Meeting Up

The weather was forecast to improve today.  It did, enough for me to get some washing done and out on the line.  Unfortunately Droushia, as usual, did not get the brief and so by early afternoon it had started to cloud over with big dark clouds so the washing had to come into the conservatory to finish drying.  Still it was a better day than the last four or five and from tomorrow it is set fair for at least the next week.

We are having a bit of a sort out of 'stuff'.  We are good at holding on to 'stuff' - just in case and sod's law is that if we do get rid of it we need it a couple of weeks' later.  Today though we had a couple of door mats which we no longer use (replaced) which we thought the local cat feeding station might be able to use.  We went down to put the mats in situ.  Our view, looking at the lovely grey which came to check the mats out, is that the feeding station is working all too well, I know that the weather has been awful and that this grey is probably sporting its winter coat but it looks well healthy!!!  Congratulations to Irene and her team who take time to ensure the local cat population is fed, healthy and fixed.  I remember seeing this cat as a small and super cute kitten.  Sad that it did not find a forever home but happy that it looks to be doing ok under the circumstances.

On the subject of cats and cat rescue and cat care there is a lady called Cynthia who does this from Mandria but who helps as many as she is able.  In fact recently I put Das in touch with her when he and Belinda took on five orphaned kittens and she helped him get them all fixed.  Anyway, periodically, in order to raise funds for her charitable work she has a sale of 'stuff'.  

This week she had a lovely candle sconce for sale for €3 so I met up with her yesterday to pick it up.  I hadn't really had a good look at it until this morning and it is lovely - I am so pleased with it - I just need to work out where it is going to go because ideally (unless I want it to rust) it needs to go indoors.

So, after getting the washing done, John and I went down to Polis to do our food shopping for the week.  We have been very organised and done the food menu for the week and worked out what we need to get.  This evening we have Dip and Karen coming up from Paphos and we have booked to have a meze in the village at Finnikas so no cooking for me today.

We had done our meat shopping at Shuks yesterday and bought some amazing looking Beef short ribs so that is what we plan to have on Sunday when Mum will be with us.   I shall do them in the slow cooker.  I have been reading in the paper about appliances which people are using to cut their cooking bills.  I was surprised to see that they are recommending using a Halogen oven.  I was going to get rid of mine!  I shall just have to dust off the instruction book and get to grips with it because apparently it is a third of the price of using a regular oven (not that I use mine that much I tend to use the combi-microwave instead).

Dip and Karen made it up here safe and sound - Dip's car has a problem with the fuel pump so we were half expecting a call to go rescue them on a hill but didn't need to.  We walked into the village and had pre-warned them that it could be chilly sat in the Taverna so we were well prepared.  We had a lovely evening.  The food was far too much but really nice and fresh and we came home laden with fresh grapes and freshly prepared olives as well as a doggy bag of food we could not quite manage to consume.

We are hoping to try and get Dip and Karen to the Last Castle in the week providing it has not closed due to the recent bad weather - they have not been and we think they will love it.