Monday 7 May 2018

Stretching my artistic capabilities...


Unfortunately I was right, I was that smorgasbord for the local insect population last night.  My body resembled a dot to dot puzzle and I reckon if you joined them all up you would get something that resembled a baby elephant.

I am not amused, nor is John who has manked and moaned about his two bites all bloody day - welcome to my world!

It is our own fault as we failed to plug in the plug-in that is supposed to keep night-time iggies at bay - it is going in early tonight and at full pelt - I cannot collect any more trophies not least because when I go back to the UK and see my former work colleagues I can look nothing less than stunning - it's the rules.

It is fabulous that the weather is good and we can have all the doors open but it means that I am constantly trying to keep the tiled floors clean for which I have to embrace my inner Cypriot as it would appear that all Cypriot women are born with a need to mop and a certificate in doing so.

I reckon I could make a fortune if I were to invest my teeny weeny pension into mop sales.  I keep comparing the state of my tiles with my neighbours - hers always look so much cleaner but I am relieved that on closer inspection hers have a completely different finish to mine, whereas hers look natural mine have a strange orangy gloss finish to them (the ones in the kitchen/lounge/diner that is).  The tiles in the conservatory are beige and as John points out at this time of year we would have been better to go for the grey and to have had dark grout.  I see the wisdom in this but preferred to have the lighter colour so it is my fault and I have to pay the consequences.  Having mopped through as best I can with four cats and a husband to contend with it is only a matter of minutes before the floors are dry and the dust and insects can return once again which they do almost immediately which is a bugger to say the least.

I know I keep saying that everything in the garden is so much more advanced than this time last year but a case in point is the bougainvillea which was on its last chance last year because by June nothing had appeared and it was an interesting stick (well not that interesting) and then on the day we decided to yank it out I saw some tiny green shoots right at the base which proved it to still be alive.  This year I already have the bracts which are changing colour into their bright fuchsia pink and this on the first day of May - unbelievable - in fact I reckon it was only a matter a weeks that the plant was without any foliage because the winter was so mild.

Up on the roof my Easter cactus is flowering - every year this puts on a glorious show although the flowers are very short-lived.

This was a present from my lovely neighbour Galatia about 4 or even 5 years ago and it loves living up on the roof terrace where it is pretty much neglected - it doesn't get any water save for what might be in the atmosphere and it is in full sunshine but survives and flourishes and repays me with a glorious display sometimes twice a year.


My lovely friend Sally Allan of Sally's Fish Camp threw me down a challenge this morning.  I was commenting that I needed a new subject for my art on Monday's with Sheila and Sally asked for a picture of a crab which I could deliver when I see her in a couple of weeks.  There is simply not enough time using pastel pencils to create something in that timescale but I didn't want to let her down so dug out my water-colours (some of which are so old that they are dried out to nothing).  Fortunately, courtesy of Jumbos I had a pack of three canvasses and set about finding some inspiration on the Net before coming up with this picture which I was pretty pleased with.


On sending her a photograph she joking asked where was the lobster (she has a business dealing with crabs and lobsters) so having laid down that challenge how could I ignore it?  I spent my evening creating a lobster to go with the crab!  I shall be taking them with me and giving them to her as a present which I hope she will enjoy.


I am not sure that John is overly amused but we are on a diet this week!  We have been eating out so much what with one thing and another that we have both craved something fresh and simple for our supper and tonight we achieved just that with a fresh salad and some of my home-made crab cakes to go with it - bliss!

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