Outside in the Garden

John was off down to Paphos and Dip's place today with Savvas the Electrician.  Dip had decided to replace the aircon units in the apartment with modern efficient ones - I think having experienced our lovely weather this winter had made his mind up!  Savvas came on time (he is always either on time or early unlike most other tradespeople we encounter) and picked John up and they went off together.  We had sunshine so I got washing in and hung out and spent a bit of time in the garden.  The Hosta are going well, the six I have placed in Wendy and Bill Corner are all growing even though Charlie has desperately tried to use them as a toilet, hence the green grit which seems to put him off.  The right hand one in the photograph almost got ousted completely so it got extra grit.  I have no idea how Charlie thought he was going to balance his fat backside on these small flower pots but he sure as hell had a good go - unless of course it was Miss Minnie????

My beautiful hanging baskets purchased with the money which was sent by the art group members who take part in my lockdown challenge might have survived the winters we have experienced for the last few years but they have taken a real hammering and look very sad.  I decided to tidy them up and in so doing found that the begonias were actually showing a bit of life as were a couple of the spider plants so I am hoping that with a little TLC and some additional plants they can be revived.

This is not my photograph - my hastily made breakfast this morning was so delicious that I forgot to take a snap of it before it was gone.  

I realised that I had an avocado in the fruit bowl that was well soft - I mashed it up with some honey and cinnamon and slapped it on a piece of toast and oh boy it was really lovely.  I might even be able to persuade John to try it like that because it isn't his favourite when it is over ripe - he is a real texture person and doesn't like mush.

I have a second avocado which will be breakfast this coming weekend even if I have to eat it all myself.

I had asked John before he left whether or not Savvas would need to come in to our house as I was in my scruffers waiting for the sunshine to heat the water to have a shower.  He said 'no' so I didn't bother to get tidied up and was just sitting down to type up my blog when they returned and John shot in to say that Savvas was coming in because he had a new extractor fan for the shower which would be considerably quieter than the one we currently have and wanted to fit it!!!  To be fair Savvas did fit it and charged us nothing - it was a gift apparently and so it was a small price to pay for him to see me looking far from my best!!!

Savvas stayed for a while having a coffee with us and putting the world to rights.  He is such a nice man and it was interesting hearing him talk about his recent illness, I am not sure what it was but whatever it was, it was bad, because he said he stared death in the eye and thought "is this what my life has amounted to dying all alone in a hospital bed?" and he said he decided he wasn't prepared to die and now having survived, looks at life quite differently bless him.

We were round at 11b trying to get the universal remote control working when we had a message from Nicky asking if we fancied going around and enjoying the sunshine with them with a glass of wine.  We didn't need any persuasion - we downed tools/remote control and tidied ourselves up and went over.  If you weren't in a sheltered spot the wind was still very cold but we were in a sheltered spot and as a result started to get hot very quickly - I had to take my jeans off as the sun was burning through the fabric - it was ok because my top was like a dress.  You could see why holidaymakers might brave shorts and t-shirts if they were in the right place!!!

Mark and Nicky's pool looked lovely with the sun shining on it and last year I went swimming in our pool in April because the water was a reasonable temperature earlier than normal and I think I had been out for a walk that day and really fancied a dip so thought I would just test out the water today - you can tell by my face that it was brassic - my guess about 10 degrees and I cannot believe that John and I did that swimming thing the year he was 50 and decided to keep swimming (even just one circuit) in our pool until the water went down to 50 which is 10 degrees celsius.  Actually it is ok when the temperature of the water drops gradually day by day rather than going straight in when it is cold!!!

I am useless having a drink in the afternoon so we went home and I had a snooze on the sofa and John did the cooking.  He made the smoked salmon and asparagus pasta dish that I was going to make - he didn't seem keen when I suggested it but having made it himself he said he really enjoyed it.  He is getting really good with his cooking - I shall soon be able to retire at this rate!!!