Our side garden, after three years

 I was alerted on Facebook, recently, that it was three years since we had converted our side yard into what, in the UK, we call a garden - although in the US it would still be called a yard, albeit with some plants. 

Our friend Jacob and his colleague Mike did the hard work, and built these rather nice custom-designed planters. We then bought a few suitable-looking plants from various places.  

Plants here are mostly not labelled in shops, and we don't know much about them anyway. So it was all a bit of guesswork Unsurprisingly, some of the plants didn't last more than a few months, and some died off during the following summer. But others grew.... and grew.  So now it looks like this: 

There's even an autumnal look with fallen leaves; I hope it doesn't mean that another plant is about to die. It's not as pretty as the original, but considerably more mature-looking, and easier to maintain. I have been watering them three times a week since the start of May, when the rain stopped, although it will be down to twice a week now, with slightly cooler temperatures arriving - and of course if it has rained within a few days, I won't water at all.  

Here's another view of the current planters:

I didn't add any new ones this autumn, as the established ones seem to push any new ones out of the way. But we did buy a few bedding plants, as we usually do at this time of year. They don't usually last beyond about June, but that pink busy lizzie that can be seen on the right seemed to thrive, right through the extreme heat of the past months. So I bought a few more busy lizzies to put in the planters on that balcony railing: 

It remains to be seen whether they, too, survive a hot summer. And, indeed, whether they survive the winter.  Instructions for their care in books and online state that the ideal temperature is between 20 and 24 degrees Celcius.  Which is fine if they're indoor plants, in a house that is heated in the winter and doesn't get beyond about 25C in the summer.  Not so fine here, where summer temperatures reach at least the mid-30s regularly during the daytime (more in the sun), and winter nights can drop down below 5C.  

Three months slipped by...

I knew it was a while - too long - since I last wrote on this blog. I'm shocked to find that it's almost three months. I've thought, more than once, about a blog post in recent weeks, but no one topic stood out as blog-worthy.  However,  the longer I leave it the harder it will be to get back into it... so I've grabbed a few of my photos for a whistle-stop tour of life in Cyprus, from my perspective, since the end of February.

Immigration and Citizenship
My last post was about our visit to Immigration, and the successful granting of yellow slips. That was a huge relief. They demonstrate that we are living here legally as European citizens, and - in theory, anyway - there are no expiry dates. What will happen after the UK leaves the EU is still unknown, so Richard is still hoping to acquire Cyprus citizenship.

The next stage in that process was to get a criminal record bureau check, something that is fairly common around the world now, for people working with children or other vulnerable folk. Neither of us had needed one before, but in the event it was straightforward. We drove to Nicosia, found the correct police department, submitted paperwork (and twenty euros), then went and had coffee.

I was mildly amused by this sign we spotted as we walked back to the office, suggesting we might want 'criminal record certificates'.  Happily everything was straightforward, and Richard now has a piece of paper stating that he has not committed any crimes.  This wasn't just backdated a few days to the granting of our yellow slips, so we still don't know why we needed them!  Our Alien Registration Cards, which we have had for over twenty years, have the same ID on them.

So we scanned and printed this document, and the yellow slips, and added them to the enormous pile of paperwork necessary for Richard to apply for citizenship.  We had to pay 500 euros just to submit it all; someone glanced through the paperwork and at first said that it was no good because he only had the yellow slip for a few days. So he came home, and wrote a note explaining why we didn't have them for our first twenty years here, and the following morning a different official accepted it. They didn't need all 1000 sheets of documentation, but they glanced at some, and took copies of all they required, plus of course the application form itself.

The next step will be an interview, but that could be anything from six months' time through to about six years.

Meze
Our guest flat has been very busy this year, with friends, friends-of-friends, acquaintances, and (currently) acquaintances of local friends. At the start of March, four friends came out for a week; one of them worked hard trying to get Richard's work accounts in order for last year, and the others relaxed and had a holiday. One evening they took us out for a meze at Kura Georgina, which is probably our current favourite restaurant, with the added bonus of being within walking distance.

One thing we particularly like about it is the fresh fruit platter offered 'on the house' as dessert:

In the background are some candied fruits, also part of the dessert, and a few minutes later we were given some loukomades, but were so full we could barely eat them.

Plants
I usually post photos of yellow wild flowers in Cyprus in March. There were, indeed, many of them. But for a change, here's rather a pretty pink plant that was also in bloom around the Salt Lake trail in March:

Long-term readers of this blog (if there are any...) might remember that last October we employed our teenage friend Jacob and his worker Mike to transform our side yard into a little garden, complete with artificial grass and some custom-built wooden planters.  We bought a random selection of small shrubs and other plants at local places, and were given a few extras by a neighbour.

We're not great with plants in general, and most of them weren't labelled so we didn't know what kind of watering or sun/shade situation they would need... nor do we know whether they will survive the summer, even supposing we manage to give them sufficient water.  But this is how one part was looking at the start of April - the rest of the plants, likewise, seem to be blooming.  So far, anyway.

Fresh air and walking
We're both quite keen on fresh air where possible, and during the last couple of months have sat outside in the garden swing to drink our after-lunch coffees.  I'm still walking three mornings a week, first thing, with my friend Sheila. When we get back, we sit in the swing to cool off a little, and chat.

