Saturday, March 22, 2014

Spring along the trail...

The word 'Spring' in the title is not a command, I hasten to add. While Sheila and I walk at a fairly brisk pace, covering 4km in around half an hour, or a little more, I certainly don't feel like springing along in the early hours of the morning.

Yesterday, however, was officially the first day of Spring. That means, in Cyprus, that we start to think about shedding our sweatshirts or sweaters during most of the day, but still put on something warm for the evening or early morning, and still definitely need a duvet at night. It's been a pretty mild winter, and dry too, so that I've had to water our plants a few times already, and the Salt Lake has never really filled up at all.

Spring in Cyprus, too, means that there is a lot of yellow. I write about this almost every year, but even now it startles and delights me with the suddenness of change.

Here's what part of the trail looked like just a month ago, when we were halted by a fallen tree:


Here it is now - as it's been for perhaps a week:


I was particularly taken with this bush, a kind of plant which I probably photograph every year: 


I am being woken by a persistent Sophia - mewing in my ear, batting my face, knocking things down - between 5.30 and 6.00am at present, when the sun comes up.  Sheila and I met at about 6.15 today, and then she walked back here with me afterwards, and we stood outside our house chatting for a while. By 7.30am it was feeling really quite warm - a reminder of the Summer which, in Cyprus is (unfortunately) guaranteed. 

I look forward to next weekend when, along with the rest of Europe, we will put our clocks forward an hour. 

1 comment:

Anvilcloud said...

How delightful.