Saving a bee...

We have, on two occasions today, been trying to save exhausted bumble bees with a spoonful of sugar water.  To be fair - they seemed disinterested in the water preferring to be moved to an area of shade where they were able to regain their strength and fly off again.  The advice on what to do if you find a bee in this condition is conflicting - some say feed sugar water, some say not.  We don't like to see anything struggle and die so we try and do our best to make sure they survive.

The garden is currently full of butterflies and dragonflies.  We have a load of swallowtail butterflies at the moment and the lovely little red dragonflies, blue dragonflies and the iridescent damsel flies darting around the pool and the new pond.  The pond lily continues to produce new flowers and I am really glad that we made this addition to the garden.

It is so hot at the moment I can barely summon the energy to do anything much but we decided that we would venture into the village to check the post as we are awaiting one or two things including the cable so that John can watch TV outside - useful for the remaining footie games as it is too hot in the lounge to be comfortable.  This was the view from the post office.  Workers out in full sun forming the cobbles for the road.  The progress is painstakingly slow and it occurs to us that the raised level of the road will cause some issues for people trying to exit their properties as there is now a massive step up.  I guess these things will be addressed.  It would just be nice to think the whole project will be finished soon and everything tidied away but that never happens here in Cyprus!!

Before making our way back home we decided to call into the garden of Finnikas and have a cold drink.  It had been locked up as we walked by to check the post but Marina had come out and had a chat and she said she would open it up for us.  We love sitting at 'our' table - Dionysos Table and we sat in the dappled shade and sank a very welcome bottle of Leon - or two in John's case!!!

Can you believe that we only had three beers and Marina still brought us a plate of salted peanuts, then some delicious hot fresh halloumi bread straight from the oven and a jar of 'Garadaki' - sweet pickled walnuts which are spiced with the flavours of Christmas and a favourite of ours.  She is so kind and works so hard.  When we asked her how Philippos was she said that both he and Marios were having a siesta leaving her to deal with anyone who came in (like us!).

When we came to leave she didn't want to take any money but we weren't having that - I told her to give it to the grandchildren if she wouldn't have it.  We didn't expect our drinks for nothing - on the contrary we want that lovely little business to survive so were more than happy to pay and leave a tip.

I guess the one consolation is that they do not appear to need to depend on the income from the taverna for their livelihood as it has never been packed to the gunnels day in and day out and so the disruptions from the village 'improvements' and the lockdown and lack of visitors will not affect them as much as others.  We did read somewhere that the Droushia Heights Hotel was participating in a discount scheme to encourage Cypriots to holiday there and it appears to be quite busy to maybe Finnikas may pick up some trade from there if people venture out of the Hotel looking for a change of venue.

On our return and after the current mandatory head-count of cats after we have been away from the house for a period of time I decided I couldn't cope with the heat and felt very tired to put the fan on in the bedroom and kept Boris company as he too was complaining about the heat.  Poor cats don't seem to want to eat during the day but then start demanding food during the cool of the night which has meant me getting up at all sorts of strange times to feed them.  At the moment I really don't want to ignore their requests and have them going out and scrounging elsewhere when we don't know what they are eating.

I think it must have been the hottest day of the year so far so we decided to have a late night swim to try and cool down before retiring to bed.

I haven't been sleeping well - mainly because of the heat but also because of the Chivers incident and I have also been worried about Mum who sleeps poorly too and has been feeling low.

She told me tonight that my sister has suggested that before Mum goes to bed she should write down three good things that have happened during the day so that she goes to bed in a positive frame of mind.  I think I will try and do that too otherwise I think it is easy to get overwhelmed by negative emotions.

So here goes - Good thing number one - we managed to save two bumble bees today in a world where the bee population is diminishing.  Good thing number two - we went for a quick drink in the village and were showered with gifts which makes us feel so very welcome.  Good thing number three - we returned home and our remaining three cats were safe and sound and pleased to see us.