This is Cyprus...

Kiti beach and the lighthouse (faros)

2026-10-22T17:20:38.040+03:00

Last week we decided not to go so far with our 'day out'. We'd had to do some shopping already, so we didn't set out until nearly 11.30am. We had decided to walk along the path above Kiti beach. This is somewhere we used to go regularly, when it was quite wild and unspoilt. There were rough steps down to a beach that was usually deserted, and we would sometimes take a picnic.

But then developers got hold of it - we heard rumours, but hadn't been there for a year or so. I wrote about a visit we made in March 2016, when we were a bit horrified by all the changes; we couldn't access a lot of places, and were worried that it would be depressingly touristy.

In October 2017 we went there with some other friends, and walked awhile along the paved path which looked really rather bleak.

Richard took another friend a few years later, but I hadn't been there for nine years.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that the lighthouse - still small and unimpressive - is now surrounded by greenery.

The gate was locked but there were some signs and pictures outside, showing proposed further developments:

The pathway, too, was looking much more attractive than previously, with quite a bit of foliage:

It's all much safer than it used to be, too. Some of the cliff face was starting to crumble, and climbing down to the sea was fraught with potential danger when we used to come.

Now there are at least two sets of steps, with railings, looking a lot safer:

We decided not to go down to the beach; it's quite stony and not very pleasant to walk on. But we admired the view.

It was good to see that the beach is still almost deserted. We might have thought that this was due to it being mid-October if we hadn't been to Fig Tree Bay the week before, which was absolutely packed. Of course Kiti beach is not at all commercial. We didn't see any cafés along our walk, nor any toilets. There's quite an expensive fish restaurant near the lighthouse, but nothing else, as far as we could tell. There was a very faded notice advertising a beach bar at the bottom of another set of stairs, but it appears to be closed.

We walked slowly, admiring the plants and random sculptures:

Then suddenly we reached the end of the paved area. Instead, there was some rough ground at the end of a field. We assume that the owner didn't want to sell, although the end path can't be usable for crops as it's open to the public to walk over.

We walked over it, and a little way further. By then it was 12.15 although the actual distance we had walked was minimal. So we headed back, a little more quickly, and then drove to a restaurant in Menou, about ten minutes' drive away, called Jackson Gastro. It looked inviting, and we saw some friends sitting there; they suggested we sit with them, and we had a most enjoyable lunch followed by coffee.

So, in summary, I was pleased that we finally went back to Kiti; it's a good place for a gentle stroll. Recommended, so long as you don't mind the lack of loos. Children could run around, and maybe go down to the beach for a bit of variety.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the Lighthouse area.

We'd recommend the restaurant, too. It didn't have a huge menu, but there was more variety than most tavernas. Nothing vegan (other than a shareable fruit platter) and no dairy-free desserts; there wasn't much for vegetarians, either, and a very limited children's menu. But the prices weren't too bad, and what we ate was delicious. It was a good place to sit and relax.

Fig Tree Bay and Cape Greco

2026-10-15T17:42:09.095+03:00

We're still keeping up our weekly days out - so far, anyway, while the weather holds. Last Friday it was still really too hot for walking anywhere, so we decided to have a slightly longer drive than previously. We knew of Fig Tree Bay, although neither could remember much about it. I recalled going there with friends some years ago, and that it was pleasant, but rather touristy.

We decided to take a picnic rather than eat out, and took a mostly scenic route rather than the highway, where possible. Eventually we reached the small - and very touristy - town centre, and after a couple of Google Maps errors, found the main car park. We were very surprised to see how full it was - we weren't sure that we would find a spot, but eventually discovered another part of it.

We were even more startled to see that the beach was absolutely packed with people:

We had thought we might rent a sunbed and shade, and eat our picnic on the beach. Evidently that was not to be. We had thought that, on a normal week day in October, it would be a lot quieter. But apparently this is still tourist season as far as the beaches are concerned. When we returned to the car park later, we realised that more than half the cars in the car park had the red tourist number plates.

We walked a short way along a path by the beach, past hotels with people lounging in gardens. There weren't so many people in the sea, as the beach there was rocks rather than sand.

There were water sports as well as people swimming and sunbathing. We think we were the only people not wearing swimsuits or skimpy shorts.

Richard wondered if we could find the place where we were taken by colleagues twenty-nine years ago when we first arrived in Cyprus. We worked out that it was Cape Greco, which was about fifteen minutes' drive away, in the direction of Larnaka. So we decided to go there, hoping that it would be quieter.

Cape Greco is rather a confusing place; we did go there another time with visiting family, but it seemed different from the place we were taken to back in 1997. And this time, it all looked different again. But we followed instructions from the phone, and found a somewhat bumpy road which started with an environmental centre and coffee shop. We noted that for the afternoon.

It looked like there were tracks down to the beach as we drove slowly along. But there was no shade, and it was still too hot for me to walk very far. And there was nowhere to park.

So we followed a small road that had a sign saying 'picnic area'. Google Maps didn't approve; it told us to make a U-turn at the top. But when we got to the top, we saw what we had hoped for:

There was a small area for parking, too. And as we got out of the car, we saw that there were a lot of cats:

I think about six of them are visible in that photo. There were many more. They all looked fairly well-fed, and comfortable around people. They evidently thought we were a likely source of food. But - other than one, which jumped on our chosen table - they behaved very well, milling around but not being a nuisance.

While we ate our picnic, we were amused that at least four other vehicles drove slowly up to the parking area at the top of the hill, made U-turns, and returned the way they came. We surmised that Google Maps had given them the same instructions, and that, unlike us, they followed them. One couple did park and got out to take a walk; the cats deserted us and followed them for a while, until it was clear that they were not stopping to eat.

And yes, we did dole out a small amount of leftover meat to as many of the cats as we could.

After sitting for a while, we drove back to another parking place where we could see a small chapel. Richard took a couple of photos, but we didn't see any obvious way of getting to the beach.

We didn't particularly want to get sandy anyway, by this point. And we wanted some coffee. So we drove to the environmental centre we had seen on the way in, which was attached to a small coffee shop. It even had oat milk available so we had some rather good frappés.

Then we decided to look at the environmental centre itself. We had to pay two euros each (no discounts for seniors). It wasn't huge, but had quite a bit of information about the local flora and fauna, with areas for school field trips.

I don't particularly like looking at stuffed animals and birds, but the displays were quite interesting:

There was even a partial skeleton of a pygmy hippo:

And a good view of the area from a little window:

We probably only spent about twenty minutes in there, including reading some of the information displays, but it was pleasantly cool and very well-kept. There was a small outdoor area with local plants, but it was in full sun, so we didn't walk there.

If we'd had more time - and if it hadn't been so warm, and if we'd taken more suitable clothes - we might have explored more and perhaps found the beach where we were taken all those years ago. We might also have found the famous sea caves, which we've never seen.

So perhaps at some point we'll have a longer visit.

Lefkara visit (Pano and Kato)

2026-10-07T21:41:06.859+03:00

When we first moved to Cyprus, we regularly took visitors to see the village of Lefkara - or, rather, Pano Lefkara, as it's officially called; Upper Lefkara, as we might say in English. It was a quiet village, a little way into the mountains, which specialised in what they called Lefkara lace. I wouldn't have called it lace myself, but it's certainly highly skilled, beautiful work - in tablecloths, cushion covers and more.

I wrote about some of our visits, including a few photos, in - for instance - this post, in 2006, and this one in 2007. At the time we wondered how long it would stay viable. There weren't many visitors, and every shop was full of Lefkara lace products which had taken many months to make. The prices were high - not unreasonably so for the amount of work, but much higher than we or most of our friends were prepared to pay. The shop owners were friendly, offering us refreshment, 'no obligation', and then pleading with us to buy something. We learned to resist; we were pretty sure we weren't really the first visitors of the year, or that nobody had bought anything that season.

Sometimes Richard would take visitors while I stayed at home, to enjoy some peace and quiet. But I went again in 2009 when I was saddened to see that many of the shops had closed. And those that were still open had a higher percentage of other products - machine-made tablecloths and much more, which the shopkeepers rather despised. But they had to make a living somehow.

For some reason, we hadn't been for a while - or hadn't taken photos, anyway. Richard had been a couple of times with guests, and said that each time another shop seemed to be closed. It was almost becoming a ghost town.

But last week we decided to go by ourselves, on another day out to keep us away from our computers. We thought we'd visit Kato ('lower') Lefkara, somewhere I hadn't ever been. Richard had been a couple of times, doing some filming; he said it was very quiet with almost no shops, but we thought it would be a good place to walk, and hopefully a little cooler than places at sea level.

Parking was easy, and there were encouraging signs telling us of places of interest, including at least four chapels and a church. So we set off in what looked like the right direction for a former wine-making place, and a traditional fountain.

We hadn't got far when we were greeted by a friendly man who was originally from Greece, but had made his home in Kato Lefkara as he liked the quiet. He was very chatty, and became our unofficial guide. He showed us the former wine-making place:

He told us about his travels, and pointed out some of the traditional buildings. His English was excellent and he admitted to speaking five languages in all.

We did meet another visitor, a young woman from South America, who joined us on the unofficial tour.

Not that there was a whole lot to see.