Richard was beginning to feel a lack of exercise, but he is not, in any sense, an early bird. So we thought we might try a few late afternoon or evening walks.  I think we've managed three so far.  More than once we have been put off - or forced to return after only a short walk - due to increased levels of dust in the Cyprus air.  This usually happens during one weekend each spring, but this year has happened several times.  It was particularly bad one Sunday when we planned to walk... so we didn't get far:

National Days
25th March and 1st April are always public holidays here. If they fall on weekdays, schools have days off, and banks and some other institutions are closed. There are parades along the sea front and some of the side streets, and we used to go and watch - over twelve years ago now! - when our older son was in the town band.

We never can remember which of these dates is Greek National Day and which is Cyprus National Day. 1st April this year was also the Western rite Easter Sunday, so we went to the local Anglican church for morning service. All the other churches we know of, including other Protestant ones, celebrate Greek (Eastern rite) Easter, which this year was on April 8th.

Walking back from the service, we had to pause while part of a parade went past:

Since the Greek flag is clearly in evidence, and there was blue and white bunting, we assumed that it must have been Greek National Day.

We were wrong. Apparently that was a week earlier, and 1st April is in fact Cyprus National Day.

UK trip
We managed to miss Greek Easter entirely, since we flew to the UK for ten days on April 5th. It was an early flight, via Blue Air, which landed mid-morning. That meant we were in plenty of time to have lunch with some close friends, before driving to stay with my father for a few days.

Our main reason for going, however, was a very special birthday celebrated by Richard's mother. Twenty-four of us gathered in a restaurant for the main party, a few days after the actual birthday. Since all our photos contain people, who might not want to appear on a public blog, I won't illustrate it.

It was a busy ten days, catching up with quite a few family members on both sides, and seeing some friends we hadn't seen for a long time. Richard spoke at two church services and we bought various things we can't easily get hold of in Cyprus.

Although we flew out to the UK with just one suitcase, we had to fly back with two. That's partly because of various things we had bought, and partly because my generous family had given me a lot of birthday presents in advance, to save on international postage. Happily, my father had a large-size suitcase in excellent condition, which he no longer used, so he gave it to us.

Knitting
After completing a knitted nativity scene in 2016, and knitting several toys for family and friends in 2017, I wanted a new project. I find knitting relaxing, and it's supposed to be good for cognitive functions... so I was delighted to find a Facebook page which coordinates knitted blankets, 'bonding squares' and other items for premature babies at hospitals in the UK.

I had some yarn in stock and bought a bit more locally, and by the time we were in the town where there's a collection point for knitted blankets, on our UK trip, I had completed five.

If anyone wants to know in more detail how this works, and what patterns I used in these blankets, I have a separate blog about knitting. The most recent post describes what I did. I've completed another one since returning to Cyprus, and several 'bonding squares' and am over half way through another large blanket.

(Bonding squares, in case anyone was wondering, are pairs of small knitted squares, identical in colour, size and pattern. When a baby must be separated from the mother, each takes one square to sleep with. Every six or eight hours, they are switched.  This enables the baby to breathe in the mother's scent, and become used to it; it also enables the mother to breathe in the baby's scent even when she cannot be near him or her, and that can aid in her milk production). 

Jam making
I usually make strawberry jam in March, and apricot jam in May.  But although strawberries started appearing in the local shops in February, as usual, they weren't all that great, and were quite expensive.  During March I watched out for special offers, but it appeared that strawberries were late this year.

Since we were away for ten days early in April, I wondered if I would miss out entirely on this year's jam-making. But a week after our return, I saw this at the local fruit stall:

3kg strawberries for 2 euros seemed like a very good deal. I used the sugar tongs that used to be my mother's to hull them quickly, and made just over eight pots of jam:

Rose
In the evening of my birthday we had our usual Friday meal with our local friends, and they gave me this lovely miniature rose, which we planted out on a balcony near our 'garden':

Oven
It's almost twelve years since we moved to this house, so it's not surprising that some appliances have started to misbehave. I wrote in October last year about having to replace our freezer.  About a month ago I turned on the knob for our oven... and the electricity went off. I thought at first it was a power cut, but went to check the power trip thing and found it had tripped off.

So I turned it on... and then, when I tried to turn the oven on again, the same thing happened.  It wasn't urgent to use the oven that day, and Richard wasn't there. So I used other methods to cook, and looked online to see if I could work out what the problem might be.

It was an Ariston oven, so I knew from TV advertisement indoctrination in the 1980s that it would go 'on and on and on and on'... which, indeed, it has.  It wasn't new when we bought the house in 2006; at a rough estimate, we think it was probably at least ten years old then.  It's worked well, on the whole, although a few times the glass front fell out and was complicated to put back. At Christmas our son Tim commented that it didn't seem to be heating as well as it should... and I had noticed it was taking much longer to warm up than it used to. 

Google told me that the most likely cause of the power tripping was that the heating element would need to be replaced.  When Richard came home, we discussed it, and - taking into account the age of the oven - decided that it would be more sensible (and not THAT much more expensive) to replace the oven.  

So, a few days later, courtesy of George Theodorou (from whom we buy all our white goods, and who offers free delivery and installation as well as pretty good prices and excellent service, when needed) our new oven was installed:

We didn't want anything fancy, and I definitely didn't want a touch screen. It had to fit exactly in the space given, and we wanted a rotary fan at the back, as well as easy-cleaning... so once we'd narrowed it down, we chose what looked like the best value.  So far, we've been very pleased.

