Lots of Thank-you's...

We are so very lucky to have lovely Cypriot neighbours who bring us gifts of the culinary kind.  Last week Galatia came with a bag of freshly picked dates which are now nestled in my freezer and, when ready, will be turned into a sticky toffee pudding.  Today Persephone (who Charlie absolutely LOVES and she him) brought over some freshly made Fanouropita which is a fasting cake made as an offering to Agios Fanourios who is the Saint of 'Lost Things' whose help I could do with on a regular basis. 

Persephone's is made traditionally from only 7 ingredients - Flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Oil, Sugar, Orange Juice and Baking Soda and is light and delicious but I am liking the recipe which is in the link above which includes fruit and booze!  Anyway I am going to give making one of these a go myself.

We went into town today to do our weekly shop and stopped on the way down to marvel at the view which was absolutely stunning.  It was so clear today that the outline of the mountains of Turkey were clearly visible to the naked eye and the sea was just so blue.  It is October and I feel we have now created our new normal.  We are careful where we go and who we mix with and we sanitize and mask - things could be so much worse.   

Shopping was uneventful and it wasn't too busy but we haven't been on a Saturday for quite some time so found a few things we normally buy were unavailable which was a bit of a bugger as I am having Isobel and Sonia up for a meal this week - had the menu all planned and now it will mean another trip to Polis to get what was missing. 

This week's challenge is CANDLES.  There are not many entries so far and there is only one day left.  It is probably because people are  returning to some sort of normality or embracing their new normal so do not need to fill time in the same way they did during the initial lockdown.

I still get entries from the lovely little art group in the UK which has been unable to meet since the beginning of the year and I am happy to continue if only for them.

I have had some water-colour pencils knocking around and decided I would have a play with them whilst John was watching this afternoon's football on TV.  I don't have any real idea what to do with them but it was quite nice to see how they worked.  It certainly wont win any prizes but I did manage to create one picture that does actually look like the subject matter - it will swell the numbers if nothing else.  I am busy trying to decide what the challenge should be next week - it is a balancing act to have something which is attractive to artists and photographers alike.  I am thinking that maybe it will be something like Dragonflies or Butterflies - or both!

On the subject of art we have finally got our amazing picture of Chivers framed and put up on the wall in the lounge where he can be with us in the evenings like he would always have been.

It still makes me catch my breath when I walk past and look at it.  I cannot believe that he has gone and I miss him every day - he was simply beautiful, gentle and loving and that picture captures him completely.

I cannot thank my lovely friend Mark Rowe enough for doing this and for finding the time to send it over from the UK when he is not enjoying the best of health himself - actually I know it is his partner Sally that I need to thank for going to the Post Office as Mark is fairly housebound these days.