In all that time, we hadn't seen any of the other local residents, or any open shops. It really does seem like a traditional village, almost unchanged by the centuries.

Eventually we said goodbye to the friendly unofficial guide, and walked to the church.

It wasn't open, and seemed quite large for such a small population. There's a huge tree outside, which is perhaps its best-known feature:

Here's a better view of its sagging branches:

We took another route back to the car, and passed this, which seems to be the traditional fountain advertised as a tourist attraction:

Somewhat underwhelming, if so.

We didn't find any of the chapels, but we did stop to appreciate some of the colourful plants:

We had been in Kato Lefkara for maybe forty-five minutes. It was enough. So we drove up to Pano Lefkara, wondering if there were going to be any shops left...

We were startled to see that the car park was almost completely full. We wondered if there was a festival of some kind, but there weren't any coaches - just lots and lots of cars.

We walked to what we think of as the 'main' street in Lefkara and were even more surprised to see crowds of people. It was hard to take photos without people's faces, so this really doesn't give the right feel to it.

The shops were full of brightly-coloured fabrics, as well as more 'touristy' products such as tee-shirts and cloth bags with Cyprus cats and a wide range of toiletries and jewellery - not the beautiful filigree silver that used to be made, but the kind of things sold in all the tourist spots.

It was quite interesting to stroll down, but neither of us was tempted even to go into any of the shops, though we did manage to point out several things we definitely wouldn't want! On the plus side, nobody came out to try and persuade us to buy things. Visitors were laden with carrier bags, so it appears that trade is now booming, even if no longer traditional.

By this time we were ready for something to eat, so we found a restaurant that looked reasonably authentic and comfortable:

Unfortunately for me, the menu was very limited - mostly meat souvlaki, without even the option of halloumi. In the end I opted for a veggieburger, which, they assured me, was made with vegetables and not soya. It came with mini samosas, which mildly amused me as an unusual mix of cultures, as well as the inevitable chips. And while Richard's souvlaki had some salad, mine had none.

He did pass me his tsatziki, however, which made a good dip for the chips. Not that I finished that quantity!

It wasn't unpleasant, but I'm not keen on white burger buns, and the chips were rather tasteless. I did like the samosas. And Richard very much enjoyed his lunch.

While we were eating, it started to pour with rain. We felt a few drops, then a roof rolled over the top, so at least we were dry. It was quite pleasant to sit there for a while... until people at another table started smoking. The front was still open so it was technically an outside area, but it was quite unpleasant.

However, as happens so often in Cyprus, the rain was heavy for ten or fifteen minutes, then stopped abruptly and the sun came out again.

We set off in a different direction, and found a parallel street which was much quieter than the first, and which still had traditional shops with Lefkara lace and filigree silver. We felt quite nostalgic to see this notice outside one of the shops (which was closed - possibly for siesta time, but perhaps permanently):

The English says that it's 'one of the last famous workshops.' It offered free engraving and orders in silver.

We were told years ago that the traditional craftspeople were all elderly, and that none of the younger generation were interested in carrying on the lace or silver-making. So perhaps the shops in this quieter street are selling products made in former years.

But even in this street, the shop owners no longer came out to tempt us inside. There were no offers of coffee or lemonade, no appeals for custom. Perhaps they're now doing well enough that they don't need to be pushy any more. Perhaps they realised that it was counter-productive. Either way, it's another sign of the times changing.

Fifteen or more years ago, there were several women sitting outside shops, making the lace competently and rapidly. They would slow down to explain what they were doing, but then quickly returned to their work when questions stopped.

This time we saw just one woman sitting with lace in her lap. She engaged passers-by in conversation, but we didn't see her actually doing any of the stitching.

We stopped for coffee at a different restaurant. We were a bit shocked that they didn't have any non-dairy milk. So I had a latte with dairy milk, and Richard had a Cyprus 'medrio' (strong and sweet).

It was a pleasant day out, and it was good to see that Pano Lefkara is evidently thriving, albeit at the expense of traditions.

Kalavassos tenta and Choirokoitia village

2026-09-30T16:15:00.000+03:00

Now that we're both officially pensioners, and Richard is semi-retired, we decided we should have days out now and again. This is to ensure we stay away from our computers and get some fresh air, and also to see some parts of Cyprus that we hadn't previously explored. We compiled an initial list of places not too far from Larnaka that we would like to visit - or, in some cases, re-visit.

Our first such outing was last Friday. Our intention was to visit a location we had seen fairly often from the highway, but had never actually been to. The 'tent' (or 'tenta') at Kalavassos. Maybe forty minutes' drive from our house. It was a nice day, if rather warmer than I like, and our car has pretty good air conditioning.

Our pronunciation of Greek is not great, but we usually manage to get the emphasis correct. So we knew we were heading for somewhere pronounced something like 'kalla-VASS-os'. Short 'a' sounds, emphasis on the third syllable. We were mildly amused that Google Maps told us we were going to 'kuh-LAH-vuh-suss', with emphasis on the second syllable and something that sounded like 'lava' in the middle.

This is what the 'tenta' looks like from the place where we parked:

The website told us that the entry is €2.50 per person; many sites offer half-price to senior citizens. However, the man in the little booth outside told us firmly that €2.50 was the price, so we paid up and went in. There was nobody else there, though a couple of other visitors did arrive before we left.

We were given tickets, and a leaflet:

It's not a huge site, and neither of us could be considered a history buff. But we decided to walk around slowly - it was, after all, in the shade. And we wanted to get our money's worth.

What we saw was the ruins of several small huts, which - according to the leaflet, and some of the information on the site - was excavated first in 1947, and then more throughly thirty or so years later. The date of the settlement is set as the 'Aceramic period', which I don't recall hearing of before, in the years 8200-5200 BC. Really very ancient!

However, my first random thought bore no relation to history: 'Aha! So THIS is is the origin of the secret to life, the world and the universe....'

We didn't find out why some (but not all) of the buildings have numbers, apparently at random.

We were interested to learn that one of the walls had a painting, supposedly depicting two human figures with hands raised. This is what the official notification showed:

We found building 11, but couldn't see any evidence of the painting.

On the other hand, I saw what looked to me like a road sign image on the side of building 14...

We probably stayed for twenty minutes or so, appreciating the cool breeze, and also being glad that we were not around at this era in what looks like very cramped and uncomfortable houses.

Our verdict: worth seeing once, and probably more interesting to people who are passionate about history. It took us 29 years to get around to visiting... and we're unlikely to go again.

Next stop was Choirokoitia, which Google Maps didn't even attempt to say. I don't think we got it right, either. Suffice it to say that the first syllable is not said like the English word 'choir'. More like 'here', with a soft 'ch' sound at the start, as in the Scottish 'loch'.

On the way we saw a children's playground with an old train, so we stopped and Richard got out to take some photos.

It was an old goods train, which obviously hasn't run for a long time, as Cyprus doesn't have any railways now.

Not, of course, that it's anywhere near as old as the Kalavassos settlement...

It seems a bit dangerous to have it so close to a children's playground, as many children would be unable to resist climbing over the fence and exploring the train. But it's evidently been there for several decades; apparently the railway system in Cyprus came to an end in 1951.

After that brief digression, we drove another ten minutes or so to the Heritage site of Choirokoitia, which looked, at first glance, like a huge garden.

There was a little information office, so we went in, and expected to have to pay another €5 for the privilege. I said we were retired, and the man behind the counter looked very suspicious. He asked to look at our passports, so we showed him our ID cards. He perused them carefully, then handed them back. We asked what we had to pay, and he told us it was free.

We weren't going to argue. I suppose it's quite flattering that he thought we couldn't possibly be over 65...

It was noon by the time we were there, and while there was some shade, there wasn't much of a breeze and the temperature in the sun must have been about 32C. I don't do well in the heat.

Still, we didn't have to go far to find an area that said it was reconstructed Neolithic houses.

Richard went inside and looked at some of the information sheets.

But I was feeling overheated, and sat down on a convenient stone in the shade.

Looking through the window hole of one of the huts showed a raised area - possibly a bed:

Somewhat rested, we found more shade and walked a bit further. Then there were some steps, which said they led to another Neolithic settlement - the actual one with ruins on which the reconstructed huts were based.

Richard went ahead and I got slower and slower....

It was a good view, with Cyprus looking quite green for this time of year:

Unfortunately, it was clear that there were a lot more steps, not shaded at all:

Richard decided he didn't want to walk right up the hill in the sunshine, even though he deals a lot better with heat than I do. And we were both starting to get hungry.

Subsequent research suggests that the long, unshaded uphill walk might not be worth the effort, unless one is a serious fan of prehistory, or likes climbing stairs in the sun. Apparently there is another ruined settlement which is much like the Kalavassos one.

So we left the site.

Verdict: the reconstructed huts were interesting, and it looked as if it would be quite pleasant to walk around the park/garden area. But as there were notices saying that nothing should be touched or climbed upon, and that children must be with an adult at all times, it's not somewhere I'd want to take lively children. It's probably not somewhere we're likely to want to visit again. Then again, if for some reason we were in the area on a cooler/shadier day, we might explore it a bit more, if we can, once again, get in free.

Next we drove to find a taverna which Richard had seen advertised online. It wasn't easy to find: it was hidden right behind another playground.

