Hot Hot Hot...

Last night as the wood burner kicked in it was hot, hot, hot in the Wiseman home!!  John was up and down all evening playing with his new toy - stoking it, feeding it, adjusting the damper - you name it!!!  I had to negotiate with him not to have it blasting away just for the cats when we went to bed.  It might look like we have plenty of wood at the moment but it isn't cheap and so we need to use it responsibly.  

We had a really lovely Skype call with our friends the Allans last night.  What is it they say about 'out of the mouths of babes?'  We have named our cat Chivers after their cat who sadly went to'cat heaven' last year.  As we showed Molly Chivers she said "but I thought Chivers was DEAD" so we had to gloss over it a bit and explain that this was a different Chivers!  then when John was doing a guided tour of our home on the laptop she asked very loudly 'where am I going to sleep???'  so we are guessing that we may well have them as visitors at some point!!

Anyway onto this morning and John could hardly wait to see what was occurring with the wood burner!  We all have a slight smell reminiscent of barbeque about us but it is a small price to pay!!!  The stove had remained warm right through the night and the temperature difference in the room was quite noticeable in fact the embers stayed warm all day!  John decided to get plenty of kindling sorted out and to cut the logs into a suitable size - Chivers pitched in selecting the logs that he thought needed some attention (well not really but it looks like it!!!).

The weather forecast for today was not good so we were surprised by how mild it was when we got up and by 9.00am the temperature outside was 18 degrees and rising.  The temperature inside was a respectable 15.8 degrees - last week it struggled to reach double figures even on a sunny day and that isn't very pleasant to sit around in even with Michelin Man layers on.  Still on a day like today you have to make the most of it because by late this afternoon it was back to the norm of grey skies and rain.

As a treat today we had brunch - having discovered the lovely smoked and lean Cypriot streaky bacon and having perfected non snotty eggs.  John remarked that we only ever used to have this on a Sunday but as he says every day here can be like a Sunday if we want it to be!.

We nipped down into Polis with a few errands today.  We needed to get the bike taxed and were pleasantly surprised when we were only charged €10 - we couldn't believe it but after a conflab in the bank they decided that it was correct so we weren't going to argue.  John also needed to get a good axe and wood splitter if he isn't going to do himself a real injury with the hammer and bolster he has been using so far.  We called into the wood yard to get some wood for the 'downstairs' toilet so that we can do a better job of the tongue and groove and in the process very nearly ran off with one of the wood yard kittens which was an absolute corker - very affectionate but probably riddled with fleas!

Whilst I was in Orphanides picking up some bits and pieces I bought a bag of 'past their best' lemons for 38 cents!  I had planned to make some more marmalade anyway so decided that it would be lemon and ginger.  John says that the 'jamalade' I have made so far is fantastic so hopefully this will be just as good.  

We have had some lovely emails today from friends in the UK keeping us up-to-date with their news and quite a bit of post as well.  The cats new snuggle self warming blanket has arrived - a larger size so that they don't have to fight to sleep on it and so the smaller one is going to Missie - let's hope she likes it and doesn't give it a stiff ignoring.