A Day at Home...

We were having a day at home and were hoping for some dry weather so that we would be motivated into doing some jobs around the house and garden.  As it happens we had some sunshine but it was chilly and changeable.  In the conservatory it was toasty warm when the sun was shining and it is here that the cats like to settle and particularly Charlie who loves a bit of sunshine but as you can see he sleeps by burying the inactive side of his face into a cushion so that he isn't disturbed by the light.

We are glad that the cats are in and sleeping in the conservatory because there is a lot of shooting happening around and about at the moment.  We believe that hunting can take place everyday until the end of February so we had expected today to be quite noisy it being the last day of the month although lord knows what anyone finds here to hunt.

We seem to have escaped having any shot land in the garden this year thank goodness and whilst there has been hunting going on it has been further away than you would initially think.

John has been up against it this week trying to sort out the pools he keeps an eye on so he enlisted my help today although I was less than enthusiastic because it was not a day to be mixing with icy water despite there being some nice blue sky in evidence.

While John got to grips with the task in hand I did a recce of the building to check to see how it was coping with the dreadful weather conditions we have had over the Winter.  To be fair there are a few issues but nothing more than we generally experience at this time of year - Cypriot houses are not built to the standards one might expect in the UK so blown plaster is an occupational hazard unfortunately!

I am also rather surprised and even more grateful that somehow, rather more by luck than judgment I would guess, our houses escape rather more unscathed than many - I remember our first winter here and how depressing it was to see our hard work being destroyed by the weather and then we went into a friends house which is much larger and more luxurious than our little villa and seeing that they too were suffering in exactly the same way and then I didn't feel so bad.

I was not unhappy to return to our house because once inside compared to the outside it felt like we had central heating (which we do not).  I was spurred on to tackle something I have been putting off for ages and that was to tidy the four drawers that are in the kitchen.  The top drawer houses our day to day cutlery.  Where does all the gunk come from that sits in the corners of the cutlery tray?  It is the culinary equivalent to belly button fluff or toe-jam!  The second drawer houses all our sharp knives and my rolling pin (for some unknown reason).  The third drawer is the drawer that houses all those kitchen implements that you use once in a blue moon but which you cannot contemplate getting rid of like a cherry stoner and a pair of forks for lifting a heavyweight turkey!  The bottom drawer is the chopping board, work surface protector and tea towel stowage.  They are now sorted, the dross removed and all ship shape and Bristol fashion which appeals to John's OCD.  It is a remarkably cathartic exercise although I know it wont last long but I can for a few days at least open the drawers and splendour at the order!

Not only is tidying cathartic it is also exhausting so mindful that we didn't want to do too much we called it quits and settled down for an evening of catch up TV.  I have episodes of Masterchef still needing to be watched!!!  The bright-ish day led to an exceptionally chilly night with temperatures hovering just above freezing.  We snuggled up and were toasty warm inside.  Mr Boo got into the spirit of things by getting all bundled up on the Christmas throws that are still on the sofas.  He is the most snuggly of all our cats and when he is laying on your lap he brings with him a feeling of such calm.