Moving Swiftly On...

Well, after the hornet's nest I seem to have stirred up with the last post I thought I get back to the usual drivel about daily life out here!!

Today, thankfully, it's business as usual weather-wise. After all the cold temperatures we've been experiencing for weeks, which prompted the local paper (the Rodiaki) to say that's it's the coldest winter on Rhodes for thirty years, today it was 17.5ºC in the shade (63.5 in the old money) and we've been working in the garden in hot sunshine. Our temporary stewardship of Simba the cat led to these photos being taken when we broke for coffee earlier...

(That's halva in the little dish by the way. A dentist's dream)

As any cat-lover will know, you don't really own a cat, he or she owns you. This is well evident in the case of this rather exceptional moggy. He moved here with our newest neighbour up the hill some time ago. But then she got a couple of puppies and the neighbours in the next house down (the one above ours) found that they had a new resident, eventually buying food for him and fashioning a cosy little sleeping box for him too, replete with shag-pile floor mat for sleeping comfort. Since they've had to go to the UK owing to a rather tragic death in their close family, we've been charged with his safe-keeping until they return.

The thing is, Simba is no ordinary pussycat. He thinks he's a human. I've never known a cat be more concerned to have human company than this one. He hates being on his own. If you're out in the garden, he has to follow you around and keeps talking to you the whole time. His little box is temporarily on our terrace while the neighbours are away, but he'll wait for us to emerge in the morning and fuss him a little before he'll eat anything. Once he's satisfied that you've shown him enough affection, he'll happily trot over to the food bowl and crunch away. 

Anyway, after this brief interlude of cat and coffee, we shed our outer garments and I was down to just a t-shirt and was still too hot by the time we broke for lunch. I will actually admit to having downed a bottle of beer from the fridge!! Now, this was more like it! As I usually say (but this year's blown it a little) a Rhodean winter is like good British summer. Today restored my faith a little.

One more photo. Last evening we took a walk in the hills behind the house and, in the late afternoon sunshine I snapped this one of the olive groves with a glimpse of the sea in the background. I rather liked the mood. Hope you do too...

As usual, clicking on any of the pics will open it in a larger window. Right click on it again to view it even bigger.