Art for art's sake

So a new week begins and February so far has been stunning - it would seem that our truly winter months have shifted and December and January have been the wet miserable months rather than January and February.  We have no complaints.  The bright days have seen great electric generation so soon hopefully we will start to creep back up into credit.  The evenings are cool and we still light the fire but we like the atmosphere in the lounge when the fire is lit - it is cosy and homely.

We are up relatively early - the days are lighter and the cats get restless and like to let us know that they are up and about and HUNGRY!!!  It's not a bad thing because it means we get on with jobs and we seem to have quite a list of things to do.

John did the brakes on Kenny this morning - we had heard a graunching noise coming from the front left wheel so he got the pads from Polis and changed them himself and he said it was a good job he did because they needed doing.  I am grateful that he can turn his hand to so many different things because that most definitely saves us money.

Whilst he was being my mechanic I set about dealing with the pomelo fruits that Effie had given us.  This is my first attempt at carving one of them!!!  You can get some idea about the thickness of the skin on these bad boys.  You start out with a fruit the size of a football and then once skinned you end up with a fruit the size of a cricket ball!!!!  Anyway I am building myself up to sculping a biggles hat for Fat-Boy Charlie!!!  Now that we have discovered just how delicious these pomelo are I can't stop eating it but I realise I am throwing away so much skin and there just has to be something I can do with that other than turn it into the Cypriot Glyko Sweet.  Apparently there is a use for all parts of a Pomelo and I will be trying the pomelo and honey tea because apparently it can make you look better and lose weight - everything you need to know is here: Pomelo Uses

I had totally forgotten when I was at Sheila's this morning that next Monday is Green Monday or Clean Monday and it is customary to flight kites (and eat green food) and last year we tried to do it with Elena's children up at Pittikopos but it was just too windy and I also remember that Elena was not well and she remained on the sofa that day.  John and I went to see her in the Cemetery today - Bassam has put some stones around to mark the edge of her grave and there were some flowers there.  There is so much I would have gone up and told her about were she still around and I know she would have been devastated to have learned about Sonia's recent stroke but she is not and I do miss that.

Sheila nigh on finished her current picture of the barn owl today and I continued with my flowers - the peonies are a challenge as there are just so many frilly petals to each head and this can only be reproduced by doing lots and lots and lots and lots of blending so my progress is slow and I kept saying to Sheila that it didn't look like I had achieved much.  I wondered if Sheila was watching the Big Painting Challenge as I had caught an episode last night and the mentors encouraged the contestants to look at their pictures from a distance as they would look at a work of art hanging on the wall and then they would see it differently.  The trouble is we get up too close and personal with our projects.  Sheila always takes my work and holds it up away from me so that I can look at it without getting bogged down in the minutiae.


I took a stroll into Sheila's garden where spring is definitely in evidence and she has some of the beautifully delicate native clematis in flower.  I have the leaves popping up all over the place - lord knows how they have come to seed themselves in the garden and I am hopeful that at some point they too will flower.

I wanted to check out the condition of their Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow plant as mine is looking like it has been nuked - I think there are signs that there might be life in them there twiggy bits!!!  I am pleased to report that the Knips plant which is rather more established than ours is looking a little ravaged by the winter weather too and Sheila says that is normal so I wont worry so much about ours.
Once again I had a lovely lunch with Sheila and Klaus - I always enjoy my Monday mornings and art and my catch up with them both and I am sorry that because of Green/Clean Monday and the fact that we have Helen and Pete coming up to see us next week I shall have to forgo my Monday morning fix for two weeks but I will be back with a bang thereafter!!!

John picked me up from Art so that we could go down to Polis and do our weekly shop - we like to do it on a Monday as Paps shelves seem to have been restocked after the weekend and it is nice and quiet.

I managed to drop mum's alterations off with Anastasie and have little chat with her and then went to have a chat with Fitos in the bank when I withdrew the deposit for Janice and Mick's holiday rental as I am meeting the woman tomorrow and handing it over and then they can get on a plan what they are going to do in Latchi for two weeks.

In the bank they gave me information about this weekend's celebrations.  We will have to miss the carnival parade which takes place in Paphos on Saturday and then comes up to Polis on Sunday as we are going to go out for lunch with mum and dad and Helen and Pete.  They may be able to catch the parade on Saturday although I am not sure of the route and if they walk along the coast on Monday they are bound to catch site of people trying to fly their kites.

My Valentine's roses are still going strong and they are now a week old which is great and John is happy that he did not waste his money.   I managed to catch up with my god mother this afternoon for a half hour chat and am thrilled that she and Alan are planning on coming over around May.  She says it will be the last time she flies and so I will clear the diary to ensure that I spend as much time with her as possible.

I left John about to binge watch a US jail series (or should that be gaol series) and went off for my weekly belly dancing fix which I missed last week because I was feeling off - I still have a funny throat but that didn't stop me trying to dance - I clearly have poor hand-eye coordination and Sofi kept picking on me tonight!!!  All good fun and I can feel that all my muscles got a good work out this week.