Becoming accustomed to Cyprus power cuts...

It's made a big difference knowing in advance when to expect power cuts, since the provisional schedule was published on Tuesday.

Even better was being able to sign up for mobile phone alerts. I appreciated the commenter who let me know how to do this, and signed up immediately. It wasn't all that helpful on Wednesday... the schedule had already informed me that our region's power cut would begin some time between 4.30 and 5.00. At 4.00pm a text message arrived, in Greek. I typed it quickly into Google Translate.. and it told me that disruption to our region would start some time between 4.30 and 5.00pm, and would last up to two and a half hours. Which is what I knew already. Still, it reminded me to turn the computer off around 4.25. I wasn't worried about the cut on Wednesday as we had been invited to the home of some friends.

On Thursday, however, I was very thankful for the phone alert. Assuming that between 4.30 and 5.00 was our regular scheduled time, I had not checked the Electricity Authority of Cyprus site. But around 3.00pm I had a text telling me that the cut would start some time between 3.30 and 4.00. We had been invited to the home of some other friends to eat, so again I wasn't worried from the cooking point of view - but it's much better to switch the computer off rather than have it suddenly go black due to a power cut.

On Friday, it was even earlier. And once again, my phone alert let me know that the cut might start at 2.30. So I was ready for it - and that's when it did start. It lasted for two and a half hours. I'd cooked a curry in the crockpot, starting it around 7.00am so I knew it would continue cooking gently during the power cut.

Friday evening, we had a second power cut. The site had said that it was possible, but this time the phone alert did not arrive until about five minutes after the blackout began at 8.40pm. Still, I had a feeling we might have a second cut and had been carrying an electric torch around with me. Tim lit some candles - it's pitch dark in Cyprus by that time - and tried to read his Kindle by candlelight:


But there wasn't enough light .And it was very humid, which felt worse without the ceiling fans running. So we went outside to sit on the front porch of our guest flat, almost as if we were Cypriots.

No cuts are scheduled for the weekend, and Monday's is supposed to start some time between 3.00 and 3.30pm, according to the EAC site. That means that we should have electricity back again some time between 5.30 and 6.00 so if I plan something in the slow cooker again, there will be plenty of time to use the oven for roast vegetables or similar after the power returns.

Confident that we would not have power cuts today - or, at least, that my phone would let me know if one became scheduled unexpectedly - I did the last work necessary to upgrade our family website, including concluding the notes for my rather rambling and detailed home education diary, ending in 2006 after Tim turned 18 and started on his degree course.

Cyprus power cuts - a provisional schedule is published

When I wrote my update on the Cyprus power cuts nearly a week ago, I said that it would have been nice to know when to expect the cuts. It's possible to work around them - switching off computers, for instance, ensuring we've used an electrical gadgets we need in the kitchen in advance - if they're on some kind of schedule.

I continued to make notes, wondering if a pattern would emerge. We had no cut last Wednesday. Thursday was the earliest and longest to date: 1.00pm to 3.35pm. Then a second one from 6.00pm - we don't know for how long as we went out to eat, treated by a friend staying in the guest flat. We could not go to our first choice - the local meze taverna - since they too were having a power cut. So we went back to Alexander's on the sea-front. Tourist areas seem to be immune from power outages.

On Friday and Saturday we then had no cuts at all. I think perhaps there was one Sunday morning when Tim and I were out at a church service and Richard was at the boat, since the air conditioning units showed flashing lights when we returned, and other people reported having had some cuts. But that didn't affect us at all.

Yesterday afternoon (Monday) the power went off at 4.30pm. I had a stifado in the slow cooker which had been gently simmering since shortly after 6.00am. I knew it would keep its heat well so didn't worry about that. However I had been planning to do some roasted sweet potatoes and other veggies in the oven, which take about 40 minutes. We hoped the power might come back again before two hours had passed, but it didn't. I didn't want to open the fridge during the cut, but reckoned that I could prepare the veg pretty quickly, with Tim's help, if the power came back at 6.30. It would mean we wouldn't get to eat until almost 7.15 but we thought we could just about deal with that.

