Saturday - football and family...

It was a very different day today when we woke, the giveaway is if we can hear the impeller pump circulating the water in the solar panels - that means that there is sun and the water is being heated. With the shutters we can't tell if the sun is shining but that noise always lets us know.I had invited Mum to come to lunch today with her friend Eileen because (a) they have been doing something together on a Saturday for years and are now running out of ideas of what to do, (b) Dad was walking - in fact driving Molly and walking but that is a different story! and (c) I haven't seen Eileen for ages and you should remember that Eileen is our friend Hilary's mum.

I thought I had all the time in the world this morning but ended up running late so I had to make a very very quick trip to Elena's at Orexi to pick up some fresh pomegranate and in so doing also got given some lovely fresh lemons - I feel marmalade coming on!!!  I didn't have time to stop and have a cuppa with Elena but have promised to find time soon. 

As ENAD Polis were playing at home today John was going off to footie this afternoon and picking up Running John on his way but he was staying long enough to have lunch with us.  We started off sitting under the gazebo in the shade but decided that we would sit in the front garden on the decking for lunch as the sun was shining and we really should be making the most of the beautiful weather for as long as it lasts.

I was serving 'pretty food' today!!  We started with a small taster of home-made soup with a choice of spicy butternut squash and sweet potato or roasted tomato or the green pepper that I made yesterday.  Mum and Eileen plumped for the tomato, I had the butternut squash and John had the green pepper which is apparently 'a bit of a winner'.  Main course was home-made pate with pitta bread and a fruity coleslaw side dish so many thanks to Elena at Orexi for the pomegranate which was put to good use immediately.

We retired to the conservatory for a chat and a bit of a breather before having a little bit of pud.  Fresh figs from just down the road which I quickly baked in the microwave with some honey, cinnamon and some sweet Commandaria wine and served with the infamous Lidl Vanilla Bean Ice-cream - DELICIOUS.   I can't believe how much lovely fresh produce you can get around here and what a joy it is to cook with.

I said goodbye to Mum and Eileen and had a little time before John returned from what he declared was an abysmal game of football which saw ENAD thumped 3-0.  I did a little gardening but the current crop of weeds is beginning to get the upper hand - some serious work is needed on that score and it ain't going to happen this week as we have the Ladies Lunch on Tuesday which is the same day that the Stalkers arrive and we are off to Nicosia Races with them on Wednesday.  Mum and Dad are coming up as Mum is coming to the ladies lunch and then they are cat-sitting for us.

On a final note I thought you might like to see what was in the lounge this evening.  As we were watching the TV tonight I saw something crawling up the wall from behind the TV and it turned out to be a small scorpion.  John managed to catch it in some kitchen paper and deposit into a cup so that I could lob it over the fence for it to live another day as even though it is a scorpion we didn't want to just kill it.  I have no idea what sort it is, whether it was fully grown, or how dangerous it might be.  We have only ever had dead ones in the pool before.  We are just glad that Chivers didn't spot it as he would have wanted to try and catch it and play with it.