Garden Day 1...

The plants in our neighbours' front garden have grown so much we are beginning to have to fight to make our way home - not really but actually if we leave it much longer it will get that way.  Normally we would have expected to have seen Gregoris and Theodora before now but they have had a bit of a time of it lately with the sad death of Dora's mum so coming from Nicosia to Droushia has been low on their list of priorities.  Over the past couple of years they have slowly begun to address the wilderness that was their garden and have had most of it paved over with just a few little borders but it is unbelievable how the plants in those borders grow with absolutely no help from anyone and no water at all.  In the front the rose geranium was about 10 times the size it should be - we used to cut these back and give the waste to herbalist Caroline from Akourdaleia to make her 'happy' tea but she and her family have sold up and are leaving so we have to find somewhere for the waste.

It is amazing how the clippings seem to multiply in volume once you have started a haircut.  The lavender wasn't so bad as it was easy to put into bin bags but the geranium was massive and woody.  Fortunately this is all bio-degradable stuff so there is an area where we feel happy to put the garden waste rather than fill the green bin especially at the moment when there are more people on the estate.  This weekend is a bank holiday - the Cypriots will be celebrating Kataklysmos or the great flood so we have to be prepared for our cars to be pelted with water filled balloons by the little lovelies in the village should we make the mistake of passing through.

I am kept company whilst I work my way through the two borders - the cats like to come and watch and at times get involved - this can be a little dangerous as you may get a playful swipe from a paw when you are least expecting it.  The cats were sensible to sit in the shade as it has begun to hot up at long last - it would appear that summer is now here and about time too.  Good news for our visitors as we have a good week of sunshine ahead to raise the temperature of the pool so that they can swim without any bits of their extremities dropping off.

Boris and Charlie found one of those very large bright green grasshoppers whilst I was gardening - you can just about make it out in the centre of the picture at the bottom.  They played with the poor thing for ages before getting bored and left it minus several limbs.  These are the grasshoppers that make a sound a bit like one of those electric fly zapping machines and periodically we get one come into the conservatory - we don't know it is there until the nighttime when (if the cats have left it with sufficient legs) it does its stuff and does it very loudly.

Even though it was pretty hot outside I managed to get the front borders looking tidier - certainly tidy enough for when our visitors arrive when they will have had a few days to relax and look less hacked about!

I am not sure whether the cats ate any of the grasshopper but one of them managed to find a lizard at some point as we had the regurgitated evidence on the front path some time later which was not so nice.  Even worse whilst I was gardening Chivers shot past with a massive rat in his mouth heading for our house.  He likes to bring his trophies in and leave them under the dining table so I had to race him to get there first and close all the doors and lock the catflap.  I couldn't see if it was a horrid nasty rat or the more appealing carob rat which is like an oversized gerbil on steriods.  I am hoping for the latter - not that I would wish it dead but I am always worried that if Chivers were to sustain a bite from one of the other types it might require a trip to the vets and that ain't so good.  On that subject I see a new vets has opened in Polis which is good for people with pets - don't know anything about it as yet so will wait to hear what people have to say.