Getting into September in Cyprus

 So, two and a half weeks have gone by. The heavy rain at the end of August - which I wrote about in my last post - didn't lead to significant cooling, although the humidity did, somewhat, reduce.

Overnight it was cool enough that I resumed early morning walks, three times per week, with my friend Sheila. I didn't want to wear socks and trainers, though, and I wasn't sure how far I could manage, so on Sept 1st we started by walking in the upgraded Salt Lake Park, including going along the bridge and observing the Salt Lake with some water, at one end, from the recent rain: 

We did then walk a little way along the trail itself and I found it wasn't too bad with sandals. We wondered how long the water would remain.

The end of summer... perhaps?

 When we lived in the UK, my least favourite month of the year was November. After the clock change at the end of October, the evenings were dark early, and it seemed to me that the daytimes were often grey and dreary too. November sometimes dragged on and on...

That's rather how I feel about September in Cyprus, although for rather different reasons. Somehow, with schools starting a new year, and shorter days, I feel as if it should be cooler. September is an autumn month, and despite nearly twenty-eight years in Cyprus, it feels wrong that September here is still an extension of summer. 

I don't like hot weather. I am often out of Cyprus for some or all of August - as happened this year so I miss the worst of the heat and humidity. When I arrived back at the start of the last week of August, it wasn't as hot as I expected, nor as humid. We were using air conditioning with our computers, and for an hour or two at night. I thought perhaps I'd escaped the worst of it. 

Then September started, and the humidity returned. There weren't any heatwaves - and on September 3rd I resumed early morning walks with my friend Sheila. I took it slowly; I didn't manage the full 4km the first couple of times, and had to take a couple of breaks to sit down. But it was nice to be out. The Salt Lake was completely dry after over three months with no rain.

September in Cyprus, and a warm fridge

A couple of weeks ago, we had a guest to lunch. Among other things, I prepared some basic salads - green salad from a bag, coleslaw, sliced tomatoes, etc. Nothing special. But I'm not good at quantities, so there was a lot left over, which I put out for lunch for the two of us the following day. I was a bit surprised to find that the salad was looking a bit sad and brown around the edges, and that the tomatoes were going soft. 

I didn't think too much about it. But by the following day, the tomatoes had fermented, the green salad was going bad, and the coleslaw tasted decidedly weird. I wondered if the fridge was having trouble keeping everything cold enough. But the ambient temperature wasn't any higher than it had been all summer when the fridge had been working without problem. 

Our LG fridge is only a little over four years old. Our previous one lasted at least fifteen years without any issues at all. We replaced it in May 2020. I was becoming concerned that it might break down at some point, and didn't want to risk a summer where this might happen. As it was the year of the pandemic, we knew we weren't going anywhere. 

We also knew that a more modern fridge would be much more efficient to run. Buying a new fridge, we worked out, would essentially pay for itself within about four years with the saving in electricity. And we had money available. The Sam Vines 'boots' theory worked in our favour. 

So fast-forwarding to now, more than four years later, the fridge didn't owe us anything. But still, a four year old fridge ought to be working well. The compressor, the most expensive part, is guaranteed for another six years. And the freezer at the top of the fridge was still working perfectly well. 

We needed empirical evidence that there was a problem. So we found a room thermometer, and put it in the fridge. We waited an hour or so, and were shocked to find it showing 14 degrees Celsius. The thermostat was set to three degrees. The app on Richard's phone that connects with the fridge didn't show any problems. 

We noticed that the fridge was a bit close to the wall behind it. We thought that might be the problem, and moved it forward a few centimetres. Then we waited another hour, and the thermometer reduced to about 12 degrees. But we hadn't opened the fridge in that time, and the room was cooling a little as the afternoon ended. 

On Friday morning, the fridge temperature had gone down to about 6 degrees, but quickly rose back to 10. So Richard went to talk to the owner of the white goods shop where we buy most of our large appliances. He said that he couldn't do anything over the weekend, but would ask an LG engineer to come on Monday. 

The owner then asked if we had another way of keeping our things cold enough. When Richard said that we didn't, he said he would get his staff to bring us another fridge for the weekend. This kind of thing is an advantage of the relational culture here, and of being loyal to one shop. Sure enough, an hour or so later two strong guys arrived with a used but clean and functional fridge. 

