What a Difference a Day Makes...

Well last night we had the mother (and father) of all storms with thunder, lightening and torrential rain - fortunately we were well tucked up in bed as this took place so we could just snuggle up and listen to it all.  The weather was bad down in Paphos last night too.  When Mum and Co returned to Emba after our meal the winds had whipped up their heavy duty umbrella and deposited it on Mum's car - the brolly broke - not sure if there was any damage to the car.  When we woke this morning all was calm but the wind had trashed the gazebo that we park the car under.

So just to show you what we mean by a cold October day this is the weather station at 2.45pm today - a measly 20.5 inside and a chilly 16 outside - it is now 20.15 and it is showing 20.5 inside (John's insulation obviously works) but only 12 out!!!!!  Anyone planning to visit Cyprus in October should remember that we are up in the hills above the humidity line so it is always a good 5 degrees cooler here than down on the coast and the further East you go across the island the warmer it becomes.

It might be chilly but when there is some sunshine it is still lovely and bright and the garden is looking green and fresh. 

The only problem is that I had all the weeds very firmly under control and all I needed to do was a quick scoot around each day to pick up the stragglers.  Just look at the horrors that have appeared after only a couple of day's rain - I shall have to have a good couple of days trying to get to grips with these little buggers.

So it is official in our books... Winter has arrived and so we have dusted off the rugs and put them down on the tiled floors and John is busy checking that the Super Ser fires up ok.  You will see Chivs in the picture.  We are beginning to wonder if Irene brought home a different kitten from the vets because today he has been more like the kitten you would expect him to be at his age - running round and playing like a mad thing.  This is a real joy to see as we were so worried about him a couple of days ago.  The tablets are obviously working - and he took today's from me no problem (good lad) and he still has a couple of injections but he really has picked up very quickly - poor little sod has every poo scrutinised - he will be getting a real complex at this rate.

We had an admin day today as we needed to go down into Polis to the electricity board, the phone people, the bank, the supermarkets yaddah yaddah yaddah... 

On our travels we passed by a nice little 'stuff' shop and because Chivs has had a traumatic couple of days John treated him to a new mouse to play with as the original pink one is getting a real battering.

 After some initial reticence new mouse proved to be a hit and Chivs was soon giving it a good old cuffing!

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had post - oh boy do we love getting some post - you just cant imagine how lovely it is to get a card - cards can sit on the mantlepiece for days as a nice visible reminder of whatever it is that they have been sent for. 

The card we had yesterday was from my sister Kaye and she had gone to the trouble of having it produced using photographs from Ellie's wedding and it was a 'thank you' for all the things I had done as 'Chief Artistic Director' at the wedding!  It was a really really nice gesture and I know I sent a text to say thanks but this is a public THANK YOU xxx