Pinterest, Pastimes, a Python & a Puppy!

Hi guys!

I was going to wait a few more days to write a new post but I want to share all the news and photos now!! Oh, Cats of Claridge is now on Pinterest, Click here to view.

On Friday, there was a python found at the dam! From the photos, it looks like a thick one too (can you say it like that? Thick?), well, a large python then. Of course, we had to call the "snake wrangler", they will set him/her free at Albert Falls dam. There are other pythons there. I didn't want it to go, it's like they're evicting it, haha... ;) I guess it's not safe to keep him/her here though. Anyway, when they started looking for it, it had already slithered away. They dug in a hole where it was last seen but to no avail. It'll probably surface again soon.

I don't think I mentioned the puppy on the farm. Our neighbors recently adopted a little brown and white Jack Russell mix (if I'm not mistaken). His name is Sniffles and he's just a couple months old. He's really cute and just adores Curly! The other day he tried to ride on her back!
Here is a clip of the fun Curly, Lassie and Sniffles have together :



 I have recently entered the world of crocheting and I must say, I LOVE it! It's not hard, trust me. I really love creative things, as you guys might have noticed and I did give knitting a go a while back. Well.......maybe it's because I didn't have the patience to properly learn it, or maybe I confused myself with it but I just couldn't fully enjoy it! I messed the stitches up and it killed any motivation I had to actually learn it. Then......crocheting came along, it's super simple! Once you got the different stitches down, it's smooth sailing from then on! I did my first project on Saturday, it was baby slippers....so cute! I used three different colours and it looks good, I think, at least for a beginner. Now, the crochet bug has got me and I am really enjoying it. Yesterday, I crocheted a pair of baby booties (baby shoes are SO easy and quick!). I used a thick silvery-grey yarn so the booties were done fast and I finished them of with a cute, little red bow on each bootie. Now, my Mom is a pro-knitter and well, actually a pro-anything to do with sewing, knitting, crocheting etc. Like I've mentioned in another post, it runs in the family!
Anyway, my Mom is convinced that I'd like knitting once I get the hang of it sooooo........I reckon I could give it another try! Sometime soon!

Oh, if you haven't already watched this little video of Blitzy playing with a feather, then take a look. She loves feathers! They're like her favourite toys.


Much love in Christ,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡ :D

Enjoy the photo's :)

Curly, Lassie and Sniffles greeting

Sniffles again attempting to ride Curly 

Sniffles 

Curly with a bonnet.

The python...sorry that the photo is not so clear. The person who took it didn't want to get too close! That's understandable!

My first attempt at crocheting....it's baby slippers.

I learnt how to crochet hearts too.

Baby booties!

Blitzy goes crazy when she sees yarn/wool....she jumped onto my bed, stole some and ran off to play with it!

The morning mist through my window.

Isn't it beautiful?

This grand old Jacaranda tree

Efaye & Enjoying the Sun

Hello, hello.... :)

It's sunny but cold today!

I don't have much news for you guys but there are some photos. Little Blitzy was not feeling too good last week. We gave her some monthly cat drops but this time, we switched to a different brand and I think it affected her. It's slightly stronger than her usual drops and she was a bit lethargic for a few days but soon, she returned to her old self!

The other day, my Mom and I looked through our kitchen window and spotted Josh enjoying the sun oustide, he was sitting in the rocky mud part of our driveway. He loves rolling in the sandy soil!
I don't have any photo's of Curly today but you can gladly take a look at the new video I uploaded on YouTube. It's of Curly and Kenzo, it was actually taken a while ago but I only uploaded it now, Curly's fur is much shorter in the video.
I've learned how to directly publish my YouTube videos to my blog post, so here it is!


This week, we drove to Efaye, it's not too far away. It's a rural area where we usually do missionary work. Since I was a child, we had been going into the Efaye area, giving out food parcels and clothing to the people. I remember how exciting it was for us, we would buy loads of food and also sweet stuff for the kids. Then at home, my brother and I would be busy sorting the sweets and chocolates out into little gift packs, together with some juice and chips too. My parents would pack bigger food parcels for the adults. We enjoyed going to a large food warehouse to buy the food in bulk. The next day, we squeezed into our car with all the food packed around us, at that time we didn't have a very big car, sorta average sized. We know a lady named Lungi, she was our previous housekeeper in Wartburg. Mama Lungi is like a second mother to us, our Zulu mother. ;)
We lived in Wartburg when I was quite small, it was just before we moved to New Zealand. We moved a lot! Anyway, it is a small German farming town, very quaint, it has a special place in our hearts! Efaye is not far from Wartburg and that's where Mama Lungi and her family stay, we would off-load some of the food and clothes there and the rest we would give to people as we drove through the village, it's still very rural but now, there are some small improvements to the dirt road. If one can say so! Now, there are many schools too and proper buildings. The road leading up to Mama Lungi's house is quite high because there are many little hills and it's steep but the view is breathtaking!

