Saturday - bushed!!!

It was to be a very lazy day today as I hadn't got home from Aphrodite Hills until around 3.00am and having drink several Red Bulls during the course of the previous day I was pretty awake when I got home plus John was snoring after watching the England rugby win over Fiji and, having been on my feet on concrete for many hours I got that shin-splinty thing I get which meant that I eventually succumbed to a Brufen before I finally fell asleep.

The cats dont care whether you are in bed at 8.00pm or 3.00am when they are up and want feeding they let you know.  Boris is always the most vociferous - you hear him career through the catflap and then shout all the way to the bedroom window before jumping through and onto the bed and then, if it has been cool and you are under the covers, he comes and lifts the covers and yells in your ear just to make sure you have realised he is up and HUNGRY.  To get my own back on him I made him model the cat collar with bandana that Sharon had brought out - he found the whole thing very boring until he decided he had had enough and then wiggled about until he got his bottom jaw through the collar and tugged it off - no mean feat as the clip on that particular collar is very tight.

There has been a definite shift in the weather and today it looked for all the world like it was going to rain.  In some ways it is nice to have some respite from the very very hot weather of last week but it has a knock on effect in that the water which is heated by the Solar Panels takes much longer to get to a decent shower temperature and the overcast skies means that the Photovoltaic Panels are generating considerably less than they had been.  Still more than the house consumes during the course of a normal day but not much left over to go into the bank for winter when we need so much more electricity for heating, cooking etc.  Autumn is most definitely here and the garden begins to get its second wind before the rains of winter come.  It sounds as though the UK is going to get better weather than us for the next couple of weeks!

Whilst I was away yesterday John put some of the wood which Rob and Diana had given to us to good use.  The clock vine now has a much better and more aesthetically pleasing support than it had previously so until I cut it down it is looking very resplendent indeed!  Two more wooden ladders have appeared over in the other corner of the garden so I can grow the corkscrew vine up and over one leg of the gazebo and I will need to find another climber for the other side.  I love the fact that the climbers add lush green and colour and height for many months even when it is at its hottest and I have to thank the lovely Elaine Norton for the clock vine and the corkscrew vine - two plants which I would never have realised would survive up here in Droushia.  The clockvine was a fully established plant when she bought it for me as a gift and the corkscrew vine (Cochliasanthus) she grew herself and I have nurtured it under her instruction for many many weeks until it became pot-bound (as instructed) and I then transplanted it to its permanent home.  It is, fingers crossed, seemingly doing well and there are two or three tendrils that are now a couple of feet long and I live in hope that it will reward me with beautiful squiggly corkscrew shaped lilac, yellow, white and lavender flowers in due course - although probably not now until next year.

On the subject of plants - does anyone recognise these rather inauspicious gangly yellow blooms that look like miniature sun flowers?   They are the flowers of the Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus Tuberosus) - a plant grown for its tubers which can be cooked in any way that you might cook a potato but which have a sweet nutty flavour.  Completely unrelated to a normal Artichoke they are in fact a member of the sunflower family.  The tubers are grown widely as a vegetable in its own right or as a substitute for the potato.  As a vegetable it can be responsible for a degree of flatulence so watch out down in Emba when they are harvested from my dad's vegetable patch and cooked by my mum!!!  I grew Jerusalem Artichokes when I was back in England.  I seem to remember that once I had grown them I never managed to harvest every single tuber so they returned in the same place year in and year out.  I have to say that I don't actually remember seeing them flower before and I don't remember them giving me wind but I do remember enjoying them as a roasted vegetable or made into a soup.

Anyway the reason I know that the Jerusalem Artichoke are flowering down in Emba is because we had arranged to go out to lunch with Mum and Dad today because we wont be seeing them tomorrow (Sunday) because we have been invited to join Louise and Hywel to celebrate Hywel's birthday.  We had arranged to go down and pick them up at around 12.30 and go and grab some lunch at the Mall which meant that I didn't have to get up too early which was just as well!!!

En route we stopped at a couple of tile shops to have a look because we need to replace the pool liner for next summer and if we are going to do that then we think we should remove the manky old concrete path around the pool and replace it with something nicer.  We also plan to tile the flat roof above the kitchen so that we don't have to keep treating it every year to make sure it is waterproof.  This is, of course, all dependent upon cost but we reckon if we do it and do the best job we can afford then we wont need to do it again for a very long time.  That is the plan anyway.

