Wild and Windy...

The title says it all - it has been a wild and windy day here in Droushia - in fact probably all over Cyprus.  It has been a warm wind - in fact at times it has been considerably warmer outside than in.  This storm is called the Khamseen or Khamsin winds (hot and sandy as they carry dust from the deserts of North Africa and the Arabian peninsula).

I took this video before I left for craft this morning - hopefully it will give you an idea of the strength of the winds and how leadened the skies have been - unfortunately all that sand up there will have to come down so we are prepared for a right old mess.

The garden has taken a right old battering - unfortunately the petunias in the front garden have been broken off and the sage has been blown practically horizontal.  Still there is nothing we can do until it dies down - gardening here is rather more stressful than I had anticipated!  I turned my attention to the plants that I have in the conservatory - including (get this Laura) the orchid that is shooting again - this orchid has been harbouring a lizard, we think that one of the cats might have caught it previously and brought it in as it was missing part of its tail.  We diverted the cats' attention and moved it outside to a safer place.

As I said earlier I was going to craft at Jeanette's today and taking Sheila with me.  John was battening down the hatches as most of the jobs he wants to do at the moment either need me as a second pair of hands or are outdoors.  He wasn't going to be lonely though as the cats weren't terribly impressed by the weather either and as I was leaving Chivers was stretched out on our bed - not even upset by the hairdryer and Minnie Mou was bedding down on the newly washed covers on the sofa.

As I made my way down to Sheila and Klaus's house I stopped at the community office as I could see Marianna was in so that I could pay our water bill.  For the last three months it was just over €14.  We do try and make sure we don't use water unnecessarily although over the next few months I will need to do some watering - there is some in the water butt which will help.

I didn't achieve very much at craft today!  I had promised to do some sewing for Jeanette as she had purchased some bead edged place-mats and coasters when she was over in Africa and they needed a little repairing so that was my first job.  I decorated one more gecko so we have a family of three to 'walk' up the wall outside and hide the imperfections!  I also managed to make a couple of Christmas cards.  I really need to sort out all the stuff that I have got as I end up taking far too much with me and then don't know where to start.  I really need a good meaty project to get my teeth into!  

Jane called into craft today, she is having an operation on the carpal tunnels of her left hand on Friday and she and her husband Mark are coming to Helen and Alistair's for dinner that evening - I have told her I will feed her if she needs help!  I have eventually sussed out where we turn off to get to Helen and Alistair's which is handy as we are driving Marian and Chris there on Friday!

When I got back to Droushia to drop off Sheila her lovely husband Klaus was outside assembling all the plants and cuttings he has been nurturing for me.  Blimey no pressure on me to keep them all alive then!!

Amongst other things he gave me a yucca and a cactus, some trees, some osteospurmum and some morning glory.  These will all help to fill the gaps and give the garden some height and some interest and of course if they survive at the Knipps's there is every chance that they might survive chez-nous.

Between us this afternoon John and I have eventually cleared the ironing away.  It seems a bit of a wasted effort at times because being short on storage space our clothes go away ironed but come back out needing ironing again!  Still it is a lovely feeling when it has all been done.

I am about to start tea - we are eating out of the freezer as it has been packed to the gunnels and should Lidl ever get any vanilla ice-cream back in stock we need room to house some.