Meeting Lilian...

We had had, what for us was a late night/early morning which is unusual but enjoyable.  It was great to play the 'tourist' for a night and see Latchi in full swing.  We had returned home by taxi leaving Kenny near Porto Latchi and this morning my neighbour had kindly offered to take John down to get him back thus giving me time to get ready for Sunday lunch.

Today was to be a little different in that Mum was bringing with her a lady she had met one evening in Tweedies during the winter when they were doing a soup and a roll special supper.  Lilian had also fairly recently lost her husband and Mum struck up conversation and they have kept in touch and socialise which is brilliant.  It is great for Mum to meet new people and, as I cook Sunday lunch most weeks anyway, inviting one more person was no hardship particularly as the only thing I was told Lilian would not eat was liver.  It was exceptionally hot today, almost too hot to be outside so we positioned Lilian next to the fan so she didn't expire in the heat.

When I was getting the table ready for lunch I realised that we had a visitor because the unmistakable miniature corn on the cob shaped poo gave it away - there was a Vine Hawk Moth Caterpillar somewhere on the vine.  Spotting it wasn't easy, it is well camouflaged but eventually we sussed out where he was dining and ensured that it wasn't above anyone that would be eating - no-one wants a caterpillar poo-ing on their head or worse in their food.


I cooked mum's favourite Hunters Chicken with roasted wedgies and made coleslaw and corn on the cob and added a second salad made with lettuce, orange, grilled halloumi and croutons which we had had when we had eaten at Latchi Family Resort the other week and which was fresh and tasty.

For pud I had made a banana cake but as it was hot and I thought we might want something tangy and light I had made lime and coconut pannacotta with some chopped mango salsa.

It all seemed to go down well and Lilian is a really nice woman - she sent a lovely text to say that she had enjoyed herself and would like to invite John and I to have lunch with her one Sunday after the mad Summer rush is over so that will be nice and means I wont have to cook which is a bonus!!

Mum text to say that she had returned Lilian to Peyia safe and sound and had found her way home so that was good.

It had been such a hot day that we did nothing much in the evening save for dipping in and out of the pool to keep cool.

Monday

It was chaos last night - first of all Charlie decided he was hungry in the early hours and came and told us so.  To be fair it has been so hot he hasn't been eating during the day and I guess he had cooled down and then wanted to eat.  I got up to feed him and in the half light could see something fluffy in the corner of the kitchen so had to get John up to investigate in case it was a rat - actually it was a small bird that was still alive although probably didn't last too much longer after John put him over in the field.  Then Chivers came in and was staring intently under the sofa so I knew he had brought something in with him so once again John had to get up and we found the twitching end of a shed lizard tail but not the other part which must have been running around somewhere.  Eventually it all quietened down and we managed to get some shut eye.

It is Monday and I was back to art this week after a break last week.

My first port of call on a Monday is always the cemetery.  I knew everything was ok because Mum and called in with Lilian yesterday before they came to us.

Dad is now in some illustrious company - we didn't think anything was ever going to happen to the first grave in his row but it has been given its permanent surround which is the same as the one next to Dad and looks very smart.  We don't know whether anyone will ever come and do anything to Ivan's grave which is to the left of Dad but when it is cooler John and I plan to go up and at least remove the weeds from it so it looks a little tidier.

I am still working on my picture of a poppy seed head.  I am in no rush for this as it is something I am doing for myself.

When you are up close and personal it is sometimes hard to see the progress you are making so the picture on the left is how I started off this morning and the picture on the right is how I finished.

It was a little sad at Sheila's today because last week she and Klaus had made the difficult decision to have their dog Charlie put to sleep.  He had been struggling and it was the fairest thing to do but it is still very hard so I gave Sheila an extra big hug this morning when I arrived.