Sunday 27th May

Not a bad morning....I was out of bed by six thirty and out on the balcony and watched the sheep and farmer come over the hill and we shouted our good mornings to each other.  I sat out there for a while until I got cold from the wind despite the sun, came in and got dressed, cleaned the bathroom and the washing was in and finished by the time I got down for my second cup.  Breakfast was a ham baguette and I headed back to the computer and caught up on a few essentials and knocked off the five star Daily Mail Sudoku in quicksticks today with no need to print it out or have several attempts.

I meandered around the garden picking up things that should be in other places...that wind was vicious as well as being cold and at one point I was worried that my washing would end up in Greece but the pegs held.  I sprayed the base of one of the large water bottles blue and it now adorns the conservatory with the new bougainvillea and I really must read the book to make sure that I giver it the right treatment.  Mine in the UK seemed to look after itself...I hope this one's the same.  I deadheaded the roses which have been wonderful this year and there are lots more buds still on the plants.  I must get the washing up solution out tomorrow...they could do with a spray and I reckon they must be limpet greenfly.  Despite the wind, they're still hanging in there.

As for the rest of the afternoon....I've read after establishing myself on the sofa, slept, realised I  was cold so went round closing the doors and windows and put on an extra sweater and still felt cold.  It's a funny old early summer, thunderstorms and winds from the north don't really do it for me.  Supper was a couple of chicken burgers produced by very little effort on the part of the manufacturer and myself I believe.  Last time I buy them....bought in Kaufland but manufactured goodness knows where.  

As for pickies...the only thing worth catching was a very bright male lizard but despite my pleading he wouldn't sty still for a photo shoot.  He looked very good against the blue sprayed flower pot, so I'll be on the lookout for him again.  He was munching up ants as he went about his business....keep up the good work.  LN...Bath, book and bed in that order...LN

Monday 28th May

Five thirty start, coffee, Candy Crush, another little sleep and at nine thirty I was still in PJ's.  I sat on the terrace listening to the birds and watching them search for their breakfasts from the lawn.  My stuttering cuckoo was out and about this morning.... and I'm wondering it he's picked up a local dialect from somewhere.  The only lizard this morning was the brown one but she was obviously as deaf as my brightly coloured one.  She went down into the lavender never to be spotted again.  There didn't seem much to get dressed for but eventually I got the energy together to do it and promptly took them off again when I started to go through the summer clothes from the chest to see which fitted and which could remain in the chest for another season.  The sweaters are waiting to go into a vacuum bag and the t-shirts are neatly folded and I'm still trying to locate the vacuum bags.

As for the rest of the day...it's been rubbish.  I trierd to order a couple of items from Argos but couldn't remember my password so sent out a request to update it.  No email received...aaarrrhhh.  I made a couple more attempts using the old password I'd got and eventually I was blocked out and still no email so I've contacted them to send me an email and I'm still waiting.  I'm getting some funny messages from Avast so have run a couple of security programs and nothing found.  I'm thinking that the problem may be with my local provider...let's see what tomorrow brings.

I managed toast with tuna mayo for a late lunch so nothing needed for tonight.  I've asked my guest who's due out in ten days or so to order the items for me and bring them out...I think it might be one of these offers that doesn't stay around for long.  LN...A frustrating day...LN

Tuesday 29th May

Six thirty start this morning and a good night's sleep was had by all...me and the dogs down in the next village.  Washed and dressed, I watered the veg patch and the new shrubs that I've put in and generally took stock of the garden.  I was waiting for the bread van so I headed up and watched my Avatar working in the garden and commented on the solar lamps that she's now got round the fruit trees.  Her son had brought them over from Germany and I'd shown her how to switch them on Sunday and now they're out.  I asked her why she didn't want them near the house but she said that there were street lights and the porch light so she didn't need them by the house.  I said it was very good of her to light the path for anybody that came at night to pilfer the apples from the trees and we had a little laugh about it.  The bread van came and I bought a cheesy bread for breakfast and walked the garden eating it.  

I was going to pick some of the cherries but I need more lids before I start making jam and marmalade and maybe some more jars.  I cleaned the old cover from the sun lounger that's been holed up in the little house.  It's also spent time in the boot of the little car, has seen better days but it's in a better condition than the original one.  Put a support up for the two new roses on the little house terrace and generally messed around trying to sort out the computer and I've managed it.  I came in when it was too hot to be out and it would have been lovely except for the wind which started moving everything to new locations.  I settled in to resolve the issues on the PC and I've run another security program making that three in all and no virus or malware found.  I've changed the internet search settings and now it appears to be working OK.  I'm thinking that the problem wasn't mine but it's  done and dusted.

Some how passed the afternoon and went out and noticed that the very pretty honey suckle variant that has long red flowers had been attacked by the cows and was unsupported and hanging between the wall and the house.  It's now got a metal support on the inside and I also noticed that the cows have taken some of the flowers from the hollyhocks at the bottom of the garden.  Don't you just love 'em.  The ladies appeared while I was tying up the plant and have now gone home with bags of cherries.  Talk about locust but there's still lots there.  I'm expecting one of the daughter in laws maybe later tonight or tomorrow and I have to pick for my Avatar and one of my other neighbours that had visitors today and couldn't come with the rest.

