21st January

What a morning - what a bloody morning - Boris woke us better than any alarm clock with the unmistakable build up noise pre-vomit and then vomit and then post-vomit poor boy.  He was really poorly from about 3.00am and I was worried because this was exactly how Minnie Mou was last year when she had pancreatitis and she got that after weed spraying and Chivers passed away after ingesting something toxic after weed spraying.   You can imagine that if the unnecessary weed spraying carried out on the green area at the weekend was to blame then John would go ballistic.  The trouble is we cannot be sure but the coincidence is too great.  Then Minnie Mou was sick and I was beside myself.   Both Boris and Minnie were sick after drinking water - that wasn't a good sign.  We eventually managed to get them in the house and settled and sleeping and I went round the garden and cleaned all the water bowls and filled them back up.  We were on standby to go down to the vets.  Poor little buggers they have only just recovered from their URT infections and laryngitis.

John went out on his planned bike ride as once we got the cats settled there wasn't much else he could do.  I stayed in the garden doing some tidying up - whilst clearing up leaves I came across the chrysalis of a hawk moth caterpillar.  I don't know whether this was dead or alive but I put it back near where I had found it so that if it could pupate then it could.

I turned my attention to the front garden.  We have a swathe of the yellow flowering wild plant called Oxalis pes-caprae which is also known as Bermuda Buttercup, African Wood-Sorrel, Goat's Foot and Soursop to name but a few!  It is bright and cheerful but quite invasive but for a while I am happy for it to be flowering in the front but the shingled area looks better when it has been removed to be replaced by Nigella and Californian Poppies for a while.

Once I had sorted what I wanted at the front I went around the back to clear the area in and around the outside shower area.  All sorts of weeds have managed to make a life in between the corks on the cork mats I made - how do they do that?  They are living on next to nothing!!!

I cleared a load of weeds and then removed a large ornamental grass.  I love the grass but the seed heads get blown into the pool which annoys John and the grass has barbed blades and is what poor Charlie got stuck down his throat and which very nearly killed him.  

In place of the grass I have put my new purchase - a raspberry bush.   Not any old raspberry bush either - this one is called Fall Gold - it is a rare self-fertile gold raspberry with the same sweet taste that the red varieties have.  It can produce two crops each season.  Not only delicious it is very pretty and will add a splash of warm yellow in that corner.

Apparently it will do well up in Droushia because it likes the cold which is just as well really.  Hopefully it will do well and reward us with some of those sweet golden berries in due course.

Today was Shrove Tuesday in the UK and we decided to celebrate with pancakes for lunch.  We had a mix of sweet and savoury.  This was a savoury which had cheese and ham inside and which was folded over and cooked in the pan so the cheese got super melted and lush.  The sweet ones were traditional sugar and lemon or in John's case sugar and cinnamon.  We only wanted a light lunch because we were going out with Nicky and Mark to Fitos for our supper.

As the day went on Boris and Minnie began to recover thank goodness.  I needed to see them eat and keep it down which they did, drink and keep it down which they did and then see them sleep without being scrunched up which they did so we reckoned we would be ok to go out and leave them.

We had a lovely evening at Fitos.  We had our favourite table and got one of the most spectacular sunsets I think I have ever seen.  This photograph doesn't do it justice - it was much more vibrant than that.  Mark kindly drove and we had a nice catch up.  It was lovely and warm inside and we all had a great meal - the Kirby's indulging in the legendary beef pie, John with village chicken and I had the vegetarian plate - I know a bit random but that is what I fancied.