April 28th...

 Elena has had her operation.  We wait to hear news.

We were busy busy busy today working in the kitchen together as Jane and Mark and Helen and Al are coming for supper on Monday.  Working together in the kitchen is normally a recipe for disaster (pardon the pun) but today we did good and didn't end up killing one another as we had clearly defined our roles in advance!!!  John with his sweet tooth was in charge of puddings and had decided he wanted to make a banoffee pie - for those who wanted something slightly less fattening I was making lime ice-cream to accompany some pineapple that we would char-grill on the night.  I wanted to clear a little space in the freezer so we were having carrot, halloumi and coriander fritters to start followed by meatloaf with salad and hassleback jacket potatoes.  We thought we had better make two meatloaves just to satisfy the healthy appetites we were anticipating.

It was absolutely scorching today - with temperatures rising both inside and out.  The weather station was showing mid 30s outside and mid 20s inside and fortunately low humidity which is a bonus.  I shall have to look back at the temperatures for this time last year because I am certain that it is considerably warmer - in fact temperatures more like early summer not late spring.

I am thrilled that the bag of corms which Mum brought me back from her trip to the UK just after Christmas have grown and are now flowering.

The anemones are different shades of blue and look stunning.  So thanks Mum for thinking of the garden - a perfect gift for me and I am hopeful that these will come back again next year and spread. It is nice to have flowers in the garden which aren't orange or yellow.

John is still convinced that the Australian bottle brush we tried to move is just in shock although it is brown and crispy!  We are going to canvas opinion tomorrow night as to weather the others think, as I do, that it is dead!  I am going to treat myself to a new one and soon and I am going to have it as our second anniversary of living in Cyprus present.  Our second anniversary is actually on Wednesday but we will be down in Emba celebrating Franks 90th birthday and that is far far more important than a paltry two year milestone!

It was so hot today and John had cleaned the swimming pool so that it looked really inviting so I decided to throw caution to the wind and get in.

It took a while because bloody hell it was freezing to get it and only lovely when you got used to it because I swear I had lost the feeling below my waist!  

It can only get warmer and now that we have started to put the cover on at night this will be quicker than it would be otherwise but I think it was only about 65 degrees - can't believe that Mum always used to start swimming when their pool was just a fraction warmer than that.

We were off down to Emba this afternoon as it was Mum's turn to cook and we were having a special meal for our anniversary.  How fantastic to be able to cook and eat outside in April!

We took the tripod down with us so that we could capture the event on camera - we don't often get a chance to get all four of us in a photograph.  

We were having steak tonight and cooking steak is my forte as I have managed to get the hang of cooking and letting rest so that I manage medium or medium rare or rare - please don't ask me to do well done - that is sacrilege in my book!