Thursday - exercise!

This is what the sky looked like at around 6.30am when I was up and about this morning.  We have been trying to make sure that when we wake we get up rather than stay in bed and waste precious hours in the day.  It is nice to relax but the cats are past masters at making sure we get up and feed them if they have the slightest inkling that we are no longer asleep!  They do the feline equivalent of continuously digging you in the ribs until you give in and get up.

An early start and dry weather meant that we were going to go out on the bikes this morning - nothing too strenuous but some gentle exercise to start the day.  I know that it isn't much of a work out for John keeping me company on the bike as my little legs seem to pedal furiously but I don't get very far.  I used to cycle years ago and actually did a 100 mile randonee once cycling all around Cerne Abbas which is pretty hilly but then I was in my teens and not careering towards 60!  I know John reins himself back to make sure that I am ok and I know I winge far too much but he stoically plods along with me when he could probably cycle four times as far in about half the time!

During the course of our ride we passed through Inea where they have spent a lot of time and a lot of money building a beautiful village square which leads down to a very pretty amphitheatre.  We will have to keep our ears and eyes open to see if there are going to be any performances taking place there as we would definitely cycle over and take a look.

This is exactly the sort of thing that would be ideal in Drouseia - the village desperately needs something to give it a centre - a heart but sadly there is nothing.  We do have an amphitheatre in the village and it does get used now and again.  In fact we have been to a couple of Easter plays which are performed in Ancient Greek and leaves even the locals perplexed as to what it is all about!

There is also a little taverna/coffee shop in Inea that we keep saying we are going to check out - again it would be in cycling distance so we could both have a drink which doesn't happen very often!

As we were stood admiring the work that has been carried out on the square the clouds began to gather and look very threatening indeed.  It looked like we were going to get a shower rather earlier than we had planned!

I will add a couple more photographs of Inea because it was the only place John would allow me to get off the bike!

Behind the beautiful new square and amphitheatre were some really interesting ruined buildings.  It would be great to know what they were and whether they have been left like that on purpose as a sort of living monument or whether they are in fact simply ruins that don't belong to anyone and will continue to fall down over a period of time.

John soon got me back onto my bike because I think he was worried that once off the bike it would take some persuading to get back on and also he didn't relish the thought of getting wet.

We gradually made our way back home avoiding the rain but not going directly - a few additional loops were added to make sure that we did a decent run - I have no idea how far and nor does John because he forgot to take the Garmin with him.  My bum seems to think it was somewhere close to the distance I covered on the randonee about 40 years ago but I know that really it was nowhere near!

My reward for all my hard work was a nice bowl of porridge sat outside - the rain came to nothing and by the time we had put the bikes away the sun was trying to break through and we were hot and sweaty anyway!

We had nothing particular planned for today until this evening when I was taking Elena's children to their piano lessons in Paphos and John was playing in a Badminton competition in Geroskippou.

We thought we would take the opportunity to give the small olive tree in Gregoris' garden a bit of a haircut as we can now hear it rubbing against the guttering and we are worried that if it gets stormy it might do some damage.  We had discussed it with Gregoris and Theodora when they were up one weekend and I know that Theodora is keen for it to be reduced in size particularly as it is pretty messy.

Whilst we were next door I gave the bay tree a trim and then tackled the Duranta - I knew there had to be some sort of hawk moth caterpillar in it because I could see the poo but I thought it would be like the one I had removed from the vine - I never in a million years expected to find a creature like this.  What a beauty and it made itself known by making a clicking noise when it was disturbed.  I had to go and look it up on the internet to find out it was a Death Head Hawk Moth caterpillar made famous by the Silence of the Lambs as it was the moth which covered the girl's mouth.

Minnie Mou was exceptionally vocal as we were working next door - we really couldn't work out exactly what the problem was except I found that we had been left a present out on the patio (makes a change from it being left on the rug under the dining table) so wondered if that was what she was trying to tell us about.

I had a little time free this afternoon before going down to Paphos so having offered to make a raffle prize for Kate at Beauty by Kate who is raising money for Breast Cancer I thought I ought to get on with it.  I decided to do one of my jigsaw canvasses - I hope that will be ok.  It is a cause that I am more than happy to support.

I am now out of canvasses so it was quite fortunate that I would be going down to Paphos and have a couple of hours to kill which meant that I would be able to nip in to Jumbos and replenish my craft supplies.  This has reinforced my desire to have somewhere that I can use as a workshop - I mentioned it to John last night and I think it has formed a very little embryo somewhere in the back of his mind - I shall help to make it grow!!

As I said I was taking Elena's children to their piano lessons in Paphos - all three of them go now - previously I only had to take Amoura.

These kids were as good as gold this afternoon - Rabia presented me with a thank-you card for sorting out his I-Pod and I will forgive him the spelling mistake because his English, Lebanese and Finnish are all better than my Greek!

They also all gave me their shopping lists if I was going into Jumbos and Tiger and promised to pay me back on returning home which they did immediately!



I took the lovely Elaine along with me to keep me company and to catch up as we haven't seen one another much over the last few weeks/months for one reason or another.  We did our shopping and then managed to squeeze in a bite to eat at the lovely Gyros place and followed that with a Cinnabon sticky!