The power didn't come on at 6.30.

At 6.35, Tim and I were watching the clock and starting to feel decidedly hungry. Neither of us is very good with disruption of plans, and I didn't really have a plan B. Cuts can last up to two and a half hours, and the thought of not even starting to prepare veggies until 7.00 just didn't bear thinking about.

Inspiration struck.

We had been talking about having Tim's favourite fast food 'Souvlaki Express' some evening while he's here. I realised that I could put the stifado in the fridge for eating the following day. I mentioned this idea to Tim, and he suggested waiting until 6.40.

So we did, and the power still didn't come on. So Tim used his mobile phone to call Richard and ask him to meet him at the Souvlaki Express shop, which is about five minutes' walk from our house.

At 6.45, the power came back on. But by then we'd arranged to buy souvlaki fast food, so I decanted the stifado, and laid the table... it was almost still 7.15 before we ate.

Today, the power went off at 4.30pm. I had NO idea what we would do if it didn't return until 7.00pm - perhaps reheat portions of stifado in a saucepan on the (gas) hob, and do some rice with it, and find other veg to do in a saucepan.

But thankfully, it came back at 5.45, which gave me plenty of time to use the oven as I had intended.

Then Richard told me that a friend had discovered that a schedule has been published. I hunted around on the Cyprus Electricity site, without much success, eventually finding the schedule in Greek only. Google translate came to my rescue again. Basically it says that each region will get one cut per day of up to two and a half hours, at the same time each day. There are links to each city, and as far as I can make out, we are region 20.

Which means that we are due to get a power cut EVERY week day, starting some time between 4.30 and 5.00, lasting up to 7.00 or even 7.30.

So cooking is going to be quite a challenge. If it were winter, we might consider cooking in the morning and eating our main meal at lunch-time, but I can't face that during summer. Not starting to cook until 7.00 simply isn't an option - I can't manage eating late. No doubt we will figure something out; today's cut wasn't too bad, and I can of course do most of my preparation in the morning. It IS useful to know when we're likely to lose power... but I had rather hoped that there would be a weekly schedule, with different times each day. Entertaining friends for an evening meal is going to be pretty much impossible.

Ah well.

This is Cyprus.

Our 31st anniversary... and my 1000th post!

It seems somehow appropriate that my thousandth post on this blog - started over six years ago - should be about the celebration of another wedding anniversary. Not that 31 is a particularly significant number (unless you are interested in the different kinds of prime numbers in which case there's a detailed Wikipedia article about the number 31.) Last year's 30th ('pearl') anniversary was more of a milestone. But this is the year in which Daniel was married, and Tim finished his degree... and it could have been easy to forget about our wedding anniversary.

We have a guest staying in the guest flat but he was invited out to a meal with some other friends, so we decided to take Tim out with us for a meal. Last year only Daniel was with us - and while we liked to spend our anniversaries on our own, where possible, when the boys were younger, it's now a treat to have either of them with us.

Since we only eat out a handful of times each year, we don't know many restaurants in Larnaka. We didn't want anywhere with hot or spicy food in a Cyprus summer, and we didn't really want to try anywhere new that might prove disastrous. So, perhaps unadventurously, we opted for our favourite of the sea-front restaurants, Alexander's.

Tim took some photos of us, for the record, with his good camera, and I think this is probably the best of them:


Then I did manage to take one of him:


Since Richard and Tim both attempt to be dairy-free in their eating, we knew there were no Alexander's desserts that would be appropriate. So afterwards we drove along the sea-front towards McKenzie and the yogurt ice cream shop which also does regular ice cream, including some sorbets.

