Friday - Badders Social

There was a strange noise this morning when we woke - couldn't really work it out as it was sort of a squeak - we decided it had to be some sort of migratory bird that we weren't familiar with until we realised it was the workmen at George pressing aluminium into shape to form his gutters and soffits.  

Each year George likes to take a look at the improvements we have made to our villa and then decide what will be most beneficial to his and this year he had plumped for the aluminium man!  This will mean the roof at their villa 11b will no longer be a haven for nesting sparrows and will not have to have the wood treated - great news as George is in his 70s and even greater news because one area could only be tackled by having the ladder in the swimming pool.

I need to do some research for George as he has been nurturing a watermelon plant which grew from a discarded seed last year.  It has produced two fruits although the second has not come to much.  He has been given very differing advice on their care and in particular whether to water or not.  His pool-man Stelios has said he should not water but the aluminium-man George has said he should give it plenty of water - as we are to have a ceremonial tasting before Pam and George leave he is keen to get it right.  I am hoping the internet will give a definitive answer!  Watermelon Care

Photograph Courtesy of National Geographic

On the subject of migratory birds - I heard bee eaters this morning - such beautiful birds but their song at this time of year heralds the end of summer as they are now on their return journey to wherever they go for the winter.  This is hard to believe as we are currently in a middle of a heat-wave not helped by the fact that the skies are still sand laden and predicted to get worse over the weekend and this time with red sand which will leave everything in a right old mess.

Things are slowly returning to normal after visitors - albeit for a short time only as we are off to Larnaca on Tuesday to pick up Sean and Sharon our neighbours.  Not visitors but people with whom we will no doubt be spending a bit of time whilst they are here.  When they come permanently there wont be such a need to pack things in!  Anyway so with a quiet afternoon ahead of me I decided to do a bit of craft - not just because I had a quiet afternoon but because our very lovely friends Sheila and Klaus are celebrating their 45 wedding anniversary tomorrow and I wanted to make a card and make a little gift for them.  I have also been asked to make a wooden plaque for a friend's son's wedding which is in a couple of month's time and I wanted to start getting some ideas for that.

Sheila is my artist friend and mentor and her husband Klaus was at some point in the past involved in building work which included painting and decorating so I thought the words I had found were very appropriate.  Crafting in these temperatures is a challenge but at least everything dries quickly so giving the pallette two or three coats of paint didn't take very long at all.  The 'decoupage' around the outside is courtesy of the tissues you brought out for me Lynne Robson so thanks very much they look lovely.  I shall drop round the finished article tomorrow and hope that they both like it!

I have also spent some time this afternoon looking for inspiration for my next picture which I will be starting on Monday - I have been trawling through millions of photographs that I have taken over the years and just can't make my mind up as to what I want to do next - I shall have to pull my finger out!

This evening was the Emba Badminton Club 'Summer' Social and with members from all different areas in and around Emba each Social is at a different venue to try and accommodate the various travelling times. The last winter one was at Kouklia, before that it was near Coral Bay and this time, fabulous for us, it was at Aphrodite's Rock Brewing Company in Tsada so only a 15 minute drive for us.

There were nearly 50 of us assembled outside on a very very pleasant evening.  This was in addition to all the other patrons that were visiting the Brewery last night of which there were a fair few.  Very well done to Bridget who organised the event and very well done to the Brewery staff who managed to get the food out to us in an orderly and timely fashion.  In fact they provided far too much and those who had requested three courses were soon beginning to rue their decision!  John and I sensibly shared a starter and a sweet and had our own main courses.  It was a very pleasant evening although we did all miss the company of Andy Foster who is entertaining the masses elsewhere at the moment but we really hope he comes back to the Island soon.

Many of the badminton group had not visited the Brewery before so it was a good introduction for them and much more pleasant numbers and service than at the Cider Festival.