June 3rd...

Back to normal this Monday with Art after several weeks rest.  I was getting withdrawal symptoms not least from Klaus's food!

It is always interesting starting a new project and this time I have chosen a hermit crab.  This is a copy of a soft water-colour which is going to prove quite challenging and today I struggled with the sky which is supposed to look like soft clouds but to my mind looks more like rows of blue and pink hills.  Still it is early days so hopefully it will turn out ok!  Sheila is also working on a new picture - this time of a carob rat which has visited them and looked down on them from their pergola.  Don't be put off by the word rat as carob rats are considerably cuter than those which frequent drains!

I had taken with me some books which Frank wanted to find a good home for.  These were all books which referred to Africa and its animals - I had hoped that Sheila would enjoy them having lived in Africa and knowing her love for painting its wildlife.  I was not disappointed - she loved them and had already earmarked a couple of likely subjects for future canvasses!  Frank will be so delighted.

Whilst I waited for John to return from badminton I set about designing a 70th birthday card for one of the ladies in the village.  Cataract Val is 70 soon and Lady Val had contacted me to ask if I might make a special card.  I had no idea what she wanted and had sent a examples to her and she liked the pebble bird picture I had done for Wheelie Helen so this was my starting point.  I had no idea that Lady Val even knew I made cards!  I await her approval!

When John got back from Prodromi we went to sit with the kittens for a while as part of their getting used to humans.

We refer to the small one as Jerry and the larger one as Tom - Tom is much more nervous and greets us with a hiss but nothing more than that and once you have him settled in your arms he is fine.  Jerry is ace, he purrs like a machine gun and John even got him interested in a toy and Jerry embarked on a game of chase and kill - amazing when they haven't had a mum to show them what to do - natural instinct obviously.  They so deserve a good home - I am trying everyone I know!

We returned home where my phone reminded me that the garden needed a water.  Not the garden exactly but some of the plants which are in pots.  Although quite a few of the early flowering plants have gone on or are past their best we have suddenly got some replacements.

Last year Klaus gave me something which he called a 'moon flower' - I think it might be a datura. It didn't do an awful lot last year so I didn't take a lot of notice of it. 

This year it has gone wild and the one plant has grown to about a metre high by a metre wide and produces huge short lived white flowers which are the size of a plate!

I now realise that I planted it in completely the wrong place as it is taking over the decked area in T&V corner!  I don't know if I can dig it up after it has finished flowering and move it to a more suitable position.  There is a second plant in the front garden but it is miniscule compared to this one!

At the side of the house outside the back door the purple morning glory has begun to flower at long last and these blooms are monsters as well.  

I had grown this to try and hide the metal wire fencing but I cant really get to it very well so it has shot up and is growing up and over the solanum tree.  I have earmarked Thursday as a day of gardening as everything has suddenly gone mad.