Sunday

Today John completed his craft project - he has made a beautiful solid beer stool for the swimming pool - we have quite a number of pool tiles left over and he has a favourite shady corner where he likes to sit and cool down so now he can do so in style - so pleased is he with his creation that he is thinking of making a couple more so that we can have a 'swim-up' bar at the poolside!  The boy done good!!!

With it being so overbearingly hot at the moment the pool has been a godsend but even today the cooling properties were negligible as the floating thermometer (thanks Diana) showed it to be over 32 degrees!!  That is warm even by Droushia standards - John keeps saying that I wanted a bath and now I have got one and a nice one at that!!

We had a visitation from the goats today - poor things took refuge in the shade of one of the trees and John took pity on the herder and took him out a bottle of water.  The herder has his hands full trying to keep the goats away from the grain which is being dried on the road next to us.

I had offered to make some finger food for the Hounds on Holiday opening tomorrow and although it was very hot in the kitchen I put to the test what I had learned from Elena and her protegee Amoura when it comes to making an onion and cheese tart.

In fact in the end I made two and they seemed to come out ok although time will tell when it comes to cutting them up and easing out the squares!


I was kept company by Charlie who is suffering in the heat so I found out our fan - for his benefit and not for mine.  He enjoyed it for a while and when I smoothed him down with some cool water he seemed to enjoy it even more.

The others were missing but I found Boris when I came to change the sheets on the spare bed as we are having Matthew and Sarah to stay overnight on Wednesday.

Boris was one airing his bits (or lack of them) on his bed.  Once the bed has been made ready for guests the cats will most definitely been barred - we try at the moment but it is so much cooler in there I can't blame one or other or several sloping in there for a snooze.

John completed a few other jobs today including putting some frames around the ladies heads which hang on the wall opposite the front door.

The frames were left over from when we used to raise the furniture in the conservatory in case of flooding - now it has been tiled we are hopeful that flooding will be a thing of the past and we have now dispensed with flood defenses (for now at least!!).  I thought the wooden frames would look good round the ladies and I think I am right!!

John was chuffed that he found himself a friend today - he has been accompanied on his efforts by a teeny tiny little preying mantis which he later on safely removed to the garden so that it can live another day - unharmed by the cats who would have played with it and possibly eaten it and unlikely to have been squatted by one or other of us.

John has also been making use of his own personal air conditioning unit in the form of a fan which you fill with water!!!  This will be getting a lot of use over the next few weeks I am sure.

We caught up with Matthew and Sarah again today - day one proper of their holiday and they have settled in already - that is the beauty of returning to somewhere you have been before!!!  We decided that a later afternoon meal would be preferable to lunch - it being so hot and we took them to Yialos as they did not go there last year to eat.

We had a good meal and it is a beautiful spot - it has been extended since last year as has the menu and I have to say that my chicken Caesar salad was absolutely lovely - I shall definitely be having that again at some point.

We ended the day sat out on the veranda of No 20 Eliofos planning our next couple of meetings - Brewery next - Matthew saw my photoraphs and thought he would like to try it!

They are planning on a trip to Pomos tomorrow - should be cooler so a good day for going to the beach and it is so beautiful there they should love it.

Eliofos has had some smartening up done over the winter and we particularly like the statue on the pedestal which shines in the starlight.
This was such a find last year and they love it so all good!