Ladies Lunch

This is the latest picture of my incredible rose which has passed a month in the vase in the lounge and only now shows small signs of its great age.  The edges of the petals are beginning to blacken but apart from that it remains intact and upright.

On the subject of plants I will eventually get round to giving Elaine the plant that Dad has grown for her garden.  This is a double Purple Datura grown from seeds which we liberated from a plant we saw in flower on Boxing Day down near the King Evelthon hotel.  Dad has been very successful germinating and potting these on even though to begin with he thought they were rogue tomato plants!!!  Elaine will be at the Ladies Lunch and I haven't seen her in ages so it will be good to catch up.

John Klaus and Dad were eating at Finnikas in the village, Klaus having arranged in advance their menu - chicken chips and salad for John and moussaka for Klaus and Dad.  Mum was taking Dad directly to Finnikas and then going to the Hotel so John and I decided to walk down to meet them as it was such a glorious day and it meant that we could, if we wanted, both have a little drinkie with our lunch.  Apparently there is a purge on at the moment for drink driving, not that we ever see a policeman up around these parts but we chose not to drink at all when driving - that way there can be no doubt!

Big Foot has been moved again and is in the field next to the funny holiday home container and although the field has been turned over ready to grow something there is still plenty for her to eat on the periphery and today she had plenty of shade under the trees.  There is now another horse which has appeared up the top end of the village - this one does not have the white stripe down the face and we think it is one of the ones we saw up there before when Andy Foster came to visit and we went for a walk round that way.

It is a typical quiet lunchtime in the village - not a car to be seen but now we have newly painted white lines everywhere warning people to slow down because they are approaching the school (I guess) although sadly they ran out of white paint before they got to the school!  Don't know if they plan to return to finish the job or whether this is all they can afford to do!

Sadly there are a lot of beautiful buildings in the village which are showing desperate signs of decay - they make for a good photograph but that is about all.  The inheritance rules here mean that many of the buildings have been left in equal parts to children now scattered all around the globe and they are unwilling or unable to return.

This also makes it difficult to purchase old properties as the chances of getting all parties involved in the ownership is slim.  Can you imagine a house being left in equal shares to four children each share worth very little so they keep it and then pass their share on in equal parts to their four children etc etc and then someway down the line a holiday maker decides they want to purchase and renovate and they have to try and deal with 30-odd owners!!!

Anyway I digress - John and I walked down through the village and stopped at the post office to pick up any post for us and for anyone else we knew who would be attending the lunch to save them the trip up the hill and then went our separate ways for lunch.

As always the hotel looked lovely - today they had put flowering sprigs of Sage on the tables and folded our napkins into pleated leaf shape fans.

The hotel is always full of fresh flowers and always whatever is in season and generally flowering nearby.  We sat in the lounge area whilst we waited for the Ladies to arrive - a good turn out again this month - everyone seems to like the hotel as the venue - we are always made to feel very welcome and it is such a reasonable price.

Today we had a fresh mushroom soup to start with roll and butter.

Then there was the salad bar to tempt you - generally by the time I have worked my way through the various salads I am not too bothered about the hot dishes that are on offer!

There is then a full and sometimes eclectic selection of hot dishes but so much to chose from you should be able to find something you like.

I have to say today the roast potatoes were particularly good and I had them along with some Mediterranean vegetables and a pork dish which was very nice.

To finish off there was a selection of traditional sweets including creme caramel which is a bit of a favourite of mine - in fact I like anything like that, pannacotta or creme brulee etc.


Diana and I decided that sharing a carafe of red wine lunchtime renders us useless for the remainder of the day so we each had a drinkie drink to go with our meal - I had a very nice Gin and Tonic and managed to keep a clear head for the meal which is a bonus!!!

Dad and John joined us at the Hotel after their meal at Finnikas which sounded like a resounding success and so we are planning to go back and eat there soon.  John says Philippos has done a lot of work to the courtyard so it is looking really nice.  The problem with John and Dad arriving is that they ordered a carafe of red wine and encourage us to help them finish it so I didn't exactly avoid it!!!

It was a glorious day and everyone seemed to have had a good lunch.  John was having a day resting his poorly fingers and the hand cream and red wine seem to have done the trick as apparently they are feeling a lot better!!

Mum and Dad had to leave fairly quickly because they were dropping some shopping off at Gloria's in Kathikas - pleased to report she is recovering well - and they had a phone call to say that their car had been repaired and was ready to be picked up.

As we watched them drive along the bottom road on their way home I caught site of a blonde body in the field next door and watched Boris desperately trying to catch a bird - fortunately he didn't manage it!!!

Big day tomorrow - the water should come to fill the pool and then hopefully we will draw a line under the pool project at long last.