Richard opted for strawberry sorbet:


Tim decided on peach:


I was going to have a yogurt ice cream with fruit, but the strawberry sorbet looked rather good, as did the 'coconut/bounty' ice cream. So I had a scoop of each:


Alas, they were rather disappointing. The coconut ice cream wasn't bad, but the strawberry sorbet tasted very artificial. And the peach, as Tim said, tasted as if it had been made with canned peaches in syrup.

Still, they were cooling and refreshing. And the ingredients can't have been too bad since I didn't develop a migraine the following morning.

We arrived home again about 8.30 and Tim suggested a game of 'Ticket to Ride', since he had not played it for about six months. Cleo was delighted when we took the lid off the box:


It was quite an interesting game, which I thought Richard would win since he (playing red) took the only eight-train-track (worth 21 points) and had a lot of different missions. Tim (playing blue) took several extras too, and it was clear that some of the new ones overlapped perfectly with the routes he had already played.


However, I (playing yellow) managed, rather neatly (I thought) to play all my trains AND all my train cards. I only completed the original three missions I had kept at the start of the game, but I gained an extra ten points from the longest contiguous route, and I had not used any stations... and since Richard failed to complete one of his routes, I won:

Life is not all power cuts in Cyprus...

... although, ironically, just as I was about to start this post, my screen went blank as we had our earliest power cut so far, at 1.00pm. The longest, too - electricity didn't come back until 3.30pm. The freezer was still fine, and thankfully it isn't too humid today. I was just thankful that I wasn't in the middle of anything important.

I seem to become less enthusiastic about the beach each year, but we have been a couple of times with friends. The first time, nearly two weeks ago, we arrived to see a disembodied head lying in the sand:


Lukas was very happy to be buried up to his neck by his siblings, despite having to keep still ... and although it looks rather dangerous, he was able to kick sand off his feet and could easily have jumped up at any point.

The following Sunday, the same family came to us, as we do alternate weeks, for an afternoon of games (or a film for the children) followed by a cold meal. And because we ate early, they hung around for a while afterwards, which was fun. Elisabeth is now thirteen months old, and while she doesn't have the strong attachment to me that her sister Helen does, she does like coming for a cuddle now and again. And with Tim home, there are even a few pictures with me in them:


Jacob suggested a game of bananagrams, which can be played by any number of people for varying amounts of time. And, as we learned, at varying levels. So we got it out, and did a few rounds together:


Katie enjoyed 'helping' me at first:


Helen wasn't too happy as the only letter she likes is H - and we objected to her removing all the Hs from the game. So Richard offered to read to her - something he doesn't do very often, but is extremely good at:


Helen often asks me to read the story of 'Ping', but usually gets bored after a few pages. But with Richard reading, she listened to the entire book. And was so enthralled that Katie decided that it would be more fun to listen too than it was to help me spot words with my tiles:

Update on Cyprus power cuts

According to the Cyprus Electricity Authority a week ago, we were due for rolling two-hour power cuts every couple of hours.

However when Richard mentioned it to our neighbour, he called a friend who works for the Electricity Board, and who assured him that our area would not be getting any cuts. No explanation as to why.

And, indeed, on Wednesday we had power all day long. Late afternoon I posted on Facebook, to Cyprus friends only, asking if anyone else had had any power cuts. Some had not experienced any; some had had just power cut for a couple of hours at different times, and one person reported a two-hours-on followed by two-hours-off cycle all day.

On Thursday, I had just started preparing food for some visitors coming to share our evening meal. And the power went off. It was 3.15pm. That meant I could not use the electric mixer, or the ice cream maker, or the oven, or the microwave.. and we didn't want to open the fridge or freezer. But our friends were expected at 6.30, and I started getting a little anxious... so around 4.30 I did quickly open the fridge and started cooking using our stove-top, which, thankfully, is gas. Of course I had to use a match to start it, but that wasn't a huge problem!

At 5.00pm the power came on again, so I turned on the oven at once, and although I then didn't sit down for the next hour and a half, everything was, eventually, ready.