Reducing plastic
At the start of the year, Cyprus was supposed to introduce a one-cent charge for plastic carrier bags, in preparation for the requirement to implement a higher charge in July. Most of Europe did this some years ago, but as happens in so many situations, Cyprus lags behind. We have used cloth carrier bags - when we remember - for a couple of years, now. But the locals, who don't necessarily travel outside Cyprus, are used to the free plastic carriers . Until recently, we haven't seen any real encouragement to reduce them.

But a couple of weeks ago, on what has become an every-other-month visit to Metro Supermarket, we saw an advert for trolley bags. I'd seen this idea in a catalogue and it had seemed ingenious: different sized bags, joined by velcro, which could be used in a supermarket trolley, then separated for putting into the car and carrying into the house. Metro were selling them - although they weren't easy to find! - at a better price than I had seen before.  So we decided to get some.

They would be ideal in supermarkets with self-scanning, but that hasn't come to Cyprus yet, and I doubt if it will any time soon. Still, they were fine to pack things into after they were scanned at the checkout; the blue one at the end is a cool bag but we had too much cold/frozen stuff for it to close:

I wasn't sure if these bags would fit in other supermarket trolleys, but this week we went to Lidl (also an every-other-month exercise) and they worked well there.

I was going to write even more in this post - about theatre productions, and macaroni straws, and heatwaves, and a new (to us) boat... but I've been writing for over an hour, and it's well past my bedtime.  So perhaps, if I get back in the habit of blogging, they'll be mentioned in my next post.

Transforming our Side Yard

Our house has no garden or area at the back, but two side yards. Both have carports, and for years we used them to park cars. One of the side yards has access to our boiler room, and a tool shed, and also has the washing line for our guest flat. But the other side yard is narrower, and our current car is too wide to fit under the carport. It was wasted space until the summer, when our grandchildren were here.

We cleared away the accumulated clutter, and swept it, and installed a paddling pool and sandpit, and - when it wasn't too hot - it became a useful space. But very unattractive. When the family departed at the end of August, we both started thinking that it would be nice to make it more usable year-round. Could we lay artificial grass, for instance...?  That's something we both rather despised twenty years ago when we first came to Cyprus. But real grass is very difficult to grow here, requiring constant weeding and watering, and even then it doesn't look great. And we didn't want to have to dig up all the concrete tiles.

Then I suggested I could buy Richard a barbecue for his 60th birthday in October. He quite liked that idea.  So he took a photo of the side yard and played around with it on his computer, and suggested we might do something like this:

I wasn't sure about the bougainvillea; they tend to leave pink bracts everywhere, and aren't too successful in pots anyway. But the basic idea was good. We decided to ask our friend Jacob (of Pallet Studio Cyprus) to build some planters for the far end. We both thought a stone barbecue would be much nicer than any other kind.  So we started looking...

Those are some that we quite liked... but they felt a bit too big, and somewhat pretentious for our little yard.  And they were also very expensive.  And when we enquired about them, they were all out of stock, or couldn't be delivered for another six weeks, or weren't being made any more.

We looked at artificial grass, too, but again there wasn't anything we particularly liked, and it all looked remarkably pricey, and the thought of the effort involved seemed immense. It wasn't just laying the grass, but repairing and re-painting the walls, which were very scruffy.

It was all rather discouraging.

Then, after working in Nicosia for a day, Richard popped into Leroy Merlin, a large DIY store on the outskirts, and saw a barbecue that he liked a lot better than any other we'd seen:

It was nearing the end of barbecue season, and I was concerned that this, too, would be unavailable. So on 25th September we drove to Nicosia. We needed one or two other things in the shop, and wandered around several parts we hadn't seen before. One of the first things we spotted was rolls - hundreds of them - of artificial grass.  Nicer (and much better value) than any we'd seen in any of the Larnaka shops:

We then saw square wooden tiles, exactly what we were looking for to make a path in the grass. They were on special offer, and there were only about thirty of them left. I said we should buy them and take them back with us.

So we chose the best ones, and piled them into a trolley.  We then went to talk to someone about the barbecue. There were only three left, we were told, and they were all damaged in some way. However, one of them was relatively easy to repair, and we were told we could have a hefty discount. We decided to buy it. It would have to be delivered, so we asked if rolls of artificial grass could also be delivered. Yes, they told us, but they charge per pallet for delivery. So it made more sense to buy the grass we liked and take it back with us.

We were told what glue and other things were needed to lay the grass on concrete, and then decided we should buy paint for the walls too. And a couple of plants that we liked too.... 

We spent considerably less on the supplies than we had expected to.  So we decided to ask Jacob if he and his colleague Mike would be willing to take on the whole project.

The barbecue was delivered a couple of days later. There was a slight hiatus when the delivery guys couldn't move it out of the street, as their only trolley was a pallet one, and the barbecue was too heavy. So Richard called Jacob, who came over with his stronger trolleys, and we moved it into the side yard.

Jacob looked at what we'd bought, and a plan that Richard had made, and agreed that it could work well. He gave us a reasonable quotation for doing the work, which he thought would take a few days, although they couldn't start immediately.

And so, we were all set for the transformation project. Here's how it looked before any work was started:

The first task was repairing and painting the wall, and also repainting the black paint under the car port. After a couple of days, it was already looking a great deal better:

They didn't come every day, but gradually the grass was cut and laid, the path laid out, the planters started...

