Sunday...

Sunday - everyone gets a lie-in including the cats who have found two of our new storage boxes - Charlie on the left and Minnie-Mou on the right getting settled down happily.  This is not why we bought the boxes but what the hell if the cats are happy and comfortable and we know where they are on a Sunday when budding Rambos are shooting left right and centre indiscriminately then all the better.

I wanted to get my painting for George and Pam completed today as they have less than a week left here in Cyprus.  It has been a challenge getting the water colours out but when I was shopping with Pam yesterday I picked up a few tubes in Jumbos to supplement the ones I already have - some of which are so old that they smell horrible when you take the cap off.  So here it is, my picture of the boat.  I had chosen something with a lot of blue to match the two pictures he already has in his villa.  I hope they like it but if they don't I won't be too upset as it only cost me a couple of euros for the canvas and I had two others in the pack so I could do something else.

When I was out with Pam yesterday she was really kind and bought me a glass heart that I had been looking at in the La Maison Shop.  I had seen it previously but not purchased it.  First of all I thought I would put a candle in it, which I did, and then the smell of smouldering rope made me realise what a mistake that was and so I quickly removed the candle, doused the rope, cut off the charred bit and looked for something that I could grow in the heart - I had already put the orange beads into water so they could swell overnight and then I added some basil which seems to like growing in just water.  We shall see how it fares!!!

I spent some time this afternoon tidying up the garden - all the solanums needed a haircut and up on the roof terrace the clock vine has been shedding its flowers so I needed to make sure that they weren't going to block the drain up there.  We want to limp the garden on for a couple of weeks so that when my Aunt and Uncle come and stay it still looks nice and has some colour to it.

It was the most beautiful and clear day today - you could see right across the bay and make out the outline of the mountains in Turkey.  All trace of humidity has gone - Autumn is here and it is beautiful.

We are trying to make sure that we use the pool as much as possible this year otherwise it will have been a very expensive luxury.  The trouble is that we are now acclimatised residents rather than reckless holidaymakers.  The water actually felt warm to the touch and so I decided to go in - straight in with none of that tippytoeing around the midriff area - it was lovely, surprisingly so and John came in to join me.

We didn't stay in long but tick in the box that late September we are in - I seem to remember that the first year when Laura and Mark came to stay we swam and that would have been October and that would have been before we had the cover to keep the heat in and before John used to dump hot water in!!  My reward was to go and lie up on the roof terrace for half and hour to dry off and to get some lovely sun on my bones.

We were having dinner at Mum and Dads tonight and were greeted with a gift of a marrow - not just any old marrow one which appears to have been on steroids!!!  The Cypriots call these pumpkins but they are a little more like a butternut squash.  This one would probably feed a small village for a week so Mum and Dad were keen we found a home for it.  No problem C&A have said they will take as many as we can give them - they either cook them for the guests or make them into soup and freeze for the winter.

We had a lovely dinner, Mum had cooked some Lamb tenderloin which she had got from Kolios which is just about the best butchers in Paphos and it tells with the quality of the meat.  She served this with some lovely roast potatoes, peas and the carrot and leek with cream combo that I often serve and which I cooked for her this evening.  A nice glass of wine accompanied the meal and then we had apple pie and cream to follow, mmm mmmm lovely lovely lovely.

We played Noms tonight - a change from Mexican Trains which we have been playing quite a bit recently.  I think I won!!