Tuesday - a Day at Home...

We tend to forget that Chivers is still really a kitten - he is just over a year old now and although he does sleep quite a bit during the day in the mornings he has a completely mad half hour or so.  Normally it starts when he is letting us know that he is hungry which can range from anywhere between 5.00am and 9.00am depending on his mood although recently it has been more like the former than the latter unfortunately.  His boredom manifests itself in the form of toe biting through the covers if one or other of us are stupid enough to move our feet (generally John) or he lies on the floor and flicks his paw onto the bed scratching whatever he can get hold of - a toe, a knee or a hand!  If that doesn't prompt any sort of movement from us the rugs get it - he hates rugs and they obviously pose a major threat to him so he gives them a right old cuffing!  Today the object of his biting was the vine growing over from Paul's - god knows why!

It was a brighter day today but tired of running in and out with washing we decided to hang it all in the conservatory to dry.  It does mean it resembles a Chinese laundry but at least it will dry, wont smell and I don't have to have the tumble dryer on eating away at the electricity.  Thanks to the Cyprus Electricity Board and the handy little consumption table they added to our electricity bills I now know exactly how much my appliances are costing to run - individually it doesn't look so bad but everything combined can be a bit of a shock!

I had a phonecall from Sheila today on her way back from Paphos to say that she had been able to pick up my newly framed picture from Fitos at the Artisan Gallery (just about opposite Kolios Butchers).  Bless him he cut the mount for me free of charge and as I had provided the frame it meant it cost me nothing.  I now have my pink flower pictures hanging on the wall and I am really rather proud of what I have been able to achieve under Sheila's encouraging eye.

On the subject of flowers our Australian Bottle Brush tree is in full bloom at the moment and looks an absolute picture as the flowers are the most brilliant crimson colour and stand out against the blue of the woodstore cover - it seemed to struggle when we first put it in but it has found its feet (or roots) and over the last month or so has put on a lot of growth (which reminds me I must update my gardening page!).  In fact there is colour all around at the moment and the lower winter sun creates all kinds of hues.  Even the new road and the field next door look attractive with the setting sun and the mountains in the background.  No snow at the moment but it is only going to be a matter of time!!!

While there was still some natural light in the conservatory I decided I should sort out a project for craft at Jeannette's tomorrow.  Inspired by something that Prodromi Pam had created I decided I wanted to create a gecko on a stone using pebbles which I had picked up from Asprokremnos beach the other week.  I had found a fantastic knobbly pebble which was perfect for the head and then I wanted to create a skeleton effect for the body, tail and legs.

I am stoically working through the contents of the freezer to make some room for the Christmas goodies - and I am still on a not throwing anything away routine - so today I had some breadcrumbs to use up and a half kilo of pork mince so I made a savoury pork pasta bake with a topping of breadcrumbs, carrot and halloumi.  My half kilo of pork made a big old dish enough to feed four which I have had to put back in the freezer (defeating the object surely????) as we will have that when Mum and Dad are staying over!!!  The other dish will feed John and I tonight and John again for lunch tomorrow.