Seven twenty my time and the curry that I put in this afternoon is ready so I'm going to sign off.  I switched off the oven around half an hour ago and the rice finished off in the oven with the curry.  Nothing on for tomorrow apart from picking cherries and the ladder is out ready for the assault.  LN....Hope the weather stays fine for it.....LN

Wednesday 30th May

Five thirty start and I've been going for it all day.  Two loads of washing out by eight, one of the Greek plants that I planted in a pot has now been re-sited into little garden under the little house terrace.  It wasn't looking happy so we'll see how it goes in its new place.  I came in for breakfast and used yesterday' bread and made a couple of ham sandwiches making sure I cut the crust off which had gone really hard.  I should have waited.. I made it down to the bread van and got a new sliced loaf....it would have tasted better.  Zelinger was at the van and I said that I would be down with cherries a little later since she wasn't able to collect yesterday so I came back, grabbed a bag, filled it up and took it down to her.  Another happy customer.  Several people have said that they want them but no one appears to pick them so it looks like the majority will go to the birds...and why not.

So I've been pottering most of the day in the garden.  I've tidied up the beds, removed a lot of bindweed and poppies that have gone over, trimmed up the round garden balls and planted things that needed putting in.  The pots on the little house terrace have been sorted and I've freed up a couple to put petunias in and that will be done tomorrow.  I've grown lots of babies and not really put them out yet but they need to go in.  I came in when the temperature went up...and I mean really up....and read for a while but I can't say that the book is really exciting me.  It's the first in a series of seven so maybe it will get better...I'll give it a little time.  Hunger struck so I peeled three potatoes, found a packet of frozen peas and carrots in the freezer so I boiled the potatoes, added the veg, chopped and onion, opened a tin of tuna and mixed it all together with mayonnaise.  There was such a lot if it that I put some of it into another dish and waltzed over to my Avatar telling her to put it in the freezer before the neighbours saw it.  She said I shouldn't but I said that the tin of tuna was too much for one sitting so that's why I shared it.  So another hour gone while I had my late lunch followed by coffee and chocolate biscuits but I did limit myself to five...and five left for tomorrow or later....let's see how the evening pans out.  Really strange tonight...lots of butterflies out in the garden of the same sort...brown and orange...not very pretty but just lots of them.

Much of the same tomorrow....except that I will pick enough cherries to make jam.  And then the birds can have the rest...unless the neighbours do appear.  Lovely evening, bee eaters out and about and I am curious why on some sites and in my bird book they are called 'bea eaters'.  LN...Something to ponder on...LN

Thursday 31st May

Five thirty start and by nine I'd picked and delivered cherries for my Avatar, watered the plants, moved a shrub, had my breakfast, done my emails and checked Facebook.  At nine thirty the mower was out and I started the long haul...it's a big area with a push mower....but there again...mustn't grumble at least I still have the energy to do it.  By ten thirty it was time to replenish the water content so I topped up the reserves, sat down for fifteen minutes or so and I was out there again.  I'm pleased it's done.  I managed to do it all without the mower conking out on me...the tufted grass seems to have settled down and it should be alright for the rest of the season unless we have weeks of rain and then it will be back to drastic measures again..  I was just up to the main terrace lawn when I noticed my painter on the terrace, he came down and asked me it if was working OK and decided to do a few runs with it.  I leave it with the motor running and a piece of wire engaging the safety cut out because it's a bugger to start unless you leave it for a while.  I think he'd been on the sauce this morning at his first place of work so I decided that I would put the mower to rest and do the remainder when he'd gone.  At this point another neighbour arrived to pick cherries so I showed her the tree, she caught sight of the clematis and went into raptures over it and explained that she can't have anything in her garden because of the cows...them eat everything.

So while my painter was here I asked him to hold the ladder while I applied the moth ball stuff to the entry point for my critter in the little house under eaves.  It can't get into the house from where its run is and at first the painter didn't understand what I was trying to do but eventually I got through and he's coming on Saturday and by putting a piece of pipe through the bricks that between the roof and the under eaves woodwork...I can get this stuff in the run and it'll definitely head to the open hillside.  Now painter recons I should leave it to it but I'm not paying tax on the house for something to use it as a nesting box....It will be sorted on Saturday...

Off he toddled and I ended up helping my neighbour and she went off with a super haul but the urge to pick my own had subsided and I took to the sofa with a couple of games and nodded gently...not a real sleep.  I made lunch, finished on ice cream and strawberry jam and went back out to the garden at around four.  I've rescued a lavender from where I should never have planted it in the first place and put it in a better position, weeded between the lilac and the acacia, found a baby hypericum and that's now been lifted and has a new home, planted out one large pot of petunias and weeded the grave gardens.  They're now planted up with tobacco and petunias and the bindweed has all gone....it was rampant.  I wanted the veg garden and out of the five rows of carrots that I planted only one has germinated...the ants must have had a field day.  Some of the beetroot are up but tomorrow I shall have to remove the weeds and bindweed to give it a fighting chance.  My peppers are rubbish, the cucumbers are doing well and the tomatoes...I suppose eight out of ten's not bad/

So the end of another month.....and now we're heading into the real summer hopefully.  Long hot days, Greek beaches and the lawn slows down so not so much to do.  Need to make a seat under the mulberry tomorrow..it looks bare now I've stripped it back to the trunk and I''ll make use of the wood that's been lying around...I'm tired of moving it.  LN..Bath and bed...I'm knacked....LN