The Joosten families live in Efaye, do you remember that I mentioned Onkel Hogard and Tante Inge Joosten in my last post? The Joosten family own 3 farms there because the sons, Onkel Philip and Onkel Andre have their own farms too.

Alright, that's all from me!
God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡♡♡♡

This is her the day after we gave her the drops....poor kitty.

Can you spot Joshy in the distance? He's sitting straight up.

When I came closer, he threw himself down and rolled in the mud!

He is very photogenic

This is in Efaye, there is a rondavel at the back.

The view is so beautiful

Blitz watching Joshy through the window.

Special Visitors and a Special Friendship

Greetings from Claridge!

Well, we had a blessed and busy week. :)

On Friday the De Wet family came for a visit! It was so lovely to have them here, we invited them over for breakfast and dinner on Saturday. Jakobus is Afrikaans and his wife, Galina is Russian American. Her maiden name was Celick and yes, she is Dasha and Jessica's older sister! I mentioned the De Wet's in one of my previous posts when we visited Goldfields Mission in Virginia.
Click here to read
They have 3 adorable kids, Nadine, Janet and Josua. Curly was extremely jealous when I gave these kids any attention. She was glued to me and wouldn't let me out of her sight!

Just after breakfast, we saw the Joosten family coming up our driveway! What a special surprise! It was Onkel Hogard and Tante Inge with their granddaughter, Elona. Onkel and Tante mean "Uncle and Aunt" in German. I had recently phoned Elona and we spoke about about her visiting sometime soon, Lord willing. I didn't realise that it would be this soon! We had afternoon tea together and it was a blessed time. Later, Elona, Galina and I went for a quick walk. We took little Josua along too, in his baby stroller/pram.
Saturday was also the funeral of a member from our congregation. Everyone called her Gogo Ndlovu, "gogo" is the Zulu word for "grandmother".
Anyway, the De Wet family left on Sunday morning, it's a long drive back home!

My Grandmother was with us for one week and my parents have been visiting my Uncle in hospital daily. He is still in a lot of pain, we just pray that God's will shall be done.
On Sunday, the main road was blocked temporarily so, not many people could make it to church. We watched the service from the main mission via Livestream as we did last week too. It was Sebastian Merlo and Johanna van Vuuren's wedding, Sebastian is from France and Johanna is an Afrikaans girl. Uncle Erlo took the sermon and it was translated into French and Zulu. You can watch it here .
Remember, it's only uploaded onto Livestream for a limited time.

Oh, Blitzy had been hunting this large lizard in my parents room for quite some time. A few months, maybe. It was initially in Caleb's room and she found it then it raced to my Mom's Aunt's room and it hid there for a week or two. Joshy even tried to locate it but he soon lost interest. Blitzy would check every few days and if she saw him, she'd wait for hours at that spot. At some point, this lizard moved into my parents room, he became quite fat too! Blitzy would look for him whenever she entered the room. This week, he surfaced his big head and she caught him. She did catch him before but she would just play with him and then let him go or he would scurry away when she's not looking. This time, I think she used her sharp claws on him as she poked and prodded him. I just say "him" but it could've been a female lizard, I dont know. Anyway, he was walking really slowly and he had lost a lot of weight, we thought that he would eventually die if he remained inside at the mercy of little Blitzy so, my Mom opened the window and set him free! As soon as his little feet touched the deck floor outside, he raced off! So he wasn't hurt or anything, he was probably just playing dead! Although, he was getting rather thin so it's good that we let him go. Blitzy was so sad I felt bad for her, her "playmate" was gone!
Joshy is doing much better these days, he's not scared anymore! I saw that he had a wound on his head, he must've hurt himself somewhere during that windstorm. We thank the Lord for bringing him home and that the wound is healing.

I just saw the pageview count and it's over 4 000 views already! Wow! Thank you!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡ :)

Blitzy and her lizard "friend".