We had bought another thermometer in the meantime, one specifically intended for fridges. A few hours later the visiting fridge had cooled to 3 degrees. So we moved things like mayonnaise and spreads into it. We left unopened cans, nuts and chocolate in our fridge - ten to twelve degrees is an ideal temperature for them, and the borrowed one wasn't as big as ours. 

On Monday afternoon, a week ago, the LG engineer arrived. He spoke excellent English, and was happy to talk through what he was doing with Richard. He said that most often this happens when the condenser coils are dirty. We had read that online, but there was no easy way to access them. The engineer pushed the fridge out and removed the back panel. 

The condenser coils, which had not been cleaned in four years, were indeed thick with dust and dirt: 

The engineer had a machine that blew the dust out. All over the kitchen... 

Then he said that would probably solve the problem. 

The following day, the fridge was showing about 7-8 degrees, rising up to 9 or 10 any time the door was opened. The borrowed fridge, for comparison, was down to about 3-4 degrees, rising no higher than 5 when the door was opened. So Richard called the LG guy again, and he said that sometimes it takes 48 hours, so we should wait another day.

We waited another day. The visiting fridge was a bit noisy, and using a lot of electricity. It was also rather in the way, but we were getting used to it. And our fridge was not doing much better. We were getting obsessed with the numbers. But we decided that as there wasn't much that would spoil, we would move things back to our fridge and wait another day or so. 

Nothing went bad. But the temperatures still weren't right, ranging between 5 and 9. Several websites gave checklists of things that might cause this kind of problem, such an over-full fridge or a faulty seal on the door. The only one that was relevant to us was that the back of the freezer was a bit iced up. 

We kept debating whether to call the engineer again... and then it was Friday. We knew that he wouldn't come until at least Monday. On Saturday evening we decided that the following morning we would try to defrost our fridge and freezer entirely. If that didn't work, we would call the engineer on Monday. 

So on Sunday morning, at about 6am, I turned on the visiting fridge again. When it had cooled to 3 degrees - which took about three hours - we moved everything out of our freezer as well as from the fridge, and packed as much as we could into the borrowed one. 

Then we turned our fridge off at the wall. Richard removed all the shelves, in the hope of accessing the panels at the back. It was an excellent opportunity to clean the shelves - and the fridge - more thoroughly than was possible when it had food inside. 

The back panel in the fridge section was easily moved, but there was no ice there. The freezer one wouldn't budge, but clearly had ice behind it. It melted pretty quickly, and left a puddle on the base of the freezer section. It took a couple of hours before that stopped, and all the water had dried up. 

Just after noon on Sunday I put some of the nuts back, and we turned our fridge on again. 

After an hour, the thermometer was showing 24 degrees. 

After another hour, it was down to 18. 

Then it got slower and slower. By four o'clock, it was at about 8 degrees.  By five o'clock it was just under 6 degrees.  We tried to check only once an hour, since opening the door makes the temperature rise, but I couldn't resist. And at twenty to six, I saw:

Hallelujah!

Then at six o'clock, it was back to 4.9 degrees. And over 5 soon after. 

We decided to have one last check at 7.15pm. If it was less than four degrees, we agreed, we would transfer everything back, and turn off the visiting fridge.  If it was higher than four, we would leave them both overnight. 

At 7.15pm, it showed 3.6.  The defrosting had worked! 

So we moved everything back, including the things that had still been left out, and of course that raised the temperature again to 10 degrees.... but we thought all would be well after it had been left overnight.

I hoped it would be down to somewhere between 3 and 4 on Monday morning, but no. It was on 6. I bought some fresh fruit and vegetables and put them in, and the temperature rose to nearly 10. And then it went back to 6. It had occurred to us, more than once, that we actually had no idea how well the fridge had been working prior to this incident. We had never put a thermometer inside, naively assuming that if it said 3 degrees on the front, it would chill to that temperature. 

We knew that 5-6 degrees is not dangerous for food. Many of the things in our fridge wouldn't need to be there at all if the kitchen temperature was 20 rather than 30 degrees. So Richard decided to go and talk to the white goods guy, hoping he might get his employees to remove the visiting fridge. 

