Monday March 11th...

It was a leisurely start to the morning this morning because even though we were awake relatively early there was no rush to get up.  At the Droushia Lordos 1 Rest Home for the Elderly and Infirm I offered a choice of breakfast to the paying guests - well I say paying in the loosest possible sense as Mum pulled the 'we have come without any money' card on Saturday and Dad pulled the 'I haven't got any money in my wallet' card even though he had a crisp €50 note hiding inside!  I joke of course - we wouldn't let them leave without settling up!!!  

Anyway the choice was a healthy fresh strawberry and pineapple platter with greek yoghurt and for those not so figure conscious a nice little brunch.  I forgot to get a photograph of the brunches as I churned them out so this was the nearest picture I could get except my eggs weren't this shape - in fact I had trouble getting one of John's out of the pan so it looked more like it had been scrambled.  Mum went healthy to start with and then had her 'one weakness' of crispy bacon on toast - not easy to master when you have one hand strapped up!  We ate outside, ALL of us, even though Dad, after years of having his blood thinned by the climate and soluble aspirin, really feels the cold.  It was bright but breezy but not as breezy as it was down in Paphos as Mum and Dad found out when they returned home to find the garden looking like it was enduring a whirlwind.  We think this is the coptic storm that was due.

I was hoping that my narcissi would have been out in flower this morning just to really pee Mum off.  She had split hers last year and given me some of the bulbs which seem to have liked the conditions up here.  I have about 10 stems very close to opening and Mum has - NONE!  I also have some very very early flowering nasturtiums courtesy of some seed I scattered around late last year.  i am hopeful that these will survive and self seed as they are bright and cheerful.

I have also noticed that I have one of the wild miniature irises in the front garden which is tiny but very pretty.  I found it pushing through a whole load of self seeded Californian Poppies which are also just about to come into flower and this is really early.  Winter has truly been much kinder to us this year!

Anyway there is great excitement in the Wiseman household as John had an email this morning from his sister Janice to confirm that she and husband Mick and the two boys Lewis and Nathan are coming out to visit us later in the year.  We are now on a villa hunt hoping to find them something nearby and reasonably priced.  John is really chuffed to have someone from his own family coming over as he has to put up with members of mine all the time!!!  He doesn't mind, he is such a love. 

There was even more excitement this evening when he skyped his Mum and learned that she and husband Hadge are also hoping to come out and are considering three weeks because as they quite rightly pointed out, they are not sure if they would be able to manage to do the trip again so want to make the most of it and fit in everything that they can.  We are off out tomorrow now in search of a villa for Janice and some suitable accommodation for Hadge to accommodate his mobility problems.  Bloody hell they are like buses - don't see one for ages and then two come along at the same time!!!

I was a good girlie today whilst John was at badders and did my domestic duty and cracked on with the ironing.  Still who would moan at ironing in these conditions - warm and bright and looking out onto the swimming pool and beyond to the sea and the mountains.  I really don't mind doing ironing when I have time and plenty of room and today I had both.  There is something very satisfying about having an empty ironing basket.

Most of the time I was kept company by the cats - I like to know where Chivers is at the moment because he is still wearing his jumper - we did take it off yesterday and within a few seconds he had scratched his back raw once again.  The only trouble is he hates it and pulls at the sock so that there are long threads which he gets stuck in his teeth and then he panics.  John is worried that something like that might happen when he is out and about and we wouldn't be around to sort him out.

Minnie Mou has turned into a pubescent 'its just soooooo unfair' teenager with her acne and willful ways.  She has become very picky about what she will and what she will not eat and unless we give her raw liver, either pigs or chicken, she gives it all a stiff ignoring.  John was concerned that it wasn't good for her to have just raw offal and suggested that we mix it with some minced pork which I dutifully did on Friday.  John doesn't do catfood or raw meat - in fact I will have to ask his mum if he was the sort of little boy that didn't like getting his hands dirty because he thinks that everything like that is 'gipping' and I have to say it can be a bit rank.

Anyway the ungrateful little thing would resolutely refuse to have anything to do with the liver/pork mix and I had given it a right good mixing - getting my hands well into it so it was nigh on impossible to extract the liver so that she would eat it.  Today I had to give in and go back to feeding her plain raw chicken liver and she sat on the top of the sofa watching me do it yowling that she was STARVING and to hurry up with her lunch.  To be honest I can't be bothered to fight with her - I would rather she ate her food whatever it is than leave it in her bowl to get dried up and attract the flies.  Honestly she is such a little madam!