John is poorly boy...

John is officially a poorly boy - he is rarely ill but when he is, he is!!  He has a streaming head cold (aka man-flu) and is feeling very sorry for himself.  The jury is out as to whether he will make it out this evening to meet up with Diana and Rob and their visitors Jo and Neal.

Dosed up with whatever cold remedies we could find in our sadly lacking medicine cabinet John did get up and, having spotted that Bigfoot had walked round the tree to which she was tethered and so could no long reach the water, went out for a bit of fresh air and to make sure Bigfoot and her foal had access to water.  We know that the owners come daily but poor Bigfoot looks really thin and her feet are in a dreadful condition.  If we didn't think we might upset them we would try and get a farrier in to look at her - it is a difficult situation because when someone asked about it previously we were told that the injury was so old there was nothing that could be done.  We are not convinced so we do what we can when we can for her and her foal.

As I said we were due to go out tonight and Diana's friend Jo had asked if I could make a birthday card - not sure if this was for her Dad or for Neal's - not that it makes any difference.  I find making men's cards really difficult unless you know the person but apparently Stan Target (yes that is his real name) is the other Charlton Athletic supporter so that gave me something to go on.

I trolled around the internet and found a great poem entitled "The Long Suffering Supporter" (most apt for Charlton supporters at the moment) and but the wording on the inside.

I hoped that they would like it and, when I handed it over later this evening they were thrilled to bits - that's what we like to see happy customers!!!

Could never make a living out of doing this - it takes me too long to decide what to do and then longer to actually complete the card!!!

I got the card making out of the way and then decided to have a potter around the garden whilst John lay on the sofa with a fit of the vapours!

I am pleased to report that the long and boring saga of our silver wedding anniversary gift to ourselves has finally been put to rest! We have the water feature we had hoped for and it is up and running.

I have always wanted a water feature - in fact I have coveted the one which Rob and Di have at the back of their house!  When our respective parents gave us money for our anniversary we decided that this would be spent on a water feature.  Electricity supply in the garden is limited so we wanted a solar feature which was quite structural and had a reasonable sized water reservoir (so it didn't run dry) and I couldn't find anywhere here that did anything like so I found one on the internet in the UK and decided to have it shipped over - we have never had any shipped over to us in this way before so I did a lot of research and decided to use a company that flies the goods over so it would arrive in about 3 working days which it did.  Only trouble was that through poor packing either initially or when shipped the box was severely damaged in transit and we refused to accept it.  There then ensued a longish battle to get our money back which was dealt with by the agent we had chosen so we didn't have any issues with them but when we had received our refund and asked them about trying to ship it over again they said that they would probably ask us to sign a waiver based on the issues they had encountered which sort of defeated the object of using a company with good insurance so we shelved the idea and then we went to Di and Rob's house and they had their water feature running and I knew I still wanted one so after a lot of investigation I found exactly the same water feature available from a company in Germany who shipped it over via DHL and it arrived after about a week in perfect condition and cheaper than previously so we were well chuffed!  We have positioned it in the garden but need to sort out the passage of the sun to ensure the solar panel is in the best place.  I am happy - I like it!

I decided to tackle the corner where the moon flowers have overtaken - John thinks it looks messy - I have to agree although the white moon flowers have the most fabulous scent the plant gets bigger and bigger and leggier and leggier.  I shall retain the purple moon flower that dad grew as that looks like it can be a shrubbier more compact plant.

I cleared out the corner of old moon flower plants and Morning Glory which is going bananas and replaced them with the two plants I purchased Tuesday when out with Mum and Aunty Joyce.  I bought a very unusual multicoloured leaf hibiscus which is called Red Hot - not entirely sure if it will survive up here - it is in a sheltered spot and I will try and protect it in the winter.  Infront of it I have planted a white solanum - more tricky to keep than the standard purple but I want to keep it as a small mound shaped specimen so have cut it back and will wait for the new leaves to come.  During my gardening I disturbed one of the beautiful tree frogs we get here.  Don't see too many of them in the garden because of the cats but this one has made its home near the manhole cover in the corner.

I had a very quick catch up with Sonia this afternoon before she leaves tomorrow.  Her house-hunting holiday has come to an end and although not entirely 100% successful it has reinforced her desire to come back to the island to live at least for a while.  She has found somewhere she could rent when her house is sold and from there can decide at leisure what her next move is going to be.  She has begun to build a little life for herself already in Neo Chorio and thinks that she could be very happy there - fingers crossed for a quick house sale Sonia so you will be back with us soon.

John rallied sufficiently to make this evenings' meal - starting with a drink at the Droushia Heights Hotel (my second visit of the day having been there with Sonia) followed by another brilliant meze with Marina and Philippos at Finikas.  Unbelievably for mid-October in Droushia is was such a warm and balmy evening that we sat outside for our meal - everyone really enjoyed themselves and it was great to meet Di and Rob's friends.  Only trouble was I started with a sore throat on our walk home and that can only mean one thing....
....John has kindly shared his bugs with me.