Then finally, last Friday, it was all complete.  We moved our swing chair from the patio to the new 'garden'; we were surprised to find that it wasn't just good, the whole area felt peaceful and relaxing, a place we like to sit out in - at least until it gets too cold!

The one thing Richard and I did was to buy earth and plants locally, to fill the planters. Most plants aren't labelled in the shops, and the assistants didn't know their names, so we don't know what all of them are, or whether they're even suited to this kind of thing. But we love the planters, custom designed to fit the space, and we're very pleased with how they look:

On Sunday we had a few friends over to celebrate Richard's birthday a couple of weeks late, and the 20th anniversary of our arrival in Cyprus, and also to launch the barbecue and - as one friend put it - baptise the side yard. Rather literally, by immersion, as it turned out because there was rain off and on including one very heavy shower as we were all eating. But we gathered under the car port, and mostly stayed dry.

It was a longer and more complex project than we had envisaged, but we're very pleased indeed with the result. 

Cyclamen in Cyprus

I'm not much of a gardener, but I do like having a few colourful flowers amongst the plants on our patio, and outside the front door. Experience over the past 15 years has taught us that some varieties - in particular petunias, geraniums and antirrhinums - almost certainly flourish, while others are less successful in this climate. So I tend to choose bedding plants for the winter season which will survive with minimal care.

I particularly like cyclamen. They're only really available as house plants in the UK, but I find the leaf patterns and shapes attractive, and there's something special about the tall stems with vivid and often colourful bracts at the top. Cyclamen ought to be easy to care for: they grow wild in some gardens, and seem to self-seed.  But, to date, I have had nothing but failures with these little plants. We bought some years ago, along with various other plants; most of the others did well enough, but the cyclamen quickly faded away.

More recently I bought one to keep indoors, thinking perhaps the summers were too hot. I was careful not to over-water it, but within a couple of weeks the stems had rotted, and I could not save it. 

I should probably give up on cyclamen; but, popping into a garden centre last week to buy a few petunias to brighten up the patio, I could not resist one more attempt. The plant looked healthy, and the flowers were evidently going to be white:

It's been a week, and so far it has survived, even producing quite a few white bracts:

It's hard to get a good picture without moving it - the background tends to be intrusive - but a little vignette effect around the image seems to soften it:

I'm encouraged that it looks healthy after a week. I will try and remember to post further pictures at the end of the month, assuming it survives that long...

Cyprus bi-coloured bougainvillea

Our bougainvillea, sitting in a pot on our front terrace area, doesn't seem to be very successful for much of the year. In May, when bougainvilleas typically flower profusely, it was rather sparse.

But for some reason, ours is doing rather well in September this year:

 

It's predominantly pink; not my favourite colour in general, but I do like the deep pink of some flowers (or, technically, bracts in this case. The flowers are the tiny, insignificant white ones in the middle of some of the bracts). The very pale, almost white bracts interspersed with the pink makes it very attractive.

New year in Cyprus

We didn't do anything for New Year's Eve. Well... we had some friends for lunch, so we took the opportunity of starting our second Christmas pudding. In the evening we then watched the DVD of Nanny McPhee, which we thought was fun, with an all-star cast and some interesting extras. But we didn't go out, or even stay up till midnight.

Everything was closed yesterday, of course. And much of it today, too, but the church mother-and-toddler group started again due to popular request, so I went along to help. Only three or four mothers turned up but I think they had a good time. Richard decided to go back to work after taking all last week off, and Monday, although his colleague is probably off for the rest of this week too. But Richard always has a lot to catch up with.

But on the whole it's a very quiet week, with almost everything (including schools) starting up again next Monday, after Epiphany. It's cold, too. Lovely out in the sun during the daytime, but most buildings feel a bit chilly, and overnight it's distinctly cold.

What of 2007?

Well, the two major stresses of last year won't be happening. Daniel can't leave again - indeed, he's nearly half-way through his stint on the Doulos - and we won't be moving house again, or going through the difficult stages of selling in another country.

So it's the first new year in our own house in Cyprus; it's also the first new year without Daniel here, and the first with no 'children' in the home, since Tim is now 18. It may be the year when Tim learns to drive (a scary thought, but most parents seem to cope...). Perhaps most significantly for me, it's the first new year when we're not home educating any longer. Tim's done the first couple of months on his theology degree course, and is very much enjoying it - so far, anyway.

We're not really into 'resolutions' - they seem to be made only to be broken. But looking ahead, we have quite a lot of guests expected in the first six months of the year, so we hope to repaint the downstairs guest flat during January, in readiness for the first family who are coming for February half-term. We hope to have the outside of the house painted too - someone at one of the local churches is a British decorator who should be giving us a quote some time soon.

We'll have to think what to do about the carports too. We had planned to dig up some of the pavement to make a mini-garden one side, but are not sure entirely how to go about that - or whether we actually need both the carports, since we currently have two cars. We have some plants in pots which are doing quite well, but the citrus trees at least probably need to be planted in the earth as they get bigger.

I'm not entirely sure what I shall be doing long-term, so perhaps 2007 will reveal that. I'll be helping two mornings per week at the mother-and-toddler group now, and also hope to spend more time working on my home education site - the statistics show that most of the people who find it are looking for help with maths concepts of some kind, so there's a lot more I can write on that topic.

