The hot weather brings fires

Oh God it is hot this weekend and the extremely hot weather is due to last about a week apparently.  I am not sure why we are surprised because looking back at photographs this time last year was exactly the same.  I have a photograph showing the temperature in the conservatory hitting 50 degrees - fortunately since we had the reflective film put on the windows it has been much more temperate thank goodness.

(This is not my photograph).  The summer fires have now started - with a vengeance.  A massive one raged around Tala and Kamares yesterday and actually set cars and buildings on fire - some people have lost everything.  I think it is fair to say that a fair proportion of these begin through negligence like a carelessly discarded cigarette onto tinder dry land but sadly there are those which are started deliberately by someone with a grievance or simply because they are some sort of nutter pyromaniac.  On an island where water is short what a ridiculous waste of a precious commodity not to mention the threat to lives both human and animal.  We hope that no-one and nothing was hurt as a result of this.

We had lots of plans today which had included a trip out to the garden centre to replace the shrub we gave a severe haircut to and which doesn't look like putting in a reappearance but we decided that with so many plants in pots dotted around the garden we could just do some reorganisation and that would save us traveling out to Agia Marina and spending money.  Instead I gave the garden either side of the outside shower a good cut back and tidy - it was really too hot to do any more than that.

This afternoon we took a trip down to the village to check the post and to visit the cemetery and then we went down to Rob and Di's to catch up with them and for me to pick up the sign I made for their garden about 5 years ago which has now faded and is unreadable.  We spent a very pleasant hour or so sat under their 'bandstand' catching up with what has been going on since we saw them last and arranging to meet up in the week for a kebab at Finikas in the village.

Somehow the day just ran away with us today and we wanted to settle down and watch the football this evening which was Denmark and Wales - split loyalties really on this one as Liselotte is Danish and we have good friends Glen and Rachel who are in Wales!!  Anyway to set ourselves up for the match we had mini steaks with a peppercorn sauce, homemade onion rings, paprika 'chips' and a spicy salad.  It was delicious!