Busy doing nothing

SATURDAY 15^th NOVEMBER

Jean and Vic said their goodbyes as today they move into their new home, that is if the furniture arrives. It was supposed to be delivered on Thursday but that didn’t happen.  The curtain man came but there was no power on site so he will be returning on Monday.  We wondered if he had heard of cordless drills!

 

It was such a lovely day I stayed home sitting on our balcony.  Keith once again went to help in the olive grove in the afternoon.  Maria had invited us to eat with them tonight but at teatime she called me in concerned about the hardness of the beans she had used in the soup which we were to have.  What should she do?  I suggested she removed the beans and called it vegetable soup!  By the time we sat down to eat the beans were fine, at least we thought so.  I reminded her of the times I have been unsuccessful in making bean soup – I never seem to buy the right beans. 

Whilst the men talked and watched TV Maria and I set about making ‘Merenda’ a chocolate hazelnut spread which turned out to be absolutely delicious – sod the calories!  The carobs were the failure Theo had predicted and despite a couple of hours boiling the result was just a thin brown liquid with lots of sediment.  Suggesting we leave it overnight to see if it thickened we returned home after all it was getting on for midnight.

 

 

SUNDAY 16^th  NOVEMBER

We were late rising, the noise of banging disturbing us.  We thought workmen were blasting more rocks on the ‘Dragon’ but once up discovered we were having a thunderstorm. I went to inspect the carob honey and we all agreed it should be dumped! 

With a good wind we went to fly our kites but it was too strong for me, and at the first sign of lightning Keith brought his down.  By now it felt cool so we didn’t even linger for a game of boules on the beach.  

At home the thunder continued and a few spots of rain fell, just enough to make the greenery smell wonderful.  At last the clouds moved over and once again we were sitting in hot sunshine. I watched as the island of Gavdos disappeared under low dark clouds, as did part of the horizon, but everything was rapidly moving eastwards leaving a very pleasant afternoon.  We even managed a game of boules with Lambros before he and Maria went up to the olive grove.  The little fishing boat returned to our bay and Sunday afternoon walkers passed by on their way to and from Souda.  Theo stayed home and did some tidying up around the olive trees in their garden which have a little fruit on some of them this year.  Lambros and Maria returned home, Lambros with torn trousers but very happy that he had found a sheep’s horn.