It would be nice to get to know some of our neighbours a bit better, and - connected with this - to make an effort to learn more Greek. Almost everyone has such good English that it's hard to be motivated to learn more than the basics, but now we've settled here it seems like a good idea to be able to communicate with the people who don't have English.

But beyond that, I've no idea...

Happy New Year to anyone who reads this!

Weekend

It was a fairly busy weekend, I suppose. Tiring, anyway. On Saturday morning we went out to our favourite plant shop, Cosmea Garden Centre, and my mother bought us some more plants. Some of the ones we bought back in July have done well, some are struggling, and a few have died. This time we bought a coleus, a geranium, a cyclamen, and some bedding plants.

Saturday afternoon was the Autumn Fair at St Helena's, Tim's church. Books, cakes, CDs, white elephant, crafts, cream teas, and a raffle. I found a useful thermos-style ice-cube holder which will be good next summer when we want to have ice on the table. Brand new, as far as I could tell, for the princely sum of £1.50. My mother found a book she hadn't read, and Tim bought a CD. We saw various friends there and chatted to someone we hadn't met before, so it was pleasant if not very exciting.

In the evening the new vicar of St Helena's came for a meal. They were without a minister for over a year, and had a series of locums: mostly elderly, some more successful than others. The new man seems to be making quite an impression so far. He's an evangelical with lots of great ideas, but is being diplomatic and taking things slowly. The congregation is primarily retired Brits. Tim lowers the average age considerably!

On Sunday morning I went to St Helena's with my mother and Tim - I usually go there about once a month, now. It was a good service, and nice to catch up with a few friends there, as well as saying goodbye to some old friends who are retiring and leaving the island. The wife has been the organist at St Helena's for the past fourteen years, and also Tim's piano teacher for the past five or six years. Tim will be stepping into her shoes as organist from next week. They will be greatly missed, especially in November when we'll be away visiting Daniel!

Richard picked us up in the car after church and we went to the 'Sunday Market' on the Dhekelia Road. This looks much like a typical British market, with a large number of stalls selling a wide variety of products. We found a few bits and pieces that we bought, but were going to browse really, rather than looking for anything in particular. Although we stayed in the shade as far as possible I had rather too much sun, and combined with being woken early and having had a busy Saturday, I developed something of a migraine.

Tim - who walked home from church - had cooked a full roast Sunday lunch for us, which was ready shortly after we got back home and very delicious, but all I wanted to do afterwards was rest. Richard, meanwhile, went out sailing with some of the family who are staying downstairs, but unfortunately part of the boom of his mirror dinghy got broken so they couldn't all go out. He got back about 5pm and was able to mend it easily.

Tim went out about 4.30 to play basketball with some of the youth, and then on to St Helena's for the evening service where he plays guitar.

Argos in Cyprus!

Note: I see that this post is still getting results from search engines. So I should mention, perhaps, that the Argos in Larnaka apparently closed down at least a year ago. It probably wasn't economically viable in Cyprus.  The notice on the window says 'Enoikazetai' - to let. 

I went to the Post Office this morning, and on the way back walked on the shady side of the main road. I noticed a newish shop, one I'd glanced at before, with a sign outside saying 'Argos'. A Greek-sounding name, so I hadn't thought too much about it, but today I realised that the sign is exactly the same as that of the British Argos stores.

I noticed, moreoever, that behind the smoked glass windows there was a variety of merchandise - kitchen appliances, garden equipment, and other random bits and pieces that looked remarkably like the kinds of things sold in the familiar Argos.

Intrigued, I went and had a closer look. There, by one of the windows, was a whole pile of green catalogues. And yes, printed on them was the Argos UK web-site address!

Alas, the store didn't open until 8.30am and it was only eight o'clock. So I came home and told Tim about it. He decided to go and look for himself - it's only about ten minutes' walk from our house - and set off. He hoped to pick up a catalogue, but when he returned half an hour later he had only a single sheet of paper. The catalogues, apparently, cost £4 each although a discount of the same amount is then given on the first purchase from the store. He didn't take any money with him, and we don't know if we want to use it anyway. But he had a chat with the lady in charge, and she told him that the prices will be related to the catalogue prices - only we'll have to pay in Cyprus pounds rather than sterling. An increase of about 20% on current exchange rates, but that takes into account the shipping from the UK.

They have a warehouse at the back, but as they're relatively new, they won't hold all stock and so goods may need to be ordered. And they hope to give away free catalogues eventually, but at present can't afford to do so as they have to bring those from the UK too.

Argos isn't the cheapest place for many items in the UK, but it's considerably better value than many stores in Cyprus. Moreover, it has some things that simply can't be bought anywhere else. So we'll be having a good browse of the UK website, and may well return...

Planting the plants

This morning, I went to the Community Church; Tim and our visitor from Australia went to the Anglican church; Richard and his colleague from Egypt went sailing!

We all converged back here at lunchtime, where Tim had used both kitchens to produce roast beef, roast potatoes, two veg and the best yorkshire pudddings he has ever made - rather to his surprise, since he realised, when they were in the oven, that he had put in 100ml too little milk.

