Getting ready for the season

 

The weather today was so beautiful that we decided to 'summerize' the garden which meant getting out brollies and sails.  John had the shock of his life when he unrolled one of the sails only to get up close and personal with a rather large spider.  It doesn't look that big in the photo but it was probably at least 6cm toe to toe.  We let it live another day - it will probably come back to haunt us.

The weather has changed - there is a depth to the warmth which we haven't had so far this year.  It is not before time but as we have visitors this coming weekend is very welcome.  On that subject we had a call from Lakis and Argy to tell us that their visit will be delayed by a couple of weeks due to a bereavement.  We feel for them because just about every year something happens to delay they arriving or force them returning early.  But it is what it is and we will make the most of every minute when they are here with us.  We are so lucky to have them as our neighbours.

We were working in the garden today - our focus was on the 'living' roof over the gazebo in Wendy and Bill corner.  Living is a bit optimistic as there is an awful lot of dead wood in there.  I don't have a problem cutting it back but we always seem to end up with twice a much garden waste as was there in the first place!  

So our aim was to try and get the roof under control which meant that we cut back all the growth we could reach both inside and outside.  We could see that the whole of the underside was nothing more than dead leaves and twigs.  We think that the passion flower put on growth in February when we had some unseasonably warm weather and then we had some really cold winds and hail which did all the damage.  It is probably time for it to get a good haircut.  So now it all looks a bit bald but in a few weeks it will be back green and lush.

I finally deemed that the tomatoes mum gave me were ripe enough to do something with so I decided do make some soup.  This was to be a roasted tomato, pepper and basil soup which, when I had made it and liquidized it and strained it, was the closest to a Heinz cream of tomato soup that John had ever taste and I hadn't even put any cream in it at that point!

It was Easter Monday on the island and actually it was a special day today for us because we said goodbye to Eileen, Mum and Dad's great friend.  Our thoughts are with Hilary and Keith, Alison and Stewart and David and Claire.  Eileen was a lovely lady in every sense of the word.  It is the end of an era for us.