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.

Feline/canine miscommunication

I'm not really a 'dog' person, but there are quite a few dogs living in our small street, and a particularly friendly one next door. He's a nondescript grey with wiry fur, about the size of a cat, and loves to greet everyone who goes past.

He would also love to be friends with our cats. I can see his little face, eager with longing, as he spots one of them lounging on the car, or up the steps. Today, we were trying to mop the front porch (most of our neighbours use hoses, despite a water shortage and request from the Water Board not to use them for cleaning patios and porches, but we can't bring ourselves to do so) and Sophia came to join us. The neighbour's dog was delighted! He ran into the street, just outside, and in true doggy fashion stared right in her eyes, inviting her to be his friend.

Sophia, being a cat, interpreted his direct stare as a sign of aggression. So she stared back, challenging him (knowing her humans were around to ensure her safety).

The dog, naturally, thought she was returning his friendly look, so he began wagging his tail in delight at an approaching new friendship.

Sophia, taking this as the typical feline sign of extreme displeasure, started swishing her tail from side to side too.

The dog, thrilled at such a welcome reception, started trotting towards her.

Sophia's ears went almost flat. Her tail took on a life of its own. And as the dog got to within a metre of her, she started growling....

At last she had discovered a language they both understood in the same way. The dog stopped, looked at her in amazement, and then - as the growls got louder - slunk away. Probably convinced, yet again, of the fickle nature of cats.

Quick tour of our house

I don't usually join in blogging parties (as it were) but just as I was thinking it was time to post a few more photos of our new house, I spotted that Boomama is organising a grand tour of bloggers' homes, with links to dozens of them, showing a wide variety of living spaces. The idea is to show one's front door (without any identifying features), living room, blogging space, kitchen, and one other room.

By the time I got around to taking the photos it was dark (as happens around 8pm here even in summer), so here's what our house looks like at night-time. It's four weeks since we first had access to the house, three-and-a-half since we moved in. So there's still quite a long way to go.

Our 'front door' is at the side of the house, at the top of a marble staircase, since our guest flat is on the ground floor. That has a nicer and more photogenic entrance that really is at the front of the house, but this is the door where we come in. Except when we come up the spiral stairs at the other side of the house. Sophia is out enjoying the cool of the evening (and moved slightly as I took the picture).


Here's our living room, the first room we painted, and also the first one we organised and made livable. Tessie is asleep on a chair on the right of the photo. The light coloured bookcase (which originally belonged to my grandparents in the UK) contains our DVDs and a few of Tim's music books. The two darker bookcases, which we recently bought from some friends who have returned to their home country, contain about half of our non-fiction. One is Christian books, the other 'general'. The other half are still in a random muddle on shelves in the guest apartment.


Here's our kitchen. I loved this kitchen at first sight: real wood cabinets, and lots of them! Even the tiling is to our taste, and while the dark counter tops aren't quite what I would have chosen, they look good.

I was particularly happy to find that (a) there's an air conditioner (b) there was a space for a dishwasher. Neither of which we had in our kitchen at the old house. So we bought a dishwasher to fit the gap. I am extremely thankful for both.


Here's the dining room - right next to the kitchen. That might seem obvious, but in the old house it was the other side of the house. I particularly like the dining room because we've combined the best of our teenage and grown-up (I hesitate to use the word 'adult' since none of it is anywhere near X-rated) fiction in the bookcases around the walls. Most of our children's fiction is scattered randomly around the shelves in the guest flat, along with some other books we didn't want to get rid of, but don't read very often.

The door goes out onto a little balcony where the metal spiral staircase leads to the guest flat.


And lastly... my study. Where I do my blogging, much of my reading, and where I plan to do my sewing, knitting, tapestry, writing, and Greek study.

Still not painted, alas. There have been too many other calls on our time. But maybe some time soon...


The sharp-eyed may notice a cardboard box next to my desk. Yes, this is one of our moving boxes, yet to be unpacked. A week ago there were about six in the study, so it's a great improvement. But this one is a bit more difficult, since it contains all the things from the other boxes for which I couldn't find obvious places....

Summer

Richard spent this morning getting the final things from our old house - a few things to give to a friend, and some items to bring here, such as long ladders, outside plastic chairs, wheelbarrow...

He also managed to buy the fixings for his satellite dish, and this afternoon fixed it to the roof. Then he had someone come and get it tuned, so he can now watch Euronews and other channels in English. Without the satellite, we only have Greek television. Not that we watch much TV anyway, but with the Israel/Lebanon war, he wants to keep up with world news.

The people staying in our guest apartment took us out to lunch today. We went to Alexander's a pleasant and friendly restaurant on Larnaka sea-front. It was a good meal, but so hot and sticky that I felt tired when we got there, despite managing to park the car only about 100 metres away. All I could face eating was a tuna salad, although I followed that with a Negrita ice cream sundae - chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips and cream. Yum. We were then offered coffee 'on the house' (as often happens at Alexander's when they're not too busy) and I had a frappé - Cyprus iced coffee.

Sitting at the outside tables, we saw a huge number of ships, in varying sizes. Some of them may be bringing more refugees from Lebanon, but we suspect others may be taking aid, or food, to those still there. Or, possibly, providing an escort for larger aid ships. I would have taken photos, but unfortunately both sets of rechargeable batteries for the digital camera were flat. Not sure how that happened! Perhaps I should carry a set of regular batteries too.

This afternoon I was very tired. It was hot, sticky and humid. I sorted some of the paperwork in the study, then had a late siesta.

Right now, Richard's drilling a hole in the study door, hoping to instal network cable so that the people downstairs can use their notebook computer online, rather than having to use mine to get their webmail.

A little busier than expected

The title of this post is an example of the classic British understatement.