They had a good chat. The shop owner said we might as well keep the borrowed fridge a few more days in case our freezer iced up again. He said it was possible that the auto-defrost system wasn't working. He also told us that we should set our thermostat to 4 degrees rather than 3, as this would make the internal temperature more stable. No, I didn't understand why, but Richard did. And sure enough, since setting the thermostat to 4, it hasn't risen beyond about 7 degrees when the door is opened, even when new non-chilled things are put inside.

We're trying to be more efficient about opening and closing the fridge, and plan to clean the coils regularly. At least once a year. We're also being careful not to block any of the vents at the back of the fridge or the freezer section, and will try to ensure that it doesn't move against the wall again.

So we hope this is the end of this saga, and that we'll be able to say goodbye to the visiting fridge before long. 

Where is Autumn....?

We have lived here long enough (26 years) that I no longer expect summer to be over by the start of September. In our first few years, I would feel a stab of disappointment on the first day of the month when it was still hot and humid. I suppose it was a bit like a child waking up on their birthday, devastated to discover that nothing had really changed overnight. 

But I was, briefly, quite hopeful at the end of August this year. We had a downpour of rain towards the end of that month. It was unexpected, and welcome... however, it didn't make the temperatures decrease. Cyprus, like most of Europe, has had the hottest summer on record. September wasn't much better. 

Still, by the middle of September, the humidity did reduce somewhat. And the night-time temperatures dropped to around 19-21 degrees overnight, even though we were still seeing more than 30 degrees in the daytime. So, towards the end of September, I started walking with my friend Sheila again, on three mornings each week. 

The Salt Lake had mostly dried out, but there was a little patch of water. I was told that flamingoes have been spotted already, although we haven't yet seen any on our walks. 

But now it's almost the end of October. We've managed not to use any air conditioning this month - though we were using it right up to the end of September - but we're still running ceiling fans, day and night. The early morning temperatures are still 19-21 degrees. The daytime temperatures have mostly remained up to 30-31 degrees. This morning, the Salt Lake didn't look much different; in previous years it's usually had quite a bit of water by the end of October. 

We've had a bit of rain, two or three times, but no more than about five minutes at a time despite forecasts of thunderstorms and heavy rain. I've had to keep watering the plants, something I don't usually have to do at this time of year.  I haven't yet put even our lightweight duvet on the bed, and I haven't got out my jeans. I did find a thin, light-weight jacket that I wore a few times when walking in the morning, but I didn't remember it today, and didn't need it. I haven't wanted long trousers to walk in, either. 

We had a surprise yesterday, on visiting one of the DIY shops locally, to find that they already had extensive Christmas displays. Here's just one of the sections:

It seems a bit premature, when people are still going around in tee shirts and shorts, but perhaps they know something we don't. November is when we usually start thinking about central heating, so maybe this year we'll move straight from summer into winter...

That's not what the forecast suggests:

But they haven't been all that accurate, recently. And tonight we put the clocks back an hour, so it will be light earlier in the morning (which is good for early morning walkers) but it will be dark earlier in the evenings. 

I haven't updated this blog in a long time.  So here are a few other random items that may or may not be of interest: 

• At the start of September, we had our sofit and fascia boards re-painted, repaired and/or replaced by a young friend, using a boom lift to reach the roof. I didn't even know what sofit or fascia boards were until Richard pointed out that they desperately needed maintenance. 

• Some long-standing friends came to stay for a week, early in September. Mostly they sailed with Richard, but one afternoon we drove to a village festival where there was grape-treading, long speeches and traditional dancing. There were more people than I've seen in one place for a long time:

• Our bird of paradise plant bloomed a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in eight years: 

• Richard celebrated his birthday over two days: we had a barbecue for a few friends in our side yard, and the following day the two of us went to eat at the Art Cafe, somewhere we hadn't been for many years.The staff were younger than they used to be, but the place and the menu did not seem to have changed at all. 

• I had stopped spraying everywhere against large and unpleasant insects, as there were very few in August, none at all in September. Then a couple of days ago, I saw tiny ants swarming on the food processor. I cleaned them off, only to find more on another nearby appliance a few hours later. So I pulled everything out, cleaned away the inevitable crud that accumulates behind kitchen appliances, and sprayed the area with biokill.  Then I found more of these tiny creatures running around on the top of the microwave. Apparently they were nesting inside the vents. Google tells me this is not unusual, and the microwave still works.  Spraying the top and sides of the microwave seems to have helped. 

