Hissing Sid comes visit...

With temperatures above average and set to soar even higher there is not much to report as we are doing very little at the moment.

This week's challenge is Glass and I have been fiddling about trying to find something different to submit so whilst I was sat cooling off under the fan and having a troll through Pinterest I came across a technique of colouring glass using nail varnish!!!  Basically you drop some nailvarnish into a tub of water and then dip the glass into it and hey presto!  So I took a little t-light holder and gave it a go.  I am really quite impressed with the results!!!

So bar a swim once John had cleaned the pool and allowed the chemicals to do their stuff that was the most excitement we had during the day.  We had an early tea as we had managed to persuade Isabel to come up to us this evening for a cuppa - more of which later.  Today was fridge surprise night and we had salad with roasted red peppers, bacon and halloumi and it was lush - you have got to love a good salad and the Halloumi from our village is so lovely, soft and creamy.

John was concerned about having our very large piece of marble for the potting bench on the floor in case someone tripped over it and hurt themselves or worse, cracked the marble.  It is a huge piece and as a result weighed a ton but John decided we should try and get it lifted up and put into place.  We managed - or rather he managed but I was terrified he was going to do himself an injury.  It now needs to be glued into position but to be fair it isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon and it is much safer up there than it had been and it does look tidier.  Once in place John is going to stone clad the side walls and then it will be finished.

We have not been up to cemetery for a few days and as it has been so hot I thought we should go today and water Dad's plants.  We have a little routine whereby I sort out Dad's and John waters David's and Elena's.  The little tree in Elena's (which I think is Myrtle but I could be wrong) has, as a result of John's TLC suddenly produced flowers.  Elena was no lover of flowers but I hope she thinks that this is simple and discrete enough for her.  Bless her, in December she will have been gone 4 years - where on earth does that time go?

So tonight I was going to pick up Isabel and bring her to our house for a change of scenery.  We met Isabel and David at the beginning of lockdown when their neighbour asked us if we could do their shopping as they both had health issues which meant they had to self isolate.  At that time we knew David was waiting for a stent operation which had been cancelled because of the presence of Covid-19 at Paphos Hospital.  What we did not know was that actually David had cancer and sadly during lockdown he passed away.

We have been doing Isabel's shopping ever since as she has had to come to terms with David's death and her prolonged isolation due to her own health issues.  She has done remarkably well under the terrible circumstances she has faced but recently we have felt she needed to venture out a little further than just taking her dog for a walk and she agreed - a couple of weeks ago she did socialise with her neighbours Iris, Andros and Aliki who have a holiday home opposite and who had come to visit from Nicosia and managed to enjoy her evening even though she had a wobble when returning to an empty house for the first time.  We say to her it is small steps and she needs to make them at her own pace so we were pleased when she said she would come and she said she had had a lovely evening - no cup of tea - she bought a bottle of wine and she had a couple of glasses.

We had a bit of excitement during the course of the evening when I went to the loo and noticed that there was a small snake in our front garden.  Snakes don't bother us and we would always prefer to evict them and move them on elsewhere.  Our first job was to do a quick headcount with the cats to ensure that they were out of the way as we know they would be inclined to try and play with it.  All cats accounted for John sprang into action to get the snake to move.  We aren't 100 per cent sure but we reckon it was a baby blunt nosed viper and so wanted it away asap.  John persevered and got rid thank goodness!