June 7th...

The cats don't know when we have had a late night and so they come and jump all over us at the same time every morning - great - my body moves towards the kitchen but my head is still firmly asleep on the pillow - my days of late nights/early mornings is long gone!!!

It may be a bright and breezy start to the day but I am feeling anything like bright and breezy!  The front garden rocking chair and the invitation to 'rest a while' looks more and more inviting!

Taking a good look at the garden after yesterday's hard work makes me realise how much better it is looking and I am glad that I made the effort even though my back is reminding me of the work I did!

We are hopeful that this year we just might get some lemons on our tree as there are quite a few small ones forming - there are also some small limes - everyone tells us that limes wont grow in Droushia but we will be happy to prove them wrong!  John can't wait to pour a gin and tonic and put into it a slice from one of our own lemons - the ones that were on the tree when we bought it just don't count!!

John was not going to badminton today as we had to try and time our activities to allow us to pick up the bike at about 4.00pm and I had to go and get the shopping we needed for our guests Nicky and Mark who coming tomorrow and staying overnight.

We went to have our daily cuddle with the kittens and John wanted to explain to Tom and Jerry that they would be going to a new home shortly.  Tom is listening intently but Jerry has other things on his mind and is off and running! We have noticed that where Jerry goes Tom follows.  Jerry is fearless but Tom more reserved - Tom still hisses just a little when you pick him up but it doesn't mean anything and it doesn't take long to get him settled and get him purring.

Both cats are progressing well and seem to have doubled in size over the 10 days or so that they have been in Irene's care - if Jerry's fat belly is anything to go by he will soon have to go on a diet!  Fortunately he is quite rangey but Tom has short stockier legs and so his belly is in danger of dragging on the floor!

It was our day for cats!  We have been going down and feeding Millie whilst John and Susan have been away on the days when Irene cannot manage it. 

Millie is generally there vocalising when we arrive or, if not, appears very shortly afterwards and loves to have a cuddle with John.

I have been lucky enough to raid the Read's garden as they don't want produce going to waste.  This has meant tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spring onions, kohlrabi and apricots all going into the Wiseman larder for which we are very very grateful.

I shall be using some of it tomorrow for the Italian style meal I am planning for Nicky and Mark.  We are having tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese (with thanks to Orexi Elena for the cheese), roasted vine tomatoes with feta and mint, stuffed roasted sweet peppers and meatballs with spicy tomato sauce and pasta.  

To round off the meal I have decided to make a pannacotta providing I can find gelatine in Paps later - that may well prove to be quite a challenge!

John noticed that John and Susan's swimming pool was looking a bit green and there was some dead wildlife floating in it so he decided to take the cover off and give it a bit of a clean.  John and Susan return on Wednesday and he thought it would be nice for them to come back and see it looking clean or at least cleanish with no bits of dead hedgehog floating around!

We did what we could but John wanted to return later with his own pool cleaning brushes so we wrapped up and went down to town.  I dropped John off at the little chess club which is in a small building just down the road and opposite Mosfilos.  I went off to Paps and my abortive search for gelatine - I had to settle on a pannacotta mix - all instructions in Greek - that should be interesting!

I picked up John who had managed to squeeze in three games of chess and a skerto coffee and we swung by Marinos to get the bike which was 'all fixed'.  I followed John home to make sure all was indeed 'fixed' and there seemed to be no problems which is great.  We hastily grabbed the pool cleaning gear and went back to the Reads.

We were faced with a Droushia Traffic Jam on our way home - a herd of goats meandering across the main road - this time being driven by a woman!