A day of two halves

Yesterday was most definitely a day of two halves.  The morning was a wash-out with thunder and lighning and hail storms and then by about 1.00pm the weather improved and was sunny the skies cleared and so we had an extremely chilly evening!

Lots of rain this morning meant that we stayed indoors - for a while, when the storm was directly overhead, we switched off the internet and anything else that we thought we might get hit by lightning.  Good job too as our friends in Arodes got what they think was a direct hit but their breakers were working properly so it just blew the main fuse.

I am planning a trip to Ikea with Janet and Ellen.  Gail is giving it a miss as she is going for her scary heart operation shortly.  I have been looking at the wooden decking squares that they sell as an option to provide some small 'stepping stones' in the shingle where Joani's Place is - John thinks it is worth a punt so if they have them in stock and I can get them in the car I think I will get some.

We caught up with Simon, Melanie, Jasmine and Frances today as they are up staying in Droushia for the long weekend as Monday is a Bank Holiday.  Apparently we had been to Kaponas with them last year although I hadn't remembered that.  I had remembered that we had been to Achilles in Inea with them one evening the year before.  The girls are growing up so fast.  Jasmine has changed from a very shy and somewhat timid little girl to a much more confident young lady.  Frances is Frances, tough and determined!  They are a testament to the parenting of Simon and Melanie particularly as Melanie lost her mum when her mum was young so she was never able to tap into her for help and guidance.  We had a lovely lunch at Kaponas and then they walked back to have some cat hugs with us.

To say the girls have enquiring minds is an understatement!  We passed a bush which was in full flower on our way to Lordos 1 - it was lovely and not one I had seen before, well I had obviously walked past it on many occasions but never when it was in flower and it was beautiful.  We had to have a good old look at it and then get out our phones and find out exactly what it was except none of the apps were absolutely certain - I shall have to put a post on tintyweb to see if anyone can tell me.

Once again we had a very chilly evening outside - temperatures down to single figures.  The poor garden doesn't really know quite what is happening. I am pleased to say that all of my hostas have now put in an appearance.  Some look better than others and sadly the lovely original one out the back of the kitchen has become absolutely decimated by snails.  This is because we have had so much rain.  I have tried covering the surface with sharp 'stuff' and swamping it with coffee grounds but that hasn't had any noticeable effect so I am reluctantly going to have to resort to some slug pellets - I try and avoid using them because of the cats but think I can put it where they wont be interested.  If I don't I am going to end up with a pot of interesting stalks!!  I plan to spend a good part of Monday in the garden if the weather allows - it is in need of a really good tidy.  April has been a really awful month compared to previous years!