But although there wasn't much on the menu, and no other customers there, the owners were very friendly (and spoke fairly good English).

It was quite attractive, too, and shady, with a pleasant breeze.

We had no idea what portion sizes would be like but the prices were reasonable. We ordered a Greek salad to share (which turned out to be huge!), and the 'dish of the day' for Richard. It was supposedly stuffed vine leaves, though it turned out to be stuffed vegetables - he didn't find any vine leaves. I always prefer to eat vegetarian food when we're out, so I asked for halloumi - which came after the rest, and was just accompanied by some warm toasted pitta pieces.

It was a lot of food. When we'd eaten as much as we could manage, we were offered a take-away box so we filled that with the rest of the salad, half of the halloumi and most of the pitta.

It was a good day out, despite the heat, and hopefully the precursor to more outings around the island... if we remember.

Getting into September in Cyprus

2026-09-18T17:19:32.799+03:00

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

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

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

Gradually it felt as if life returned to normality although the days remained hot - but 'only' 32-34C, and down to 29-30 by 7pm. Richard and I went for short walks most evenings, and I no longer felt as if I were dripping by the time we got home.

Games evenings and mornings resumed, as did the dance exercise class which I've started going to one evening per week. And there was more construction going on - or, in some cases, destruction, as was the case with a house I've seen many times on a corner not far from where we live.

The house was there one day, and the next it was like this:

There was rubble everywhere. That large digger or crane (or whatever it is) started work before 7am, and the following day the ground was cleared:

No doubt they'll start putting up another block of flats within the next few weeks or months. There are so many partially-built flats locally; some of them seem almost finished, but we never see anyone moving in.

By the end of the first week of September I decided that I would gradually move us back to having hot food in the evenings, using the oven. I was oddly reluctant to start doing this, and have continued making at least one salad each day to go with our evening meal, as well as some hot vegetables.

Yesterday evening there was another government warning on our phones, this time telling us to expect thunderstorms overnight and during today.

Sure enough, around 2am we were awakened by a tremendous flash of lightening, followed by a loud boom - so close that the lightning must have been almost overhead. Then there were more flashes and booms, getting further away, followed by rain.

I drifted off to sleep again, and when I woke the rain had stopped, but there were puddles everywhere. And around 10am it started raining again, quite heavily, though there was no thunder this time.

The temperature hasn't risen above 29 in the house - or outside, according to my app - so for the first time in months I haven't turned on the air conditioning in my study.

Is this the start of more autumnal weather....? Alas, it doesn't look like it. This is the prediction for the next ten days:

The final nine days of August

2026-09-02T16:09:00.000+03:00

I wondered, at the start of the month, whether I would remember to write about the details, albeit mostly rather dull, of a month in Cyprus, semi-aestivating in the air conditioning.

And suddenly, it's the last stretch... not that September will be significantly cooler, but the days are getting shorter and by the end of September we should at least have stopped using the air conditioning.

Sunday 23rd

As with every other Sunday, I started by watering the plants, then went for a 2km walk. I'm not keeping my phone with me every moment, as I used to do. So on days when I only walk in the mornings, I don't even register 5,000 steps. I'm more interested in what my app calls 'heart points', ensuring I reach the minimum of twenty if possible, aiming for heart health.

We were expecting our closest local friends in the afternoon: four of them this time, which is more than usually come now. So I put a loaf of bread on (in the breadmaker), and decided to try a vegan pseudo-'cheesecake' from a recipe I found online some time ago. It suggested a complex crust using seeds, dates and nuts but I thought I'd keep it simple and use a standard cheesecake base with digestive biscuits and spread. Somewhat ultra-processed, but when it gets cooler I'm going to see if I can make digestive biscuits myself, to avoid that problem.

When I'd made the filling it didn't look all that big; it was supposed to serve eight, so I hoped it would be sufficient for six of us. And when I licked the spoon it didn't taste very lemony, either. So I got out some frozen strawberries, found another recipe online, and made a strawberry sauce to go on top.

As we'd eaten more salads on Saturday evening, I got out a curry - a chicken korma - from the freezer, and we had that for lunch along with pitta bread and the usual extra bits I get out to go with curry. And a smoothie - I've made a lot of smoothies this summer, based on watermelon with added frozen fruit.

And then I put on a second loaf of bread, while putting the first one in the oven (not switched on). I'm still concerned about ants, although I hadn't seen any for a couple of days. They can appear from nowhere, or so it seems, when there's something attractive to them.

We played Cities and Knights with our friends while their daughters (one teenager, one no-longer-teenager) watched a film, then a game of Mountain Goats, and then we had our usual shared cold meal. The vegan 'cheesecake' was appreciated, although it didn't taste very much like cheesecake to me!

Monday

Another walk to the fruitaria first thing. Less than a kilometre in all. But once again it felt hot and a bit humid so I didn't do a longer walk. There weren't many 'new' (or 'baby') potatoes left, but there were some in 750g boxes. I prefer to choose them, but that wasn't possible so I bought a box. Probably the last week for new potatoes.

It wasn't actually the last Monday of the month but it felt as if it should be, so I paid the bills online which I usually reserve for the last Monday. The Internet bill, which includes Richard's phone contract, and the credit card which has 40 euros' worth of petrol used in August, and a few other things Richard had used it for, including the two rotisserie chickens we'd eaten earlier in the month. I also paid the water bills.

Paying online is a lot quicker than going to the different offices (and there's no way I could walk there in this heat), but it still takes time; I first have to print the bills, as they arrive by email, and download them too, in case we need them - we've seemed to need a lot of utility bill statements over the years, and they're easy enough to store on my computer.

I had to make some more oat milk, too.

I didn't do a whole lot in the afternoon, but I did manage to finish the book I was reading, and write a review.

I didn't make new salads until the evening, which is when I boiled the new potatoes, too. A couple of them started to fall apart; evidently they were starting to get older.

By the end of August, my inspiration and creativity for new salads is beginning to wane, so I made a couple that I make regularly: tomato/peach salad and mushroom/green bean salad. They are two of my favourites, and easily done, although the mushrooms and green beans have to be cooked. But I did remember to use the kitchen aircon.

Richard had arranged with a friend to do some work on his boat in the evening. By the time he got back it was 8.45 and he was pretty tired, so we didn't go for a walk. That meant I only clocked up 10 heart points for Monday, but I'm sure it doesn't matter occasionally.

Tuesday

I watered the plants and did a slightly longer walk than on Monday. It's odd that, although the end is in sight by the last week of August, I was beginning to feel more drained than ever.

Later in the morning three friends came over for board games, for the first time in about six weeks on a Tuesday, due to their travelling and other commitments. We played Kingdom Builder and a few rounds of Scattergories.

It was an enjoyable morning, but I felt quite drained by the end of it. I found it difficult to get into anything much in the afternoon.

We still had plenty of potatoes and a couple of other salads left from Monday, so I made two more: tuna with avocado and cucumber, and the beetroot salad that I only started making this summer, but which we both like very much.

A friend was coming to help Richard with some woodwork at 7.30, then staying for a Cities and Knights game, so once again we didn't go out for an evening walk. I expect it will get easier when the temperatures and humidity drop a little.

Wednesday

I went for a slightly longer walk first thing, then went into the guest flat to make up the bed for a guest who's arriving next week. I did some dusting, too, and realised that the fridge will need some cleaning as it was accidentally closed - I don't know for how long. Mould was beginning to grow on some of the shelves.

Oops. I didn't want to deal with that until I had a mask and possibly some rubber gloves, so I left it open and ran the dehumidifier which, I hoped, would prevent it from getting worse.

We did go for a short walk in the evening, then played a couple of two-player board games: Splendor Duel and 7x7 Kingdominoes:

Thursday

I found an unused disposable mask left over from the pandemic, and some old rubber gloves, and tackled the guest flat fridge with some bathroom spray supposed to eliminate mould. It all came off very easily. Probably vinegar would have worked. Then I cleaned everything again using regular washing up liquid. And made sure it stayed open when I ran the Roomba.

I made a couple of salads, but by this stage was repeating ones I'd done earlier in the summer. I finished reading a book and reviewed it.

The days were becoming a bit too much alike.

We went for a short walk in the evening, then watched a DVD: a surprisingly enjoyable lesser-known film, 'What we did on our holiday'.

Friday

I walked to the froutaria, I put on laundry. Richard had to see someone on the outskirts of Limassol, and I went too. It was after two o'clock when he'd finished, so we had a late lunch at a taverna. Then stopped for iced coffee at a 'Coffee bean' booth in a supermarket en route home. It was very good coffee.

When we got home I was exhausted - just sitting in the car is somehow very tiring for me - but I did manage to hang out the laundry. Then I checked my phone and saw that rain was predicted for the following day. I laughed inwardly. A few minutes' drizzle, perhaps, like the previous week.

In the evening we went, once again, for a short walk to Salina Park. Richard had been planning to sail with friends on the Saturday, and I mentioned that my phone was still predicting rain in the morning. His wind-finder app predicted high winds in the afternoon, and rain from noon. So he decided to cancel and reschedule for the following week.

Saturday

I woke up to the usual sunshine and warmth - mostly no more than 25-26C first thing, but quite humid. I looked at my weather app:

I went out for a walk around the local streets, and saw no sign of rain. No sign of wind, either. The trees looked very still. Was this, I wondered, the legendary 'calm before the storm', or was the app just wrong...?

