Happy Hour ...

Today was not the sort of weather we would normally associate with mid-June but thinking back our furniture arrived from the UK and was delivered in June and it rained that day too!  I had put washing out last night and thought it best to rescue it this morning and use the conservatory and airer to just finish it off - I could have spent all morning running in and out rescuing it as big big black clouds were massing over in the direction of Lara and that generally means storms.  Thank God for the conservatory - that's what I say!

The impending rain meant I got the new plant I bought yesterday into the garden so it could take advantage.  I have an early flowering clematis that has done its stuff and is now an interesting stick and will become increasingly so as it always seems to get wilt at the bottom which works its way upwards.  I wanted something else to grow alongside and went to London Road yesterday and bought a flame vine Pyrostegia Venusta which I am hopeful will establish itself enough and be sheltered enough that, like our clock vine, it will survive the vagaries of a Drouseian Winter.  It should flower late so that particular post should get colour in the spring and then the autumn.

We also have some greenery for the heads (we have two ladies heads which are almost matching but not quite) which we brought over with us.  I bid for them and won them at a Vickery's Auction one Saturday and think they cost me about £6.00 for the pair.  We always used to wonder which country house was missing all its garden ornaments after the auction because week in and week out they always had a great selection!

I had promised to go and help Elena today with the catering she is preparing for.  She has a big wedding on at the weekend and, as she is not firing on all cylinders, needs a bit of a hand - in fact with the quantities she is dealing with I reckon she would need a hand whether she was superwoman or not!  As I approached Orexi HQ the weather looked really threatening and it was warm and sticky but in true Drouseian fashion I had my cardi with me just in case!

I am guessing that the old vehicle languishing in the field next to OHQ passes for Bassam's storeroom looking at it - I have seen worse still being driving on the roads up here - a good mechanic would get that back up and on its wheels in no time!

I was on chopping today - and liberating garlic cloves from their heads - this is painstaking work and I have a sore finger as a result, plus I stink and no-one wants to sit anywhere near me and I am guessing it will smell worse tomorrow!

I chopped so many onions that I had no tears left and think I must have just got immune to the fumes!

Poor Elena had a fit of the vapours and took to her bed and poor Bassam is still observing Ramadan so came home lunchtime to nothing - nada - not even a sip of water.

It is the last day for the kids at the village school - I have no idea what entertainment they had in stall for them but whatever it was it was noisy - they will now have nearly three months at home!

My work done I returned home to find John had erected some early Silver Wedding bunting - or rather the sparkly tape that is used to ward birds off.  Next door is the National Home for Wayward Sparrows and they can crap for Cyprus, in fact they can crap for the United Nations and as the electricity cable traverses our footpath they sit on it and crap on my newly polished paving slabs.  We hope that this will do the trick - it is quite pretty and makes a nice noise like raindrops when it is flapping in the wind.

We had decided that today was the day we would sample the Happy Hour at the Hotel and arranged to meet with Rob and Diana.  When we arrived Irene's husband Dennis was there enjoying a bit of peace and quiet (Irene and the family had checked into a hotel in Paphos for the day).  He came and joined us and we sat outside to enjoy the remainder of the sunshine waiting for the Veasey's to arrive.

It was then that swallow-gate happened.  A swallow got its fly past wrong and ended up in the Hotel and smacked itself against a window - it was stunned - in fact we thought it might be dead when the caring waiter picked it up and gently placed it on a coffee table outside.  Very very slowly it came round and eventually stood up and flexed its wings and then flew away - into the hotel where the same thing happened all over again.  This time the waiter placed it on a table on the area around the poolside.  We were concerned that it might fly into the pool if it recovered.  We never saw its going but it did go and there was no evidence of it in the pool thereafter.


I always feel like breaking into a chorus of the House Martins song Happy Hour when we observe a happy hour but refrained!  I opted for quantity over quality and started with a Long Island Iced Tea as it has lots of lovely spirits in it and then copied Mrs V and had a very nice Mojito - two was my limit though.  We were joined by Irene who also sank a very refreshing Mojito and had probably earned it after entertaining the grandchildren for the day.  Although the evening weather was slightly unsettled it was nice sitting outside and my cardi was unnecessary thank goodness!!

We took a gentle stroll home stopping at the cherry plum tree to fill our pockets and our fruit bowl.  They need a little longer to ripen but have a lovely flavour.

There are several trees on our way home - they don't seem to ever be picked so we were only liberating a couple of dozen and that probably does the tree some good anyway.  It wont be long now and I will be greeted by George bearing freshly picked figs which he has liberated during his morning walk.  We are lucky in Drouseia - there is an abundance of things which we can pick and eat - gratis and free of charge!


On the subject of food John was met by a quartet of ravenous gingers who lined up waiting for their tea.  Boris is more of a diva than the others preferring to have his face in the picture and not his arse!

Sometimes Chivers and Charlie will partake of some liver and other times they give it a stiff ignoring - fortunately we had four happy and satisfied diners this evening which is much less stressful than when we are digging around trying to find an alternative.

A good day - will have to start watering at night now as the weather forecast is for a mini-heatwave over the next few days and I want the garden to look as good as it can for our anniversary.

I need to get John to get the photobox down tomorrow - I want to look out some old photographs of him and I to keep our guests amused on the day.