The last few days have been spent ticking off a few more jobs from the “after winter” list. Bob has rehung our lovely gourd lights along the dining terrace and I am always so pleased to see how lovely they look. I like to lounge out there, under my lanterns, burn some Omani Frankincense in my burners, play Bob Dylan…. drink a little wine….. what a child of the 70s I am!!!!
We have also dismantled our elephant’s trunk rain diverter which re-routes rain that would otherwise pour out of the downpipe on our bedroom balcony and thence down the house wall, and send it to the garden instead. Unlikely to be much rain between now and November so it can go away.
Yesterday we had a lovely few hours up in Lapta with our friends, Pamela and Eddie, whom we last saw in Patnem in March. We had spent a lovely winter together there. Anyway, it was a catch up as we swapped news and plans. Pamela had made a very lovely Victoria sponge cake. Delicious and impressive. I am not very good at sponge cakes, mine tend to be the type that would not be out of place hurled from a cannon.
Had a look at fencing/hedging options on the way home. Opinions vary on whether it is now too late to plant anything…. the garden centre seemed to think it wasn’t as long as the irrigation was going. And, indeed, we have run our final tests and our system is merrily watering the borders every other day. Fencing is proving a bit problematic. They don’t really do British style wooden fencing here. You can get wire fencing but it’s pretty ugly and in itself offers no privacy. In the past we have managed to get wicker fencing but it came up from the south side and apparently that is now a problem and it isn’t available. Other popular choices are the sort of green material fences – either smooth green landscaping material or sort of fake leafy green material. Sigh….. both pretty hideous imo. What to do? We shall have to decide quickly as we need to get the lower garden “gap” filled before we leave.
Today Bob pressure washed the loungers to get rid of any winter Saharan dust and also washed through the Elephant’s Trunk before we stored it away. As usual we had lunch outside – today beside the pool, then had a relaxing afternoon in the house and around the pool
In the evening we drove over to Alsancak to Deborah and David’s lovely house for another catch up over drinks. We last saw them in Goa too. Drove up to Lapta and had dinner at Charcos. Haven’t been there in some years, it used to be one of our regular choices. It was a very good dinner so we must go more often. I chose lamb chops for my main course and that determined the price of the meal. It included a basket of lovely bread, a first course of yummy lentil soup, then a big bowl of salad, one of proper chips and the chops – 3 big ones. Finally coffee and generous brandys. £17. Still very good value. We had a lovely evening in very good company.