It did start to cloud over by about 11am. So I brought in the previous day's laundry, and put it away.

At noon, to use another cliché, the heavens opened. The rain was torrential.

It started coming through the roof over our stairs, so I had to dash outside and get a couple of old washing up bowls to catch the worst of it:

Around quarter past twelve, we had alarms and alerts on our phones:

Well, yes; we had noticed...

Sadly three boats were out at one end of the island, and two of them sank after being dashed against rocks. The papers reported 700% of the usual August rain, and the worst summer storm for decades. However, since there's usually almost no rain in August, the 700% figure isn't quite as dramatic as it might sound.

But it was an astonishing amount of rain for the end of August, and - we hoped - might signal better news for the rather empty reservoirs.

It kept raining, off and on, until around 5pm. But there had been so much rain that there was no petrichor smell, and as it remained somewhat cloudy, it didn't increase the humidity. As an unexpected bonus, our windows looked sparklingly clean.

It was decidedly cooler, too, and we didn't use the air conditioner in our bedroom overnight.

Sunday

Once again I walked around the local area, appreciating the slightly cooler and less humid environment. The draining systems means that there are no longer the floods that we used to have, but there were still some quite large puddles.

There were also more than the usual number of fallen leaves, giving an almost autumnal appearance in places:

Once again we bought a chicken, potatoes and vegetables from Metro for lunch, for probably the last time in a while. The vegetables are only enough for one meal, and the potatoes for two. But the chicken usually lasts for at least four days of main meals.

In the evening we bought filled rolls at Zorpas, then walked to the renovated Salt Lake Park where we had a longer walk - and met friends there, including some we had not seen in a long time. So we stopped to chat, and then walked along the rest of the bridge and home again.

And, once again, we didn't need air conditioning overnight.

Monday

It feels untidy having the last day of a month on a Monday, but inevitably it happens from time to time. My hopes that the storm on Saturday might herald a slightly cooler September were dashed, as the temperature climbed to 33 degrees again. A tad less humid, perhaps, but not a lot.

So I did the usual Monday things, including the end-of-month ones (such as putting out recycling) which I hadn't done last week. In the evening we walked slightly more along the sea front than we had for a while. It's definitely pleasanter in the evenings, but then it's dark by about 7.30pm now.

But it was still hot and felt a bit sticky, so we ran the aircon for an hour overnight.

Thus ends another August in Cyprus.

Third week of August in Cyprus

2026-08-24T20:14:06.949+03:00

More than half way through August already, another week gets going...

Sunday 16th

Sunday morning I woke around six thirty. It was a tad cooler than it had been. So once again I walked to the Salt Lake park, and explored a bit more than I did last week. I won't go into detail, as I wrote an entire extra post about the upgraded Salt Lake (or Pattichio) park. But here's one photo I took, showing the nature garden, and the steps to the bridge:

By the time I got home, it was getting hot and humid. Another morning in the air conditioning, where I watched some of the church livestream. We'd decided to get a rotisserie chicken from Metro for lunch again, along with various leftovers from the previous week; I knew it would last us at least three meals. We had quite a lot of new potatoes left over, so I sliced and refried them, along with some onions. We ate about half of those.

I read, I browsed online, I researched a few things that I found interesting. I wrote forum posts, I finished and uploaded last week's blog post, I did Duolingo. I watched some of the livestream from my son's church in the UK.

It was a relaxing afternoon.

After eating in the evening, we decided it wasn't too humid. Richard said he'd like to see the Salt Lake Park changes and features, so we had a longer walk than usual - again, written about in detail on the post I wrote specifically, but here's one picture I particularly liked, taken from the bridge:

When we got back, we played a game of Azul. That made Lady Jane very happy:

Monday

To my surprise, the temperature was as low as 23C on Monday morning when I got up around 6am. I opened three windows and set a couple of ceiling fans going, to circulate the cooler air. The inside temperature had been about 31C.

After I'd done my favourite NYT puzzles, and read for a while, I went out for a short walk to Achna Discount and the froutaria for some more supplies. Not that we needed a whole lot. One thing I bought was a bag of oats, so I could make some more muesli for my breakfast.

In the afternoon, Richard went out briefly and came back within a few minutes, saying it was raining! I hadn't noticed; I had been finishing the blog post about the Salt Lake Park. This wasn't just a few drops like the previous Friday's rain; it was sufficient that the whole street looked wet. And unlike what usually happens with the first rain in September or October, it wasn't followed by sunshine; the day remained cloudy.

I could smell the petrichor quite strongly, but the day did not become unbearably humid. Instead, it felt somehow lighter and fresher.

Was this the beginning of the end of Summer...? I thought it unlikely. Just a glitch. This was the forecast for the rest of the week:

As the rain stopped, I remembered that I hadn't hung out the morning's laundry - not that it would have suffered much from a few minutes' rain. So I did that, then made a couple of salads for the evening, to have with our cold chicken and cold refried potatoes with onions.

In the evening we drove to the marina, where Richard has free parking, then walked along the sea-front, around the port, and up to the PO Box. I hoped my books might be there, or at least a slip saying they were to be collected, but there was nothing. As is usually the case.

Then we walked back; although it wasn't too hot (28 degrees, according to my phone, and the sun had gone down by then) it was getting very humid. So we didn't walk further along the Mckenzy promenade. We were both very tired by the time we got home.

Tuesday

Despite the unexpected rainshower on Monday, I decided I should probably water the plants anyway, though I used only three full watering cans rather than four. Then I went for a walk, along some of the main paths in the Salt Lake Park; it's much quieter in the mornings, and I only saw two or three other people.

My phone said that there was a 25% chance of rain, but the sky stayed clear and the temperatures rose. I made one more salad - a variation on something similar to coronation chicken - and decided to have a piece of Arabic bread, from the freezer, to go with our evening salads.

Mid-afternoon, I was typing at my computer when I heard a buzzing noise and Lady Jane came bounding in. I assumed she was chasing a fly, although I wondered how it could have got in the house. We have windows open in the daytime, but only ones with mosquito nets to keep insects out (and to keep Lady Jane in).

Then I saw that it was in fact rather a large wasp. I don't like wasps, but don't wish them any harm. And I knew that wasp stings can be quite nasty. So I shut Lady Jane out of my study, and opened one of the french windows that leads to the little balcony outside.

The wasp kept buzzing against the glass of the other door, which I couldn't open. I didn't want to try to direct it in case it became aggressive. So I sat down at the computer again, trying to keep half an eye on it... and suddenly the buzzing stopped and there was no sign. I assume it finally found its way out.

I was greatly relieved.

And no, I didn't take a photo of the wasp.

So I shut the door, and let Jane in, and went through to start thinking about putting things out for our evening meal. Only to discover that we hadn't wiped the table after lunch, and there must have been a couple of drops of something from lunch which were evidently very attractive to ants.

I hadn't seen any for a couple of days, and hoped they had moved on. I was wrong. There was a little train of them climbing up one of the table legs, and hundreds - I am not exaggerating - of tiny ants crawling around two places on the table.

I realise it's somewhat ironic that I let a wasp out, but showed no mercy with these ants. I wiped them all away with kitchen roll and a lemon-scented kitchen spray that (at least in theory) disrupts their pheromone trail. Then I used Cleankill on the table legs, in the hope of deterring any future ants.

Eventually we sat down to eat, and then decided just to go for a short walk, to (and around) Salina Park, which takes about twenty minutes in all. And since we hadn't played Cities and Knights for some weeks, we had a two-player game. We developed house rules for this many years ago and find they work well, though we don't often play with just the two of us.

And for anyone who's remotely interested and has read this far, we had, unusually, what amounted to a draw at the end. Richard had the harbourmaster and took the longest street, and announced that he had 16 points (which is what we play to in a two-player game). I hadn't been counting my points at all, but I had two metropolises, so thought I might have about twelve. Turns out I had sixteen points too, and must have gained my sixteenth point on my previous turn when I built a settlement. So I should have won, but didn't declare it.

Lady Jane, who had been half-sleeping in the box lid, recognised - as usual - the game-putting-away routine. She closed her eyes and feigned deep sleep for a few minutes, so we wouldn't get her out of the box.

But then came her dilemma, as happens quite often: should she stay in possession of the box, or get out and have a few more crunchies? (I believe the official name is kibble).

She chose the latter.

Wednesday

I got up before it was light and read for a while, then went for a half-hour walk locally. I didn't much want to, but it's a good habit and probably beneficial long-term.

Nothing much planned for the day in what was expected to be a very quiet week, although I wrote plenty on Monday and Tuesday. After making another salad for the evening, and putting on laundry etc, and looking at some puzzles online, I uploaded another recipe to my somewhat sporadically-updated recipe blog.

Then worked a bit on photos before updating this with Tuesday's happenings. Or non-happenings. Not a lot goes on in Cyprus in August. In addition to many people travelling, a lot of businesses close for a couple of weeks.

Unsurprisingly, it was hot again.

I made one more salad to accompany those remaining, a sweet potato salad with chopped peppers and peas. A variation on one I've previously made using black beans.

