Sunday - eating outside

It was a slow start to the day weather-wise.  There was quite a bit of cloud needing to be burned off first thing which gave a chill in the air but once it was gone it was another lovely day.  We took a walk in to the village arranging to meet Mum at the cemetery.  We have done this walk many times and used to see a little old lady coming out to get her water in a bucket from a standpipe outside.  We guessed she probably didn't have any running water indoors.  She lived in an ancient village house with an equally ancient building in the garden and to her right.  These are now all being renovated and it is lovely to see some life being injected into this corner of the village.  We never knew the house with the bright blue shutter existed as it was hidden by greenery and a makeshift wall.  We shall watch with interest to see how this all develops.

All was good at the cemetery - the plants in the trough at the end of Dad's grave are doing fine - but the little pansies were in need of a good watering but will last a little longer yet.  We have still to get round to re-blacking the lettering on the headstone - it is on my list to do before my sister comes over in May.

Back home I showed Mum my magnolia tree which is proudly sporting three blooms.  As I said before Dad was determined to buy me this as one of our houses in the UK had two magnificent Magnolia trees, one in the front garden and one in the back garden.  I was uncertain as to whether it would survive here in Droushia and it struggled for the first couple of years until I moved it into an area with indirect sunlight and now it seems to be happy.

I desperately need to get a few hours in the garden over the next week or so before it gets too hot - things are going wild at the moment and will soon get out of control.

We gave Mum the choice as to whether we ate in or out today and she thought it would be warm enough to be outside although there was still a bit of a breeze coming through - having made the decision herself she wasn't really able to back out!

We were having Frittata for lunch today with little roasted hasselback potatoes and coleslaw.  This was supposed to be a quiche but realised that the frozen pastry I had wouldn't be suitable and I am useless at making pastry and really didn't have the time so I made a base of sauted potatoes and added bacon, caramelised onion and sausage, spring onions and asparagus (picked yesterday) and this was all bound together with a cheesy, creamy, eggy mix.

Here is photographic proof of our first Sunday lunch sat outside I think Mum began to regret her decision to do so as she was pretty quick to sit back round the other side of the garden in full sunshine afterwards.  She said she enjoyed the meal but didn't eat very much.  I don't know if she is bothered by her upcoming operation.  I did ask her and she said she was fine about it and at the end of the day it is her decision - we haven't pressurised her but think it is absolutely the right thing to do particularly when she said that if she looked at me with just her right eye she could only see my outline - thankfully her glasses continue to correct that sufficiently for her to be able to drive but I am thinking only just.

Lou, Malc and Alysia's holiday is fast coming to a close and we had invited them all round for a drink this evening - it turned quite chilly and George feels the cold so we had a quick drink outside and then escaped to the warmth of the conservatory.  It is lovely that they have plans for 11b but it is difficult to manage any works long distance so John is helping them out to make sure that as far as possible things go to plan - they just have to agree first on what they want!!!