, put out a bowl of baked beans, and another of hard boiled eggs to have with the meat.

I then attended the Zoom Church Board Meeting – and as usual it was a productive exercise and was an efficiently conducted meeting as always – thanks to Matt’. With a one-two-and-a-three everything on the agenda was dealt with and the meeting was concluded.

I then joined Ken ad Paddy outside around the fire for a while, but once the meat was done we came inside as the wind was becoming a little chilly out there. Paddy had cooked the meat to perfection, and it truly was tender and juicy. “Our compliments to the chef!”

Again, we were soon all tucked up in our respective beds and sound asleep. You can see here that while we were eating Raafie could not wait for bed, so curled up on one the chairs in the lounge area.

Raafie.

What lesson did I learn today? Patience!

What am I grateful for today? That Paddy found my car keys for me.

My saying for today is …