A lovely evening at Sonia's

Another terrible night's sleep and another early morning but for John this time as he got up and left me sleeping.  He caught this quick photograph of the sun beginning to rise whilst everywhere else was still in darkness.  I am so grateful for the chance to have a lie in as I have had the most thumping headache which I guess is a by product of the vaccination combined with the heat.  I have always suffered with headaches and migraines from being a little girl and they always knock me sideways.  Last night I felt like my neck was in a vice.  I almost wish I hadn't had that extra jab - I did think twice but with numbers rising and Mum to consider and talking to people who have had covid although vaccinated (and felt like shit) I thought it was wise.

John text me this this morning to make me feel better, anyone who knows his love of the Mighty Blades will know that was a huge statement, it made me smile.

He has be great doing stuff for me even though we don't generally work well together - too many chiefs and not enough Indians but as long as we ascertain who is in charge before we start we are ok.

Mum isn't coming today we have moved her to tomorrow because we had been invited to Sonia's today to have a little meze with her in her lovely garden. 

So John and I got the food prepared for tomorrow - or at least on its way.  We are having quiche and salad with some hasselback potates and fresh fruit afterwards.  They are giving out another weather warning for tomorrow so that seemed like a sensible meal to have.

I have noticed a number of the beautiful swallowtail butterflies flying around the lemon tree, in fact earlier today I tried to get a photograph but failed.  We don't normally see them there but looking at the lemon tree we saw that something had been nibbling at the leaves and on closer inspection spotted the unmistakable stripy caterpillars which are the young of the swallowtail.  We picked off the leaves that were being nibbled along with the nibblers and placed them elsewhere - we will have to keep an eye on that tree although having said that in all the years it has been in the garden it has only ever produced one lemon!  It is obviously a slow starter.

On the subject of slow starters I am super excited that at long last and after being put in about half a dozen different spots my Agapanthus has finally decided to put in an appearance.  Not fully in flower yet it has produced two blooms which are beautiful.  It clearly likes the dappled shade and being in a pot despite what others might advise - the only trouble is it is out of general view where it is and there isn't much colour in the garden at the moment which is a shame.

I watered tonight.  I have restricted the watering to every other day but a good soak on the evenings that I do it.  Everything bar the kiwi fruit and the unknown plant which I grew from seed manages happily with that routine so they get a bit extra.

My headache eased during the day thankfully but sadly returned later in the evening.  I am not keen on taking too many tablets but have had to in order to keep it at bay.  I hope this isn't going to go on much longer.  My arm had stopped feeling tender though which is good as I am able to sleep on that side - recommended for people with a hiatal hernia although it feels quite alien to me as I prefer to face the other way!

Our venue for this evenings soiree with Sonia was her lovely garden which wraps itself around the corner of the entrance to our estate.  It is a mix of flowers and vegetables and she loves it.  She has a lovely hand mosaiced table which sits under the shade of the big olive tree and that is where we were eating.

Sonia had invited Barry and Vivienne from Arodes to join us.  Barry is actually half Cypriot on his father's side and should probably be called Paris if the English hadn't basterdised the translation of his Christian name.  Vivienne is half German on her father's side.  They split their time between Arodes and Brighton.  I know that before Sonia moved out here permanently she lived in Barry and Vivienne's house for quite a while seeing if she liked the area before moving down to stay in Prodromi.  I know she always hoped to by a little house in a village and grow vegetables and despite some major setbacks along the way she achieved her dream.

Barry and Vivienne were good company and interesting Barry particularly so as he gave us an insight into his childhood here on the island before moving to the UK.   

Sonia had put on a lovely spread of mainly vegetarian food, in fact all bar the meatballs was vegetarian and it was lovely, particularly the Muhammara (roasted pepper and walnut dip) so much so that I have asked Sonia for the recipe.

It was a lovely evening, spoiled only by the fact that my headache returned with a vengeance but I tried not to let it bother me.  We had a fabulous view of the sunset from Sonia's which marked the close of a great evening...