Green Monday - no kite flying for us

Today is Green/Clean Monday - the beginning of Lent for the Orthodox Cypriots and traditionally a day when families get together, have a picnic and fly kites.  In the 10 years we have been here we have never had an ideal day for these activities.  We have had flat calm, gale force winds, storms the lot!!!  This year with Covid we had no plans and even more so as, in their infinite wisdom, the powers that be have relaxed the restrictions so that families can gather - apparently Covid won't be operational today anywhere on the island.  Tomorrow the curfew is pushed back to 11pm and restaurants and cafes are allowed to open but the restrictions for this are almost laughable - outside space only (mmmmm bloody chilly up here this week) - no music which might encourage any sort of foot tapping or swaying and masks to be worn save for the moment when you open your mouth to eat or drink and then straight back on again when swallowing - now that makes for a lovely atmosphere NOT!!!  Many places have decided to wait until some sense is exercised but numbers are rising and although the annual festivals were supposed to have been canceled this year they held one in Limassol (where the infection numbers are rampant) and hundreds of people attended.

As I keep saying to Mum we cannot trouble ourselves with what other people are doing we just have to satisfy ourselves that we are doing what we think is best for our own health and safety.  So today I had earmarked some time in the garden because if nothing else it would keep me warm!!!  John was doing 'stuff' including giving his chain saws a bit of a once-over.

Although it is early in the season and the weather in March has been colder and stormier than in February there is some good colour and lots of things are putting on new growth.  It is quite hard then to cut things back and generally I am guilty of not cutting things back hard enough.  Today I tackled the bed at the front of the house where there were three lavenders, a sage, some yellow oxalis (which is often considered a weed but which I find very cheerful) and an array of pots to get under control.  There have been a couple of casualties over the winter and absolutely no sign of the Solomon's Seal which I got for Sonia and me last year - she says she has given up on hers 😔😔😔

My afternoon was spent sorting out my entries for this weeks' challenge which is "Anything to do with a Wedding" - hopefully specific enough but wide enough to spark interest and allow for some interesting submissions.

I decided to just try some sketching with a bit of colour for added interest which seemed to work quite well.  I was quite happy fiddling around with this whilst John watched a film.  He had earmarked one which he wanted to watch and which I would be unlikely to enjoy but he tried three different streams and got three different films - what he wanted to watch and what he ended up watching were two very different things.  He ended up watching The King which was about Henry V and was pretty good looking at the few scenes I saw.

Life retains a fairly simple pattern at our house, we cannot complain as we have comfort, heat, food and drink.  I keep wondering if there are things we can do to make our house more comfortable or more efficient but I think we have done the best that we can within our budget.

We are both walking tomorrow weather permitting - it was due to rain and then the forecast changed and then when we went to bed it started to get very stormy so who knows?