What's occurring???

There was something very strange occurring this morning - we did not wake to the sound of rain for a start and all was calm outside and there were blue skies and a strange glowing thing in the sky.  We had sunshine and what's more we had a whole day of sunshine.  This start to the day fills us with such enthusiasm that we are up and at 'em like the Mighty Cheatham ready to tackle all sorts of things.

I started by doing washing, getting it out on the line, getting it dry but not getting it ironed - I was not THAT enthusiastic - actually no, I was so busy doing outside things that I just ran out of time.  I was accompanied by Chivers who sat on top of Bramall Lane soaking in the sunshine.  It is a favourite spot of his as from here he can check out the growing sparrow population that have set up home in the house next door although their numbers were reduce by one today when Chivs brought me in a present which I found when it was still warm, dead but warm.

Everywhere got a tidy today including up on the roof terrace where all the furniture has had to be lashed down and the windbreaks have parted company with the railings but we no longer have an issue with water sitting on the flat roof which is such a relief - the tiling worked.  It is easy to keep it clean up there and now the clock vine has been cut down there is no danger of the drain being blocked - after the rains of the first winter I went up there to find that there was water sitting on the roof about to overflow because there was something blocking the drain and that something turned out to be a lightbulb for some unknown reason.

The view from 'oop top' was stunning today - the sun was too bright to focus on the Troodos to show the snow but the view across to Chrysochous Bay was lovely.  Whilst I was taking in the view I could hear a lot of noise coming from 3A - they only moved in late October/early November and it sounded like they were moving out again.  We can only surmise as to why but my best guess is that the winter proved too much for them and the dodgy renovations and they decided enough was enough.  I think they must have been waiting for the first fine day to make their escape but we wonder who reads their meters and who takes the keys now they have gone as Angela and Philip have returned to the UK and there was no sign of Mohammed who has been their gofer in the past.  Maybe A and P didn't like them and asked them to go?  Who knows - we will never for sure but we had no complaints about them.

Our little disabled lad Charlie was enjoying the sun and keeping me company whilst I clean the various decked areas.  The wound at the base of his right ear shows no sign of healing because he continues to scratch it and remove any scab that has formed.  It doesn't seem to bother him and we are ensuring that there are no risks of infection - we shall take him back to the vets next week if it really isn't any better.

I found some photographs yesterday of the early days of our garden when it was very bare - clean but bare and there is a little bit of me that likes that manicured minimalistic style but a greater part of me likes the lush green that we have throughout the year.

I am trying to achieve a happy medium and although it goes against the grain to pull out any plant that has braved the winter I will endeavour to have some clean shingle areas in the garden.

I started at Wendy and Bill corner to cut down the Morning Glory and the Passion Flower that is growing up and over the gazebo.  Both plants benefit from a hard prune - particularly the Passion Flower that will get woody otherwise.

I was amazed to find one solitary bloom today after all that rain and hail it was valiantly facing the sun and bringing a smile to my face.

I cut back a lot - it looks like I have barely scratched the surface but the goats enjoyed the fruits of my labour as they passed through this morning.  They had a varied buffet today but lots of lovely fresh green cuttings.



'Life Hacks' seem to be very popular in social media at the moment - these are tips and tricks that people have found that makes your life easier.  I found my own today - one of the decked areas was covered in sodden wet leaves and trying to use a brush on decking planks is hard enough at the best of times but I armed myself with a Squeegee Blade like they use in the petrol station to clean your windscreen and used it to scrape up the leaves which it did absolutely no problem at all and the job took me seconds.

We decided to move the outside dining furniture around.  The brown set which was outside the back door and which has six good chairs has been put under the gazebo at the back of the kitchen and the green set which now only sports five chairs and which owes us nothing at all having only cost us 20 euros and which we bought simply to provide extra seating for our Silver Wedding but which is still with us was moved to outside the back door and when we find what we would like to replace it we will get rid of it as the table is warped and held together with screws and as I said before it is missing a chair.

The old village chairs were almost destroyed by the weather but John did some major repairs today and once they have dried out we are planning to paint them with chalk paint in a nice cheerful colour to complement the blue pots that are sitting where the seats used to be - that will confuse the cats!!!  The pots are planted up with geraniums so should look lovely in the summer.

We were knackered by the time we stopped - a visit from Posties Mr and Mrs Veasey was the excuse I was needing to down tools so they provided a welcome diversion and brought some post which we had been waiting for - Mum will be pleased her replacement DVD has come.

After a nice hot shower and some nice hot food we relaxed with some easy viewing and I had the tail end of a bottle of wine - apparently chocolate and red wine in the evening can lengthen your life - I am happy to give it a try!