Joshy and Blitzy looking for that lizard in my parents room.

Curly on the deck

Curly on her sofa.

Girls Evening, a Great Conference -Triple Birthdays & a Terrified Tabby

Hello, hello!

It feels like ages since I posted something on this blog.......a lot has happened! This is like 2 blog posts in 1, so that's why I have two titles meshed together. :)

Well, it's Youth Conference time at the main mission and over 7 000 youth attended it, the Lord is so good! Caleb and I went for just one day due to our Uncle being in hospital, he's still in the critical care ward.
The services were such a blessing to us! The conference is a week long with 3 services a day, morning, afternoon and evening. One day is a sports day, this year it was on a Friday. There was just an evening service that day, which Uncle Erlo took. We went on Saturday and it was so full! Here is a link to a post about the conference on the website. It contains photo's and short summaries of the sermons. :
http://www.ksb.org.za/youth-conference-28-june-to-5-july-2016/

There are a few little videos uploaded onto Youtube too, here is a link to their Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT1daN9Wn27s2QnmCJfzj9g

If you would like to watch the full services, Click Here
I highly recommend that you guys watch the little play/skit about purity in Christ. It's called The Pearl. Click here to watch
The conference ends tomorrow (5th July).

And in Claridge news......
We have experienced really windy days recently! On Thursday, the wind howled the entire night, it was quite loud and little ginger Joshy was outside. He is scared of the wind although he did toughen up since Blitzy arrived. However, anyone would've been afraid if they were out in that wind!!
Joshy didn't come home for 2 and a half days, I know it's not so long but for him, it's very unusual. We prayed and searched for him outside too.

Then, on Sunday morning he came home! We were so excited to have him with us again. Just before we could leave for church, I noticed that Blitzy was playing underneath the spare bed in my room and then....I heard Joshy's familiar hissing. He was also under the bed! He immediately squeezed out when I called his name, only to be ambushed by that bouncing ball of fur we call Blitzy! She thought that he was playing some sort of a game, she was hitting him and trying to get his attention. He just hissed at her again and proceeded to hide under my bed! I called and tried to coax him out with food but to no avail, he was adamant in sitting there. I had to leave him be.
When we came home from church, I checked for him but he wasn't there! My Mom and I found him inside the cupboard! He nestled himself in a comfy elevated spot, he did seem frightened though. I don't know if he encountered another animal, or if the wind just scared him outside but he's been sleeping in secluded places now. He actually slept the whole night underneath the dining-room table! We just pray that he returns to his old self soon!

Today, I trimmed Curly's fluffy paws. She looks much cuter with those big paws but the vet says that it hurts the pads of her feet when the fur grows between it....so, I had no choice but to snip it! Her fur grows super fast!!

Oh I almost forgot, before the conference, some of the CCE students came to Claridge. One girl, Lysiane Hege (who is from France), suggested that we have a special girls evening. So we arranged it and it was indeed special, we had a lovely dinner by candlelight and Tannie Andra took a little devotion. There were about 10 of us, so it was nice and cosy. Afterwards, Lysiane gave her testimony and all of us got to say what was on our heart. We then had some delicious chocolate cake, mugs of steaming hot cocoa and decadent chocolate truffles....a real chocolate overload!

On the 27th was Oom Peet's birthday and we had a celebration for him, Lysiane made a special ice-cream dessert, soooo yummy! It was also Linda's birthday, she's a student at CCE. And.....it was Jessica Celick's birthday too! She was on her way to the main mission for the Youth conference on that day. A triple birthday!
Thank you for taking the time to read my looooong update!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡
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Can you spot Curly? Look closely! She is busy eating an Avocado, hiding it from me!

A beautiful yellow rose from our garden.

Curly

My Dad treated my Mom with this lovely bouquet of flowers! 

I tried my hand at icing cupcakes, I usually ice big cakes but this was enjoyable too!

Rainbow style

The colors blend so beautifully!

This is my favorite one.

The table laid for dinner during the girls' evening. How quaint?

 

Tannie Andra's chocolate cake.

The truffles...♡

Blitzy playing hide-&-seek with me.

I wonder where she is......

Blitzy smothering Joshy

Now it's Curly's turn!

Caleb and I had lunch at the coffeeshop on the main mission and of course, we HAD to treat ourselves with dessert.

The sacrifices we make...hahaha 

Blitzy playing at night too! See the little tail peeping out?