Monday madness!!!

We are almost halfway through November and we are officially barmy - the early morning cold water dips have addled our brains and today was a day of complete Monday Madness starting with our normal little swim in our pool before I went off to art and John stayed in to supervise the erection of our new ladder - this is a permanent fixture which will allow John access to the roof above the bedrooms and therefore the solar and PV panels without having to get out his 'z' ladder which is massive and for which there really isn't sufficient room to manhandle in our garden.   We have recently sat down and made a list of necessities in terms of expenditure over and above our living requirements and this was fairly near the top and as Rob and Di needed something similar we thought it would be a good idea to have it done at the same time because it was likely that someone coming up to Droushia would be much happier to have two jobs to do at the same time rather than one.

I walked to Art,  it was a beautiful morning but all around down in the valleys you could see the atmosphere was unclear and that the Saharan sand was indeed up in the atmosphere - it means that the light is strange.  I met no-one on my journey to Sheila and Klaus's.  There is the familiar scent of woodsmoke in the air as people in the village are battening down the hatches and warming their houses even though I was in short sleeves and feeling a tad warm on my walk.

My current picture is nearing completion - another couple of weeks I would think based on today's progress and, as Mike is to be moving into a new home soon, I have offered to do the next picture for him but he needs to send me some ideas first.

It is nice to have a project with someone in mind and as he will be out again next year I will be able to get it to him easily.

The water and pebbles in the picture are difficult but at the end of this mornings session when I looked at it from a distance it didn't look to bad.  Sheila is continuing to work on her cute little picture of a Beatrix Potter-like mouse.  It was a lovely morning followed by lunch with Klaus.  I know they are keen to sell but oh I will miss them at the bungalow and hope they don't move too far.


We had arranged to meet up with Mike for a cuppa at the hotel this afternoon.  He was going out for a drive this morning - I had suggested the waterfalls but he didn't find them!  We had said that we would all go in the Hotel pool this afternoon but it became exceptionally windy during the course of the day and it was whipping up a veritable Tsunami on the top of the water!  However nothing ventured, nothing gained so John and I went in and it was really quite nice - I had thought that with so much more water around me it would feel colder but it was a pleasant surprise.  Initially Mike wasn't going to brave it but then he said it would have been a shame to have stayed at the hotel and not gone in so without too much encouragement he got changed and went in and said he was really glad he had done so, so there he is in the picture below in splendid isolation 'enjoying' the pool!

We dried off and had a coffee and hot chocolate to warm up and the hotel staff stared at us in amazement shaking their heads and muttering something about crazy English people!  But tick in the box - done!!

So John and I had two swims today and then I went down to Polis for my belly dancing class to be greeted by a Christmas Tree - BONKERS - that is the joy of the island - the weather is such that all things are possible - four seasons in one day - well almost.

Sofi worked us hard tonight and I was feeling a bit tired as our visitor season has been extended this year - our first ones came in February (Pete and Helen) and our last will arrive next week - what is it with people!!!!!

So glad that I had put the leftover curry from last week into the slow cooker so that it was ready for us to eat when I got home.

We managed an episode of the fabulous Planet Earth II before deciding that we would have an early night.  No badminton for John tomorrow as the school needs the gym but I have decided to go down early and spend some time with Mum and do a bit of shopping with her before I play pickleball so that I can get home at a reasonable time as we are going to Fitos with Mike for his last evening.