Walking with Rachel - and we get wet!!!

April is upon us with its showers - our sunshine seems to have gone on holiday and is currently enjoying its time in the UK.  There was a change of plan today so I was out walking with Rachel and when we did our weather check at 7.30am there was some sunshine and  blue skies and although rain was forecast it didn't seem like it was imminent (how wrong can you be???)

Mindful that walking with Rachel recently has resulted in a soaking I had planned a shortened trip down from Kathikas to Theletra and back where we would be on or near a main road should we need rescuing.  As we set off that seemed to be a bit over cautious but sensible.

It was good to be out in the fresh air.  Poor Rachel has had such a tough time of it over the past year with the restrictions and the added stress of periods of home schooling her son Athos who is autistic and so comes with his own unique challenges that our mornings out walking are a welcome respite and today with the threat of rain ever present we power walked our way down to Theletra.

It was all going so well until we got to the short sharp steep hill out of Theletra which was slippery from recent rain and then we started to feel some rain spots and then the heavens opened and we were slip-sliding our way up the hill as fast as we could.  Just beyond this hill we cross the main road and it is here that we can make a decision about whether or not we want to be rescued and also from here we can see what the weather is going to do.

As we got to the top we were soaked right through but we could see that the clouds were slowly moving from the direction of Paphos and that behind it looked brighter - over across to the Troodos we could here the rumble of thunder - neither Rachel nor I want to walk in a thunderstorm but it sounded far enough away as to pose no immediate threat.

We decided to carry on when we could see that there was possibly enough bright weather for us to get home on the route planned and we were lucky enough to do exactly that although my the time I had driven back home it was throwing it down once again and it remained like that for the rest of the day.

We had invited Di and Rob for a meal this evening which we had started to prepare yesterday.  In the slow cooker we had a pork neck and lemongrass thai curry which was being served with plain brown rice.  To accompany there was a platter of lemon pickle and flatbread with a Thai cucumber salad  and for an extra bit of taste and texture a hot bowl of Thai Spiced Roast Potatoes.

(Sorry Di that I managed, as I normally do, to take your photograph and you had your eyes shut).  It was lovely to have Di and Rob round even though we were restricted to just three hours.  The weather was appalling but we were warm and cosy inside and, mindful that Di and Rob do not do very very spicy, I had produced a meal which was fragrant and full of flavour rather than blow your head off.  It all seemed to go down well and I was super happy that my pudding was a success.  We had mango with a ginger biscuit crumb and a dollop of my home made coconut ice-cream which was made without churn or machine.

Even though it was a cold and wet night and we have packed away the woodburner for this winter John had the house toasty warm with the gas fire behaving (big pat on the back to John for sorting it as it will last a while longer yet) and plenty of candles.  A lovely evening all round and Di and Rob got back safe and sound despite having to negotiate a sewerage problem en route home.