Blooming Chilly AGAIN

So my plan to float a tennis ball in the little fish pond to stop it freezing over failed miserably because when I went out to investigate this morning not only was there ice but the ball was frozen into it!!!

I removed the sphere of ice - it is fascinating to see the patterns but I do think any hope that the mosquito fish have survived have now long gone.

We are really getting fed up with this cold cold snap - we have never known a March like it.  According to my PV records from the last six or seven years we would normally expect to make around 12-13 kilowatts a day - we are way way below that although the last few days have been a bit better.  Originally we were forecast for the weather to improve next weekend and then be quite a bit warmer but today they are forecasting for the sub zero temperatures to continue for quite a few days longer.

We thought it might be nice today to take Mum to the garden centre before we ate.  I wanted to repot the blue pots that are out in the front garden having repainted the chairs and it is a lovely drive along the coast.  Mum said she was going to come a bit earlier which meant we could stop and have a cup of tea at the cafe without it spoiling our meal.

The flowers at the garden centre are absolutely amazing.  I wanted something vibrant and chose two geraniums with real shocking pinky-red flowers.  They were the sum total of €2.50 each and I will plant them up tomorrow weather permitting.

We had our cuppa first - it was so lovely and warm in the cafe area with the sun streaming through and it was nice to see so many people in there including a Cypriot family with super cute little girls who were pleased as punch to be given a hyacinth each to carry although the younger one had her sights set on one of the large osteospurmum out the front!!

It was a lovely drive there and back - the sea was an amazing colour and you could see the snow on the mountains over in  Turkey.  It also killed an hour or so before lunch.

John was in charge back in the kitchen.  The lamb shanks had been in the slow cooker for about a day and were just being kept warm, the veggies would take seconds few on my return and John had full instructions for the hasselback potatoes so I only had to text him as we were leaving the garden centre for it all to come together.

The lamb shanks (from Shuks) were fabulous and there was enough left for Mum to take a meal home.  John had made a banana cake earlier in the week which we had for pudding - all things that Mum likes which is good.   Next week is UK Mothering Sunday (it is a different day here in Cyprus) and we have been invited to go to Sheila and Klaus's which will be fabulous and I will have the day off cooking and extra people for some conversation.

Fortunately the sunshine had warmed the conservatory beautifully.  It was lovely in there but chilly in the lounge/diner area so John had put the heaters on for Mum.  In between courses we retired to the conservatory -  Lilian had sent some magazines up with Mum for me and I tried finding some recipes she might like having calculated the thousands of Meals I have made for her over the years!  Sadly nothing took her fancy - but no real surprise there.  I like to try and find films or series that Mum might enjoy too because I know how much she struggles to fill her time and with Lilian going away it is going to be even harder.

We had a quiet evening - there was a lot of sport on that John wanted to watch including the first Grand Prix of the season which was, in my opinion, boring.  I know hardened fans will disagree and the two Brits did well to finish third and fourth but when I was watching it the cars only looked to be doing about 20 miles an hour - I know they weren't but the filming didn't seem to be able to portray any kind of excitement.

I am not sure what was going on with Miss Minnie this evening - she suddenly decided she wanted to give John's head a wash - I can only assume she was liking whatever 'product' he did or didn't have on his hair!!!  She used to do this as a small kitten but hasn't done it for years!!!

We have a day in the garden planned for tomorrow - in fact I have a day in the garden planned as John wants to tackle the tree in the field next door.  He has got permission from the owner - in fact he got that at the end of last year but the weather has just not been good enough.  This tree has grown so large we are worried that it might lose a branch or worse, fall, in one of our storms and if it did it could take our wall or next door's wall with it.  We had contacted a tree service company to come and give us a quote to have it reduced in size and made a better shape for the tree's health.  We were a bit surprised that they quoted from a hastily taken photograph and when we said we thought that the quote was too much came back to ask us how much we wanted to pay - John wasn't overly impressed by this approach so has decided to tackle it himself.