No Art...

An unusual Monday as I had no art - Sheila is off to the hospital for the results of her recent operation to remove what looked like a cyst from under her eye.  She contacted me later on to let me know that she had been given the all-clear from the Hospital which is good news.

So we had the day to ourselves and started with a bit of 'spring' cleaning on possibly the hottest day of the year so far.

We have a large rug that normally sits under the dining table and is exactly the right colour and size and is welcome on your feet in the winter but has a loose shag pile and it captures everything the cats throw at it, burrs, seeds, fur, lizard tails, feathers the lot and no amount of hoovering seems to get it looking nice and clean.  We have mixed feelings about it and decided to take it up and try and clean it, then we thought we might get rid of it and find something else in the winter, then we thought we would just go without and then we looked at it again and decided we should keep it.  The only trouble is if we take it up in the summer we have nowhere really to store it - it is currently rolled up and outside pending further investigation.  It will confuse the hell out of the cats who now will have nowhere to dump the 'presents' that they bring us.

On the subject of the cats Boris is poorly, his left ear is a right old mess and we aren't exactly sure what has happened but he keeps scratching at it so what was a small wound earlier has developed into a large wound and appears to be a bit infected.  He was a brave little soldier and allowed me to bathe it, ouch, then clean it with some of the iodine stuff the vet gives us, double ouch and then finally spray it with some of the topical antibiotic spray Mum gave me which was probably a triple ouch as I tried it on my hand first and it is flipping freezing.  We are keeping an eye on it today and if it shows no sign of improvement it will be his first visit to the vets since having his nuts removed.

The cats are struggling with the heat and have found several unusual places to find a bit of shade.  Today we found Minnie Mou wedged between the sage and the rosemary.  You can just about see her in the middle of the picture and she stayed there most of the day.  Charlie is looking fairly slim-line for Charlie in this weather and is all the better for it - particularly as he can perform his ablutions without rolling around like a weeble.

We decided to go out today on a voyage of discovery - maybe not the best time to go as it was so hot but we haven't done that, just the two of us, for ages and we are trying to find places to go when we have our Drouseian Days Out.  It is fair to say that the road at Simou is most definitely closed despite John being convinced that this was some sort of Cypriot Highways ruse and, as a result, we went on roads which would have had Rob crying into his Turtle Wax.

We detoured off-map onto a white wiggly road which seemed pretty ok as white wiggly roads go and would have put some of the major roads in the UK to shame but it was really taking us away from where we wanted to be so we located a different white wiggly road which was heading in the right direction and figured (incorrectly as it happens) that if the first white wiggly road was fine then so should this one be.

There were times when we had tarmac which is good, then it deteriorated into a sort of loose finish which is not so good and then disappeared altogether which is a tad scary and then it would reappear in all its tarmac'd glory.  We eventually came across civilization somewhere near to where Claire and Mina have their dog kennels and would have stopped for a cuppa had we not known they were away at the moment.

We did manage to find somewhere for a bit of refreshment which was welcome and knowing now where the roads go and what the conditions are we would probably try it again on a day out.

We used to do this all the time, take a road we had never taken before and it is too easy to get into the routine of just living so that you don't make the effort.

There are some pretty spectacular unspoiled areas right on our doorstep and we had fun yesterday getting 'lost' and then 'found'.

Our ultimate reward was to treat ourselves to an ice-cream from Prodromi on our way home from having done our shopping.

It was a very hot and sticky hour at belly-dancing tonight - mum's ex-neighbour Wendy came along for the first time for a baptism of fire but said she enjoyed it - maybe she was only being polite!!!