On Friday, I had been doing various things around the house in the morning, and sat down to read email and check Facebook after lunch, with the air conditioning on (at 28C, of course). At 2.30 the power went out. I decided to finish reading the Kindle book I was enjoying... only to have my Kindle run out of battery! And couldn't charge it without my computer on. At 4.20pm the power came on again, so I was able to cook for our evening meal without any problem.

On Saturday morning we woke up to find that the power had been off in the night, or perhaps early morning. It was then on all day, and we were just relaxing after eating when it went off at 8.00pm. And remained off for exactly two hours. Some of our neighbours sat outside and chatted... we found some torches and candles, and were pleased when it came on again, since it was quite a humid evening. It was interesting being able to look out from our balconies after dark and see that our little district was in darkness while other areas had light.

On Sunday, there were no cuts in our neighbourhood.

On Monday this week, we had just finished lunch and I was about to make our frappés when the power went out. So, I couldn't use the frappé machine. And while I could potentially have made them the old-fashioned way, shaking in a jar, I really didn't want to open the freezer while the power was off. That cut lasted exactly two hours too.

Yesterday, the power went out just before 4.00pm. We had some people coming over for coffee, but were able to offer them juice instead... and since I wasn't planning on cooking at the time, it wasn't a problem, other than being rather warm and sticky without even fans running. That cut lasted exactly two hours, again.

Today, Wednesday... we haven't yet had a cut. This worries me slightly. Tim is making us a chicken pie for tonight's meal, which should go in the oven about 6.00pm. What are the chances of a cut at that time....? We really don't want to have to wait until 8.30 to eat...

The problem with not knowing when the power is likely to go out is that it's difficult to organise the day. Since we haven't yet had any morning cuts, I've been able to make bread in the breadmaker and it's been fine. But I don't want to do our accounts since it could corrupt the database if the power went off before I had closed the (rather old) program down. I was hoping we might have had a cut about 2.00 today, which would have meant I was safe to get things done after 4.00.

Of course, power cuts are a minor inconvenience compared to the tragic loss of life caused by the explosion, and the horrendous destruction of the electricity plant. Other countries are supplying some large generators, and the Northern part of Cyprus is supplying some power, which should almost be sufficient. At least when the tourists have left and the temperatures have cooled somewhat. The Electricity Authority is asking people not to use air conditioners... but with computers it's vital that we do, otherwise they will overheat. Confusingly, they are also telling people not to run them at temperatures cooler than 25C. Something we would never do anyway, since 28 is quite sufficient to feel cooler than outside, and to reduce the awful humidity.

But it would be nice to know when we should expect to lose power!

Restrictions of Water and Electricity in Cyprus to start tomorrow, July 13th

So... after yesterday's tragedy, and loss of the main electricity power plant in Cyprus, we are, as rumoured, going to experience serious restrictions of electricity for some time to come.

There's an official press release about the planned restrictions on the Cyprus Electricity Board website. Since the announcement is in Greek only, I put the web page into Google Translate. In English, the news is:

The EAC inform customers that should be expected disruption of electricity daily from 08.00 to 20.00 approx. The interruption in electricity supply will be sequentially approximately every 2 hours for a duration of 2 hours that each establishment should expect to have electricity two hours every second. Clarified that during the evening hours (from 20:00 until about 8:00) will be attempting such a provision is made ​​consistently to all customers of EAC.

The exact time duration of the interruption and the areas to be cut off depending on electricity demand and available production.

To reduce the number of sites that will cut to a minimum, consumers are invited to make as much as possible energy savings.

They are also those who have electric generators to make maximum use in accordance with Directive of the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA).

You should also note that the EAC will make every effort not to cut off such supply to critical services like hospitals, airports, ports, etc., as well as tourist and industrial areas.

So. It seems that we will have power every night from 8.00pm until 8.00am. Which is a relief since it would be difficult to do without lights (it gets dark by about 8.00pm even in the summer in Cyprus) and VERY uncomfortable to have to survive without any air conditioning overnight, when it is likely to be humid for the next couple of months.

