Congratulations Her Madge

For many this weekend marked massive festivities celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.  We will be watching and flicking between that and the cricket.  I don't think I have anything in the garden with a Royal connection save for the fact that there is a purple clematis named after Prince Philip so this is the nearest I could get.  I have two clematis intertwined in the front garden - they were supposed to be different colours but I got two which are purple.  It used to be fairly common in garden centres to be told what you wanted to hear so I distinctly remember asking the woman at the London Road on the Mesoghi for a clematis that was not pink or purple and I got a purple one!  If I were to buy one again in the future I would speak to the lovely Marianna at the Garden Centre in Yialia because I know she will tell me the truth.

We got very little excitement with the cricket until very late in the day when England eventually managed to get New Zealand out in their second innings and went in to bat chasing an achievable total but lost wickets in quick succession.  At the end of Day 3 all hopes were riding on Joe Root which will make tomorrow interesting - can't see it going beyond Day 4.

It was my uncle Ivor's birthday today - he is Mum's only surviving brother and today reached the tender age of 93.  For many years he was his wife Margaret's carer (she had a stroke many years ago) and he was devoted to her - we feared that when she passed away he would go into decline but happily with the help of his family and in particular my amazing cousin Julie he is enjoying a new lease of life.  He is seen here enjoying Jubilee celebrations at Keinton Mandeville with his son, my cousin, Robert which clearly includes a bottle of real ale!!!!

Happy Birthday Uncle Ivor - you are a legend.  

Also cause for celebration was the fact that it was 50 years since my aunty Phylis (mum and Uncle Ivor's younger sister) met her partner the lovely Simon.  They live in Australia and Aunty Phyl has endured years of illness but they are still there, still together and still enjoying life.

Who would have thought that Mum's family would have ended up being so far flung?  From simple beginnings in a small village in Somerset some of the siblings moved away and at one point were living in Canada, Australia, Cyprus and Wales.

We had company this evening when we went 'up top'.  The cats normally join us - they like the vantage point but Boo and Charlie took it a step further and went up onto the PhotoVoltaics - just a shame we can't teach them to give them a clean whilst they are there.  We are still concerned about Charlie who is still out of sorts and not overly impressed by having a shot of olive oil for a couple of days just in case he has eaten something which has disagreed with him.  He does seem to get increasingly confused as his surroundings are changing so we are not unhappy that he seems to prefer to stay in and around the house more now.  

We are out for lunch tomorrow so I didn't have to prepare food in readiness today and I wont have to get up early tomorrow to get it on the go.  We ate up some pork which had been part of a barbeque pack making it into souvlaki and it was lovely.