Railings painting...

Today started out quite grey and cool.  This was fabulous for us as we had earmarked today to tackle the railings on the roof terrace!!  Currently the railings are a sort of weathered chocolate brown but the idea was to paint them in black so we could see what we had done and what we had not.  We needed to move all the furniture out of the way and put dust sheets down so that we would not get black on the tiles.

We had decided to do one side at a time so if the weather deteriorated we could stop and know how far we had got.  It is a privilege to be able to do a job like this, with the view that we have, which is across to Chrysochous Bay and although cooler today it was clear and bright once the sun had burned off the early morning mists.

We managed to get all the railings done but not the ladder which we will tackle on another day.  We have to be careful that the cats are not about otherwise they will get stuck to the paint!!!  Actually we thought we had completed the railings but when we collapsed into the pool to cool down we could see areas that we had completely missed!!!  We managed to get some of those sorted today - the others will have to wait until Monday!!

John has been worried about the woodburner stackpipe because it can wobble a bit in high winds so he was an idea about securing it so whilst we were 'up top' he went a little futher so that he could see what he was having to work with.

He has some tension wires that he plans to attach to the stackpipe so that if it is windy the stack will remain still.

Really the main focus of today was all about the roof, the roof and getting lunch ready for tomorrow when Mum will come with her friend Lilian.

I have sorted the menu - we are to have halloumi with orange and salad for a starter, then for the main we are having a Thai chicken and kumquat dish with jeweled rice.  Lilian had given us some kumquats and so I wanted to cook something using them.  Our sweet is to be a mango fool but I haven't made it before and am a bit concerned so I am thinking about ways of tarting it up a bit.  I try really hard to find things that will tempt Mum when her appetite is leaving her but am not always successful!!