Learning New Skills

I was woken this morning at some ungodly hour by Chivers - I think it was to tell me that he had lost his collar and therefore his magnet and so he couldn't get into the kitchen.  We had only commented yesterday on how long it had been since he last lost a collar and then sod's law he goes and loses his - it's not the collar its the flaming magnet.

Still the only consolation of being up at 5.30am is the peace and quiet and the beauty of the light just as the sun is rising up and over the mountains.  There was nothing for us but to take the cover off of the pool and go for an early morning swim whilst John snoozed.

This is now a very much back to normal week as I was off to Craft at Jeanette's today for the first time in ages what with visitors and En Plo sales and Jeanette going away.  I haven't really got a project on the go but Sheila had lent me a really nice book on painting flowers so I thought I would dig out some watercolours and take that with me to give me something to do.  To be fair you could just pitch up and have a chat and not do any craft!  As you know the location for craft at Jeanette's house in Neo Chorio is stunning and I never need any persuasion to get up and go.  I can see that at some point in the future I will probably get into doing some sort of Mosaic with Jeanette and her expertise and stock on hand.

The drive to craft isn't too shabby either!  Latchi Beach is looking stunning and there are now quite a few tourists around.  I will be going down to the beach with Debra when she is here next week and am looking forward to it - let's hope that the water is just a little warmer than when we went swimming at the Blue Lagoon the other week - easy to get in when you are jumping off of a boat than wading in inch by inch!

I fiddled around with painting but now realise that the pastel pencils I have been using at Sheila's are so much easier than water colours for blending so I put them to one side and asked Jeanette about the 'stone' sculpting that I had seen Heather doing last year and bless Jeanette she gave me a piece of stone and the tools and we decided that I should start on a snail.  I have absolutely no idea what I am doing but with Jeanette's coaching I have started to make some headway and I LOVE IT.  Messy old work as I was covered in dust but I am currently the proud owner of a very very cubist snail!!!  I wont be going to craft next week because Debra is here but will definitely go back the following week to continue with my sculpting.  If all goes well then I would love to get a big block and make something for the garden.

I shot back home because Mum and Dad were coming up for the afternoon, a meal at Faros and staying over the night.  They arrived just after 3.00pm laden with goodies including a 10 litre carton of Kolios Rose wine which is absolutely cracking served chilled.  Mum and I enjoyed an afternoon swim - John has got the pool looking good and the temperature at around 84 degrees is fantastic although we can only keep it at this because we continue to cover it at night.

We sat in the conservatory and played a Navy Rules version of Nomination Whist - funny old thing but John was scoring and he won! 

Once again we had a lovely meal at Faros - just what the doctor ordered!  They are good enough to do small meals for Mum and I because we hate waste and we can never finish a main meal there.  We had to bring a 'catty' bag back with us as Dad was given a chicken breast that must have come from Channel 4's big bird!

Back home we reverted to Cribbage - we are really going to have to sort out some more lighting in the conservatory as poor Dad could barely read the cards.  I shall blame this on any losses we may have made!!

Do you know that Chivers pitched up without his new collar - two collars and two magnets in one day - little bugger.