A trip into the village

Minnie seems to be on the mend but the whole visit to and stay in the vets has totally traumatised her so she spends most of the time hiding in my underbed drawer.  This is fine by us but she just doesn't seem to be very happy although she is coming out to eat regularly and at night before we go to bed she appears for a cuddle but does not stop for long.  I hope it is only a matter of time before she trusts us again.

I had a day in the garden today but not doing what I had planned to do.  I was rather shocked and a bit upset when I went out this morning to see that the piece of marble which had been inscribed incorrectly for Dad's grave and which we rescued was no longer on the side of the shed.  I couldn't believe it - no-one would have wanted to pinch that surely?  After some investigation we realised that when we had the mini-tornado last week it must have shaken the shed so much that the marble slab fell down and was hidden by the plant which grows at the bottom.  We were so pleased to unravel the mystery but John could not rescue it without me doing some radical pruning so that is what I spend my morning doing.

As a result the marble is now back in place and the vinca that was growing underneath has been cut back to either side of where Chivers is buries and our little memorial bits and pieces now clearly on display.  Hadge's rose has been moved across a little and currently it is in full bloom.  The chimnea is not even on its last legs - we had to remove them as they had rusted and collapsed as has the base so it would no longer be able to house a fire.  I know our 'peace' garden is not everyone's cup of tea but it is a discrete little spot for our memories.

We did not have anything much planned for today.  Mum had an appointment with her eye doctor - the final check up after her cataract operation I think and so soon she will be able to replace her superglued glasses.  Today she was going out for a light lunch with Kaye as they had been invited for supper with Lilian.

John said he fancied going for a bit of a walk finishing up in the village to check the post and go and have a drink in the garden at Finnikas as we have not done this for ages. We asked Lakis and Argy if they would like to join us as they have not been in the garden before although they have eaten at the taverna.  When we arrived it was open but there was no-one there and John couldn't find anyone at the post office or make himself heard at the house but undeterred he got us glasses and beers and a 7up and we decided that if no-one turned up we would take a photograph of the empties and leave some money.  In the end I contacted Andri (Philippos's daughter) and she managed to locate her Dad and he wandered in to find us and engage Lakis and Argy in conversation.  Initially he wasn't going to charge us for our drinks but we insisted!

John has been desperate to get a haircut - he has been down to Polis on numerous occasions but there has always been a massive queue - he was beginning to look a right old Billy Bouffant so decided to see if the barbers in the village was open.  In fact Philippos rang the barber to make sure!

The old shop used to be something out of a museum but it did get a facelift a while back and now, although small, is light and airy and has all mod cons.  Christakis the Barber did a really good job and I think John may well go here now as it is on the doorstep and he likes to support the local economy.

We strolled back from here taking the back road from the Church which brings us out near Christos's house giving Lakis and Argy a guided tour of all the houses that we knew about and many that we did not.  

It was a glorious early evening - so much warmer than yesterday for which I am pleased as it means Kaye will be able to get some time at the beach hopefully.  Tomorrow she is coming up to us in the afternoon and we are walking to Fitos and then having a meal there before she goes back to Paphos.  Before we know it her week will be over!

Our meal today was leftovers and very nice it was too!!!!  We had a pizza left over from the weekend and some wedges taking up valuable space in the freezer and odds and sods from the salad box in the fridge.  We have become addicted to green salads - mainly because the tomatoes just don't seem to have much taste at the moment.  We have started eating the small pale yellow local peppers and we threw caution to the wind and bought some fresh peas the other day (just a few as they were very expensive) and we had them thrown in along with some baby rocket leaves from the garden.

Tomorrow we have the dentists - I am hoping that it might be the freebie clean that we get on the National Health as we are both going and we have had a pretty expensive time of things recently and I need to get my eyes tested soon so need some money available on our insurance policy to do so!

Anyway a good day today - John and I even had a dip in the pool after we had done our gardening!  it is back up to 24 degrees.  On a slightly different note John got to speak to his mum today - she has put her back our gardening - she may be been in pain but she was her normal bright self on the phone.  Let's hope it gets better quickly.