• Lady Jane must have learned that classic early-reading phrase, 'The cat sat on the mat'. Every time I set the table for our evening meal, she sits down on the mats in the middle:

This may all sound rather frivolous, given the horrific war which, geographically, isn't all that far from Cyprus. A lot of exiles have passed through, en route elsewhere, and a few remain. This little island is braced for many more. We've had two people (both friends of friends) staying in our guest flat: one for a couple of nights, one for rather longer. 

The news sites are increasingly negative, with just a few brief lighter articles. The world seems to be a dangerous place, but, where possible, life goes on. While we pray for peace, with little hope of a solution, we can be thankful for all we have, and make the most of it while we still can. 

Cyprus in September

As Facebook keeps reminding me, there are several years where I have spent most of August in the UK, and returned to Cyprus early in September.  August remains my least favourite month in Cyprus: the heat and humidity are excessive, and many activities and businesses close down for two weeks or longer.

Not that local activities are particularly relevant now our children are grown up, living and working in the UK. But it does mean that a lot of people tend to travel during August. So it happened again this year: I was away for nearly five weeks, in cooler climes which I like so much better at this time of year. More significantly I spent some quality time with the family.

I flew back to Cyprus on September 3rd.  It hasn't been too humid since my return, and it hasn't been excessively hot. Daytime highs (in the shade) have been around 30-33C, and the nighttimes down to a much more pleasant 22-24C.  We're still using air conditioning when computers are on, and for a couple of hours in the bedroom at night to reduce humidity. I'm not walking anywhere between about 9.00am and 8.00pm. I'm not liking the fact that it's still hot for me, but I have to acknowledge that it's vastly preferable to August.

Last week I agreed to start walking early in the morning with my friend Sheila, again.  We stopped mid-June when it started feeling unpleasantly warm, but usually resume some time in September. I remembered to take my camera for the first walk.  The ground cover was mostly brown, after over three months without rain:

But, as can probably be seen in the thin strip of blue in the middle of the photo, there is still quite a bit of water in the Salt Lake.  Some years it has dried up completely; some years there's just a little water by the end of Summer.  But this year - where we had a lot of rain in the winter and spring, far more than normal - it has as much water now as it sometimes has by the end of the winter.

Here's a cropped picture which shows more clearly how much water there is:

There even seem to be some flamingoes, although they were so far away that none of my photos show them.

We walked to the Airport Road end of the trail.  Three months ago the water was almost up to the trail, so it's gone down a fair bit:  there's dried salt on the sand, although it probably isn't obvious from the photo:

I kept looking at the forecast, hoping it might cool down a degree or two. But the long-range forecast continued to show 31-32 degrees in the daytime, 21-23 overnight.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see a lot of cloud in the sky yesterday morning, and by about noon the clouds were grey and quite threatening. It was extremely humid, too; I turned on the air conditioning in the kitchen where I was cooking our Sunday lunch as I felt so sticky; the air was heavy, and I wondered if there would be thunder over the mountains.

It was even more of a surprise when it started to rain. It slowed down after about half a minute, which is normal for the first rain of the season.  It usually brings lots of dust from the trees and rooftops, and makes the atmosphere even more humid.

But then the rain started up again. It must have rained solidly - quite heavily at times - for almost an hour.  There was some hail, and the kind of torrential rain which is very unusual this early in the season:

Our roof leaked over the stairs, as it does in heavy rain; local friends reported, on Facebook, that their roofs leaked too. And there was apparently some flooding in parts of Larnaka.

By about 3.00pm the rain had stopped, and the sun came out later.  The evening was a little cooler, but today the temperature is back to 31C.  The forecast doesn't show any significant reduction of temperatures for the next ten days - but then the forecast didn't predict over an hour of rain yesterday.   

Back in Cyprus, Lady Jane and the gradual end of Summer

When our son Tim moved back to the UK early in August, his cat Lady Jane Grey moved to our house, at least for now. Tim's new job is temporary and his accommodation not appropriate for a cat. Lady Jane is Alexander the Great's sister. Yes, historical chronology is a little skewed. Their other sister, no longer with us as long-term readers might recall, was Joan of Arc. And our elderly, eighteen-year-old cat is Cleopatra... 

