New Year's Eve

Christmas Day went well, with just seven of us sitting down to lunch. Although I still struggle with timings, I make extensive checklists for Christmas Day. As one of our friends remarked, we could probably have fed twice as many people. But that's part of the beauty of Christmas lunch, as far as I'm concerned: I don't have to do any cooking for several days afterwards.  

With most of the preparation done in advance, the day itself mostly involved setting things off at suitable times. I got up around 6.30 to do the first few: pudding in the steamer first thing, potatoes (prepared the night before) parboiled and left in hot water; red cabbage/apple/onion prepared and set off in the slow-cooker; carrots prepared and ready to go later; coconut cream whipped and put on the trifle.

The shepherds in my knitted Nativity set then arrived at the stable, and baby Jesus emerged from Mary, and was laid in the manger.

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.

Visitors and Blustery Days in Cyprus

January, as I described at length, was mostly taken up with Covid. Not that I had it seriously, thankfully, and Richard never did catch it. By the end of the month normal pandemic life had resumed albeit with reduced energy levels and a nasty cough. 

In the middle of February we were delighted that one of my second cousins and her family were able to come and visit. I last saw my cousin thirty-five years ago but one of the great things about Facebook is the ability to get in touch with long-lost friends and relatives. 

The weather, as so often happens mid-February, was pleasantly warm and sunny, so they were able to get out and about, and the week flew past. Unfortunately my cousins were not able to meet our closest friends, who were isolating for most of the month, as one after another of them caught Covid. Happily it was even more mildly than I had it, and (so far, anyway) with no lasting effects. 

And so to March. 

Almost every year the balmier weather of February gives way to a much chillier March. Walking with my friend in the Salt Lake Park on Thursday morning, wearing a warm hat, rather than a sun hat, we were startled to see a rainbow:

It wasn't raining where we were walking (for which I was thankful) and the rainbow didn't last very long. But it was extremely windy. We watched some birds trying to fly from the top of a tree, apparently hovering or even flying backwards as they battled against the gusts.

Yesterday was quite pleasant, and Richard went sailing with a friend although it was so cold, with rain threatening, that they didn't stay out as long as they had hoped. 

Today, after lunch, Richard suggested a walk along the Mackenzie promenade, and perhaps an ice cream at one of the cafés. It looked very windy despite the temperature being 17 degrees and sunny, so we wrapped up warmly. Richard took a woolly hat. I didn't, but rather wished I had done so...

The waves, usually very calm here, were extremely choppy: 

As we approached the section with the ice cream cafés, I saw a sign for hot chocolate. Somehow that seemed a lot more appealing than ice cream, as we were both feeling a little chilly. So I suggested we ask if they had any non-dairy milks. Yes, they told us, they had either coconut or almond milk. A great improvement on a couple of years ago when the only option tended to be soya. So we ordered hot chocolate made with coconut milk and sat down in some relief after the buffeting of the wind. 

They were very good, and warmed us up nicely. We don't think we've been in this particular café before - it had a typically Cypriot interior, with both a wood-burning heater for the winter, and high wall fans for the summer:

Neither were switched on, since the temperature inside was just right, at least with our warm jackets on. 

The other typical feature was a cat, wandering around sniffing under the tables in case any previous customers had dropped anything:

It was quite a large cat, evidently an elderly one which seemed entirely oblivious to people. Not a feral cat, however: it was clean and well-fed. 

Then, warmed by our hot chocolate, we set out again, this time against the wind so it was much more of a struggle. I got quite cold before we reached the turn-off for the car park.  Yes, we drove most of the way, as we have done before when walking along the promenade. We didn't walk nearly far enough to walk off the hot chocolate calories... but I was extremely thankful to be out of the wind at last.

This blustery weather is predicted to continue, along with somewhat grey days and some rain, and chilly nights, though reasonably warm in the daytimes: 

I feel as if my energy levels are pretty much restored now, or as much as is possible at my advanced age. I still have an occasional cough, but it's a whole lot better than it was a month ago. 

Autumn in the UK (briefly out of Cyprus again)

We spent a couple of weeks out of Cyprus at the end of October/early November. No particular reason, for a change, other than to spend time with our various family members. We had a couple of weeks when not much were happening, and flights were pretty good value. 

