Thursday at home...

Today we are at home doing things for TD.  Can't say too much as it is fast approaching and we want to keep it as much of a surprise for our guests as possible.  We just want people to come and enjoy the afternoon with us and just hope it isn't going to be too hot for people!

Diana popped round this morning with some lovely Drouseia Halloumi Cheese.  We share a container between us which is great.  The cheese keeps well and freezes brilliantly and as John says it is so much nicer than the packaged stuff you can get from the supermarkets so we really want to support the local manufacturers.

Whilst we were sitting in the sun having a drink Billy Big Dragonfly returned to our pool - he or she is a stunner and today was dipping the end of its body into the pool water which sadly means it is laying its eggs which (a) are not wanted in our swimming pool and (b) wouldn't survive anyway.  It would be nice to have a pool or some other water mass so that it could lay its eggs and they would survive and hatch out - I love the dragonflies.

Boris was bored with the whole dragonfly thing, he had found himself a shady patch in the garden and was enjoying a snooze.  After his funny five minutes he is spending more time around the garden again which is good news because we do like to know where the cats are.

We are struggling to find something that Minnie will eat - she normally relishes a bowl of raw pigs liver but for some reason she resolutely refuses to eat any of the most recent one we bought - I can only assume that she can smell something about it she doesn't like and which is beyond what we can smell.  It is trying to say the least as she is a particularly fussy madam - if you give her a pouch of catfood she will only lick the juice and then normally only if it is the Best-In from Paps and then only the Tuna flavoured - sadly Paps in Polis have not had this in for a couple of weeks so we are scratching around trying to find an alternative.  Normally she would eat chickens livers but again today she had just turned her nose up and walked off.  She must be eating biscuits as she isn't starving but does it when we are not about.  John says occasionally he catches her hoovering up some leftover food when we are not looking - little Minx that she is.

We had some water melon left over from the one which Matthew and Sarah gave us.  It had been chilled to the absolute peak of its ripeness and so we sat under the gazebo enjoying the fragrant juiciness - lobbing the pips over into the field in the hopes they may grow next year like the one that grew in George's last year - from a discarded pip he managed to grow one good sized and nice tasting water melon.

Our discussions turned to upcoming events.  Tomorrow night we are going to the ENAD do at La Plage.  This is staged every year by the supporters and brilliantly organised by Ivan and Wendy.  We are driving down and using the sixth seat for the first time having designated it as Susan's seat (Susan being the smallest - although actually touch and go between Susan and Rob!!).  We will pick up Rob and Diana and John and Susan and meet Lou and H there.  We have decided to leave the car at La Plage and get a taxi home so that we can all enjoy a drink without any worries.  Generally the taxis from Nissos are very reasonable so it shouldn't add a huge amount to the cost of our evening.

On Saturday it is Diana's birthday and she has chosen to go down to the beach at Latchi in the afternoon with Lou and H and John and Susan and John and I - we are all going to take our own respective picnics, have a swim and then round off the afternoon with a cocktail at one of the beach bars.

In preparation for the picnic and because Lou-Lou never got a piece of the onion tart I made for Hounds the other week I decided to make another one to take with us and which we could all share.  I had some pastry left over in the freezer and enough onions and cheese to knock up a couple of tarts.

It is a bit hot for baking but they actually don't take very long and whilst they were cooking it gave me time to go out and give John a hand with putting up the awnings that we bought to give the garden a bit more shade for TD.

It took us quite a while to get these awnings into place and blow me if the minute we did it the wind got up and started blowing them about so we were concerned that if we had not got them safely secured we would find they were missing in the morning.

John's reward for all his hard work was a well earned cold Leon served in a chilled Jumbo mug which he supped firstly from his seat which is in the corner of the pool by the conservatory and then from the diagonally opposite corner which was in the sun.  He plans to make a second seat for that corner but as the water is deeper he needs a different receptacle to act as the mould for the base.

Our to-do list for TD doesn't seem to be getting any shorter!!  For every job that we tick off a new one gets added.  We will get there in the end and to be fair even if not much else gets done it will be ok - hot but ok!