Today was a Sunday with a difference as Mum was not coming up and we were getting ready for the arrival of John's mum and her friends Jackie and Stan whose flight was coming in this evening. John is going to the airport and I am going down to the villa to meet them there along with all the things we have accumulated for them.
John has had some wood stored down the road at John and Susan's for years. Last year John kept saying he should go down and pick up some of it and bring it back here and then when he was ready to do so and John and Susan were back from the UK it started to rain and then didn't stop for months. There is absolutely no point moving wet wood up to our place as we have no where to store it. The first run which was to pick up pieces of an old gazebo went well but the second run nearly ended up in a real disaster. John was reversing Kenny full of logs down from where the other John had been storing them when the track collapsed and Kenny nearly toppled over and down the hill. I am so glad I didn't witness it. John was a bit shaken and covered in scratches because he had to get underneath the car and release it from the undergrowth before the other John could tow it to safety. Fortunately there was no real damage done. Thank God!!
We also moved the solar water feature this morning because it is getting bunged up by the bougainvillea flowers that are falling into it. Whilst we were doing it Chivers was going mad because he had discovered something by my shed. It was a massive caterpillar about 10cm long and fat and muscular. It will become a Death's Head Hawk Moth in due course - it is in the second stage of its life cycle because when it is younger it looks like the one in the photograph below which I found some year's ago on the Duranta plant in Gregoris's garden.
Obviously it eats and eats and then changes to the boring colour scheme in the video above before becoming a chrysalis and then emerging as a moth - called a Death's Head because between the wings it has markings which most definitely look like a skull.
We are a bit concerned about Boris, I know that seems strange looking at him relaxing on the sofa but he was recently in a fight and we found that he had a nasty bite on one of his legs which we kept an eye on and which healed. He also had claw marks around his ear and we found a small abscess which we treated and that too healed but he has a mass around his left cheek - we cannot see a puncture wound so if it is an abscess we cannot release the gunk. It isn't bothering him and it doesn't seem to hurt him when we fiddle with it but we need to keep an eye on it. We are concerned that it might be something to do with his teeth and the fact it has appeared after a fight is just coincidental. The vet did tell us he has bad teeth.
We had been concentrating so much on our visitors imminent arrival I had totally forgotten about food for today so when John started making noises about something to eat before he went to the airport I was a bit flummoxed because I had planned to go and do our food shopping tomorrow. We didn't even have fridge surprise today we had to have cupboard surprise and it was meat free!!! I made a curry with some butter beans and black eyed beans with a bit of onion and red pepper and a tin of pineapple which was loafing in the depths and one of the curry-frenzy mixes that have recently arrived. It was fab, John even said he would be happy to go meat free one day a week if I produced something like that each time.
John's Mum's flight came in about 10 minutes early and I had a call from John when he had got to Stroumbi so I could set off and meet them down in Polis. It was a lovely evening for their arrival and we got them all settled in before bidding them farewell until tomorrow. I think we were all a bit tired and we have the next three weeks to spend time with them - mind you John's Mum is an old hand at a holiday in Polis so we don't have to worry about them as they are happy to sort themselves out.
John has had some wood stored down the road at John and Susan's for years. Last year John kept saying he should go down and pick up some of it and bring it back here and then when he was ready to do so and John and Susan were back from the UK it started to rain and then didn't stop for months. There is absolutely no point moving wet wood up to our place as we have no where to store it. The first run which was to pick up pieces of an old gazebo went well but the second run nearly ended up in a real disaster. John was reversing Kenny full of logs down from where the other John had been storing them when the track collapsed and Kenny nearly toppled over and down the hill. I am so glad I didn't witness it. John was a bit shaken and covered in scratches because he had to get underneath the car and release it from the undergrowth before the other John could tow it to safety. Fortunately there was no real damage done. Thank God!!
We also moved the solar water feature this morning because it is getting bunged up by the bougainvillea flowers that are falling into it. Whilst we were doing it Chivers was going mad because he had discovered something by my shed. It was a massive caterpillar about 10cm long and fat and muscular. It will become a Death's Head Hawk Moth in due course - it is in the second stage of its life cycle because when it is younger it looks like the one in the photograph below which I found some year's ago on the Duranta plant in Gregoris's garden.
Obviously it eats and eats and then changes to the boring colour scheme in the video above before becoming a chrysalis and then emerging as a moth - called a Death's Head because between the wings it has markings which most definitely look like a skull.
We are a bit concerned about Boris, I know that seems strange looking at him relaxing on the sofa but he was recently in a fight and we found that he had a nasty bite on one of his legs which we kept an eye on and which healed. He also had claw marks around his ear and we found a small abscess which we treated and that too healed but he has a mass around his left cheek - we cannot see a puncture wound so if it is an abscess we cannot release the gunk. It isn't bothering him and it doesn't seem to hurt him when we fiddle with it but we need to keep an eye on it. We are concerned that it might be something to do with his teeth and the fact it has appeared after a fight is just coincidental. The vet did tell us he has bad teeth.
We had been concentrating so much on our visitors imminent arrival I had totally forgotten about food for today so when John started making noises about something to eat before he went to the airport I was a bit flummoxed because I had planned to go and do our food shopping tomorrow. We didn't even have fridge surprise today we had to have cupboard surprise and it was meat free!!! I made a curry with some butter beans and black eyed beans with a bit of onion and red pepper and a tin of pineapple which was loafing in the depths and one of the curry-frenzy mixes that have recently arrived. It was fab, John even said he would be happy to go meat free one day a week if I produced something like that each time.
John's Mum's flight came in about 10 minutes early and I had a call from John when he had got to Stroumbi so I could set off and meet them down in Polis. It was a lovely evening for their arrival and we got them all settled in before bidding them farewell until tomorrow. I think we were all a bit tired and we have the next three weeks to spend time with them - mind you John's Mum is an old hand at a holiday in Polis so we don't have to worry about them as they are happy to sort themselves out.
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