We had been warned of cold temperatures and potential snow... but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  Admittedly there was a lot of rain and the sky was often grey, but for our first week the daytime temperatures were in the 15-18C range.  What struck me most were the gorgeous autumnal colours.  This is something we really don't see in Cyprus, where a lot of trees are evergreen, and there's no real Autumn.

We arrived in the middle of the night at Gatwick and had booked an inexpensive Travelodge to collapse in.  On pulling the curtains in the morning, this is what I saw:

Sadly it's impossible to capture the splendour of the oranges and reds through glass on a grey day. But here's another example from a different direction:

We drove on many motorways and a variety of other roads in our 16 days, doing 900 miles in all in a rental car.  The colours were fabulous along the roadsides... but we drove by too rapidly to capture them. 

It was good to catch up with many of our family members in 'ordinary' times rather than special or sad occasions.  We still managed a few meals out and enjoyed some traditional English desserts, such as these: 

We were rather overwhelmed with the huge variety of Christmas decorations available, too: 

The prices of some of them were shockingly high.  Perhaps the recession in the UK is a thing of the past...

A week after we arrived, having driven from Sussex to Worcestershire via Berkshire, a major storm was predicted - across the South of the country.  There was a great deal of damage done, but it wasn't quite as terrible as predicted.  In the Midlands we had some high winds, making it difficult to photograph yet more Autumnal leaves: 

There was more rain than we had experienced in several years' worth of UK visits, but it was mostly quite gentle.  

I was thrilled to see rather a pretty rainbow, partly hidden behind some clouds, when we were briefly in Birmingham to see some friends: 

Then we drove further North still, to Derbyshire, where my brother took us out for a walk... not the gentle stroll around the village that we had expected, but a brisk hike across some rather attractive countryside, where we met some of the local wildlife: 

For a change, I saw a sunset rather than a sunrise: 

We did many things, enjoyed catching up with our loved ones, played games, went out for meals, and collected rather more things to return to Cyprus than we had expected.

Our final port of call was Carlisle, with our son and daughter-in-law.  When November started, the weather did turn rather chillier, and the morning before we returned to Cyprus, I saw this outside our window first thing: 

Yes, that's frost on the roofs of the cars, and quite a fog, although it dispersed later and the sun came out. 

We flew out of Cyprus with less than 20kg of luggage, and returned with 60kg of checked luggage (that's three suitcases) and rather full hand luggage too.  We got back a week ago... and although I haven't been as jet-lagged as usual, I'm only just now getting around to catching up with reviews and blog posts and everything else that is, perhaps inevitably, somewhat neglected when travelling. 

Writing Christmas cards, and a rainbow

Living in Cyprus, we have to ensure that Christmas cards to the UK are sent in reasonable time, with the hope that they might arrive at least a day or two before the 25th. I know that many people are well-organised, and sent out cards on December 1st. I am not one of their number. But kudos to those who do.

I did actually write our annual newsletter about ten days ago. But I wanted our sons to check it first; then it required some tweaking. It was Friday last week before it was finally printed. I thought I might write cards on Saturday, but somehow didn't get around to it... however, Sunday, I determined, would be The Day. Richard was out at a VHF radio course all day, and I wanted to get them in the mail today.

I knew it was going to take me a few hours, so, of course, I found several other vitally important things I needed to do instead. Some of which were indeed important and others which weren't. The sky was grey, and it was rainy and windy so I didn't plan to go out anywhere. But by 10.30am I still hadn't started on the cards.

I decided to turn the heating on for an hour's boost - it was that chilly - and make myself a cup of fruity tea.

Then I just wondered if any email had arrived in the past five minutes - as you do - and sat down at the computer. And browsed Facebook, And started playing one of those fast-moving silly games that I do at least limit to weekends.

Then suddenly my computer screen went blank.

It was a power cut. The first one we've had in a long time. And while I don't wish to spiritualise everything, it did feel as if God was taking rather drastic measures to ensure that I finally got started on my card-writing...

