When Di and Rob came for a meal with Judy in the week they brought me a plant as a 'Thank You'.  I don't think I really told them how pleased I was with it and whilst it might ultimately end up in the garden, looks lovely in the conservatory so I think it will live there for a while.

The weather forecast is poor for the foreseeable future so the garden is having to take a back seat.  Little Chrysant is therefore much safer in the more temperate conditions of the conservatory!!

We didn't have much planned for tonight although I had wanted to go for a walk this afternoon to see if I could find some wild asparagus.  I thought it would be nice to serve some on Monday when I am doing a birthday lunch for Jane and John and Mum.  As it happens the afternoon was pretty miserable and with more rain the sodden field where I would normally go would be even more sodden so I decided to wait - it isn't the end of the world I just thought it would be nice to have something quite traditional with our lunch when I plan to do a Cypriot meal with a bit of a modern twist.

On that subject I have finalised the menu and printed out a couple to go onto the table and I have made some place markers using some Bay Leaves from the garden!

I want to make it a bit special, so will endeavour to go on my asparagus hunt tomorrow or Monday but if I fail then sorry Jane the weather was against me.

Our starter is halloumi which is no problem particularly when you live in a village renowned for producing some of the best halloumi I have tasted but I have failed with the asparagus and failed trying to find some nice fine greens to go in the pea salad.  The main is to be stifado but that was nearly veto'd when there were no beef cubes in Paps butchery.  Fortunately the nice smiley butcher who is Romanian (not Valentin who is also nice and smiley and Romanian) likes me and rather than just say "no there isn't any" went out the back and cut me some fresh - thank goodness otherwise I would have had to have a complete rethink.

The pudding is to be a traditional Cypriot Orange Pie which is what I think we get occasionally at Fitos and which we love - Joanna keeps the recipe a closely guarded secret for which I cannot blame her but I have scoured the internet and the picture of the finished article looks like the same thing and involves drying filo pastry overnight until it is crispy - this is probably a five minute exercise in the summer but with the wet cold conditions we have at the moment looks like it is going to take a couple of days.

We had to go and pick up Mum's car from having its MOT at Andreas's down the road.  As we got to the end of our path we were greeted by a dead disembowelled rat which I had to clear up as apparently this is a 'pink' job and I was the only one with a bit of kitchen roll tucked up my sleeve.  Clearly one or other of our cats or the local feral cats is doing its job.

En route to Polis, via the 'Egyptian's' Road we were sad to see that a young ginger and white cat had been knocked over and killed.  It makes me very sad to see that.  The cat was perfect save that it was dead and we had nothing in the car that would enable us to move it out of the way although when I passed by today it had gone.  Charlie was truly lucky to have survived his accident even though he still has some residual damage it is really quite minor and does not seem to affect him unduly.

So somewhat saddened by the sight of the cat we made our way carefully down that road which is awash with rain water - so much so that it is quite dangerous at the end as it is breaking away badly and if you approach the junction a little too quickly the water makes it impossible to stop so you could end up in the path of a vehicle.  A lot of the roads in the area are now showing severe storm damage with potholes and cracking and areas which are collapsing.

We took a little shortcut to the garage taking the scenic route which cuts off a largish corner and as there was a bit of sunshine at the time allowed for a photo opportunity.

The island is looking so green and beautiful but it is almost impossible to factor in a walk - even if it is dry overhead the same cannot be said for underfoot where it is 'claggy' as Dad would have said.  I hope it improves for Jane and John although I think they managed to get out on a walk yesterday.

Mum's car was up on a high level jack when we arrived so we know that the brakes were checked as we had asked them to do that along with the MOT which the car passed without issue - what we didn't realise was that Mum normally has her car serviced at the same time as the MOT - Andreas pointed out that it was due but would have had to keep the car until Monday at the earliest which wasn't really convenient so we will organise for it to return when John is back from the UK.  In the garage was a beautiful vintage car which I guess Andreas's daughter Elena had when she got married last year (or was it the year before?) - anyway it is a beauty.

The weather deteriorated and we got home and battened down the hatches.  We had taken some meat out of the freezer for supper - it was Bacon ribs which it think are a bit like belly pork strips on steriods - anyway there is bone and fat in amongst the meat and although I am warming to Pork I don't like it if it is grey, dry or tough so had no idea how these should be cooked to avoid them being grey, dry and tough.  I found a recipe for slow cooker country ribs which I followed and then finished them off under the grill so they were caramelised and crispy.  They were delicious and as a cut of meat they are so very very cheap.  John was delighted that there were enough left over for him to have on a day when he has to fend for himself!