However, Lady Jane had lived in Tim's flat for two years as an only cat, and had apparently forgotten that other felines exist. The first stage in her adoption into our house was to bring her to our guest flat, where Tim stayed for about three weeks after moving out of his flat, before flying to the UK.

That in itself wasn't too traumatic, although when she arrived she didn't want to emerge from the cat carrier for quite some time.  When she eventually did, she hid on some bookshelves:

After a few days of very tentative exploration, she became rather more at home in the guest flat. Unfortunately her initial introduction to Alex was extremely stressful. We let them 'meet' through a gap in a sliding door, and Alex wanted to play. Jane saw this as a terrible threat; she growled and spat.

Then Alex managed to get into the flat - twice - when the door was briefly open. He saw a new playmate. Jane saw an enemy.  There was a great deal of noise and she refused to look at any human who was involved in the trauma, for quite some time.

But before Tim flew back, we knew we had to move Jane up to our part of the house. Tim's old bedroom became her 'safe haven', as advised on several websites, and we put some of his furniture there. She spent a lot of time sitting on her cat tree looking out of the windows:

We tried letting Alex and Jane see each other through narrow doorways, but it wasn't encouraging. He lay down, evidently wanting to wait. She growled and hissed and spat, apparently terrified.

At the suggestion of a Facebook friend, we acquired some of the plug-in artificial pheromone Felliway to use in Jane's room and the living room for a month. She did seem a little calmer after a couple of days, but perhaps that was a coincidence.

When I went away to the UK for three weeks, we were still keeping her shut in her room most of the time. She didn't seem to mind, but did like exploring a little further when Alex and Cleo were shut downstairs.

Richard reported progress over the three weeks that I was away. She and Alex got a little closer. She didn't growl quite so much. She didn't seem to understand how to play, but he was very patient. He started letting them be loose in the house when he was home. Jane started having food in the living room...

By the time I got home, she was a lot more amicable than she had been. Was the Felliway responsible or would it have happened anyway? We have no idea. But we like to think it probably helped.

A day or two after I got back, Jane was in the kitchen asking for 'wet food' at lunchtime, so I put hers on the boot tray that we use for cat food dishes... and for the first time all three cats ate together:

Since then, she and Alex have been very friendly, chasing each other, batting each other in a play-fighting way, and even rubbing noses sometimes. Jane still doesn't like Cleo and spits at her whenever she sees her, but we suspect that she's trying to establish dominance and doesn't understand that an elderly matriarch is de facto the queen of the feline household.

Meanwhile September's weather has, far too slowly for my liking, been cooling down, and the humidity reducing. So much so that a week ago I resumed my thrice-weekly early morning walks with my friend Sheila, along part of the Salt Lake trail.

The Salt Lake is entirely dried up this year:

My break in the UK resulted in a great deal more energy than I had before I left, so, combined with the not-quite-so-hot weather, I've been doing more in the kitchen again. I have been using our latest Lakeland acquisition, a three-pot slow-cooker, so much more useful than the one large one which we were using (and which I still have, and will no doubt put into use again when cooking for large numbers).

I still haven't quite adjusted to cooking for just two of us, and last Sunday put together a casserole that wouldn't fit into just one of the pots, but it simmered nicely in two of them. A few days earlier I stewed a couple of large and rather soft apples, which was much easier than doing them in a pan that might boil dry.

I expect to use this more as Autumn progresses, so I can make two different curries or soups at the same time, either for entertaining, or for us with plenty to freeze for future meals.

We had the first real rain this week, during Tuesday night. It hasn't made any noticeable difference to the Salt Lake itself, but the overall temperatures feel much more pleasant. It was almost chilly this morning when Sheila and I set out on our walk, and watched the sun rise behind some of the palm trees:

We wondered whether the new looking greenery in the park could have resulted so quickly from the first rain.

I was pleased to note that in the coming week temperatures are set to be between 28 and 30 degrees C at the most, which is very encouraging after being 30-33 in the past couple of weeks. Today I only used my study air conditioning for a couple of hours; the rest of the time the ceiling fan was sufficient. 

Cyprus sandstorm

Despite the shortening days and cooler nights, it remains hot in September. Last Monday, I'd done my usual quick weekly dusting and mopping of the main floor of our house first thing; by mid-morning it was as hot and humid as it had been for most of the summer.

