We spent the whole day today pegged out around the pool reading our books and swimming or floating. OK… we did break for the usual meze lunch on the dining terrace. Plus Bob and John went off to the butcher mid morning to buy a whole leg of lamb for us to slow cook for dinner tonight.

It really was a blissful day. So warm and sunny. We had a lot of fun with the pool floats and just getting on with our books. Later on John, Sue, Daisy and Bob played canasta on the terrace.

Bob prepared the leg of lamb late morning by marinading it in a lemon, oil, herbal mixture. He started the oven about 330 and let it get up to about 400 degrees and then started moving the wood around to heat the whole space. The leg went in at about 530.. At the same time I had a whole load of parboiled potatoes to roast plus some peas a la Francais to serve alongside.

We still had a whole lot of the watermelon to finish off so I ran it through our juicer and ended up with a large jugfull of bright pink juice. We drank some with lunch but as the sun set I made watermelon vodka martinis with the rest. They were really lovely.

The lamb was ready by about 730 and I’m afraid that we were so greedy for it we fell on it and had it carved and ready before I could take any pictures. Suffice it to say that it was much enjoyed and we all had seconds and even thirds of the lovely soft, slighly smoky flavoured meat. The roasties were fab too – Cyprus potatoes are the best.

The wood oven is great fun to use. As well as slow cooked things like casseroles and leg of lamb, it is great for super-fast food like pizzas. Our guests seem to enjoy using it too. We always have a pile of wood around for using in it.