However, it seems that we can expect electricity on for two hours at a time, then off for the next two hours for the other twelve hours during the day. We don't know whether we'll have it for the first couple of hours after 8.00am, or whether it will go off then and resume at 10.00am. And it's 'approximate', so it could be more, could be less. We might find, if people are extra-careful with their electricity usage, that we have more than two hours at a time and fewer cuts, but I'm assuming it will begin as described.

As for water - I can't find any official announcements at present, but we've heard that there is likely to be mains water on for about twelve hours in every 36. So, something like: one daytime, then 24 hours off, then one night-time.

How will it affect us personally?

With just three of us (while Tim is here) and reasonable-sized tanks, we're unlikely to run out of water so long as we're reasonably careful. We lived in Cyprus ten years ago when we had far more water restrictions; there was one period when we only had two 12-hour periods of water every week: one day, and one night. We learned to deal with it. I did all the laundry on the one day that it was on, and our tanks filled up with the one night. We only ran out a couple of times when we had visitors. We'll have to start storing more mains water, for drinking, but we did that for years so it shouldn't be too difficult.

As for electrical cuts, it could be worse. Fridges and freezers should be fine with just two hours off at a time, even in the summer; at least I hope so. Using my slow-cooker (crockpot) could be a problem since it's usually on for eight or more hours continually... and I shall have to be organised enough to make our morning coffee and squeeze fresh fruit juice before 8.00am each day. And since (if they do stick to the schedule roughly) our electricity should either be coming on or going off around 2.00pm, we'll just have to be a little flexible about when exactly to have our after-lunch frappés. The washing machine and dishwasher will simply stop working when power goes off, and start again when it resumes. I don't suppose that will matter (although I will try to run them early in the morning or, with the dishwasher, after 8.00pm where possible).

The biggest problem I can foresee, from a personal perspective, is that the bread-maker programme runs for nearly three hours. Perhaps I will just have to get up at 5.00 on the days when I want to make bread. Or use water rather than any kind of milk, and set it on the timer to start at 5.00. We don't use bread at breakfast, but eat it at lunch, so I usually start it around 9.00am. Having made our own bread for five and a half years now, I really don't want to have to go back to buying it again.

For the summer we will have to learn to cope without air conditioning for much of the day, and without being able to use the computer at home. I'm thankful for auto-saves in Blogger and Gmail, which mean that I won't lose too much if the electricity goes off suddenly.

Richard, meanwhile, is busy installing a new generator at his office. They have far too much going on, with important servers and other equipment running continually to be able to deal with two-hour power outages, so he had to buy a generator yesterday. Many businesses will be using generators where possible, just to keep going.

I know we Westerners are very spoilt compared to most of the world. I hope we can put up with a bit of discomfort and some careful planning to make the best use of what resources we have, and to appreciate how blessed we are. I hope, too, that tourism won't be too negatively affected, and that the island won't entirely grind to a halt.

Restoring the electricity plant is going to cost countless millions and may take eighteen months or more. What a tragedy that lives were lost and so much disruption is resulting, just because the government - or whoever was responsible - didn't feel that they had the time and resources to deal with the confiscated munitions.

Tragedy, inefficiency, and extensive disruption

Many people will be aware that, early this morning, there was a major explosion at the Zygi naval base in Cyprus. It's probably 40km from Larnaka, so we were unaware that it had happened until we turned on our computers and saw the news . There's more information, and comments by locals, about the blast on the Cyprus Mail site.

It's a tragic loss of life, and my heart goes out to the relatives. I hope and pray that those injured will recover, and that those made homeless will receive the help they need. It's a tragedy that should not have happened, according to the above reports, and many more pouring in from newspapers and news sites. Storing munitions in canisters in Cyprus summer temperatures was extremely unwise; apparently they survived last year, however, so perhaps the authorities assumed they would be fine this year, too. A brush fire is supposed to have been the trigger, with the explosion rocking the neighbourhood. Ministers have resigned over this issue, and no doubt recriminations will be thrown about widely, with nobody wanting to take full responsibility.