In the evening we went for a short walk to Salina Park, then came home and watched the excellent film 'The Help'. Based on the book, it's extremely well done. We saw it first 11 years ago, and still found it moving, shocking in places. Above all, totally engrossing. It's a long film and by the time we'd watched a couple of 'deleted scenes', it was almost 10.45pm. Well past my usual bedtime.

Thursday

I slept well, but didn't wake until 7.30am. By that stage the sun was up and it was too hot and sunny to think of going for even a short walk. I did manage to water the plants, as the sun had not quite got around to them.

Somehow, waking up late leaves me feeling tired - almost jet-lagged - for hours. It's good that I didn't have anything much that I had to do.

In the afternoon, Richard told me that the servers that had been used for the family websites (and some others, including the local Anglican church site) had stopped working. They are owned by a US company which had promised free access for life. But apparently they had changed their terms and conditions recently, without much warning (Richard did eventually discover an email; but who ever reads emails saying that t&c have updated...?). They want him to upgrade to a paid version.

He had to pay something in order to get access back - which, he was told, could take 24-48 hours - and started looking for alternative, EU-run companies.

I realised about 5pm that, having got up so late, I hadn't made any new salads, and we needed a couple to supplement what was left from Wednesday. I was running a bit low on fresh ingredients, and was still quite tired, so I made two very simple ones: canned salmon with corn and peas (in a bit of mayonnaise, with dried dill), and an apricot/cucumber/cashew salad in vegan yogurt.

We did go for a walk in the evening, along the main Salt Lake Park paths; about 2.5km in all. But it was hot and sticky, even leaving at 8pm, and he wanted to continue some work after we got back. I finished the book I was reading, then took a cold shower (not that the water is ever truly cold at this time of year).

Friday

I didn't wake quite so late as I did on Thursday but it was still nearly 7am by the time I went out to the fruitaria. I bought fruit and veg for the weekend, plus another Greek yogurt (not vegan) for my breakfasts.

I hadn't heard any more about the parcel of books I was expecting from 'World of Books' - a week earlier I had an email asking me to confirm the delivery to the Post Office. So - as it was far too hot to walk - Richard drove me to the Post Office. I first checked the box to see if there was a slip; there wasn't, but there was a single parcel, not one of the two I had been emailed about.

So I went inside, having written down the two delivery codes sent me. The postmistress and assistant told me that there was a power cut, so they couldn't check anything on their computers. I thought I would have to go away... but this is Cyprus. They asked me my name, and searched through the parcels piled on the shelves. Thankfully there weren't a lot. When I said it would be from 'World of Books', they managed to find the two parcels.

Then came the problem of how I could sign for them, as this usually happens electronically. One of them said she would write everything down on a piece of paper, and then enter the information into the system once the power was back. They asked if it was okay by me if they just put my initials, and of course I said that was fine.

I was very pleased to have the books for next year's reading group, sent directly to Cyprus (albeit at rather high delivery cost, since each item had the three euro customs charge included).

Despite a couple of minor tears in the larger package, everything was in good condition, some of the books looking almost unread.

There's still one which hasn't yet arrived, plus one that I will have to order directly from Amazon, and one which I have already.

I catalogued them in GoodReads and LibraryThing, and then added them to my shelf of reading club books. It's quite satisfying to be prepared (mostly) well in advance.

In the evening, after writing a book review, I remembered that - once again - I had not made the day's salads first thing. I wanted to bake some potatoes, too, for a change. To do that I use the microwave and then the air fryer. Our air fryer knob has fallen off, so I have to use pliers to turn it, but that's a minor inconvenience.

I had to steam some broccoli to make a simple salad with tomatoes and onions. I also put together a grape/avocado/walnut/fake feta salad. I thought that would also be quick, but unfortunately the grapes I had bought had seeds which weren't obvious when I held them up to the light at the fruitaria. Grape seeds can be eaten, but don't taste very nice. So I halved all the grapes after washing them, and removed the seeds, which took a bit of extra time.

I was very warm by the time I'd finished, as I forgot to put the air conditioning on in the kitchen.

But it meant that, in addition to the potatoes, we had five different salads for our evening meal including those left from previous days. Out of mild curiosity, I mentally totted up how many different plant-based products we were eating, and it came to twelve in all: potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, grapes, avocado, walnuts, peas, sweetcorn, apricots, cashews, sweet potato. That's not including the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic granules or herbs that were used, or the coconut in the yogurt.

We don't have any difficulty eating thirty different plant-based products per week, as is a current general recommendation for a healthy gut.

I was a bit disturbed to discover another large wasp buzzing by a window in our dining room. I was able to open it and it flew out, which is good. Perhaps it was the one from earlier in the week, which had hidden somewhere; I never did see that one fly away. I hope so, as it feels a lot more concerning to have two different large wasps manage to get into the house within a few days.

It was still hot and sticky by 7.30pm but Richard had had enough of working; the websites were mostly back and functioning again and he needed a break. So we walked to Salina Park and did a couple of circuits, then home again. I was dripping by the time we got home, and had a cool shower before we sat down for a couple more episodes of 'Yes, Minister'.

Saturday

Another hot day... no surprise there, then. I went out for my standard 2km walk along shady streets locally, then - after collapsing in a heap, somewhat, and reading for a while - made some more oat milk. And gently boiled some lentils which were part of that day's extra evening salad.

Saturday was humid, so once again I did minimal housework, gradually, with forays into the air conditioning to cool down in between tasks. Thankfully it's not too dusty at present, so the many book shelves don't look too bad.

The only unexpected thing during the day was another wasp buzzing around the dining room door around 5pm. Once again I opened it, and it flew away. I began to be a bit concerned that there might be a wasp's nest somewhere close.

In the evening we did another short walk to Salina Park. By the time we got there I was so hot and sticky I sat on one of the benches and watched the fountains, while Richard did a couple of circuits of the park. By the time he found me again, he'd also met some friends who we hadn't seen for a while, so it was nice to stop and chat for a few minutes.

Then back home to the air conditioning, and another episode of Doctor Who (series 8).

My phone told me that our district would be cooling over the next couple of days. I had a moment's enthusiasm, then I checked the weather app.

It told me that the temperature had reached 36 (feeling like 41 with the humidity)... and that it would be 'only' 35 on Sunday and Monday.

Pattichio (Salt Lake) Park upgrade

2026-08-17T15:47:20.867+03:00

Back in February, I wrote this post about ongoing construction in the Salt Lake (Pattichio) Park. It all seemed to be happening slowly and somewhat randomly. By the middle of June, when I stopped going for walks along the Salt Lake trail until the weather cools down, it hadn't progressed all that much.

So I was amazed to see this article about the Pattichio Park come up in my Facebook feed last week. I decided to go and see what was going on - it was hard to believe that in just a couple of months the upgrade really was complete, but that's what the article said. I mentioned this in the Wednesday part of last week's general rambling update, with a couple of photos. But I didn't stray from the main path, as it was so very hot and humid.

Yesterday morning, however, the temperature was a tad cooler, and not quite so sticky. So I decided to be a bit more adventurous. I walked to the park, then wandered up the first trail I came to:

It led to the dog park. This is quite a nice looking area that's fenced off, with plenty of bins for dog mess, to allow dogs to run around rather than having to be on a lead/leash all the time.

Some of the fencing looks a bit high off the ground; a small dog could probably escape:

But the one dog I saw at 7am was a large one, who was running around happily while his people sat on a convenient bench.

There's no shade, but hopefully some of the trees will get a bit taller by next summer. And it's fine early in the morning or after the sun has gone down. I don't think there's anywhere for dogs to get water, but maybe that will eventually change.

The next thing I found was this trail, with a lot of aromatic plants - mostly herbs, I assume. I think this must be the promised nature garden:

I also saw this rather garishly painted small building which has shelving inside, but no door. For storage, I wondered...?

When Richard saw it later, he thought it was a random piece of architectural creativity. He may well be right. I suppose it would be useful for shelter if a sudden rainstorm hits.

The mystery of the brown cladded building, however, is solved. It has a pump inside, and pipes running out of the back:

These feed a mini-waterfall that fills up a pond feature that's in the large hole we spotted earlier in the year.

The pond has a nice little bridge going over it:

It's quite attractive.

It also worries me a lot. That rope would not deter an exploring child, and the rocks are likely to be slippery when it rains - or with spray from the pond itself, or moss or other growth which is likely to develop.

And, which really concerns me, it's only a few metres from the picnic area which has some climbing logs for small children:

The water is probably a metre deep; it would only take a few seconds' lack of concentration from a parent or carer for a child to rush over to the pond. I used to watch my children (and, later, grandchildren) all the time if I took them out, but could easily imagine focusing on one of them for a moment and not spotting the other racing away. And many of today's parents pull out their phones as soon as their children are happily occupied.

I just hope and pray there's no tragedy to prompt the park authorities to make a more secure boundary around the pond.

I told Richard about the developments; he hadn't been to the Salt Lake Park for years. So in the evening - as it was a tad cooler and less humid - we decided to go for a walk and explore some more. I was surprised to see how many people there were in the park - a lot of them with children. Perhaps the article prompted a lot of folk to investigate. Or maybe this park has always been popular in evenings.

He hadn't seen the strange brown metallic things up close before, just from the road - there seems to be one near each of the main entrances.