By mid-afternoon, I noticed that the sky had become overcast. Was it going to rain? I felt quite hopeful for half an hour or so, before realising that the sky wasn't cloudy, but dusty. It's not unusual to have sandstorms in Cyprus; perhaps once a year we see a red sky with sand from the Sahara, which dissipates quickly, but leaves red dust everywhere.

However, the sky looked more yellow than red, and a quick Internet search revealed that this sand was from Syria. We assumed that it would be gone by the following morning.

On Tuesday Sheila and I went out to walk, but it felt much warmer than usual for the time of day, as well as very close and generally unpleasant. There was dust in the air, and visibility was poor. So we only did half our usual walk, and I didn't feel at all invigorated.

The dust then got worse. At nine o'clock, Sheila took this photograph, showing the sun as a pale white disc, trying to poke through the immense dust in the atmosphere:

Everywhere looked as if it was sepia-toned. We closed windows, used air conditioning to filter the air as well as to get cool. The online newspapers recommended that people stay indoors. Even the international media began reporting on this massive amount of sand in the atmosphere; apparently it was also covering Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.  People with asthma were told to stay indoors, and we heard reports of people being taken to hospital with breathing difficulties.

By Wednesday, it was a little better, but not much. State-run schools were supposed to start after the lengthy Summer break, but the government kept them closed. By Thursday it was better still; Sheila and I managed our usual walk first thing. Although the Salt Lake trail looked very dusty, it was easier to breathe near all the plants.

On Friday the secondary schools opened, and we heard that the dust levels were down to almost acceptable levels. By Saturday we were seeing blue skies again. Even people who have lived in Cyprus for thirty years or more said that they have never been such a major and long-lasting sandstorm.

I felt very sorry for the tourists who had come out for a week of relaxation and sunshine, only to be told they had to stay indoors, with no sun to be seen.

Neighbours had hosed down their patios and cars several times during the week; I did water our plants, and did a quick rinse of the patio and outside stairs once, but that was just to stop more sand being trodden indoors.

Keeping the windows closed didn't stop a heavy layer of dust descending just about everywhere; I made finger-marks deliberately to show how bad it was. And everything had been dusted just last Monday...

This morning, it took me nearly an hour and a half to dust, vacuum and mop... three times as long as it usually does!

I cleaned the kitchen appliances and counter-tops several times during the week, and the dining table. However, on a couple of mornings I saw that, although the cats are very good about not going on the table during the daytime, they aren't so good at night...

Whoever would have guessed....?

September, and another walk by the Salt Lake

Although we planned to go to the beach more often during July and August, we didn't manage it. Just once a week with our friends. On the last Friday of August, the moon was full and the temperature wasn't too high by the end of the evening. Photos of the moon are always disappointing but here's one attempt:

In fact we did go to the beach one more time, on the first Friday of September. The daytime isn't any cooler during September, at least not in the first couple of weeks; but the days are shorter, the humidity lower and the night temperatures drop down to 22-24C.

So I agreed to meet my friend Sheila for an early morning walk by the Salt Lake trail on September 1st, as it was a Tuesday. I woke shortly before 6.00am and we had our usual text message conversation. As I stepped out of the house, it was early dawn, and I was pleased that it felt pleasantly cool.

The sky was slightly pink as we approached the trail, and I was surprised at how green it was. There was a little rain (maybe five minutes) at the end of July, but other than that it's been dry, as usual, for at least two months, and there was very little rain during June.

The nearest part of the Salt Lake has dried up; it might look as if there's water in it, but the white is from the crust of salt that remains after the water has evaporated:

We've seen a few sunsets in clear skies, when at the beach during the Summer, but this was the first sunrise I had seen for a while:

Even the weeds were still growing, although the next picture is a bit dark. It wasn't just the bigger trees that were green:

There was a stark reminder of the fire that devastated quite a big area back in May:

And then, as we walked back from the aqueduct, we saw that there is still some water at the other end of the Salt Lake; you can see the reflections in the distance:

So I walked about five kilometres (including going to and from the trail) after a summer with very little exercise. I felt very unfit; we walked more slowly than usual, and my legs ached by the time I was home. They were even worse the following day!

However, I've walked a couple more times since then, and each time it's easier. I do enjoy the early morning walks, and saying 'kalimera' to various people who walk along the same paths at the same time each day... and am thankful that it's now cool enough to do this again.

