A new week...

A new week begins and the weather is not as wet and wild and cold as it has been over the last couple of days so now a clean up begins as the storms brought down a lot of the sand that was hanging around in the atmosphere and most of it seems to have ended up in our pool.  The water is looking rather murky so John planned to spend this morning sorting it out except that he took me down to Art and then went off down to Polis to pick up some plumbing bits and pieces and then went wild in the aisles in Paps if my food cupboards are anything to go by.  I now have enough porridge oats to last me until my dotage, they were not on the shopping list, nor were strawberries!

The plants in the garden have faired quite differently with this weather - the herbs in the front have, like John, gone wild in the aisles and the rosemary and sage will soon need to be cut back again.
The mint has begun to show its face although it resolutely refuses to grow within the boundaries of the concrete ring we provided for it preferring to poke its new growth up anywhere but much to John's annoyance as he likes everything to have its own prescribed place.

The honeysuckle that is in the alleyway got a right old battering and shed about a third of its leaves - it will recover but in the meantime has just made a right old mess which is all wet and soggy and will need to be dealt with when it is a little drier.

The wind was cold - in fact it was considerably warmer in the UK today.  Sadly friends of Elena have come over and were visiting her grave today - it will have looked a right old mess after all the storms which is a shame.

On our way down to Sheila's we narrowly missed Little Foot who is running free opposite the container house and in fact within the garden of the container house as the gates are currently open.  This is not so much of a problem in the daylight as he and his mum can be clearly seen but at night it is a bit dangerous as you can barely see them as we found out on Thursday when they suddenly appeared in the rolling mists standing in the middle of the road.

I will not be at art next week because we are taking Dad to Limassol for his cataract operation so I wanted to try and get on with my picture but didn't think it looked like I had managed to achieve very much today.  I was working on the Peony in the middle of the picture today - it is about half done and it isn't until you move away from the picture and look at it with a fresh pair of eyes you can actually appreciate what you have achieved.  Sheila is working on a new picture of an Elephant having completed her picture of the owl.

It was as always a lovely way to start the week, we work, we chat, we work, we chat some more and then we wait to hear for some singing or whistling coming from the kitchen which signals the fact that Klaus is working his magic in there and that means we will have something yummy for lunch.  I was not to be disappointed because on a cold miserable day there is nothing that hits the spot quite like sausage and mash with Klaus's deliciously spiced red cabbage.

Back at home John was completing the plumbing in the toilet and the electrics and so we were several steps closer to the end result.  With belly dancing cancelled in case the weather was bad again tonight (Sofi has to travel back to Paphos in the dark and is clearly not a confident driver) we had the remainder of the day to ourselves and so we popped down to the Veasey's to return the filler that Bobby had given John to try before returning to the remainder of the lamb from yesterday and some TV.

I will finish with some cute pictures of Boris and Charlie snuggled up on the sofa together - it makes a change for them not to be fighting!!!  We have continued to have a fire although even with this stormy weather it is generally warmer in the house in the evening but not warm enough to sit around for any length of time without any heating at all.

I got to speak to my Godmother today - she is coming over to visit and it will be her last time flying because at 82 she says she doesn't really enjoy it bless her.  Can't wait to see her xx