In the afternoon, we chatted awhile, watched the news briefly, and relaxed. Then Richard and his colleague started fitting some ducting for computer wires in the guest apartment, and Tim had a siesta. Our visitor worked, in some frustration, on some complicated knitting she's doing for her prospective grandchild. I got out a tapestry picture I've been working on - off and on - for the past two years. It's about half finished. Still, every little helps. Perhaps I'll get it done by the time Daniel returns, in about 18 months...

At 6pm Tim asked for a ride back to the church, where he had to play the organ for the evening service. So Richard drove him there, then we went on to our old house where we collected a wheelbarrow full of stones. We knew there were thousands, gathered from the garden over the years and nobody else would want them. While there, I noticed my newest bougainvillea looking rather sad, having been knocked down. But still alive. I know bougainvilleas don't like being moved much, but I thought I'd give it a chance as it was still small enough to dig up - and it wouldn't last long if I left it behind. Then I saw two of my geraniums, still just about alive but very dry after a month without being watered. So I watered them and dug them up too. Then I decided to take a few cuttings from the larger geraniums, which are in more shady areas and still thriving despite the lack of water.

We also filled the barrow with stones and managed to get them back in the car. Then with our visitor advising, we filled our pots and a couple of planters with stones, and used the compost we had bought combined with older soil to re-plant what we bought yesterday, and the ones I hope to revive from the old house. We also replanted the palm that was in a broken pot. And then had to do yet more mopping of the porch! Here's the results so far... it'll be interesting (to us, anyway) to see what survives.

The two lavender plants. They don't look as happy as they were yesterday, but still smell wonderful. They were rather badly pot-bound, so having a bit more freedom and fresh soil should help:


The palm in its new pot, and the two geraniums from the old house:


The two hibiscus plants. They look very healthy, at least so far:


The bougainvillea from the old house, and one of the citrus trees (with Cleo observing):


I wasn't going to do anything with our cactus which seems to keep growing and sprouting new pieces, and which was almost falling out of its pot in various places. But Richard's colleague took it out, pulled off the dead leaves, and replanted the healthiest pieces in fresh soil:


Then as there were so many bits left, he planted some more in a small trough planter:


He seemed confident about what he was doing, but admitted afterwards that he had never done this before, and had no idea if they would survive! I'm not a huge fan of cactus, but this one has survived eight years of neglect with occasional watering, so I hope it will do well with increased space and nutrients.

Saturday

Today felt like the first 'normal' Saturday in a month. Since we've moved to our own home, that is. We decided it was about time to buy some plants for the front porch area downstairs, and although we had a few in pots brought from our old house, they looked rather lonely. Our Australian friend from Lebanon knows something about plants (such as which ones do well in full sun during part of the day) and came with us to advise.

I didn't want to try anything too ambitious or expensive, since it's probably not the best time of year to transport anything. We also agreed that we didn't want anything that was likely to grow huge and cut out light from the house. And on principle I vetoed plants that look angular and spiky. We already have a sort of palm thing that someone gave us ages ago:


... and an odd plant with individual tall pointy leaves which seems to do well in a pot:


... so I was more interested in potential fragrances, flowers and fruit.

It was after 10am by the time we got to our favourite plant shop, by the time I'd swept, mopped, showered, put on laundry, put bread ingredients in the breadmaker, and so on. Richard never likes to get up much before 9am anyway, though Sophia got me up around 6am as usual. Even by 10am, it was feeling hot and a bit sticky. It was probably only about 30C in the shade [that's around 85F], but a lot of the plants were outside, in the sun. After much discussion, we chose:

Two citrus plants. Here's one of them:


One is a lemon, the other an orange (we think). The second one was labelled 'Naval' in Greek letters, which looked a bit odd, so we assume it's an orange! Eventually we plan to dig a border at the side of one of the paved areas, and will transplant the citrus trees in there. But they'll be fine in pots for a while. We hope.

Two lavender bushes and two hibiscus plants:


I know hibiscus do well here; we had some at our old house, and they never seemed to grow very big. What's more, they apparently thrive on neglect. Just my kind of plant. I was a little surprised to see so much lavender, but we did see it growing at one of the other houses we looked at months ago, and I love the smell. We'll probably plant the lavender in this planter, where they're currently sitting. But although we bought some potting compost, we need to fetch some stones from our old garden.

Two pots with flowering succulents of some kind, which we thought would look good on these pillars at the front of the porch area.

By the time I took the photo, the flowers had disappeared for the night, but they do look good there.

One 'bird of paradise' plant, something I had not heard of, but our friend assured us the flowers are gorgeous even though they only come for brief periods.


Richard would have liked to buy loads more, but I thought it better to wait until slightly cooler weather, perhaps in about October.

By the time we'd finished I felt a bit overheated so when we'd put the plants on the front porch area, we collapsed for a while, and I read my current book. Then Richard went out to buy some small but necessary part for his dinghy, and went to mend it, while I switched on my computer and read email.

After lunch we tend to siesta, or at least slow down... I read some blogs, replied to some email, read the news site. Richard watched Euronews headlines, then read for a while. Tim played some computer games. Around 4pm Richard had to pop to his office to set off some process needed in the completion of the video he made for our friends' wedding a couple of weeks ago. When he got home, we all went swimming at one of the local beaches. Not our favourite (McKenzy) since the car parking fee there has gone up to £1, for any period up to 24 hours. Fine if you're there all day, but rather a lot to pay for less than an hour! Instead we did like many Cypriots: parked our car near the road, just at the rocky edge of some beach, and swam from there. The water was lovely, the sun not too hot, and it's good to get some exercise and fresh air at the sea. We try to go two or three times a week during July and August, although this is only the second time so far this year.

