Getting back to normal after visitors...

A new week begins and this one is without the Three Musketeers who have now arrived safely back home and not too badly delayed thankfully.  Their three weeks just whizzed by but we had some great fun not least managing to keep Uncle Stan's birthday visit to play golf at Minthis Hills a surprise.  We still had a whole host of things we could have done but these are now having to be "rolled over" until the next time or even the time after that!!!

John dropped me off to art, my foot is still not that good.  The pain seems to move around and it is difficult to find the right footwear to cope with it.

Incredibly the high wedge shoes I wore on our night out on Saturday proved to be the most comfortable but I can't really wear them around the house.

We stopped at the cemetery to see Dad.  As it was somewhat overcast I managed to take some clearer photographs of the roses which John placed on his grave and Elena's grave for JJ&S, both were looking good.

As we stood at the end of Dad's grave John could hear a strange noise, he thought it sounded a little like someone tapping, tapping from the inside which was very scary so we just had to try and track it down.

After a while we realised that the noise was coming from an oil lamp on a neighbouring grave.  It wasn't burning properly and kept giving out a sort of pop, pop, pop sound from within the lantern.  We were rather glad that we had got to the bottom of it and that it was nothing more sinister than that.  We couldn't open the lantern to sort out the offending wick so it will continue to pop, pop, pop for a while longer yet.

Anyway scare over John went on down to Polis to get his long awaited hair cut and managed to get in this time which he was pleased about and he got the gas bottles swapped out for fresh new ones so that we can have the gas fire lit if we need it.

We tend to take the chill off the lounge with that when it isn't really cold enough to have the wood burner lit and I have a gas ring which we use to boil water (or even cook) if we have a power cut which thankfully doesn't happen quite so often nowadays.

I started a new picture this week having completed the artichoke head.  Sheila had given me a board and some paper so I could get the rough outline drawn out at home thus saving some time this morning.

After a lot of searching around I decided that I would do a picture of house leeks.  I decided that my strength seems to lie in floral pictures and it is what I enjoy.  I liked the shape, form and colours in this picture.  For those not familiar with the process I have a black and white print of the colour original to trace around key points using carbon paper onto the art paper so that I can ensure the proportions and perspective are correct.  Sometimes, depending on the picture those key lines are few but on this one I put in as many of the leaves as I could.  Then it is a question of finding and blending the colours you want to achieve the finished look.  I do not always follow the colours of the original faithfully, they may be too light or bright or just plain wrong for what I want in the finished item.  Anyway happy to say I got off to a good start and am enjoying it so far.

It was very hot and muggy today and after a very busy few weeks we decided to take it easy this afternoon save that John wanted to wash off the solar and PV panels with his new brush which we got from the petrol station the other week.  It was declared a success so hopefully he will have optimised the panels efficiency which is important as we move into Autumn and less settled weather.

Hot and sticky John decided the best way to cool off was to go into the pool.  The temperature of the water has raised by a couple of degrees over the last couple of days when it has been so hot.  He said it was 'lovely when he had got in' - I took his word for it - sorry Stan I didn't go in this time but that is not to say that I have stopped for this year.

I will finish this blog with a photograph of the picture that Mum has completed from her etching book and which she had framed for us.

I am thrilled that Jacky and Janet have managed to find something 'crafty' that Mum can manage because she used to love doing her pergamano before arthritis and trigger finger stymied that for her.  This only requires the etching book and a small tool which comes with it and so Mum will be able to bring it with her when she is staying with us over Christmas if she wants to.

The remainder of our day was pretty quiet save for the fact that our neighbour Marilena's house alarm had been going off and she rang to ask John to go and see if there was a problem.  There wasn't as far as he was able to tell but everything is locked up so if there is a lizard or spider running around being picked up by the sensor we can't tell.  We have agreed to keep a key for her for these occasions.  It would appear she is still keen to sell her property so if any of my readers are interested in 1A please let me know and I can put you in touch.  She had quite a lot of work done to the outside over the summer and the handiman has left and interesting spiders web of netting to keep the birds out!!