Welcome to this week’s coffee share. From this week it’s been hosted by Natalie the Explorer. There’s a storm brewing with thunder rumbling in the distance. The wind has whipped up and it may blow the storm away. I hope it doesn’t because the garden needs the free water. And on another water-related fact – I feel so chuffed that the Vaal Dam is at 62.6% full :). The Vaal Dam feeds the Gauteng province of which Johannesburg is a part and is part of an integrated water system consisting of fourteen rivers and at least four major dams. It was below 50% a couple of months ago. But with the moderate summer rains so far, it’s filling up nicely.

Come on in – I’m glad you made it before the storm starts. There’s a variety of Nespresso, Starbucks, filter coffee, french press or espresso machine type of coffee. To eat there are cookies and a gluten-free, sugar-free loaf cake that tastes just like cardboard. With a bit of jam and cream, it becomes a really healthy treat!

This week, WordPress was kind enough to send me a daily shout-out about my writing streak! Yesterday I was on seven days and I almost didn’t post. That would’ve broken my streak, but I didn’t want to disappoint WordPress ­– they must’ve been eagerly waiting to press the enter button to congratulate me on my eight-day writing streak. So, I did what any trustworthy blogger did – I posted! After a break of some years, I entered the Which Way photo challenge. Its one of my favourite challenges although I haven’t posted there in a while. Come to think of it, I haven’t been terribly good at posting in general in recent (years).

I received great feedback from my niece about This time of year is such a joy – I loved writing it, expressing the sights sounds and smells of my neighbourhood. It’s not often that I engage in creative writing and I felt gratified that the words flowed. And it was such a joy to me that my niece enjoyed it 🙂 – this means a lot.

Part of the time this week I engaged in cleaning, clearing and tidying up the house. It was long-overdue:  my spring cleaning in summer. This was a good functional exercise workout and the Fitbit registered it as steps, calories and minutes active. I addition I managed four rebounding and weights workouts and I even dedicated some space in my house for a mini gym. I’m so proud of that – having the equipment out, accessible and ready to use is the best motivator ever!

We’ve had some moderate thunderstorms up here and it always amazes me that the street-smart fighter felines come running inside at the first sounds of rumbling to hide underneath the nearest piece of furniture. They’ve been exceedingly busy this week asserting their territorial rights to our garden – Chè and I observed Nermal sneakily following a ginger intruder around the pool. The ginger intruder was none the wiser; but something must’ve warned him because before we knew it, he’d jumped on the neighbour’s wall and was off leaving Nermal either relieved or disappointed (we don’t know which).

I’ve enjoyed the many coffee dates with you all this week, and I’m looking forward to many more this week.

Until then.

Regina