Recycle Repair Reuse

It always feels nice to be able to recycle or repurpose an item rather than it go into landfill so today I had been able to organise with a chappie from the Friends of Polis Cats for him to come and collect the pool liner which Jan and Derek have removed from the pool next door.

In the past, before she sadly passed away, I used to contact June Griffiths to offer anything which I thought the cat park could use and pool liner was a favourite as it provides a waterproof surface or waterproof cover.  

After the horrendously wet winter we had last winter the animal rescue places have had to find ways of keeping the animals and the volunteers from wading through mud and pool liner is apparently a good answer.

Thanks then to Jan and Derek for the donation and thanks to Dave for coming to pick it up.  It had to be cut into more manageable pieces in order to get it on Dave's truck but between Dave, Jan, Derek and John it got loaded up and taken away to its new home.

It was also nice that Dave said he would come to Droushia at around 11.00 and call me from the Droushia Heights - bless him he was early which was good because we wanted to go shopping afterwards.

People who read the blog will realise that the posts are several weeks in arrears and so by the time you read this Lord knows what the price of fuel is going to be but today, 7th June, it had gone over the 180 a litre mark so it is now twice the price it was during lockdown.  This has had a major impact on the costs of everything and alongside the legitimate price rises everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon and so now everything is more expensive.  

We are careful to make sure that our trips to Paphos or Polis combine shopping and admin so that we are making best use of our time, money and petrol.  For instance, I plan to go next week to take Mum to have her eyes tested now that she has recovered sufficiently from her recent cataract operation to do so and I will get mine done at the same time even though I was going to leave it a bit longer.

This week's trip to the big city is necessary because Mrs Kirby is due an oil change and we need to get the warranty details put into our names from the previous owner.  We will then go and do any shopping required in and around Paphos before calling in to see how Mum is doing.  We are a bit conscious that she had a full and busy week last week and this week she had nothing planned and those weeks are difficult for her because she likes to be entertained, plus her back has been playing her up so she hasn't been doing her daily walk.

We called around to see Nicky and Mark this afternoon,  They have both been poorly with suspected food poisoning which isn't nice.  Fortunately they seem to be on the mend now but the current hot and muggy weather doesn't help.  Fingers crossed they are due some long awaited good news later this week.

Outside their front door they had a wonder of nature taking place.  A cicada had climbed up onto the wall and was beginning to split its outside casing.  If you look closely you can see the new cicada inside waiting to emerge - it will look pale and be soft until its outside hardens again - the outside is actually its skeleton.  

Nicky reckons that this had been brought into the house by one of their cats and Mark had thrown it out.  Hopefully it will survive and grow to chirp another day.  They spend years in the ground developing before they emerge and are really fascinating bugs.

I had not planned much for tea tonight because we thought we may have gone out for breakfast with Argy and Lakis but they were expecting visitors.  I had penciled in to try and use up some of the wanton wrappers I had in the freezer.

We had wanton wrapper quiche cups with salad and they were really nice.  The filling was caramelised onion, cheese and a bit of lounza with an egg mix which had cream and mustard in it.  I didn't think they would be very filling but they were and I shall certainly have a go at making them again.  We think we should pre-cook the wanton cups to make sure that they are completely cooked and dont have a soggy bottom.  Will certainly give it a try!