God save the Queen

We had been impressed with the highlights of the Jubilee celebrations that we had been able to see and I particularly liked this illustration which appeared on Social Media this morning.  The current art/photographic challenge is anything remotely connected to Queen Elizabeth II on this her platinum jubilee year and I am hoping we will get some lovely entries as it has been extended to the end of next week to allow people extra time to submit something.

We were having a quiet day today with not much planned - we are still waiting for our dehumidifier to come back from the menders - it suddenly stopped taking water out of the atmosphere although it sounded like it was working ok but wasn't.  It is under guarantee.  It was supposed to be returned to the shop where we bought it in Polis by taxi but seems to have gone astray!!!  We need to go down at some point but don't want to go down and then have to go back to collect it.

Some of the plants in the garden need a darn good haircut.  The osteospurmum which provide a border around the 'Japanese' garden have flowered and are now past their best so I cut them back so that they will green up and possibly flower again.  In the past I have let them go and they have become woody.  The only problem is that they look rather sad and weary until they perk up again.

The solanum at the end of the swimming pool, which was a gift from Mum's friend Eileen many years ago, has now become the biggest in the garden having been the smallest and I now struggle to keep it under control as it is too tall.  John wanted me to give it a trim but I decided to reduce it in size considerably.  Again it looks a bit sad and weary as by chopping out some branches we have some bare patches.  These plants (part of the potato family) are great survivors so should be back looking great by the time John's mum comes out to see us.

The polygala outside the kitchen window got similar treatment but come the winter I really want to give this a massive cut back and then maybe we might see it flower - normally it never gets to that point.

Supper this evening was the Mexican spiced belly pork strips I got some time ago from Naz.  I am never quite sure the best way to cook these so that they are tender and I was trying out a new recipe of smoky Spanish roast potatoes to go with them.

I have to say that the pork tasted better than it looked as somehow in the process I seemed to lose the Mexican marinade but the flavours were still there.  The potatoes were absolutely amazing and were accompanied by a nice salad.