Monday - a new week...

Sadly now is the time that the island suffers from the madness of fires - some accidental and some not - some caused through ignorance and some caused on purpose.  Helen and Al were so lucky to have been on the premises when the fire near them started otherwise the outcome could have been much much worse.  Rumour has it that this particular fire was caused by stubble burning that got out of control - duh we haven't had rain for months and everything is tinder dry.  The photographs here are of a fire which was on the approach road (the rough road) to John and Susan's - whether this was extinguished or just burned itself out we don't know but fortunately it was some distance from there house but it is a worry with the house being so secluded that if another fire were to happen nearby no-one would know about it until it was too late. John goes down everyday to feed Millie but that is only half an hour out of the day when someone is at the property.

So art today and I am embarking on my new project which is a rose and a butterfly which is what Lola has asked me for.  I haven't done flowers since my first few pictures when I started going to Sheila's way back when.  So now I am re-challenging myself with a subject matter that I have forgotten how to reproduce!  There is so much blending to be done with petals and foliage so this picture is going to take quite some time.  The one rosebud was my progress so far this morning and it will need a lot more work to create the depth of colour needed and to give the impression of texture.  This will be a very old fashioned picture - very vintage tea party colours!

We had a quiet afternoon getting bits and pieces sorted around the house and garden before we have about a month when we don't get five minutes to ourselves with visitors.  It is lovely to have people over and it is lovely to show off the island but it is also very tiring!

As we had not spent yesterday with Mum and Dad because we had been to Pissouri we were going down tonight and en route we were calling into the Ascos where John's cousin Gail and her husband Paul and their son Rhys and his partner Heather are staying for two weeks.  We found them easily sitting out on the sun terrace but then we had warned them in advance that we would be coming.  The Ascos is in a nice position in Coral Bay but apparently it is rather tired internally which is a shame.

Gail had made John and I a present for our wedding anniversary and I absolutely LOVE it - and I am guessing that I will see something similar reproduced for gifts in the future!  It was so up my street being handmade and the bunting and the cats were just fabulous so thank you Gail it was a really really thoughtful gift. 

At Mum and Dad's we had a lovely evening.  We managed to get their android boxes updated with Mobdro so they can see the Olympics which is on at the moment because it is a bit hit and miss at the moment but subsequently they have found that one of the Cypriot channels broadcasts it so if they can do without the commentary then they will be ok!  Fredster doesn't seem bothered about the Olympics - in fact Fredster isn't too bothered about anything much except having company and having something to eat.  Apparently he spends almost all day in with Mum and Dad.  We had a nice salad for tea with the spicy Thai salmon fish cakes which Mum got from the fish place on the Coral Bay Road.  For the next few weeks our visits will be a little irregular - we try our best to keep everyone happy but just sometimes we can only be in one place at a time!  I am going to go down the next time John plays badminton and so will send some quality time with Mum the only trouble is it is so very hot and sticky down in Paphos at the moment so we will have to seek out air-con somewhere so that will probably mean a trip to the Mall but I never mind that!

We had an uneventful drive home and started to watch the Olympics ourselves as the men's gymnastics was being broadcast along with the synchronised diving and apparently we had medal hopefuls in both.

There is only one thing that goes with the Olympics and a late night cup of coffee and that is a little bar of Montezuma's and I had so many flavours to chose from!!