Despite the greyness of the day, and the rain, there was enough light in the dining room without using electricity. And the radiators had at least warmed up, and I'd made my hot drink... so I gathered my resources:


Cards. List. Newsletters. Address book. Pens. And the hot fruity tea.

It's sad that I think of card-writing as a chore. Once I've started, I love thinking about our relatives and friends, despite their being thousands of miles away, as I fold the newsletters, choose the cards, and write the addresses.

Last year (and I find it interesting that it was also on December 12th), I did something of a production line system for writing Christmas cards, adding all the addresses at the end. My fingers were cramping by the end, so this year I decided to do one card at a time. It worked considerably better.

After an hour, I'd finished about fifteen cards. I had decided to reduce the numbers somewhat; last year I posted 69 to the UK and wrote 29 for local people. In the event, I only gave out about half the local ones - people went away, or we didn't see them, or I forgot. Lots of people don't do Christmas cards any more, anyway.

I decided that if I hadn't heard from someone for three years, I would not send out a card. Of course I don't only want to send cards to people who send them to us - people can get in touch in all kinds of ways. But if I haven't heard a thing from them in the past three years, I think it's probably safe to assume that they don't particularly want to hear from us... that cut the numbers down somewhat.

Happily the electricity resumed after about an hour and a half. I took a break for some lunch, and noticed the sun coming out briefly. For a few minutes, there was a rainbow:


Then I got back to card-writing, with a cup of coffee and another hour's boost to the central heating. Unlike last year, the cats showed no interest until Tessie decided to come and help towards the end:


Even with reduced numbers, I had 51 to post, but I only wrote five for local friends. If I decide to write some more, I still have plenty.

Then, feeling virtuously efficient, I did the majority of my Christmas shopping online at Amazon.co.uk and Play.com.

This morning, the skies were blue, the rain had stopped. After a couple of hours of housework - rather necessary, inside and out, after the stormy weekend - I had a pleasant twenty-minute walk down to the Post Office where I bought stamps and then spent half an hour sticking stamps and air mail stickers on to my 51 envelopes.

Waiting in the PO Box were some Christmas cards from friends and relatives who are a great deal more efficient than we are. When I got home, I found the ones we had been given by local friends already, and discovered that there were ten altogether. Rather than risk losing them amongst other paperwork, I decided to hang them up.

There's a rainbow in the sky...

I love rainbows. They're a symbol of hope, of sunshine at the end of rain. Or, in Cyprus, of rain at the end of sunshine!

So when, as happened about half an hour ago, I heard rain outside but saw that the sun was still out despite clouds, I raced for my camera:



The rain only lasted about five minutes. Now the sky is somewhat cloudy, somewhat blue. Showers were predicted today, although I expect a little more than that.

The weather site is showing sunshine for the rest of the week, albeit a little cooler than recently. But according to a weather prophet reported in the Cyprus Mail, the heavens will open on Wednesday, with torrential rain, the heaviest so far this year. He also predicts that there will be so much rain and snow that all the Cyprus reservoirs will be filled by the end of the spring.

It would be wonderful if he is correct. So I will be very interested to see what happens on Wednesday...

Cyprus rain and rainbows

Showers and thunderstorms have been forecast for the next few days. Sure enough, there was some rain today. It's often quite dramatic here when the sunshine vanishes, to be replaced for a while by dark grey clouds.

I first became aware of the wind whistling around the house - and it really did sound like whistling - shortly after lunch. The sky gradually darkened, and I saw the occasional flash of lightning. Even then I didn't really think... it wasn't until I saw rain start to fall that I remembered the washing I had hung out on our utility balcony a few hours earlier. I managed to rescue one dry item, and the rest will have had an extra rinse. The balcony is covered, but the rain was far from vertical.

I think it rained for at least half an hour. Fairly steady rain, after the initial wild onslaught. Just what we need, although rather more than half an hour.

When I saw sunshine creeping through the clouds, I grabbed my camera and headed for the balconies. Sure enough, there was a rainbow. I caught one half out of the back door:



and the other half out of the front door:



This evening it feels almost chilly. Richard went to find a sweatshirt when he got home after work. I'm wondering if it's time to put the shorts away for the next few months yet...