Spending time with Carole and Paul

We were in full on garden tidy mode today.  We have deemed Summer to have arrived and as a result we wanted to 'expose' the Doj in all its glory and without John's pushbike.  It is late being uncovered due to the inclement weather we have experienced but today it got unwrapped.  Charlie, for one was super happy as he was able to claim his little cool spot on the bottom of the cabinet.  We cannot decide whether or not to put a TV back in there for the summer.  

Boris was not so happy.  The Doj and the covered over day bed in particular provided him with a regularly used hidey hole.  As we were unpacking everything he tried to get back onto the day bed and we kept removing him.

By way of a protest he staged a sit-in or to be more exact a lie-in in a rolled up rug which used to be under the day bed and which I decided to throw away as one cat or another had vomited on it sometime between it being packed away and being unpacked!

Poot Boris he really doesn't like change but I am sure he will appreciate the day bed when it has all its cushions back in place.

Anyway we were doing this in readiness for the arrival of Carole and Paul who were coming up from the Souli to spend the day with us.  We were expecting them at 11.00 but not before we had received a phone call to say they were lost.

They did not disappoint, said phonecall came at 11.00 when they had made it as far as the Droushia Heights Hotel and so John went down to fetch them.  We spent a lovely hour or so catching up sitting in the shade.  They do not normally come in June so it was a bit of a change for them.  Saturday, their first day, was obviously disappointing weather-wise but things had certainly improved today.

Bless Carole (and Paul) for bringing some more Lick-e-Lix for the cats.  It's great because if they will eat nothing else, for whatever reason, I can always get them to eat one of these and they are now the best part of 3 euros a pack and Carole had got hers at the pound shop (for a pound obviously!).

At 1.00pm we wandered up the village to eat at Kaponas.  Twice, I think, last year Carole and Paul had gone to eat there and it had been closed so today was the day.  I had already checked with Eleni to make sure she was open and that she would have lamb chops.  We had a lovely meal, starting with salad and dips and bread, John then had a massive pork chop, Paul had chicken souvlaki, I had the lamb chops and Carole a half portion of the lamb chops.  Eleni then brought a marvelous lemon pudding and home made ice cream.  We had a half carafe of white wine, three beers and two bottles of water.  The drinks were a gift from Eleni bless her so in return we left a very generous tip so that she did get some of the cost of the drinks back.

We wandered slowly home and said our goodbye's to Carole and Paul.  It may well be another year before we see them again.  They sent a photo later in the evening to confirm that they had met up with Mike and Mel at the Souli.

John and I actually went for a snooze after they had left - for some reason we were super tired but we got up an hour later and enjoyed the remainder of the evening sat outside.  It has been a long time coming but as I sat and looked around the outside spaces that we have created I just thought how lucky we are.  Life could have been so very different if we had stuck to our original plan and not come out until 2017.