Saturday 8 September 2012

Monday

We have a new flower in the garden but we don't know what it is - some years ago we found a couple of bulbs that had been washed up on the beach at Lara.  They were dry and crispy and out of reach of the sea so would not have been moved by the tide to a more hospitable environment.  I picked them up and Mum and Dad shoved them into a pot for me where they flowered and produced some strange black pyramid shaped seeds which looked like they were coated in plastic.  When we moved in up here the pot was transferred from Emba and I planted the bulbs into the ground near the outside shower where they have struggled to do anything (too cold I think).  In fact, only last week, John suggested we bin them and then today I went and had a look and one valiant bulb has managed to produce a bloom.  It is rather delicate looking and means that the bulbs will get a reprieve - for this year at least!
 
It is a normal Monday this week so that meant art and Greek for me and some DIY and paralympics for John!
 
I drove down to Sheila and Klaus's narrowly missing Klaus who was en route to the local CO-OP bank for what turned out to be a rather trying transaction with Philippos who always likes to pass anything remotely tricky onto a day when Mira is behind the counter!  I had just got myself settled when I got a phone call from the woodyard to say they were just about to deliver John's wood.  Only trouble was I couldn't get hold of John on the home phone and because he had a hissy fit about his SIM expiring and having to buy a new one he no longer has his mobile.  I had to drive home and find him to let him know and as I pointed out I had probably wasted in petrol the €15 required to sort out his SIM and that for his birthday I was going to treat him to a new one!  Back at Sheila's I settled down to a morning of steady work - I cannot believe that all I managed during my three hours' colouring was to get just one of the Morning Glory flowers looking something like it ought to - at this rate Sheila and Klaus are going to have to adopt me!! No art next week as the Knips have visitors arriving but Sheila has invited both Vicky and I the following week and Klaus is going to feed us too which is a bonus.  Sheila is going to sort out a little project for Vicky to try out pastel pencils which should be fun (sorry Trev it will probably mean yet another hobby that Vix will want to follow!!).  Looking at my work from a distance I am really quite pleased with it so far.  When you are working at it close up you really don't see it properly and are conscious of all the imperfections but at a distance it doesn't look too bad at all.
 


I drove on down to Prodromi for Greek.  The landscape is beginning to look really very tired now but looking back at the blog for this time last year I see that we had our first bit of rain in September when Trevor and Vicki were with us so it will only be a matter of time before things start to become lush and green once more.
 
Greek is getting harder by the week - I would be ok if it was only written but when Sam plays the spoken exercises it is so fast I get really lost and I know what I want to say and if I could visualise it I would be fine.  She has told me that everyone feels like this to begin with.  Things are not helped by the fact that there are just so many really long unpronounceable words - take the word for new (small three letter word in English) which is καινουργιος and has different endings depending on whether it is referring to something which is masculine, feminine or neuter!  Then there are words that look the same but mean something different like τάξη which means class (as in school) and ταξί which means taxi.  She says we are going to concentrate more on the spoken word - next week could be fun!!
 

I called into Paps to do our shopping and then made my way back home where John had been a busy bee having cleared all the paths on our little development which has made a huge difference and he had then started on the pergola which is going to provide a covered walkway as you come in through the front gate.  The plan is to grow a vine up and over it and as I will have a big blank canvass of a cream wall I want to do something like a mural on it to make it more interesting and to provide a focal point when you look out of the side bedroom window. 

2 comments:

  1. cant wait - crafting and sunshine what could be better x

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  2. Really enjoy our Art mornings, and you should be proud of yourself. Looking forward to having Vicky next time. xx

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