Walking the walk

I walked with Rachel today and unlike last week when we got drowned today we practically had to walk in our undies except the world is not ready for that and we had left early enough to enjoy a cool breeze for the beginning part.  We met at Arodes Church and we did the same walk together as Nicky and I had done on Tuesday save for the fact that having done the 'long but not so steep ascent' back into the village which nearly killed Nicky's hip we chose the "short but sharp ascent" back into the village and that, in reality, was not so short as we had anticipated.  The cool of the cemetery just before the finish was very welcome indeed.  At the beginning of the walk I introduced Rachel to the shrine of the Patron Saint of Pano Arodes which she did not know existed and she echoed my thoughts that anywhere in the UK this would not be left open for fear of being trashed.

It was incredibly beautiful this morning with clear blue skies and, apart from the myriad of builders walking on the house on the edge of the escarpment, peace and quiet.  Rachel is nervous of heights so we had to find views where there wasn't a sheer drop below so she could see what lay before us.  She was concerned that if I fell (which I had no intention of doing) she would just have to leave me where I lay!!!

I managed to persuade her to walk down to the old bench (where John and I had encountered the goats years ago) and sit to admire the view.  This she was relatively comfortable about doing because there was no sheer drop - in fact there was a road just down below us which would have broken any fall along with a number of bones if we had tested it out.  I think if we have more time one day we can actually take that road on a more circuitous route back to Arodes but it is further and it is steeper and our walk today allows us to get home within the three hour window we are allowed.  I could have sat on that bench for ages chatting and taking in our surroundings but sadly we cannot do that just at the moment.  There are some relaxations to the restrictions on Monday - slightly bonkers ones like the Mall is reopening and all shops and theatres and cinemas but we still can only go out upon request and for 3 hours at a time twice a day and the curfew remains in place.

Here is my very badly taken selfie of us on the seat before we had to move on.  Rachel has perfected the no chins pose whereas I had taken it a step to far and look like I am 'care in the community' anyway bad as it is it is certainly a better shot than the one taken last week when we were like a couple of drowned rats - sheltering at the cemetery to get out of the rain rather than this week sheltering to keep out of the sun!!!

My afternoon was spent cooking.  I got everything ready for our meal with Mum tomorrow - I am doing her favourite Hunter's Chicken and Coleslaw and some sliced potatoes cooked with onions and a creamy white sauce flavoured with nutmeg - I have to admit I scraped the bowl out with that one and it tasted lush!!!

We had been given some kumquats via Mum's friend Lilian and I had begged a bit of coriander off of Rachel so that I could prepared a dish which is Thai Spiced Chicken with Kumquat which I had planned we might have this evening but we are actually going to have on Monday because the spicy pork dish with egg fried rice left over from the other evening proved to be larger than we had anticipated.

A lovely evening in - we had a delivery of wood today from Christos in the village and John got it all stacked neatly away but set aside the 'guff' so that we could burn that tonight which is what we did.  John considers this a free wood night as nothing we burned was of any real substance and it was toasty warm in the house.