Then we returned home and had quick showers; we had already decided not to cook, so Richard and Tim went to our favourite local takeaway place, Souvlaki Express. For takeaway food, it's very healthy: Greek pitta bread enfolding grilled meat or halloumi, with masses of salad, held together with either tzatsiki or tahini. But then they also bought some chips (ie 'french fries') which rather reduced the health value of the meal!

Now I'm blogging, Richard popped back to the office, Tim's at his computer again. If Richard gets back in time we'll probably watch a film on DVD, since we have several that we haven't yet seen.

Settling down in the new house

So we're more than half way through July. That struck me this morning, when Richard pointed out that tomorrow is our 26th anniversary. Wow. In the busy-ness of recent weeks, I'd lost track of the date. We'll probably go out to eat in the evening - taking Tim along, if he's doing nothing else. We need to make the most of the time when he's still living at home, as it won't be many more years until he flies the nest. In the morning we thought we might buy a few plants since we have no garden as such - just paved carports and a large front porch. At some point we're considering digging up the paving at one side, but not at this time of year. Of course it's not really a good time to buy new plants but it would be nice to have some to start us off. We'll get more in the Autumn, no doubt.

Yesterday and today I unpacked more boxes in the study. There are built-in cupboards along one of the walls, which are now full of paperwork/magazines/pictures not yet hung. But it does look tidier. Tonight Richard's colleague from Egypt is coming to supper and then helping to paint the study. He's very keen to work on the house, so we're making the most of it.

The downstairs guest flat is still fairly full of boxes, but Richard's put together the two single beds in one of the guest rooms, and the living room of the flat has two sofa-beds, so if necessary we could have four guests (more if they were small children). We need to have a door knocked into what's going to be the master bedroom downstairs, since it was a hairdresser salon, separate from the main house. As it was originally part of the living room, the dividing wall is easy to cut through. But unlike in the UK, we can't buy doors and wood for frames from a DIY store and then put it in place ourselves. We have to employ a carpenter, who will make the door exactly as we want it. This probably won't be too expensive, and we've asked someone to look into this, so we can get the guest flat at least basically organised.

Some friends had considered coming to stay at the start of August, which would have motivated us to get the guest rooms painted and in good condition rapidly - however they're not now coming until next year.

But... a couple of days ago Richard had a phone call about someone who was visiting Lebanon, is currently elsewhere in the region, and now - obviously - strongly advised not to return to Lebanon. So she may be coming to stay. We don't know if there will be other refugees: yesterday a boatload of Italians and French people arrived here, and apparently there will soon be some Brits. There are a significant number of ex-pats in the Christian/mission world in Lebanon, so there may well be a call for temporary accommodation. If so, we'd like to be ready. It's only about six weeks since we were briefly in Beirut; hard to imagine that this busy, European style city is now under siege.

What we still need to do in the main part of the house:

- paint study (this evening, we hope) then hang curtains and one or two pictures
- paint Dan's room and put his cabin bed together
- paint hall/stairs/landing and then put up family photo gallery
- fix ceiling fans and/or light shades for bedrooms
- sort out Dan's and Tim's curtains
- buy mirror and light fitting for loo
- find some kind of mirror for our room
- find some way of fitting a cat door

Which isn't really all that much, certainly compared to all the houses we've lived in before. We might well get all that done by the end of July.

At some point we need to ensure we get a final certificate of approval for the main part of the house. Just in case anyone actually wants to follow the plot - so to speak - and hasn't a clue what I'm talking about, I described the potential problems here, what we learned here, and what transpired here.

In a nutshell: the main part of the house, ie the top two storeys, had planning permission, but the building did not entirely follow the plans. Nor were the plans totally accurate. An architect can sort it all out for us (at a cost) so long as we do it soon. It's not dangerous, or even illegal - but until we have the certificate, we could have problems if we wanted to sell it. Not that we do, of course. But one day we might.

As for the downstairs part of the house, that still needs a LOT of work. Painting everywhere. Light fittings almost everywhere. Curtains - which I shall probably adapt from the curtains we had at our previous house - almost everywhere. The door cut through to the front bedroom. Beds in place. Kitchen equipped with more than the 'spare' stuff we don't use much. And all the remaining boxes need to be unpacked, with homes found for the contents.

It would be much easier if we could leave this until the weather gets cooler, but it's probably best to keep going. A little at a time.

Starting to paint

So, finally we have access to our new house. Richard packed the car last night with the paint, brushes, dust-sheets, useful tools, our new stepladder, a couple of folding garden chairs to sit on, and also a few small boxes he had marked as 'fragile'. So that's our first load taken over. The owner had a few things still to remove - some upstairs curtains and light fittings, one of his satellite dishes, and some toys belonging to his children. So he worked around us while we started painting the living room!

We chose a very pale apricot colour, not quite 'hint-of-a-tint' but not much darker. I had forgotten that the tiles on the floor are a kind of pinkish brown, and wondered if the colour would clash, but we quickly realised it worked extremely well. We managed to do one coat on the whole room this morning; I suppose it took about three hours in all. I can't take a photo because Tim took the digital camera to camp this weekend, and although I found my old camera, we packed the spare films away weeks ago and have no idea where they are! Since we no longer use film regularly, it seems a bit pointless to buy a new one specially. Anyway, it will be more interesting when all the painting is done, and when we start to move in furniture.