The pictures on the BBC site show utter devastation in the area, and other reports talk of debris for miles around. The nearby towns were seriously disrupted, and the Limassol Highway has been closed. Apparently there were some widespread power cuts this morning, since there was a nearby electricity plant, which has been knocked out. It is likely that it will have to be re-built from scratch... and this is the plant that provides half the island's power. It occurs to me that, while the loss of life is appalling, and heart-breaking to their loved ones, it is something of a miracle that there were not many hundreds more injuries and fatalities.

We understand that this disaster will lead to widespread disruption around Cyprus for the next six months, or perhaps more. Temperatures and humidity started to soar over the weekend, meaning that homes, shops, hotels and other buildings will be using air conditioning - and many people seem to run their thermostats at surprisingly low temperatures. The de-salination plants have apparently been turned off for now, so we're relying on water from the reservoirs once more. It was a fairly wet winter, so there's enough water for now... but Cyprus has been relying on de-salinated water for a while now, to supply the excess.

Rumour has it that there are likely to be disruptions of both electricity and water, in planned (but probably un-announced) waves across the island for the next few months. We are usually fairly careful about our water and electricity use, but not as much as we used to be when there were regular water restrictions. We run our air conditioners only in rooms we're using, and keep the thermostat at 28C; perhaps we should increase that to 29, which should still be all right for the computers, and would continue to remove humidity which is the worst part of the summer from our perspective.

Apparently we're asked to run washing machines and dishwashers as little as possible, and not during peak working hours. I don't run ours other than when they're full, but will try to remember to do them at night, or early in the morning. Tumble driers are not generally used in Cyprus, and I can't imagine anyone would use one in the summer; we don't have one. We're asked not to iron unecessarily. That one's easy enough, since I iron almost nothing anyway. No doubt we'll be told not to water our patios and streets - something else that I don't do.

If everyone pulls together and is sensible about water and electricity, we might find that life is not too disrupted; decreased bills might even make it more attractive to use power more efficiently. The alternative would seem to be widespread cuts, more people leaving Cyprus, fewer tourists, and the gradual descent into the lifestyle of a non-developed country.

Friday update

For once, the week has not whizzed past as rapidly as expected. And that's not because Summer is here; oddly enough, it's been less hot than expected (no more than 30C in the sun) and perhaps more significantly, it hasn't become really humid yet. Somewhat sticky in evenings, but really not bad at all during the daytime. I know this will change sooner or later, but in the meantime am enjoying cool early mornings, and being able to use the kitchen in the daytime without either suffering or using the air conditioning.

On Monday, the Christian Writers' group met here in the morning, and we had a potluck lunch since it was our last meeting until September. People travel out of Cyprus during the summer, very often, and it's likely to be much too hot to do anything much - and we like eating together a couple of times per year. It was good that I had something to think about, since I was feeling a little on tenterhooks: our son Tim was flying out of the UK on Monday.

Or so we thought.

Originally he had been planning to come to Cyprus for just two and a half weeks in August. But for various reasons his plans changed, and he decided that he would like a longer break in the sun. We were able to find some very good value flights via Lufthansa, with the outgoing ones on Monday, due to arrive at 2.00am Tuesday morning.

Mid-afternoon, Tim called to say that while he was on the bus on his way to the airport, he had received a call letting him know that his flight was cancelled! However they told him to go to the airport anyway and they would sort it out for him. He wondered if they would put him on a bus to Heathrow and the Cyprus Air flight... but no. They booked him into the Airport Hotel overnight, and found three flights on the Tuesday, due to arrive at 5.00pm. Which is a much more sociable arrival time, and since he was coming for eight weeks, losing one day isn't too big a deal.

