Including a trip to the beach

This update was supposed to be done yesterday, upon our return from the beach; unfortunately I was way too tired and slept and then when I woke up I was working. So it's a whole day late being started and who knows when I'll finish it; I'm just about to head onto the balcony to be in charge of the BBQ. Here goes..

Finally the weather is nice enough for a BBQ again

And I'm back in from a very lovely BBQ indeed; 31 degrees in the shade however we were plagued with flies! So many of them; this weather has been a boon I think for their population; days of rain and cool and then suddenly heat and they all hatch at once. We're looking for a gazebo for the balcony now so we can keep them out and enjoy ourselves outside.

Pork chops and lovely veg, on the balcony

The puppies wait while we eat

The river glistens in the late afternoon sun

This is my "very excited" face

This is why I was very excited

Lunch with friends

It has been another pretty unsettled week, weather-wise, with some super squalls blowing through, some of them very violent indeed. We've been able to get onto the balcony to eat a couple of times, and the puppies have enjoyed their sleeps in the sun while we eat, but we've eaten inside more than out. On Thursday we went to go out for our dinner to our favourite restaurant but we sat for about five minutes without a waiter coming over (it was rammed with teenagers at a party so they were very busy) so we headed over to our other favourite restaurant and I was super happy to have Beef Iskander and then Chocolate Souffle for afters. Lovely. The next day we were out again, this time for lunch, meeting up with SandS at a bar in town and that was another lovely meal, good food and great company and the weather held until we got home when there was yet another storm.

One of our little bald necked chicks

Lots of tomatoes are growing

A tiny baby pepper is growing also

More progress; a drip irrigation system being tested out

Lots of radish, none of it good

The vine is growing well, and climbing across the frame

Corn growing well, here's to us BBQing some with the parents

Around the house, and while we've dodged the storms, lots has gone on. The chicks are getting very big now and are being let out into the main enclosure more regularly; A is the one who has to then chase them back into their small area for the night time and she loves chasing all but one in, then finally getting the last one near the door, before they all pile out again. My little lettuce seedlings are doing OK at the moment, though it is getting hot and they may start to struggle soon. Our tomatoes are really growing well, apparently one is now red but I don't have a picture of it, and also our peppers are appearing. We've been eating spuds from the garden already, and courgettes are beginning to grow faster than we can harvest them. I've put in a drip irrigation system along the tomatoes, to test out a cheap kit A found in Lidl, which is running off one of the water storage tanks collecting rain water. Unfortunately when we went to harvest the huge quantity of icicle radish we found we'd left it too long and nothing of this was salvageable. Gutting. Things are growing well in the garden with the vine shooting up and taking quite a bit of attention to keep it trained where I want it to go and the corn stand now huge and with heads on it; hopefully these will be ready for when my parents visit in a few weeks times. Last but not least was the discovery A made of Balls, one of our ducks, sat on a nest of eggs and hissing at anyone who got close to her.

A beautiful colour for early morning

Evening sun disappears behind cloud

One shaft of sun penetrates the clouds

The remnants of a storm disperse

An absolutely glorious start to the day

Magic light diffuses through the clouds in the evening

This evening's offering - a stunning sunset again

Before I get on to the highlight of the past week, our beach trip, I've actually taken a few pictures of lovely views around the land for the first time for a while; there's been some lovely sunrises and sunsets, some impressive clouds and just general beauty all around. It's a beautiful place to be.

Excitedly heading off on our trip

The first beach we arrived at

Settled at a beach just round the corner from the picture above

Lovely wide expanse with no one else there

An arty shot of the umbrella above us

Giving a wave during my first foray into the sea

A exploring a rock near our swimming place

One of the jelly fish we saw

And so, to Tuesday. Our planned trip to the seaside, put off from last week by ill health, was threatened by a forecast of storms at the location but we went anyway and were so very pleased that we did. We left the house early, at about 6.45 am, and were parked up by the seaside by 8.15 including crossing the border into Greece; we were scoping out a different beach to the one we went to a couple of years ago and first impressions were good; it was a much quieter looking place than the party central one of before. We stretched out in the sun and relaxed and then got our snorkling gear out and swam, watching the fish and sea urchins and other awesome life under the water. It was clouding over rapidly through the morning so we spent some time strolling around, saw a (dead) jelly fish or two and hunted for tiny shells and white stones to take home with us.

This flower was huge, and gorgeous

Sat at the cafe for our lunch

Melted cheese with chili and bread

The most amazing dish; we're going to try and make this ourselves

The menu entries for those two dishes

Prawns and chips for main

It was coming on to lunch time by this point so we took a stroll into town and after some exploring, past beautiful gardens, found a lovely cafe right on the sea front that served the most beautiful food, and with superb service as well. After this we were back in the car and were home again for about 2.30 pm, the border crossing coming back was much busier as expected, and we were both so tired that we slept the afternoon away. It was a beautiful day, just what we needed to sit in peace and quiet, just the two of us, listening to the hiss of the waves and relaxing together. Superb.

This spider chased off the wasps

A small weed from our patio

Beautiful sun this morning

A sat with Thelma, watching

Ahh the update is nearly done; that's a relief. Just a couple of other non-linked pictures to share. First of all the scary spider which has scared off the wasps who built this nest; it has since caught some insects and is building a nice looking larder up in this corner of the window. Next a huge weed I pulled out of the patio which had shot up suddenly from nothing. And then about today where I headed over to the other old school once more to have a final look around and take another bunch load of furniture for us and our friends; it was a glorious day and we both got some wicked items. I had a lovely brew sat on their porch when I dropped their stuff off as well so that was great. Finally a picture of A with Thelma sat on the roof terrace as I took the sunset shot above. I love that photograph.

So there you have it; other than that I'm working about 2.5 jobs at the moment, making some money to be able to stay here and trying to avoid having to work away again. It's good to have my brain stretched once more after the long holiday. Thanks for reading, see you next time.