26th April

The weather is somewhat better today but I feel that the enforced incarceration is beginning to drive us all a bit nuts and Mum in particular found it a very long and a very boring day.  Sadly there is nothing we can do to change this and that is frustrating - I have tried to find films and series on the TV and encouraged people to contact her and for her to pencil in something to do each day but today that just wasn't enough.  Let's hope that they do announce some relaxation of the rules later on this week.

The bad weather yesterday wreaked havoc with the garden and so I have a vase full of freesias to brighten up the lounge rather than for them to waste away as they had been battered to the ground.

Freesias are John's Mum's favourite flowers and I like them too but the ones in the garden are unruly and have spindly stems so they are better picked and in a vase rather than gracing the borders.

I know that the garden centre at Agia Marina is open and I am very tempted to venture out there as there are a couple of things I could do with.  If they start to allow more than one outing a day then I will go when I can - I want to create some hanging baskets that are good all year round - for that I want variagated plants like ivy.  It would be good to get the baskets established now before we move into longer hotter and drier weather.

John is toying with the idea of getting a delivery from Paphos Home Market so that he can get on with a couple more jobs - he is quite happy to stay at home and get on with jobs as long as he has jobs and the materials to complete them.

John has had a great idea to mark this strange period in our lives here in Cyprus during the Lockdown - he has suggested we create a reminder which we are going to place in the garden.  We have found a flattish pebble and using my Sharpies have drawn a heart, coloured in as a rainbow, because the rainbow has become synonymous with this Virus and have put a date on it just in case we were ever to forget when this happened.

We have suggested this to our Lockdown Art Group for something that the Children might like to do (or even adults for that matter) should they find no inspiration from the current Challenge as we know that some people have struggled with the current theme of Space.

Anyway ours is done - whether the Sharpies are colour-fast remains to be seen but it is bright and cheeful and that is what we need at the moment.

We are struggling a bit to find jobs that we can finish but we have been thinking about doing something with the old patio doors that are in the garden.  Until John can replace his trusty workbench and tool store it is a bit of an eyesore which is in full view.

I found some etching spray in John's shed when we started to clear it out - we thought it would be opaque white but when we masked off the glass and sprayed it on it looked like someone had just thrown soapy water at the glass so John decided to go over it with some brown spray which was loafing in there - this resulted in a sort of tortoiseshell finish where the two paints reacted.  We masked off three vertical 'slits' in the glass which are a bit difficult to see in the photograph but it just means that the bench and the bits and pieces John has stored there are hidden from view for the time being.

Today saw the end of the Space challenge - the entries were coming in thick and fast right up until the last minute which meant that it was sometime after 9.00pm before I had the winners of last week sorted and the albums for this week ready for people to view.

My friend Georgia in South Africa has chosen next week's theme which is The View from My Window - very apt in these lockdown conditions and open to all sorts of interpretation.  I have been on a wander around the garden to try and get inspiration but as I say my watercolour skills are poor so I may submit photographs instead.

Not much more to report on our day.  We had pork tenderloin with mustard mash and vegetables today for our Sunday lunch and some of the lovely strawberries which Rob dropped off with our post yesterday.

The Ration Book Says...
Tractors and commercial vehicles were given an allowance of special 'leaded' petrol not available to private motorists and it was coloured red to distinguish it from the rest.  People who wanted to cheat the system and use it in their own cars tried various methods of getting rid of the colour, including putting 'black lead' into it and straining it through women's silk stockings!