Finger Lickin' Good

Today was a day earmarked for gardening.  Fortunately the weather has cooled a little and we have more cloud around so it is relatively pleasant for this time of year.  

I started in the front garden under the watchful eye of a praying mantis which had adopted the colour of the spent hollyhock flowers.  He was lucky not to get scooped up and put in the waste.

I don't know if they were able to change colour to blend in with their backgrounds so consulted Google and apparently they can but slowly or they change at a particular stage in their life cycle.

I left him where he was - we don't really like to disturb the local wildlife unless it is something nasty like a hornet!

Whilst I was gardening John shot off down to Polis to do the recycling and to get some shopping although he managed to miss two items off of the list!

I am hoping we will still have a nice bit of colour in the garden when our visitors come over.

This was the grotty pot of barely alive plants that we put outside Jan and Derek's gates and which they dutifully watered when they were here.  When they returned to the UK I took it back, gave the plants a haircut and a bit of new compost and put it in the front garden so it would get included in my normal watering routine and it has sprung into life.

I have learned the hard way that it is best to keep to plants which you see growing here in other people's gardens rather than try and be adventurous!  So this is a mixture of ice plant, tradescantia and geraniums which are great as long as you give them a regular haircut so that they don't get leggy or in the case of the geranium leggy and woody.

We heard today that our immediate neighbours Gregoris and Dora are coming for a holiday arriving tomorrow - we are just about full house on the estate save for those houses that never have anyone in them everywhere else is full.  It is quite strange after all these years to see it a hive of activity.  There was more activity provided by a digger in the field next door.  I popped my head over the wall to see that it was Tassos clearing for snakes and/or fire.  I gave him a wave and he stopped the digger for a chat and an opportunity to remind him that against our wall is the pipe which takes away the waste water from the pool so that he avoided digging that up.  He can be a bit over enthusiastic with his digger and today the mimosa we had planted in the green area got the Tassos Treatment and I fear they are no more!

We popped to see Sonia this afternoon as she had a question about the 'green area' which is in front of her property and on her return we bumped into George and Pam's son Andrew who had called to see us, sod's law we said we were going to be in all day and he chose the 10 minutes when we had nipped out!  Anyway we caught him and managed to have a chat with him before he shot off to Paphos to take his daughter to see her friend.  He is impressed with the outside space at the villa - he is the first person from the family to see it finished.  He said they are doing fine even though the bathroom is still without its shower screen, mainly because they actually prefer to shower outside!  We had an update on how George and Pam are doing and he also handed over some presents - a lovely bottle of Gordons Sicilian Lemon Gin which I have not tried and a 'leather' biker jacket the same as the one Louise had worn on her holiday and which she said she would try and get me.  Apparently it is a gift from Pam bless her for which I am extremely grateful.

We appreciate that Andrew Caroline and Naimh's holiday is precious and short so we know we may not get much opportunity to see them but have said that if they have an hour or so to spare it would be nice to catch up.  I cannot believe that Naimh is 19 next week - we seem to think she was 14 when we last saw her!

We cracked open the gin to accompany our supper - it was really very nice for a flavoured gin - some of them are a bit sweet for our taste but the lemon kept it crisp.

We had a go at making our own breaded 'Kentucky Fried' style chicken tonight but with a bit more spice in the breadcrumb mix.  This was two chicken breasts worth and they were absolutely delicious - we had them with a bit of salad in wraps!