"Life is too important to be taken seriously."

-Oscar Wilde

Sunday, June 23, 2013

The life cycle:-

Of our first strawberries, 2013.


To quote Tamzenite- "to be taken by a red handed critter"... (two actually). 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

The Cheeky Monkey's Very Hungry 2nd Birthday Party:


The Cheeky Monkey sensibly chose to be born in the time of year suitable for outdoor festivities.

We planned a picnic, of the Hungry Caterpiller kind.

We sent invitations. (Quite late. As we are somewhat prone to procrastination.)






We painted boxes. Because as everyone knows, toddlers like boxes. As do cats. We discovered that this particular cat even likes them when the paint is still wet.  Hmmmm...







We planned a menu. Actually, we used THE BOOK as the menu.




My cousin commented that she'd never seen that done before. We replied, that from a culinary perspective there was probably very good reason for that. We only deviated by adding some thick slices of bread to go with the swiss cheese and salami. My cousin hoped no-one got a stomach ache. We had some nice green (baby spinach) leaves to ensure that any-one who did, could eat through one and feel much better.




There were lolly pops, a cherry pie, and chocolate cake. The Ger-Man suggested that a Donauwelle Cake would most to the book justice. He was right. It looked perfect, and although I expected it to be revoltingly gooey with all that pudding, it turned out to be very popular.


Surprisingly, the only leftovers we had were the apples, plums, pears, strawberries and oranges...

Probably a moral in there somewhere.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Olli....

What, with one thing and another, I can quite honestly confess that the last few years have been the most challenging I've experienced. (And I am using "challenging" as an euphemism.) Sure, there have been plenty of high points, exceptional experiences and laughter. There was the arrival of The Cheeky Monkey and visits to and from loved ones. But there has also been much difficulty and a fair bit of substantial, sentimental loss.

Not least of which, was Olli.

We didn't actually loose Olli, in the misplaced sense of lost. We lost him because he developed kitty-lukemia.

It really doesn't seem that long ago that Olli joined our family. 



Olli and the Caspi-Man did some substantial growing up together and after the arrival of The Cheeky Monkey, I referred to him as my middle child. He coped quite well with being a sandwich sibling... and while he was a bit miffed with me for a few days after bringing The Cheeky Monkey home, he embraced his younger brother from the outset.


I am quite grateful that apart from loosing a bit of weight and being a bit lethargic he showed no symptoms until the last week. The vets assured us that he wouldn't have been experiencing much pain. I'm not so sure of that because as anyone with a little Cheeky Monkey in their house would know- they are not the most gentle of creatures. The outcome would've been the same but we would have all been sad much earlier...

Olli was put to sleep last March, and I still miss him. 

Cat treats in our house are still called "olli lollies", and it is only recently that I don't feel a sharp pang whenever the phrase is mentioned.

Vale Olli. You were much loved.
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