There's still nothing planted around them. Richard's theory is that they're an architectural 'modern art' feature. I suspect he may be right.

After we'd been around the dog park and over the mini-bridge, we found the steps up to the large bridge intended for viewing, just beyond the nature/aromatic garden:

I didn't see any ramps; I thought they were required for modern constructions, for wheelchairs and buggies. Perhaps they are somewhere else.

The bridge itself feels wide and safe, with good railings and planks to walk on. The views of the park are good, too:

Looking over towards the amphitheatre area:

The bridge ends with the building that should eventually be a restaurant, although the inside isn't finished. Apparently it will be put up to tender.

And right outside the restaurant there's a children's playground, which was being well-used.

There don't seem to be any functioning toilets in the park, but hopefully there will be some connected to the restaurant, when it eventually opens.

We walked to the end, then headed back, enjoying more views as the sun went down:

At the other end of the bridge, the railings stop - I don't know if they ran out of railings, or decided that it was low enough that a simple rope would suffice:

It goes right down to the ground, so perhaps this is where wheelchairs and buggies are supposed to go. But the trails around are sandy and unfinished; I wouldn't like to push a buggy there, let alone a heavy wheelchair.

We saw several new benches, with backs on only the middle section - this seems to be a new trend:

By this time, it was almost completely dark and there were very few people at this end of the park. We realised roughly where we were - by a street where friends have a flat - and wended our way back to the main park, to return home.

We had walked almost four kilometres in all, including about half a kilometre each way from our house to the park entrance.

I will like it more in the spring, I think, when everywhere is greener and some of the plants have become more established. Apparently more trees will be planted, too. But overall, other than the potential danger of the pond, we were impressed.

We have been walking to Salina Park most evenings; it's ideal if we have just twenty minutes or so available, or if it's too hot and sticky for anything else. But I think the Salt Lake/Pattichio Park will become an alternative when we want a longer walk.

Second week of August in Cyprus

2026-08-16T14:58:29.131+03:00

Continuing on from my previous post, which covered the first eight days of August...

Sunday 9th August

When I woke, the humidity wasn't too high. My phone told me that the temperature was around 26 degrees at 6am. I read for a bit, then watered the plants on the front porch. We're theoretically allowed to use hose pipes on plants (though not for anything else). However, I feel it's less wasteful to use a watering can, so that's what I do. I have to fill four cans to give all our plants a reasonable amount of water, and they seem to be surviving, some of them blooming quite well.

Then I walked - slowly - for a couple of kilometres around local streets. As so often, I noticed how much construction is going on in our neighbourhood. Mostly new blocks of flats. There's a housing crisis here as there aren't sufficient affordable homes - yet new ones are going up all the time.

These are just a few developments, at different stages, within easy walking distance of our house:

After breakfast and over an hour hanging out with Richard, talking and discussing many things, I read for a while before preparing a chocolate chia seed dessert for the evening (as friends were coming over) and making some chocolate-banana ice cream. I also put on a loaf in the breadmaker.

Since I'm not using the oven in the summer, and we both felt like having roast chicken, Richard went to buy a rotisserie chicken at Metro. He also bought some roast potatoes, which I cut into smaller pieces and air fried to make them crispier. Then I gently fried some onion, pepper and broccoli.

After lunch and clearing up, I had an hour or so to do some NYT puzzles and read updates etc. Then we drove to our friends' house so Richard could help putting up a new net curtain, to replace a damaged one. After that, we drove back, with our friends, for a game of Catan, followed by Ticket to Ride (Europe).

(You might spot Lady Jane, determinedly sleeping in the Catan box lid, so we couldn't put it away before starting the second game).

That was followed by our usual bi-weekly shared evening meal.

Our friends left not long after 7pm. Even though I very much enjoyed the afternoon and evening, I needed time to myself to recharge. Richard had things to do on his computer, and I mostly read. And then wrote a review of the book I finished.

Monday

Another somewhat busy morning for me. I went out for a short walk, as far as Ioannides supermarket, where I bought some vegan yogurt and a couple of other items; then on to the froutaria for fruit and vegetables for the next few days.

When I got back, I put on the air conditioning in the kitchen, knowing I'd have quite a lot to do. The first thing was another batch of oat milk before preparing breakfast, but that only takes a few minutes.

Richard was meeting a couple of guys in our guest flat, helping them understand better how his PA system works, and doing a bit of maintenance together. We had agreed to give them lunch, so I had to put on another loaf of bread in the breadmaker. He had cut up the rest of the chicken from Sunday and arranged it nicely on a plate, so that was in the fridge, ready to serve. He had also bought some deli counter taramasalata (with no artificial additives). I don't like it at all, but many people do.

I made some coleslaw, too (using the food processor), and a green salad. There was humus left from last week, and we had been given some Lebanese baklava by visitors a couple of weeks earlier, so I didn't make a dessert, though I did wash grapes I had bought and put those on a plate.

I'd finished all the food preparation by about 11am so it wasn't too strenuous. It was good to sit and have a leisurely lunch, and get to know these young men a bit.

Then, once again, I had to be on my own to recharge - I read, uploaded the book blog post, did Duolingo etc, answered emails and forum questions, and did some online puzzles.

In the evening we decided to eat much the same as we had at lunch-time, as there was plenty over, and also some pasta salad left from Saturday. Then Richard had some work to do, and I read. Even by 7.30pm it was still over 30 degrees outside, and humid, so neither of us felt like going for a walk.

Tuesday

A relaxing day, which started with watering the front patio plants again and going for a short walk. I wrote some emails and other messages, and - once again - contacted the Water Board, reminding them that our guest flat water meter has been broken for over a year now. They may be closed for the August two-week break (or even the whole month) but it seems like a good idea to keep sending reminders, now and again. Richard sometimes phones, too, but we have no idea if those messages get passed on.

In the evening, friends were taking us out to dinner at the Al Sultan Lebanese restaurant in town. Richard dropped me right by it before going to park, as it was still very hot at 6.30. As we've done before when eating there with two other people, we had a 'grand mezze' which is supposedly for two people, but which is plenty for four. This, for instance, is the first course...

We didn't finish it all, as we knew there was more to come. I really like this kind of food!

It was close to nine o'clock when we departed, and I walked with Richard to the PO Box which isn't far away. Not that there was anything there, but we like to have a look most weeks. At some point I hoped that the books I ordered last week would arrive.

Wednesday

On Tuesday, at some point, I had noticed an article saying that the redevelopment in the Salt Lake Park was complete. I was very surprised, as it had looked a long way from completion when I last walked there with Sheila, towards the end of June.

So on Wednesday morning, I decided to walk there. Not to explore everywhere, as it was hot and humid, but to see what was going on from the main path. I went through the main entrance, and the brown metal construction was still there, with no plants or any other clue as to what it was for.

Indeed, the park looked much the same as it was last time I saw it, though the bit which we assume is a dog park was now fenced - but with no shade at all, so unlikely to be used at this time of year. I did see one new feature - a picnic area, although that, too, has no shade.

And it did look as if the bridge was now complete, but I had no idea how to access it, and didn't want to get lost on such a humid day.

I didn't stay out for long.

Richard was having another day with his PA team guys, so - after breakfast etc - I put on yet another loaf of bread, and made a beetroot salad, one which I only learned about a few months ago but like very much. Again, I used the food processor rather than grating the beetroot.

I also sliced some tomatoes, with a bit of garlic and basil, and cut up some watermelon to go with the rest of the baklava for dessert. And I boiled some eggs, to make egg mayonnaise, although there was still a fair amount of sliced chicken left from earlier in the week.

Then I collapsed for a while in my air conditioned study before lunch.

In the evening, we did something we've done a few times this summer: ordered salads via Foody. We've used three different places, and have liked them all. This time I ordered from the 'Salad Bar':

It's hard to tell quantities from a photo like that, but for the two of us this quantity lasts for two days, sometimes longer. The Salad Bar gives a small slice of wholegrain bread with each salad, and we didn't feel we needed any more carbohydrate.

Once again it was too hot for me to leave the house after eating, so we decided to watch a film - one we hadn't seen before, 'The King and I'. Worth seeing once, I think, for the extravaganza and some excellent dancing. But I found the plot - which is apparently based on a true story - rather depressing.

Thursday

I watered the plants first thing. It was even warmer and more humid than previously.

I made more oat milk. No bread or salads to make. Instead, I spent a peaceful, relaxing day in the air conditioning.

In the evening, Richard went out for a half-hour walk to (and around) Salina Park, but I prefer not to go out when it's over thirty degrees and humid.

Then we played three rounds of Kingdom Builder with our young friend E.

Friday

I didn't wake until 6.30, but it was surprisingly cloudy outside. Humid, but not quite as hot as it sometimes is. I walked for a couple of kilometres then went to the fruitaria for the weekend's fruit and vegetables.

After breakfast and hanging out for a while, I put a load of laundry in the machine, then we ventured out by car to the nut shop, and Metro; we hadn't been to either for four weeks. We were getting low on both nuts and Clean-kill (mammal-friendly insecticide).

Despite being humid, it was not as hot as it might have been as the sun was hidden behind quite heavy clouds:

To my astonishment, as we were en route to the nut shop, there were a few drops of rain on the windscreen!

