Smooth or Stormy Waters?

Was 2022 kind to you and are you sad it's ending, or are you just as glad as I am to see the back end of it?

Backtrack 2022

The year started on a sad note on 1 January 2022 when my little Mom Lily had her first seizure, and left us a couple of weeks later to go to another world, one I believe is beautiful beyond our comprehension.

In April climate change first reared its ugly head with flooding, landslides that flattened buildings, washed away roads and bridges, and more sadly took the lives of people and animals.
Then we had a frightening weather phenomenon where we thought aliens had landed as a heat burst hit a large part of our region with the hottest and strongest winds I've ever experienced; a major substation exploded and left our entire city in darkness.

Sadly dear friends of ours lost their home in the landslides and are still trying to pick up the pieces, literally!

The good thing is that my close family survived these storms. However, it's a bittersweet New Year's Eve, as our oldest son and his sweet gal will become citizens of the Netherlands next year, so this will be their last Old Year's Day as South Africans! Dad and sons are chatting and braaing (BBQ'ing) while the two gals are busily finishing off the last business of 2022 - Hive and BnB admin in my instance.

We've inherited their cat Poe, who has slowly been acclimatizing to his new home and is now being let out of the house under supervision.
Pining to be let loose in the garden, while I'm worried about my garden birds, but he has a collar with a bell, so the birds will be warned when Poe is out hunting!
Reflections of the garden in the window, make Poe look like he is part of a painting.

Thank You Team Silver Bloggers!

I thank the wonderful Silver Bloggers members who regularly share their life experiences with us in our community of pre-millennials.
We have the pick of the crop in the super duper team who work tirelessly and faithfully behind the scenes, despite the many blows of life - @fionasfavourites our highly skilled chief-Admin, our two awesome moderators @coquicoin and @tengolotodo, as well as our IT Disco boffin @mondoshawan whose eagle eyes keeps us up to speed with what's happening.

Messy visitors are like smelly socks...

Cannot wait to throw them out!
Back to what's been keeping me away from Hive - our BnB.
I fell in love with this job from the day our first guests arrived, but goodness me, these December holidays have been beyond crazy! I am totally convinced that Covid lockdowns affected many holidaymakers; some guests have been extremely messy, making our job a real pain in the butt, or rather caused aches and pains everywhere as it's been up to us two silvers to do the cleaning and changeovers, no fun I can assure you!
But, that's how it goes in the hospitality industry, you simply do not know who or what you're getting.
I've revised our house rules and will be dealing with these kinds of guests from here on -

• Refundable cleaning fees - you mess, your money stays with us!
• Dishwashing - excessive dishes come at a cost per day

Fortunately, we've had some super considerate guests who've made up for this unexpected influx of messy ones!

Family Breakfasts

The family still has to eat and while they've been great in helping by buying prepacked meals, breakfast time mostly is my department, so I will share a couple of eggy breakfasts with you.
I still made time to play in the kitchen early morning, but made a mess one morning when all my carefully diced onions and spring onions flew across the entire kitchen floor! I was so annoyed with myself as I had to run for the broom, take the pan off the stovetop and start from scratch again.

Eggs poached in a Tomato, Onion, and Basil sauce

Funny faced sunny-side-up eggy breakfast

Scrambled Eggs served with a Pineapple Coleslaw and baby Tomatoes

We have to end the year off on a sweet note so how about a slice of toast and Strawberry Jam?