We're supposed to be having a heatwave this week, so I hope it won't be too hot to walk. As I write, the sky is grey outside, but it's dust rather than cloud. It will probably be another few weeks before we get any rain.

Images of Autumn in our Cyprus household...

Not sunrises this time, although I've seen a few pretty ones recently. Just a few pictures taken in the past three weeks, some of which I have pondered blogging about... yet somehow the days fly by, and the blog stays neglected. 

The deadline for Tim's MA thesis was the end of September. He was pleased to learn that he would not have to fly back to submit it, and that it could be printed and bound here rather than at his university, then sent by courier.  Better still, Richard has a comb-binding machine, so on Thursday a couple of weeks ago I did some final proof-reading, then Tim printed his magnum opus, plus bibliography and title page, and Richard used his impressive gadget:

We then had to get it to DHL, who tried to charge us more than the online quote.. however, it arrived safely, and we heard of another student in a similar situation who used a different courier service which cost more and did not deliver. At least, not until several days late. Thankfully the universities take the posting date into account, but it was still immensely frustrating for them. So we'll probably use DHL again.

After the thesis was out of the way, Tim decided to re-organise his room, which included sorting his books. Some of them had been tipped onto the floor by Tessie, who likes to sleep on bookshelves and will think nothing of pulling books out if they are in her way.  

Apparently, though, one of the books refused to co-operate, so Tessie had to teach it rather a violent lesson in submission: 

It's not often that we throw a book away.  It went very much against the grain with us all, but we had to acknowledge that it was past repair.  Besides, Tim commented that it was quite a heavy three-volumes-in-one book, and he would really prefer the three books individually.  So he quickly put them on his wishlist and we laid this sad-looking has-been book to rest in the paper recycling. 

Part of Tim's re-organising was to get at an extra closet, which meant losing a small bookcase. I knew I could assimilate it easily, but it would involve re-organising my study.  I drew a scale plan, and moved little blocks around until I found an arrangement that I thought would work... and, indeed, it did.  I like it much better than my previous layout: 

For the past week, we've had some very good friends from the UK staying in our guest flat. This is the first time they've come to Cyprus, and they spent a lot of their time exploring, paddling in the sea, eating ice creams, and enjoying some of the local shops and sights. They went on the official Larnaka walk one morning.  In the afternoons and evenings we mostly hung out, played games, and talked... but on Thursday Richard took the whole day off so we could take them out for the day, to Lefkara:

And Kurium:

On their final day here they indulged us with some delicious chocolate desserts from a local bakery:

...as well as some less photogenic Greek pastries for Richard and Tim (who are dairy-free).

Then in the evening we stopped at our favourite ice cream shop on our way to the airport, for yogurt ice creams and/or sorbets: 

The end of Summer has given way to the beginning of Autumn in the past couple of weeks, with two or three quite heavy rain sessions which have reduced the temperature.  I don't recall when we stopped using air conditioning altogether, but in the past few days we have even stopped using fans. I'm wearing a light jacket on top of my tee shirt today; at the weekend I washed our thin duvet and we installed it in a cover on Sunday. We have to use the water heater sometimes to get hot water first thing in the morning, and there's a decided chill in the air, even if the official temperature is still around 24C in the shade.  

Walking by the Larnaka Salt Lake, early in the morning...

My good friend Sheila has been walking along - and sometimes right around - the local Salt Lake since around May this year. I went with her a couple of times (not right around - just a shortish 4km walk) in the summer, but even going out at 7am or so was too hot for me; getting over-heated gives me a migraine, pretty much guaranteed. So after the second attempt I said I wouldn't go again until at least the end of September. 

The end of September has come around all too rapidly, and although the daytime temperatures are still around 30C in the shade, it's a lot cooler overnight. We have managed not to use any air conditioning at all for nearly two weeks, now, and when I get up - usually around 6.00am - it feels very pleasantly cool when I open the doors. Of course 'pleasantly cool' in Cyprus in September is probably around 20-22C. Not exactly cold yet. 

Yesterday we arranged that I would try the walk again, if I was up in time. I woke around 5.30, so after I'd pulled some clothes on and made my coffee, I texted Sheila. She was up too, but it was still dark. Around 6.20 I set off, in the half-light of dawn; it's about half a kilometre to the start of the trail, and Sheila's most usual walk is 8km in total. 