Not enough to need the wipers in the car, and they'd all dried up by the time we arrived. But still, rather unusual.

I should be used to the varying costs of groceries by now, after nearly 29 years in Cyprus. But it still sometimes surprises me that whereas two full shopping bags of fruit and veg from the froutaria typically cost between €12 and €15, one half-full bag from the nut shop or Metro is typically around €30-€40.

By the time we were home, and I had unpacked our purchases and put them away, I was more than ready for my study and the air conditioning. I really don't like going out during the daytime in the summer.

Around 5.30pm I suddenly remembered that I hadn't made any salads for the evening, so I turned the study aircon off, and turned on the kitchen one instead. Then I boiled some new potatoes which I'd bought that morning, with mint, and prepared some other salads.

Peach, tomato and fake feta next to the potatoes; green beans and mushrooms with ginger and garlic bottom left, tuna with avocado and cucumber bottom right.

Since we also had a bit of green salad left from Wednesday's order, and some beetroot salad from Thursday, we had quite a lot of food on the table for our evening meal:

We finished the take-away salads but there was still plenty of everything else for Saturday evening.

At 7.30, Richard asked if I wanted to go for a short walk. I didn't particularly, but Lady Jane was very insistent that we should both go out. She wanted a cat treat, and she knows that she gets a few Dreamies or similar if we both go out in the evening. It was 30 degrees according to my phone weather app, and humid, though the sun had gone down.

We walked - fairly slowly - to Salina Park, then I had to sit down. Richard made a few circuits of the park, and I watched the fountains in the water feature. We don't know how the fountains or the colours are controlled, or why the colours vary over the months. This time they were different shades of blue or purple, and the fountains followed a pattern which I found quite mesmerising.

When we got back, we put the air conditioning on in the living room, and watched a couple of episodes of 'Yes, Minister'.

Saturday

I woke about 5.45pm, having not slept very well, but got up anyway. It was 27 degrees out, and very humid. No change there, then. I read for half an hour or so, as it was still almost dark outside, then did the three NYT puzzles that I do on my phone first thing (Wordle, Strands and Connections).

After that, I went out for a shortish walk. My phone tells me it was less than a kilometre, but it's been somewhat inaccurate recently, and I think it was a bit more than that. But maybe not. By the time I got home, I was dripping.

A couple of friends were coming over at 11am to work with Richard on finalising and uploading a book to KDP, so I did what I could to cover most of my Saturday 'basic' chores (as outlined on my previous post) before leaping into the shower (okay, no, I didn't leap. I climbed in wearily) at 10.45.

By that stage, the bed was made with clean sheets etc, the bathrooms were clean, the dishwasher filters were cleaned out, the Roomba was given its weekly thorough clean, and I'd folded and put away Friday's laundry. The kitchen was clean, too. There were no ants that I could see, which was encouraging.

Lady Jane doesn't like it when I spend too long outside my study in the summer. In previous years, she refused to go into a room with air conditioning. She apparently preferred the heat and humidity of the rest of the house. But this year - maybe because she is now at the mature age of twelve - she likes to sleep on 'her' cushion, with both air conditioning and a ceiling fan.

The rest of the basic Saturday chores were completed, one at a time during the afternoon. Then we had an unexpected bonus: a video chat with both our sons at the same time, which enabled us to catch up with their lives, and update them on ours. We had been wondering about a visit to the UK in the second half of October, but that's not going to work out for various reasons. I still miss my sons very much, but chatting online is a way of easing the heartache somewhat.

In the evening we went for a short walk before watching another episode of Doctor Who (eighth series).

So ends another week where I wasn't fully aestivating (I do, after all, do things first thing in the morning, and somewhat in the evenings) but still avoiding going outside as far as possible between 10am and 6pm.

First week of August in Cyprus

2026-08-09T21:32:47.387+03:00

Apparently my unexciting post with a few photos from July was appreciated by others, and of interest to some people who are not in Cyprus. So I thought I'd write a week-by-week summary of August. Assuming I remember to do so, that is.

In that post, I spoke too soon about the lack of nasty insects. When I was getting ready for bed on the night of July 31st, I opened my closet and saw (shudder....) a roach sitting amid my tee shirts. Thankfully Richard was close by, and he was able to get rid of it.

Saturday 1st August

August started, as so often happens, with increased humidity. I went out for a shortish walk first thing, around 6am. Although it was only around 26 degrees and I stayed mostly in the shade, I was dripping when I got home. I sat down and did a few puzzles, then - slowly - organised Richard's breakfast tray of fruit and nuts, squeezed oranges etc. I made some oat milk for his coffee and my frappé. Then I had my breakfast, hoping it would give me some energy.

It didn't.

Saturday is the day I put aside for cleaning, at least most of the year. But I felt completely de-motivated, tired and heavy. The thought of the whole of August in Cyprus was quite depressing, and I really don't do depression.

So I decided to skip doing any dusting or sweeping or extras. Instead I would stick to the absolute minimum, which consists of: clean sheets and pillowcases, cleaning the bathroom and loo, running the Roomba upstairs after cleaning it out fully, emptying the bins, folding and putting away Friday's laundry, cleaning out the dishwasher filters, cleaning the kitchen work surfaces and mopping the floors (at least the kitchen and dining room). Nothing strenuous, and I can get through all that easily in less than an hour when it's cooler.

But it wasn't cool, and any exertion outside my air conditioned study was exhausting. I did get through all these things, in roughly ten-minute slots through the day. When I made the bed with clean linen, and folded and put away the clean laundry from Friday, I even turned the aircon on in the bedroom for ten minutes. It was after 4pm when I finally stepped into a (cool) shower.

On the first of each month I do several financial transfers, and did that as one of the first things when I had turned on the air conditioning in my study. Just as well I did, as the Internet suddenly went down about two minutes after I had finished. A text message arrived from our internet provider saying that due to some reason (unspecified) there was a problem. Richard phoned them and they said they thought a wire was cut, but they didn't know where.

It was down for over three hours. Irritating, but it meant I did quite a bit of reading of the book allocated to the reading group two days later.

When the Internet finally came back, I was able to update the church website, as I do each Saturday, and do some Duolingo - I usually manage about twenty minutes each day. I also upload a DVD review I had finished.

One marginally more interesting thing from Saturday was that the glass/aluminium expert turned up with one more window to replace. He had also made a fly-screen for the guest flat front bedroom, something that more than one of our guests had said would be useful.

It's not really obvious from the photo, but the screen slides to and fro, so either window can now be opened without issuing an invitation to any insects (or cats) that happen to be in the vicinity.

In the evening we finished some salads we'd started on Friday, and then took part in the monthly extended-family Zoom meeting which was first established six years ago, during the pandemic. It's still one of the highlights of the month for me, catching up with whichever of my siblings are available, and often our sons too.

By the time it had finished it was 8.15pm and starting to get dark; it was also a bit cooler than it had been, so we went for a short walk to Salina Park, around the trails and back. We then watched one of the 'extras' from the Doctor Who special that we had seen the week before.

Sunday

On Sunday morning I watered our plants outside, and went for a short walk. Other than that, I wasn't planning to do anything. I don't usually go to a church service here in August as it's so very hot, and there's no way I could walk there and back. But Richard was meeting someone for coffee, and also wanted to check the church PA system, so he was driving, and I decided to go to the service. I had to walk a hundred metres or so from where we parked, and that was exhausting. But it was nice to be at the service and good to catch up with a few people afterwards.

We're not particularly into traditions, but we've almost always had a hot meal for Sunday lunches rather than our usual bread-and-bits. At the start of July I had tried making roast potatoes in the air fryer (since I try not to use the oven at all during the summer) but they weren't very successful. So this time we had a reheated chicken jalfrezi curry - one of my favourite recipes - from the freezer, with previously-made naan breads and the usual extra random bits and pieces that we have with curries. And some banana-raspberry ice-non-creme (or 'frozen dessert' as some sites put it) which is basically food processed frozen banana chunks.

We'd talked about watching a longer film on Sunday afternoon, but I was still tired after being out in the morning. So as Richard had things to do on his computer, I decided to read, and 'veg out'. I did Duolingo on my phone, then (on the computer) watched some of the recording of the livestream from the church where our younger son is Vicar. But I didn't do anything else that was constructive.

In the evening, we started rewatching Doctor Who series 8, which had quite a long and interesting first episode.

Monday

It didn't feel so humid on Monday morning, which was a great relief. I woke at 5am, too early to go to the fruit shop. I did a few NYT puzzles on my phone, then decided to finish the reading group book. I found it gripping, and was very surprised to turn the last page - it finished a tad abruptly - and discover that it was already 6.45. Still only 26 degrees outside. As it was the first Monday of the month, I went to Achna Discount for some non-food items such as toothpaste and kitchen roll, as well as to the fruitaria (fruit/veg shop, with some other things too).

After breakfast, then hanging out with Richard for a while, and then my shower, I turned the a/c on in the kitchen to prepare the salads for the day. I try to make one containing protein (often canned oily fish, as that's supposed to be healthy, and doesn't need cooking), one with complex carbs (unless I plan to air-fry potatoes later), and a couple with other veg/and or fruit with as many different colours as possible.

