Easter Monday (if you are in the UK)...

First of all a big THANK YOU to all my readers, readers from all over the globe who have found this blog either by choice or by accident - last night the number of pageviews clicked over the 17,000 mark - I am truly amazed.

It was not so hot when we woke this morning - the skies were leaden and the rain which had been forecast for this week was threatening.  John took over breakfast duties and rustled up a very acceptable triple-decker bacon buttie with mug of coffee and we sat in the conservatory eating, reading the papers and mulling over the day to come.

 

It was only a matter of time before the wind blew the clouds over and the sun broke through and we had the beginnings of what turned out to be another lovely day.  Things are beginning to come to life at long last and we now have colour in the garden.  I must thank Kaye for the glorious geranium which is in our outside loo as this came to me as a cutting from her hanging basket - tucked in behind is the spikey orange one which is still alive and from which I hope to take some cuttings.  It may benefit from moving as it is being overshadowed by the pink one.

I also have to thank Vix and Trev for bringing me some Californian Poppy seeds as the first of them has now sprung into flower having struggled on through the winter even though they were sown where the ground flooded.

I don't know what the blue spike is except that it has emerged from a cutting of a succulent that I acquired from somewhere or another!  It is the most delicate pale mauve and I see there is a second just about to emerge.  I could fill the whole of today's blog with photographs of the flowers but I expect you would find that all a bit boring.  Having thought that so much had perished after the winter we have just had, the keyword is PATIENCE obviously, and everyday I am delighted to see yet another plant that I had thought had perished is showing the green shoots of recovery (now where have I heard that phrase used before!).

The conservatory has been the most fantastic edition to our home as we are no longer aware of adverse weather conditions outside and there is the added bonus of not having to do the rain-run between the buildings (although, in fairness, it hasn't rained since it was completed).  The downside is that inevitably it traps flies which is one of John's absolute pet hates.  He has now turned into the fly catcher which is something akin to the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (short of declaring "there are flies here somewhere - I can smell them") he can be seen with swat in hand sorting the buggers out!  The cats love them, dead or alive, alive they chase them around relentlessly, dead they seem to eat them - gross!

Today we were taking our neighbours Marian and Chris to the Art Cafe in Polis to try it out.  I didn't know whether it might be a possible venue for a Droushia LLC afternoon tea - yes I know it is called a Lunch Club but it is good to ring the changes every now and again and to be fair there are only a couple of places in Droushia to chose from!  

It was very pleasant sitting out in the courtyard watching the world go by.  John had to forego the pleasure that is a piece of cake in favour of lunch and went for a mixed sandwich as did Chris, Marian plumped for a Greek salad (good girl that she is) whilst I had quite the biggest wedge of Pastichio you have ever seen. 

The cafe does not serve alcohol which is no big deal but thinking about the Droushia LLC and the numerous carafes of wine we managed to consume the last time we met at Alkisti's then maybe a dry venue is not for us!

And Laura, you will be pleased to know that the scrummy caramel almond cake was not on the menu so you didn't miss anything, oh and Laura, happy 30th birthday - I hope you weren't trying to keep it a secret.

There are a number of metal sculptures dotted around the cafe.  I think they must be the work of Tina's husband after a night on the zivania!  They are 'interesting' and I quite like them and if John had a welder I would be getting him to 'knock something up' so that I could fill a gap in the garden.  

I have given up on ever owning a Pithary (huge terracotta pot which sits on its side and which I think was used for storing olives) so I am going to find something else to provide a focal point in the garden!  Maybe I could get John to do some chainsaw carving on the trunk of our old stinky tree.

We rounded off our lunch out by calling into Alkisti's seeing that she was open as we were about to drive by.  We sat in our favourite spot although mysteriously John kept getting dripped on by something and for the life of him he couldn't see what.  Our drinks were accompanied by a plate of loukoumades (small honey soaked doughnuts) and fresh slices of apple, banana and orange.  Lunch had now turned into an all-day affair!