Our new neighbours are here...

We are approaching the end of November and today started out bright and breezy - well that is how it started out but sadly come lunch time it started to bucket down.  We knew that Nicky and Mark were meeting the electrician this morning and Nicky had asked if they could tap into our electricity so that she could do some cleaning up so we knew we needed to be up and about for them - blow me the buggers were early and caught me just coming out of the shower!!!  We have said we need to have a traffic light system for them in the future - Green is great come on in we are happy to see you, Amber means that we might appreciate a text in advance just so we can look presentable or that we are on our way home and very close and Red means DO NOT DISTURB UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!  Today we would have been on Amber!!!

I decided to take the opportunity to pack away the day bed this morning - I had been out a couple of times to find the waterproof cover doing its job but realising the atmosphere can be quite damp didn't want the cushions and covers to go mouldy.  As I went to clear everything away I realised that the little fold-up chairs we had bought had actually started to show signs of mould so I set about cleaning them off so that I could get them dry and put away.  

The labels say don't wash and don't bleach which isn't helpful when you want to get rid of mould but I found some foam spray for stains so decided to use that - happily after a spray and a scrub they came up pretty clean and I managed to peg them on the line long enough that they got reasonably dry and then put them in the conservatory to finish them off.

Whilst I was doing this John was busy across the road helping Nicky and Mark out.  The electrician came and had a look around and will be coming back on Monday to do the necessary - John will be able to let him in so Nicky and Mark don't have to come back.  It is an exciting time for them and really they have been presented with a blank canvas so that they don't have to make do with anything inside the property.

I think I have been lucky enough to rescue all the cushions from the daybed before they got damaged.  It is difficult to tell whether or not things are cold or damp or both at the moment so erring on the side of caution I put them all in the sun in the conservatory to ensure they were dry and managed to hang the throws out on the line for a dry and an air.

My next problem is where I am going to house them all as I am still waiting for the storage bag I have ordered to arrive.  I don't know whether it is because businesses are now expecting Brexit to happen shortly after the election but I have noticed a massive increase in the cost of postage and packing from both Amazon and EBay shops - not that we need much but sometimes the things I have been looking for I just haven't been able to find over here or have necessitated a day scouring the shops in Paphos which we don't do very often.  

Until we have someone needing to sleep in the spare room they can live there and then hopefully my storage bag will arrive and I can temporarily house them elsewhere when that room is in use.  To be fair we don't get that many people staying with us now.

As I said it was dry this morning so it gave Nicky and Mark the opportunity to do some work on the house so with the help of their long extension lead we were able to let them tap into our electricity. 

Charlie was fascinated by the cable and even more fascinated by the fact that there were people he knew in the house opposite and the door was open - this was clearly an open invitation for him to go in and make himself at home!!!  He is going to have a bit of a shock if he tries to do that when Nicky and Mark's cat Cefor is in residence!!!

After all the years of the houses opposite being empty it is now a bit strange to open our garden gate and see the door of the house opposite open but knowing that it is friends who will be there is rather nice - particularly for me when John goes away - at least if there is an issue and Mark is at  home I can go and knock on the door - but only if the signal system is on Green obviously!!!

I know that Nicky had brought coffee up with her but we made some fresh and John and I went over to lend a hand because initially, as I well remember, it seems like there is a mountain to climb and then all of a sudden things start to fall into place.

I also wanted to take some photographs for them so that they can look back at the journey this property will have taken by the time they have brought their plans to life.  Nicky is the photographer really but she couldn't clean windows and be happy snapping so I took a few shots.  Mark was getting to grips with a fig tree which was taking up a massive amount of room in the space between the two buildings.  This has grown with no help at all and had to go - they are a nightmare - full of sticky sap which will burn your skin if you are not careful and difficult to kill off so they may have to get someone in to dig the roots out.  We left them to it and told them to come round for a bite to eat when they had had enough.

Having seen Mark doing his radical pruning I decided I would take the opportunity to give the Passion Flower along the back wall its annual haircut.  It all looks a bit bare once it has been but back but then we get to see the wall behind which is lovely and this plant grows so rapidly in the Summer it is better that it gets a prune now.  I always leave a little bit of green still growing so the plant realises it still has something to support.  On a dry day next week I will have to tackle the clock vine which is a bit of a task and made worse when it is wet.

The weather changed quickly - it went from blustery and sunny to piddling down.  I blame Nicky for cleaning the windows!!!  She and Mark raced down the path and into ours for some food.  I rustled up some toasted sandwiches using the fabulous loaf of bread which Liselotte had brought on Thursday.  Brilliant bread but so seedy that it was a bit messy!!!

We had intended to go out shopping particularly as Mum is coming for lunch tomorrow but I couldn't face it so we did a search in the freezer and found some chicken and I checked the veggie box to find that I had all sorts in there and I was hoping to find a recipe which might allow me to use the kumquats so we gave it a miss and I am not sorry that we did!