Three days ago we learned that two Australian writers Richard knew somewhat, in Lebanon, were hoping to escape on a British warship coming to Cyprus, and wondered if they could stay in our guest apartment. They thought they might be here some time Thursday, but communications were limited. We gathered that the husband needed to go to a conference in Tunis on Saturday, so Richard reserved him a seat with one of the Cyprus estate agents. Just as well, since it's now impossible to get any flight out of Cyprus - they're all fully booked, with extra flights chartered for refugees from Lebanon.

Wednesday was our 26th anniversary. We thought we might go out and buy some plants in the morning. But, knowing guests were coming, we went first to buy a curtain pole for the main bedroom (which has large french windows onto the front porch), then to look for other bits and pieces such as saucepans for the guest apartment. By the time we got to the plant shop it was noon, very hot and sunny. I had had enough of shopping... so after a cursory glance around we decided it would be better to get plants in the Autumn. My head ached, and I felt weak with the heat as well as overwhelmed by all those shops.

During the afternoon I had a phone call from the person who's sorting out a door and sink for the main bedroom in the guest apartment. He said it would be at least five days. Since Cyprus more-or-less shuts down for two weeks in August, lots of people are having jobs done now and the workmen are busy constantly. Since the only way into the room is a hole in the wall at present, and the old hairdresser sink (removed) is dripping, we knew there was no way the main guest room could be used.

In the evening, after an afternoon in air conditioning, I felt better so we went out to eat, taking Tim. We went to Viale's, an open air cafe/restaurant where some friends took us for ice creams a few weeks ago. Very pleasant food, beautifully presented; good service (albeit rather slower than we would have liked), and prices not too unreasonable.

When we got back, we spent a couple of hours moving boxes from the second guest room, where Richard had set up two single beds. He moved some boxes, which we knew we weren't going to need for a while, to high cupboards, and others upstairs. But when we gave up for the night, the kitchen was covered in tools, and other random bits and pieces, and there were still about four boxes on the floor.

On Thursday morning Richard moved a few more boxes, then I spent four hours sorting, tidying and cleaning. What had seemed impossible proved to be doable. I even got to the stage of finding some pictures to hang up, and they made the walls look less boring. It would have been nice to paint before having guests, but obviously there was no chance of that! I washed loads of curtains from the old house, and hung a pair in the guest room, cutting them to size.

Thursday afternoon, Richard had a phone call saying that this couple were hoping to come on a ship leaving Thursday evening, so should be there in the middle of the night. So I made up beds, and we found various useful bits and pieces - a lamp, a fan, bug spray, towels, and so on. During the afternoon we had an hour and a half's power cut, to our surprise, so I decided to spend the time usefully and hemmed the curtains in the guest bedroom by hand. Something which, otherwise, would probably have been left for months.

There was no phone call during the night, but about 9.30 this morning Richard received a quick call saying that they had just arrived in Limassol port. There were long queues, and they expected that it would take at least an hour to get out. Then they would get a shared taxi ('service') to Larnaka. So we did our usual weekly trip to Metro supermarket, and picked up various extra bits and pieces for the guest apartment, knowing that our visitors were arriving with hand luggage only.

They finally got here about 12.30, very tired but relieved to have got out. They said it was unbelievable how quickly Lebanon has gone from a peaceful, busy city to a war zone. They've watched bombs falling, they've seen people who have lost everything. They are thankful that they're safe, that their adult children are safe - one in Australia, the other, newly married, leaving Lebanon tonight with his bride. This son had to cancel his planned large wedding in August, and get married a couple of days go in a small ceremony with only about 25 guests, most of them in jeans as it was last-minute.

They said that the British warship was brilliant, with all the soldiers helpful and friendly. But they're worried about so many people left behind, and about the fact that the embassies are telling foreigners to leave the country. They're trying to be as fair as they can about the whole conflict, and are horrified at how biassed some of the media is, particularly the American channel CNN which is apparently as pro-Israel as ever, and giving a highly sanitised version of the horrors going on in Lebanon. The BBC is apparently somewhat better; but perhaps it's impossible for a reporter to describe accurately what's going on, though, without having lived in the country.

I had wondered, sometimes, why we bought such a huge house now the boys are adults. Now I'm beginning to find out!

Very strange!

Yesterday morning, Richard had a phone call from DHL. They said a parcel had arrived for Daniel, from India, addressed to a PO Box address in Larnaka and a phone number in Paphos. Ringing the Paphos number didn't get anywhere, so they looked in the Larnaka directory, found that we were the only people with our surname, and tried the number. Good thing it was transferred when we moved!

Richard gave them our street address, and they said they would deliver the parcel within the next couple of days. That afternoon, the van arrived and I received the package. So, top marks to DHL for using common sense and being efficient.

It wasn't a heavy package. It felt like some papers, or a booklet. The paper attached to the front said it was from Maruti Suzuki, which sounded a bit odd, and since Dan hadn't mentioned anything arriving from India I thought I'd better open it. Inside was an envelope with a picture of a car, and the message: 'Gift a Maruki Suzuki to someone you love in India'. Hmmmm.

I opened the envelope. My instinct was correct. Dan has been sent some junk mail by a car company in India! Not even a charity, but a company who appear to be targetting wealthy ex-pat Indians, inviting them to buy discounted cars for their relatives back home.

Which leaves a few questions in our minds:

• How did they get his name and address?
• Whose is the Paphos phone number and how was that mixed with Dan's details?
• Why would they send a Brit living in Cyprus, travelling the world for two years as a volunteer, junk mail intended for well-off Indians?

And the most puzzling question of all:

• Why on earth would they send something like this by DHL?? It must have cost at least £20, and in India that's a HUGE amount of money...

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.