A new week begins...

So this morning I realised I truly am becoming an extremely crazy cat lady.  I woke to find that Charlie was sleeping across my feet.  His almost 7Kg bulk was stopping the circulation to my toes - it felt like I was in a scene from Misery - you know the one where Kathy Bates smashes James Caan's ankles!!!  Then Boris had, at some point during the night, lifted the duvet and taken himself inside and he was lying across my waist.  Whilst snoozing, he was padding against my bare skin with his claws periodically outstretched - I can only assume this is what having a full body tattoo might feel like.  Minnie Mou, who is quite particular about her personal space, was draped across my neck like some furry Hermes scarf but she hadn't realised that Mr Boo was perilously close to her underneath the covers so when she stretched out and felt him there a scuffle broke out with me as the filling in between a feline fighting sandwich.  Only Chivers was sensible and was sleeping in splendid isolation in the lounge.  He has been recovering slowly but sadly collected another small cut the other day which has turned a bit septic.  I am wondering whether he has caught himself on the horrible spiky bird deterrent stuff the Witch and the Weazel have put up on their roof.  If so then it doesn't deter the bloody birds and is obviously a danger to our cats.

It is the start of a new week and thankfully the weather has begun to improve although the wind is still very chilly.  We did at least have bright blue skies this morning.  The mixture of weather we have had so far this year has meant that everywhere is green and lush - the road to the village is becoming narrower and narrower but it is so pretty with all the wild flowers.

We had been up early and gone to the Community Office to see Marianna to pay our water bill and we had hoped to call in and see little Angela (Savvas the Tyreman's daughter) as she had brought us some more fresh eggs on Friday and we wanted to give her a chocolate one in return for Easter.  Marianna was there but Angela and her Mum were not - apparently, according to Marianna, Eleni is cleaning Savvas's tyre shop - good luck with that Eleni!!

The village is in the throws of being 'renovated' which involves having the central roads cobbled to retain the 'old' look and feel.  This is a great idea but is already causing a lot of disruption and pain to those affected. In Inea (next village) they did the cobbles and also put natural stone walls everywhere - we have some and a couple of years ago they installed small mosaics along them.  We tend to walk past them now and not really look at the pictures and they have faded or just got dirty so they don't stand out like they used to.  Let's hope that the works are a success - we have all wanted something positive done to the village.

There is a very run down building opposite Christos's taverna which I think used to be some sort of youth club for the village.  It must have been rendered at some point in the past and the render is falling off and it has exposed some absolutely fabulous stonework underneath.  I bet this building could look really special if someone were able to spend some time, effort and money on it.

At the back is an elevated garden area which John and I think would make a great place for villagers to just sit - sometimes Pani from the shop and his wife or a few friends put a table and chairs up there.  Someone obviously tends to the plants that form the overhead canopy and there are some ancient outdoor kleftiko ovens there too.  It is a shame that it has just been left but this has happened to so many of the buildings in the village.

Maybe the current work maybe a catalyst to some more sustained regeneration.  A youth group has been formed by some members of the local council and they had their first village clean on Saturday - we would have gone but had visitors - the weather was against them so I don't know whether it happened or not.

I called into the cemetery to check on Dad's grave.  Everything was fine and I am hopeful that work will start very soon on the surround so there is little point doing too much with regard to flowers or plants just at the moment although there is still plenty of colour there.

The soil at the end where the cross is placed is very waterlogged so we could do with some dry weather before work starts anyway.  I know it was soggy because I inadvertently stepped on the corner and nearly went in up to my ankle and then had to spend time cleaning off my shoe before going into Sheila's so thank goodness that there is water supply in the cemetery and I had a pocket full of tissues and kitchen roll to do the job!!

Satisfied that I wouldn't be traipsing mud into Sheila and Klaus's house I turned up for Art.  It has been several weeks since I was there last and next week is Easter Monday so I wont be going then so I was looking forward to getting back to my picture of a withering Clematis flower.

Sheila and I had a lovely morning together - some of it spent catching up on what had been happening since we were last together and some of it working on our respective pictures.  Sheila is working on a study of an Elephant which is coming along really nicely - it is in sepia colours and the background is very atmospheric.

I am making good progress with my flower - I really love the colours in this one and it has given me an idea for my next picture.  I am going to see if I can get a multi-picture frame so that I can do three small studies of flowers or plants with a similar look and feel.  I have found a great picture of a poppy seed head which is fabulous so I am in search of two others that would go with it.

Once again Klaus served up a really lovely lunch.  This week we had a pear and pork casserole which was absolutely delicious and not a combination I would have thought of.  It made me realise that we had some sad looking pears in the fridge so maybe I will do something with them this week particularly as I am on a mission to use things we have in the cupboards, fridge and/or freezer!!

The walk back home was lovely - the views across to the bay are spectacular and after all that horrid weather it is lovely to have a day which reminds me of all the good things this island has to offer.  I am not sure if the tree in the picture is a Prunus but it is about to burst into flower with beautiful dark, almost purple blossom.  There were still plenty of white horses down on the coast - you can see them in the distance in the photograph.

We are expecting a fairly full house on the estate this weekend as it is Cypriot Easter.  We are not sure whether our immediate neighbours Gregoris and Theodora will be here.  We went into their house to see how things were - they have some issues after the winter weather but they are aware of them.  More of a problem are the weeds which look like they have been on steroids!!!  We cleared some at the front of the house but the ones around his kleftiko oven we are going to have to leave for him to deal with.  We did a bit of gardening at George and Pam's and we did a bit of tidying at Lakis and Argy's but have more to do.  Lakis and Argy and Kia return next week so that is more urgent, Pam and George are not due until later in the summer.