I could not see my hand in front of my face this morning when Charlie came a tappin' for breakfast - I thought he must have been a tad premature as it was dark but NO when I checked the clock it was the standard 6.45 wake up time but it was DARK - what the hell? Apparently today we are going to be in the grips of a sand storm so the reason it was dark was because the sun was being obscured. Sandstorms generally mean a strange light and hot muggy conditions - deep joy!!
I am now on a roll with my gardening - having done half of the front garden I was keen to do a bit more. I have a whole load of plants, bulbs and cuttings in plastic pots cluttering up the garden so it is an opportunity to put them somewhere more permanent.
This area gets quite a bit of shade and I have a couple of dianthus ("pinks") in pots which I hope will do well here along with some daffodil bulbs and tulip bulbs. Bulbs generally do well in Droushia - at least they have in recent years!
John went off down to John and Susan's this morning - he has had some wood drying out and stored there for a couple of years and he wanted to bring some of it up here in readiness for the winter - some of it is big stuff - really big stuff that needs splitting or chopping smaller and some of it has some unwanted residents by the look of it and so we need to be careful where this is stored.
We should be good for the Winter now particularly as one of our lovely neighbours brought us a load of wooden pallets a few months back which John will split down into kindling. We always say you can never have enough wood but right now we are packed to the gunnels and using storage boxes that we would really like to get rid of. We have an area outside the kitchen that we turned into a place for our buffet on our Silver Wedding but it has remained and now houses wood boxes, the dustbin and the recycling boxes amongst other things - ideally we would like to do something better than the makeshift wooden structure that is there now but we need to get rid of the wood first!!!! I would like John to make something attractive to house a gas bottle and burner which we use when we have a power cut or when the solar panels haven't heated water sufficiently to wash up. It is so useful but doesn't look so good!
John has a new project - with some of the money that his Mum left us as a present after her stay we have bought an old Cypriot bread mould sometimes called a Mancala board. This one is huge and heavy with 10 'dishes' and John has an idea as to what he wants to do with it. At the moment his idea is under wraps but I will keep you posted - I have always liked these and wanted one for the garden.
I also have a project but I have no idea what to do with the item. We have an old black Deeds box which belonged to Mum and Dad's friend Thelma - an ex-colonial this box had probably travelled the world with her - for a while I had it in the garden with two plant pots in it but it didn't really 'go' so today I washed it out and let it dry whilst I try and decide what to do with it - I cannot bring myself to get rid of it - whilst thinking about it I have put it on the front decking - any ideas anyone?
Whilst John was finishing sorting out the wood I decided to give the honeysuckle along Gregoris' and Theodora's fence a severe pruning as it seems to be dying from the inside and hasn't been cut back for ages so it wont do it any harm. It had been hanging over quite a long way so we now have our footpath back and hopefully I wont be cleaning up dead leaves every day! I shall tackle their side next week when I have a quiet afternoon but in the meantime it looks better.
On a roll I decided to go in and tackle their bay tree which has gone wild. I needed John's help with this as some of the branches have got very thick - too thick for my poor secateurs. Mum you might recognise the ancient square table and four chairs which were yours originally when you lived in Mandeville - I think they chairs may even have come from Tea for Two originally. I cannot say they are going strong but they are still going although looking a lot worse for wear!!!
The cats came round to keep my company - we have to make sure that we dont shut any of them in the house when we leave so perform a roll-call on exit! We gave the courtyard a sweep and John took any rubbish out of the pool. He has got the pool looking really good at the moment - it is a shame that it probably wont get anyone swimming in it now this year. On that subject I did go in ours again today - it is still 21 degrees but feels more like 10!
We have Nicky and Mark here on Saturday so I wanted to get our meal organised - I am slow cooking a piece of pork again - it seemed to go down well last week with Joyce and David. This time I have opted for a different cut of meat - this is what they call back bacon and when you look at it, it is exactly that - it is slightly fattier than the pork loin joints but I still think I should have something even fattier the next time. Anyway you have to start off the recipe by blackening the meat - I have to say it is looking good just like that!
I am now on a roll with my gardening - having done half of the front garden I was keen to do a bit more. I have a whole load of plants, bulbs and cuttings in plastic pots cluttering up the garden so it is an opportunity to put them somewhere more permanent.This area gets quite a bit of shade and I have a couple of dianthus ("pinks") in pots which I hope will do well here along with some daffodil bulbs and tulip bulbs. Bulbs generally do well in Droushia - at least they have in recent years!
John went off down to John and Susan's this morning - he has had some wood drying out and stored there for a couple of years and he wanted to bring some of it up here in readiness for the winter - some of it is big stuff - really big stuff that needs splitting or chopping smaller and some of it has some unwanted residents by the look of it and so we need to be careful where this is stored.We should be good for the Winter now particularly as one of our lovely neighbours brought us a load of wooden pallets a few months back which John will split down into kindling. We always say you can never have enough wood but right now we are packed to the gunnels and using storage boxes that we would really like to get rid of. We have an area outside the kitchen that we turned into a place for our buffet on our Silver Wedding but it has remained and now houses wood boxes, the dustbin and the recycling boxes amongst other things - ideally we would like to do something better than the makeshift wooden structure that is there now but we need to get rid of the wood first!!!! I would like John to make something attractive to house a gas bottle and burner which we use when we have a power cut or when the solar panels haven't heated water sufficiently to wash up. It is so useful but doesn't look so good!
John has a new project - with some of the money that his Mum left us as a present after her stay we have bought an old Cypriot bread mould sometimes called a Mancala board. This one is huge and heavy with 10 'dishes' and John has an idea as to what he wants to do with it. At the moment his idea is under wraps but I will keep you posted - I have always liked these and wanted one for the garden.
I also have a project but I have no idea what to do with the item. We have an old black Deeds box which belonged to Mum and Dad's friend Thelma - an ex-colonial this box had probably travelled the world with her - for a while I had it in the garden with two plant pots in it but it didn't really 'go' so today I washed it out and let it dry whilst I try and decide what to do with it - I cannot bring myself to get rid of it - whilst thinking about it I have put it on the front decking - any ideas anyone?
Whilst John was finishing sorting out the wood I decided to give the honeysuckle along Gregoris' and Theodora's fence a severe pruning as it seems to be dying from the inside and hasn't been cut back for ages so it wont do it any harm. It had been hanging over quite a long way so we now have our footpath back and hopefully I wont be cleaning up dead leaves every day! I shall tackle their side next week when I have a quiet afternoon but in the meantime it looks better.
On a roll I decided to go in and tackle their bay tree which has gone wild. I needed John's help with this as some of the branches have got very thick - too thick for my poor secateurs. Mum you might recognise the ancient square table and four chairs which were yours originally when you lived in Mandeville - I think they chairs may even have come from Tea for Two originally. I cannot say they are going strong but they are still going although looking a lot worse for wear!!!
The cats came round to keep my company - we have to make sure that we dont shut any of them in the house when we leave so perform a roll-call on exit! We gave the courtyard a sweep and John took any rubbish out of the pool. He has got the pool looking really good at the moment - it is a shame that it probably wont get anyone swimming in it now this year. On that subject I did go in ours again today - it is still 21 degrees but feels more like 10!
We have Nicky and Mark here on Saturday so I wanted to get our meal organised - I am slow cooking a piece of pork again - it seemed to go down well last week with Joyce and David. This time I have opted for a different cut of meat - this is what they call back bacon and when you look at it, it is exactly that - it is slightly fattier than the pork loin joints but I still think I should have something even fattier the next time. Anyway you have to start off the recipe by blackening the meat - I have to say it is looking good just like that!
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