just another manic Monday...

I am finally getting to grips with my latest picture now that the roses have been completed and even better that the photograph I am working from has been reprinted so that the colours are true!  This is a busy picture that is going to take me some time to complete but I am in no rush.  Sheila has reverted back to her picture of the magpies having completed her commission.  There was a lot of sighing going on this morning, lots of concentration and not so much chat!  The weather was grim and it was definitely a day for comfort food so the spag bol made by Klaus was very tasty and very welcome.

The weather got worse and worse - I contacted Sofi our belly dancing teacher to say I thought she should cancel our class this evening and get home safe and sound and was pleased that she agreed because by mid afternoon we had gale force winds and driving rain.

There was nothing for it but to batten down the hatches and I had the remainder of some chicken curry earmarked for tonight so I got out the poppadoms which cooked up into weird and wonderful shapes and John lit the fire.  We opened a bottle of Ruby Cabernet and found some back episodes of the Farmers Country Show which we are addicted to!

I daren't tell the Bobster but we are nearing the end of my stock of home made lemon pickle.  John hadn't tried it before as I normally make a batch and give it to Rob so he was keen to see what the flavour was like - he loved it and it certainly went well with the curry.

There is something really lovely about being warm and cosy and dry, well fed and well watered when it is like a monsoon outside.  We have come to the conclusion that now, after 7 years, we have done all that we can do to make the house stand up to the elements so do not sorry so much about the rain.  The wind, on the other hand, started to wreak some damage as we lost the material part of our big brolly that is outside the kitchen which is a bit of a bugger but will force us to do something more permanent to provide shade in that area for the summer.

We are also thinking about what we should do on the wall behind the woodburner as we have a long stack pipe which reaches almost up to the ceiling - we are thinking of tiling up behind it further than we have done already.  John is still not loving the raspberry red wall - he has never liked it so that will probably disappear sometime this year or next.

We have started to compile a list of jobs which would be nice to do, improvements rather than maintenance because the regular maintenance never really changes although there is less of it as we tackled things like the flat roof by tiling it rather than have to paint it annually with the waterproof gunk.

So much of what we want to do is weather dependent and today was a day for thinking about it and not doing it!   This weather is forecast for the next four days - we have our fingers crossed that it will be better in Limassol on Thursday when we have our Droushian Day Out in search of the flamingos on the salt lakes.  We have no wet weather contingency plans so it will be sensible shoes and waterproofs if needs be!