He had to be up very early (4.00am UK time!) on Tuesday, but all the flights went smoothly, arriving in time for the connections, and we were very happy to see our son at the airport when he finally arrived. He was tired, but suggested a game in the evening... at which he creamed us both:


(Anyone who plays Settlers and wants to know a little more about the game, I did write a brief post about this game on my Settlers blog which has been much neglected recently).

Yes, that's Cleo in the box lid. She has become much more sociable in the summer, and her favourite place to sleep is in the lid of any box that happens to be open. Whether or not she actually fits...

On Wednesday Tim relaxed, and slept somewhat, and chatted. At least, he tried to relax. It wasn't easy because the road works finally started in our street, and they were extremely noisy. The cats were upset and scared. Well; oddly enough Cleo, usually the most nervous cat, wasn't too worried. she did flick her ears a few times when a particularly loud machine went by, but other than that did not seem too concerned. Sophia sat on the stairs, looking extremely worried, but then she always hates loud diggers, which she seems to think are going to eat her.

Tessie surprised us the most by being truly terrified. She mewed - real mews, not her usual chattering cries - extremely loudly when I was in the bathroom, evidently telling me to get out. Then she hid under the bed. We can only assume that she thought we were having a major earthquake and was trying to keep us safe.

Thankfully the pipes seem to have been laid very quickly, and the road was back to normal again by late afternoon.

We were due to play a game with friends in the evening but they had to cancel due to illness, so Tim watched a DVD with Richard in the evening . And on Thursday decided that he'd done enough relaxing, so he went to the office to do some (voluntary) work with Richard. As he has done today.

Then friends who are shortly leaving Cyprus had dinner with us last night. So it's been quite a busy and enjoyable week.

Bookcases have been assimilated...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a new bookcase we acquired from some friends. Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed that I mentioned that we were thinking about having two more bookcases from the same friends, albeit rather smaller. We decided that we would, indeed, like them. My five fiction bookcases in the dining room were overflowing; I relied on having lots of people borrowing books to have enough space, and that wasn't working since friends going away from the summer had returned books without borrowing more.

So I thought I might use one of the new bookcases for my recipe books, and then use the current recipe book bookcase for an extra fiction one. I wasn't entirely sure where it would go... but last Sunday evening we collected the two bookcases, and as they were quite light, I tried one of them out in a few possible spots the following morning, before realising that the perfect place was by the back door. Transferring all the recipe books didn't take long, and since there were two spare shelves I moved the cool boxes (which were in the way elsewhere) to the bottom one, and the potatoes, onions and garlic (which were on a tatty old vegetable rack) to another one. I really like the result:


Even a week later, it still makes me smile when I look at the new bookcase from the kitchen:


I shelve our fiction books alphabetically by the surname of the author, but decided that, rather than simply moving them all around to fit in the ex-recipe-book shelves, I'd remove the 'teenage' fiction that was amongst the rest, and give its own bookcase. I suppose it's a little arbitrary what counts as 'teenage' fiction, since the teens who borrow books from me take quite a wide range... but I decided to move books that were actually written for teenagers. Including, for instance, my 60+ Chalet School books, the Harry Potter series, books by Noel Streatfeild, Malcolm Saville, LM Alcott and LM Montgomery, the Redwall series... and a few others:


Then, I moved the rest of the books along, filling in the gaps, but not squashing them on the shelves as they were before. I added in the extras that I didn't previously have room for, and left a few small gaps where I knew there were still books out on loan.


What did rather surprise (and slightly worry) me was that although I had gained five extra shelves, by the time I reached the end of the fiction, I only had two and a half shelves with nothing on them:


Tessie always likes sleeping next to books, so she was pleased with the new arrangements:


Meanwhile, another bookcase was sitting, empty, in my study, where Cleo thought it made a comfortable bed:


I knew where I wanted to put it (next to my desk) but there was a slight problem in that that spot was taken by a small white bookcase, on top of which was our broadband router. Wires stretched from the computer in one direction, and from the telephone socket in another. We didn't want to have to make holes in the new bookcase, so Richard said he'd make a new phone wire, enabling us to put the router neatly on the unit that houses the computer, printer and scanner. It took a few days for him to have the time, but towards the end of the week he did.