We got to Mum and Dad's to be greeted by their now resident cat who has been christened Fred.  He was a very skittish and probably reasonably elderly cat that was part of a pack that existed across the road.  It has taken a couple of years but he has now decided that 3a is a good place to see out his days and that is probably the best decision he has ever made!!!  He is a bit of a cut and shunt cat in that his head is a totally disproportionate size to his now chunky little body and short legs so he looks like he has been  - made up from two different cats!  He has amazing pale green eyes, has a silent miaow and lets mum do just about anything too him.  Mum and Dad love him to bits and he provides them with unwaivering company.

So anyway we went off to the Mall for lunch - Dad loves a bit of Chinese so he and mum were sharing  crispy chicken with sweet chilli sauce and egg fried rice whilst John and I plumped for the fabulous Greek Pittas served at Derlicious which are just fantastic and so reasonably priced.  In fact on the way home from Aphrodite Hills last night I had been discussing them with Elena and all morning I could just taste my vegetarian Halloumi Greek Pitta filled with salad, chips and tsatsiki.  John goes for the mixed Gyros but that is just too much for me!

We managed to persuade Dad to come with us to Jumbos - I know it is a bit of a pain that they make you shop in Ikea fashion i.e. going in at one level and then not being able to exit until you have passed through the whole shop but it is a clever ploy that ensures you don't just pop in for the one item you thought you need - instead you spot things you didn't even know you needed and then spend more money than you anticipated!!!  Mind you I see it as a bit of a necessity as we are always using those huge Jumbos bags for one thing or another and now that I have 36 kilos of my in-laws summer clothes to house I will be needing more so that justified my shopping expedition today!!

On our arrival home we were greeted by a massive bag (Jumbos I believe) of the most beautiful Veriko grapes which have been grown round the corner at Persephone and Savvas's villa.  Every time I have walked past them over the last week or so I have been amazed at how fantastic they looked and thought they must be about ready for picking - particularly because the vines at the end of the road were picked last week.

We had two massive bunches and, as we had been invited around for afternoon tea at Pam and George's, we washed one bunch and took them with us as George loves his fruit and he goes for a walk every morning and returns with fresh figs for him and me.

Afternoon tea does not just mean a cuppa it means tea and stickies which today meant a sort of chocolate cake confection which was similar to a Black Forest Gateau, some massively calorie laden but delicious melopita (honey pie) and the ubiquitous and tooth cracking dried fruit and nut biscotti!  No need for any kind of supper tonight after that selection!!!  Not that I had planned much anyway and there is always cheese in the fridge so cheese and biscuits are always our standby!

When Stelios came to clean George's pool we took the opportunity to slip away back home.  By that time I was feeling really tired and we did not anticipate a late night.

We unloaded the tile samples and laid them out against the poolside.  Our biggest concern is not to chose something that will clash with, or detract from, the lovely wall that Bassam built for us last year and to make matters worse you can bet your bottom dollar that if there was just a choice between two John would chose one and I would chose the other!

Anyway - it will probably snow tomorrow - but we actually agreed on the same tile and I am not going to tell you which!  Now we are itching to get things moving once our remaining visitors have been and gone.  My Uncle David and Aunty Joyce are with us in two weeks time just for the weekend and we don't want it to be a building site whilst they are here.  We now just need to get final quotes in for the relining of the pool and one or two other bits but once we have the tiles we can get the flat roof sorted which will be a weight off of our minds as there have been some strange bubbles appearing on the kitchen ceiling which we think may have been caused by water coming from the roof and finding its way through.

Finally I got round to reading the charity cookery book that has been produced to support Tala Monastery Cats.  Our four cats have sponsored the recipe on page 22.

Mum helps out at the What's New Pussycat charity shop in Kissonerga on a Friday morning and as cats and their welfare is a subject dear to our hearts we both sponsored recipes.  It is a great little book and only €3.50 so I hope they manage to sell loads of them and raise some serious money for the cats.  I know they are available at the charity shop if you are looking for one.