We had been painting for about an hour when we remembered that we could use the air conditioner to cool the room down a bit .... and what a difference that made!

Tomorrow Richard has to go with the house vendor to the Water Board, since they couldn't transfer to our name without seeing both of us, and knowing the meter numbers. We read the water and electricity meters too, with the vendor, just to make sure the meter readers get it right.

Completion is now set for Tuesday morning. So we should be the official owners of the house before we actually move in.

Wild life in Cyprus

Yesterday morning, when I got up, I noticed a large dead mouse deposited near the front door.

Ugh.

No doubt one of the cats caught it, brought it inside, and then decided not to eat it. Perhaps it was a gift. Perhaps it was a hint that we should go out and catch food rather than buying it from the supermarket. Thankfully Richard is now back from Egypt, so he dealt with it.

Later in the day, I heard Tim rushing around the house shutting all the windows and outside doors. He said he had seen Sophia with a large snake, wrestling in the geraniums. He did NOT want her bringing inside. I was happy to agree, and felt a bit nervous about going outside to bring in the laundry, since the geraniums are close by. However most snakes in Cyprus are harmless, and I assumed Sophia would probably have dealt suitably with the snake.

This morning, when I opened the kitchen window to let in some fresh air, I saw a dead snake outside.


The markings are like those of an adder, but I think it's a Cyprus cat-snake, as the head is fairly narrow. So it's harmless. Particularly when dead. I was greatly relieved, and went out to do some gardening.

Then Tim got up, took a look, and said that wasn't the snake he saw yesterday. Apparently the one he saw was much bigger. Uh-oh. So if there were two near the house, I wonder how many more there might be?

The prospect of moving to a house without a large garden is becoming more appealing all the time!

Packing, day one

All being well (and, it being Cyprus, there's no guarantee at all...) we should have access to our new house on July 1st.

Since it's likely to be hot, and we're moving ourselves - albeit with help from friends - and there's nobody moving into the house we're currently renting, we plan to spend at least a week moving. Maybe longer. At first we'll probably do a bit of painting in the new house, since it's white everywhere (typical for this country) but we prefer a bit of colour here and there.

People have been asking us for weeks if we had started packing, and I had to admit we had just done a little de-cluttering. Not even much of that. Until we had a date, it all seemed rather pointless. Then about ten days ago Richard announced that we needed some parcel tape before we could do anything. I bought some while he was away (on a not very successful trip - details on his blog).

Yesterday I told him I had bought the tape. Perhaps a mistake on such a hot day (it was still 35C - 95F for those in the USA - by about 5pm) but he was immediately enthused. He went to collect several flattened packing boxes from the garage, and brought them in. In the evening, he started taping them together.

'Where are we going to put them?' I asked, with visions of boxes scattered randomly about the house for the next month, with the cats climbing over them, clawing them to pieces....

'In Dan's room,' he said. 'Until it's full. Then your study. Then Tim will have to move out of his room....'

Dan's room, we pointed out, was fairly full already with his drum kit, and Richard's PA system. So Richard re-organised it. He is brilliant at packing suitcases, shopping trolleys, and car boots, and last night demonstrated that he's also gifted at packing rooms. He thinks three-dimensionally. Within less than an hour, there was more floor space than I have seen in Dan's room for a long time. The PA was stacked neatly at one end. The drums were taken down, and moved out of the way.

'How are we going to pack?' I then asked. 'Should we think about it? Have a plan of some sort?'

No, it appeared we were going to decide what could easily be packed now, ensure each box was labelled and the contents listed elsewhere, and just go for it. So we put all the duvets and the spare pillows into one very large box. That was easy. Richard cleared one shelf of our random junk shelves, threw out various things we had kept in case they might come in useful, and packed barbecue tools, and some other random objects in another box. I dutifully listed them all.

Then we paused. He phoned our landlady to confirm that we're hoping to move in the first week of July. He made a couple of other phone calls too. Then he said perhaps it would be a good idea to have some kind of plan... how many rooms do we have?

I made it eight, including the bathroom. Nine, if we count the living room and dining room as separate. But then for packing purposes we also have to count the garage, the single basement work-room, the corridor where the random shelves are, and the garden. Thirteen in all. OK, said Richard, we need to completely pack three rooms per week, including this week, and since there's not much in the garden we can just take that stuff after we've done the house.

Gulp.

Then we realised there's not much we can do in the garage - it's mainly in boxes already, so no point moving them in the house. Nor do we have much in the basement. And the bathroom only has one large cupboard, with towels and loo rolls and so on, which is probably the last thing to be packed before we move out, and won't take long anyway.

Still, ten 'rooms'. We went through them, listing what packing needs to be done. Most of them read something like this:

books
stuff in bureau
pictures on walls
random stuff on shelves

No single item will take very long - we hope - but adding them all up gives rather a lot of packing in the next three-and-a-half weeks. Most rooms have at least two or three full bookcases, for instance. And 'stuff in bureau' is a fairly major amount of clobber to be sorted and packed.

By the time we had finished it was 10pm, and still hot. We were tired, so he quickly moved the various boxes to Dan's room, and gave up for the night.