That meant that I could move the white unit out of the way, and the new bookcase to its new place. At the bottom went some heavy encyclopedias which we've been looking after for friends for about seven or eight years now, and which were previously at the bottom of the recipe bookcase.. and which had been sitting piled up on a table in my study for a few days. They fit nicely, so I then moved my writing books, and various other reference books, and also my shelf of fiction-that-I- have-not-yet-read. I like very much having a bookcase next to my desk:


So, now I was left with a mostly empty bookcase at the other end of my study. I had already planned to move some of my favourite children's fiction books up from our guest flat, since we have regular small visitors and like to have a variety of books to read with them:


I wasn't entirely sure what to do with the white unit which no longer held the router. It contained such useful items as empty CDs and DVDs, and cases, and some old CDs with software, and a load of apparently random cables; so I found a spot by the window where it could go quite nicely:



Then I started thinking about the smallest of our regular visitors, and how much she likes 'toys' of all description, and thought that perhaps this wasn't quite such a good idea. So I sorted out the contents of the white shelves, and moved them to the empty one above the children's books:


Then the colouring pencils (in a tin) and some paper for children's use, and a couple of old glove puppets I found, fit rather nicely in the white shelves:


All of which is very satisfactory... and leaves me with much to ponder. God supplies not just what we need, sometimes, but what we want - and in this case, what we didn't even know that we wanted. I am quite sure we would not have chosen these exact bookcases if we had gone to the Thrift Shop, or even Ikea. We would have discussed for ages what we might possibly buy, and probably not come to any conclusions. Yet these three bookcases that were available are, as we have found, perfect for the space we had, and look absolutely right. The Great Designer apparently doesn't mind our increasing acquisition of books, which is very reassuring.

At the same time, it's slightly concerning to think just how easily we have assimilated three new bookcases into a house where we didn't think there was room for any more... and how quickly the shelves have been filled.

Too many jackets?

Neither of us is particularly observant, so we tend to get used to the status quo, whatever that might be, forgetting to do anything about it. Over the winter, several jackets hang on the coat rack in our living room. We were still using light jackets in early April, but have not needed any since we returned to Cyprus early in May after our UK visit. However, somehow it didn't occur to either of us to move them somewhere else for the summer.

Until this morning. Actually it started yesterday when I put a load of laundry on, and realised that now we're wearing shorts and tee-shirts, I wasn't going to fill the machine. So I looked around for something else to add to the load, and decided to wash one of the jackets. Then I thought that perhaps today (Saturday) I'd do an extra load of laundry, and wash all the rest, then put them away in one of our closets for a few months.

So I removed them all, and the umbrellas, leaving a rather empty coat rack with nothing but sun hats:


I put two kagoules (waterproof light jackets) away at once as they're not washable. And I put away my warm winter jacket, one I've had for at least twenty years, but which I hardly ever wear as it doesn't often get cold enough. Everything else went in the wash.

Except that it was two entire loads. Just for jackets. Just for two people. This seems to me a little over the top. And while I forgot to take a picture of the overloaded coat rack before I removed them, I did take a photo of the jackets hanging out to dry:


That's two very light-weight zip-up hooded jackets of mine, one denim jacket that used to be Richard's but which I appropriated, and two fleeces of mine, plus three of Richard's fleeces, and his black body-warmer. All of which we did wear in the winter and early spring at different times. But somehow nine jackets - indeed, twelve including the three I put away without washing - seems somewhat excessive. Particularly as we have a few others that never left the closet, oh, and the one I washed yesterday.

And no, we don't buy clothes if we can help it. None of these jackets or fleeces is new. Somehow clothes, like other clutter, seem to accumulate in our house.

Rather like the large number of sun-hats now hanging on the coat-rack, which don't even include the ones Richard keeps in the boat for sailing.