Great Neighbours...

There has been a definite shift to the weather up in Droushia which has come as a welcome relief and hopefully will have passed through before John's Mum, Jackie and Stan arrive.  This morning I woke to what I thought was the noise of Minnie using the mat outside the bedroom door as a scratching post.  I got up to let her in only to find that the noise was, in fact, big plops of rain on the pool cover.  Not many and not for long but the first rain of what I guess is now late Summer.  John said that the evenings have reverted to our normal cool damp condensation laden ones with an accompanying rolling mist now and again.

I seemed to have a lot I wanted to fit into today, gardening, cleaning, washing before I return to Mum's tomorrow so that I can take her to the clinic on Monday.  As I was outside clearing up some of the dead flowers that had fallen from the clock vine I felt a bit like Tippi Hedron in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds as I has being surveyed by the local, and annoying, pigeon population.

On the subject of the Clock Vine it is looking stunning and we are praying that we wont get too much windy weather so that it is looking good whilst John's Mum is here.  John has done a pretty good job of keeping things watered and at bay whilst he has been in charge - it isn't something he likes doing but when I arrived home he was armed with the secateurs and had tidied up the solanum which grow by the hour.

Between us we did a bit of a tidy.  It was easier today because it was just a little cooler outside although that didn't last long as the sun soon burned the clouds off.

Even though it has been a long and exceptionally hot dry summer this year the garden hasn't fared too badly and there are still splashes of colour dotted around and the orange hibiscus we bought and put in pots last year have done particularly well which is great because in the past I have struggled with this plant.  There seems to be much more variety with them now and these are stocky shrubby plants which kept their leaves most of the winter.

As I haven't been home much for the last week or so I took the opportunity to pop in and have a quick coffee with Lakis and Argy and then nipped down to say hello to Isabel as I couldn't go to the airport with John to pick her up on Saturday.  She is fine and was so pleased that we had managed to tidy up the house for her return.  She is now making plans for her future but it is going to take a while to get everything organised but the arrival of her new grandchild has made it easier to make a decision and I think it is absolutely the right one for her although she did say she hadn't realised quite how much she had missed the island and how at home and peaceful it made her feel even though she went through such a terrible experience during lockdown losing David.

When Mum is better and I don't have to go up and back so often we are planning to go and have a meal together - it was Isabel's birthday last week and John's next week so we can find an excuse to celebrate!  On that subject John and I are not now going to stay at the Almyra next week - it is all too much to fit in what with hospital visits and his Mum arriving and actually John was contacted by an old navy mate who is going to be in Cyprus briefly next week so John has arranged to meet up with him instead - I will be spending John's birthday with Mum instead - which is not exactly what I had in mind but it can't be helped - I am a bit disappointed though - I was looking forward to a bit of luxury for once!

Anyway we rounded off our day (after watching the Mighty Blades in a 6-2 thriller) with supper at Nicky and Mark's - I can't thank them enough for doing that especially as Nicky cooked a fabulous meal without actually having a kitchen.  It was lovely of her to think that I probably wouldn't want to be cooking and she was absolutely right.  The Dirty Kebabs and Lemon Cheesecake were just the ticket as was their kind company and the entertainment of the three Mouseketeers who are beginning to grow a bit and develop their own personalities.

A million thanks Kirby's xxxx