Unfortunately I hadn't realised that our camera was set to 'manual' - perhaps the button slipped. So my first few photos came out strangely dark and blue, like this, taken near the aqueduct after the first 2km of the trail:

I include it here because it just about shows the sun coming up through one of the arches, and also because despite being wrong, the blue is quite pretty. 

After pausing there briefly, we walked back to the start of the trail. I was beginning to feel a slight blister on my heel, but decided I'd keep going, so long as we took it slowly! For one thing, we'd only walked past the parts of the lake that finally dried up towards the end of the summer, and I wanted to get a shot of the water which is still there in the slightly deeper part of the Salt Lake. 

Happily I did spot the manual setting (I have no idea what one should do with it!) and put the camera back to my usual automatic setting, so that I could take this photo which shows the dried up salt crust on the 'beach' part of the lake, but a clear stretch of water behind it, with reflections:

As we walked, I was getting a little tired so it was good to pause briefly now and again to have a sip of water - I had remembered to fill a bottle and take it with me - and take pictures. This shows even clearer  reflections a bit further on: 

Finally we reached the next stopping point, 2km in the other direction, next to the Airport Road. I'm not entirely sure what the brownish crust is at the edge of the salt: 

I was pleased to see this marker, which apparently shows the distance to the aqueduct - so (assuming accuracy, which of course isn't necessarily a given in Cyprus) it's not just a guess that it's an 8km walk in all: 

So there were only 2km left to get back to the starting point of the trail, and another 500m home again. 9km in all. We did stop and chat for a few minutes to one of Sheila's many trail-walking acquaintances along the way, and also when we parted to return to our homes - but in all I think we were walking for about an hour and three-quarters. So, not exactly fast, but I suppose it's good exercise. And pleasant to be out early in the morning with a friend.

September in Cyprus - the first two weeks

As I said in my last post, about the end of August in Cyprus, September doesn't usually herald the beginning of Autumnal weather.

And yet, I wondered if I was going to be proven wrong for once. On September 1st, to my surprise, the day which started warm and sunny grew increasingly cloudy by lunch-time. Some visitors who had been in our guest flat for the previous fortnight, sometimes struggling with the hot temperatures, left to fly home. Richard was away in Egypt for work. I was in the house alone... and was convinced I heard thunder rumbling in the distance. I assumed it was on Troodos - even in the summer, there is usually at least a little rain in the mountains in Cyprus - so was quite startled when I heard a few drops of rain outside.

I was even more surprised when, a minute or two later, we had quite a substantial downpour.. for about four minutes. Not enough to do more than settle some of the dust, but the road did look fairly wet by the end of it:


I heard later that in the villages only a few miles away there was as much as an hour of rain, with large puddles left by the end.

After the rain, there was extremely high humidity for an hour or so as it evaporated, and then a light breeze which was almost cool.

Since then, it hasn't been quite as humid as it was during August. And the early mornings feel very pleasantly cool, although daytime shade temperatures are still up to 32C or thereabouts, with unremitting sunshine.

A few days later, when Richard had returned, we attended a very important birthday party. My youngest best friend Helen had her second birthday:


Four days after that, our friend Mick arrived from the UK to stay for a week. Richard took a couple of days off... not to visit any tourist attractions, but so that they could work on King Malu, and instal the outboard motor which had arrived. On Sunday they were delighted to do some sea-trials.

I spent Sunday with our friends - Helen's family. Four of them went to St Helena's Church with me in the morning, then came back here for a couple of hours. We went to lunch at the bilingual house church, then back here for a game of Seafarers of Catan.

Then we ate a cold meal together... and Helen, who had not taken a nap all day, fell asleep with her head on my plate:


Other than that... the Friday night cell group has started again - and is now meeting weekly. We've played several other games with our friends. Last night we (with Mick) were invited to a meal at the home of some friends, and sat out on their penthouse balcony. There were two or three spots of rain, although not enough to force us inside. By 9.30 it was almost beginning to be chilly. Perhaps it was as cool as 24C.

More significantly, it didn't feel humid at all and we managed without any air conditioning at all last night for the first time in some months. I haven't turned it on today at all, even in my study.

So, I hope, the worst of this summer is over. Temperatures of 30C+ are predicted for the next ten days, still, but the nights are a little cooler and the days are less humid.