This is the Monday selection, including one that's just plain 'new' potatoes (or 'baby' potatoes as they're called in Cyprus) with dried mint.

From the point of view of plant-based products, of which one is supposed to have 30 different ones each week, it included: aubergines/egg-plant (air-fried), orange bell pepper, red onion, peaches, tomatoes, avocado, cucumber and potatoes. So that's eight. Plus lemon juice and olive oil on a couple of the salads. In our breakfasts we have at least eight or nine different plant products, too.

It's impossible to see the perspective from the photos, but I hoped the potatoes would last us for two days of main meals, and didn't think we would finish any of the others.

I put on a load of laundry (which I hung outside just before lunch) and sorted a bag of recycling to put out. Also, just to add to the variety of the day, Lady Jane finally finished a bag of 'Brekkies' kibble which she started two-and-a-half months ago. So I opened a new 1.5kg bag, and decanted it into six ziplock bags with 250g each, as I always do with a new bag, so that it doesn't lose its freshness too quickly.

After lunch I wrote a review of the book and uploaded it, wrote most of this blog post so far, and did Duolingo.

One of the rear tyres of the car had been slowly going down over the course of a couple of weeks. Richard had filled it twice with air at a garage, but thought it worth having it checked at a tyre replacement place, in case they close, as many businesses do, for a two-week August break later in the month

Apparently there was a nail embedded in the tyre, so they removed it, and filled the hole. They refused to charge anything, as it had only taken five minutes.

The reading group was at 4.30, and Richard drove me there - the temperature was around 34 degrees in the shade, so there's no way I could have walked. There were about eight of us there and we had an interesting and lively discussion.

In the evening, we went for a walk along the sea-front and checked our PO box (nothing there, as usual). It was warm, but not too humid. It still felt draining, and we didn't walk as far as we do in cooler months.

Tuesday

A 'chill' day - if one can call it that when the shade temperature outside is 34 degrees. Nothing much planned, anyway. First thing in the morning I watered the plants, then went for a shortish walk, just a kilometre and a half locally.

I made oat milk when I got back, and one extra salad as we'd eaten over half of the ones I made on Monday. Then washed up what didn't go in the dishwasher. With our ant invasion, I'm trying to reduce anything that might tempt more ants, so I try not to leave unwashed items on the work surface.

Then, in my study with the air conditioning, I did a lot of research on the best place to buy next year's reading group selection, which was announced on Monday. My Kindle is old enough that it can no longer accept new books from Amazon; I can use the Kindle app on my phone, but some Kindle books cost more than used paperbacks, and - except when travelling - I prefer real books.

One of my favourite sites is World of Books, which offers both new and used books in various conditions, at pretty good prices for an online store. Years ago they delivered to Cyprus at minimal cost, but then they stopped doing so; possibly because packages either took a very long time, or got totally lost. Last year I ordered from that site, sent to our son in Carlisle, and they came back in an extra suitcase that we had to book anyway. But it was quite tight.

Since the site does now deliver to Cyprus - and claims it will only take 5-12 days - I decided to order from there. I was a bit shocked at the postage, which is almost as much as some of the books, but there was a 15% off coupon, and a 'buy two and get 25% off the third' which reduced the overall cost. And in the end, despite gulping a bit at the eventual postage, I made my order. 10 out of the 12 books; I have one already, and one isn't available on the site. Plus a couple of extra items. Supposedly all extra costs - VAT, customs, and the three euro extra tariff - should be covered.

In the evening, since we had some people coming for lunch the following day, I made some dairy-free ice cream mixture to chill in the fridge, and soaked some chickpeas for humus.

Then our 16-year-old friend E, whose siblings have all left home, and whose mother is travelling, called and asked if we'd like to play a game in the evening. So we played base game Catan (formerly known as Settlers).

It was nice to chat and catch up with news, as well as play what is (to us) a relaxing game.

Wednesday

I went for a very short walk, then turned on the aircon in the kitchen, which I don't usually do, as I knew I was doing quite a lot of food preparation. I churned the ice cream and boiled the chickpeas first, then used the air fryer for some chopped sweet potato, sliced aubergine and mushrooms (for three different salads).

New salads for this evening:

There were still some of the new potatoes left as well.

I made a couple of extra salads for lunch, too, as we were having guests:

They look rather similar, but the top one is a vegan version of coleslaw, with red cabbage rather than green, and a dressing that's mainly lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and pomegranate syrup. The bottom one is a beetroot salad that was quite a surprise to me when I tried it elsewhere, as I didn't think I liked beetroot. It turns out that my problem with it is that it's so often in vinegar. But we can buy ready-cooked beetroot here, vacuum packed with no vinegar (or anything else). The recipe told me to grate it, but that sounded very messy, so I just chopped it in the food processor, along with the walnuts and raisins, then used vegan yogurt rather than sour cream.

Then I made some humus, using the cooked chickpeas, and I froze the rest of the chickpeas. I put on a loaf of bread in the breadmaker, chopped simple salad vegetables (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, peppers) and made a fruit salad for dessert.

I didn't do all that first thing. I started at 7.30, and it was punctuated by squeezing juice and preparing/eating breakfast, sitting down with a frappe and some NYT puzzles, and hanging out with Richard.

By the time I'd finished - in a fairly relaxed way - and washed everything that wouldn't go in the dishwasher, and cleaned the countertops, it was 11.30. So I had a shower and put on today's laundry, and had half an hour to sit and read before our friends came for lunch.

They didn't arrive until 1pm as there is so much construction going on in the roads leading to Larnaka, and some of them in the city. It changes regularly, so nobody quite knows what routes are going to be open. We had an enjoyable lunch, then Richard worked with our friends, as he is helping one of them to be publish her second book of short stories.

I was pretty tired by then, so I sat and read for a couple of hours, did Duolingo and NYT puzzles and answered some questions on a forum on the computer. In the evening Richard was still working on the book, though we did manage to get out briefly for a short walk to Salina Park.

Thursday

This was truly a relaxing day for me, with nothing planned, other than watering our plants before going for a short walk. At noon, Richard went to Nicosia to meet some friends for lunch, and I had the house to myself. I mostly read, then wrote and uploaded a review when I had finished the book. And did Duolingo, of course.

In the evening, our young friend E came over to play another game. This time, Kingdom Builder.

Naturally, Lady Jane joined us. Although she decided that the box lid was boring, so sat in the game box itself, on top of the pieces were weren't using.

We played three rounds, and each of us won one of them.

Friday

I went to the fruitaria first thing, then made two more salads; we hadn't quite finished the ones I had made on Tuesday, but didn't think that what remained would be enough for our main meal.

A simple canned salmon salad with peas, chopped pepper and carrots, a dash of mayonnaise and some dill, plus a pasta salad (yes, I had to cook it first) using wholegrain farfelle pasta, with lentil-based pesto. sundried tomatoes and a vegan 'parmesan' (which we buy ready-grated, and keep in the freezer... yes, it's processed, but hopefully not with too many 'bad' ingredients).

And it was time to make some more oat milk. A little over a litre usually lasts us about three days, used in coffee and frappés, and on my morning muesli. I also put on some laundry...

Mid-morning we drove to Lidl, where we shop every six to eight weeks. The main thing I buy there is cat food - Lady Jane's cans of 'wet' food are good value there, and she likes the variety. We bought other things too, since we were there. I usually buy a couple of cans of their coconut milk, which is thick and tasty, and useful for dairy-free desserts. They had an offer on dishwasher pods, which we took advantage of, and I thought we might as well buy another bag of cat litter; we didn't have any unopened ones.

Although Lidl is quite good value for some things, I was surprised that their frozen forest fruits, even on special offer, were significantly more expensive than the regular price for the same thing at the local fruitaria.

I use them in smoothies, primarily, but sometimes also in ice cream or another dessert. It's almost impossible to buy raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries or blue berries fresh here; sometimes there are tiny punnets of imported fruit at great price, and looking rather sad. So I was delighted when I realised that I could buy them mixed (sometimes with strawberries too) at a reasonable price, frozen.

By the time we were home, and everything unpacked and put away, it was time for lunch. And I was exhausted. I don't like shopping at the best of times, and find it quite draining; going out in the heat afterwards makes it a whole order worse.

So after lunch, other than hanging out the laundry, I didn't do much that was useful. We did go for a short walk in the evening, and then watched a couple of episodes of 'Yes Minister' on DVD; this is another 1980s sitcom that we liked when it was first broadcast.

Saturday

Yes, Saturday was the eighth day of August, but the month has 31 days, which is longer than four weeks, and I prefer to think of weeks starting on Sundays. I woke early, read for a while, then went for a walk. It wasn't too hot - maybe 26 degrees - but oh my, it was humid. I was dripping when I got back.

However, I felt considerably more awake and motivated than I did the previous Saturday, so in addition to all the basic Saturday chores, I dusted in our bedroom (including the ceiling fan), and used the mini vacuum cleaner on the stairs, and in corners where the Roomba doesn't reach. I still took plenty of breaks in my study with the a/c, but didn't feel nearly as drained as I did the previous week. It doesn't really make sense, as the humidity was extremely high.

In what was left of the afternoon once I'd finished everything and showered, I remembered to pay the electricity bills which were due on Monday, and to do Duolingo. As well as other random things online, and some reading.

For our evening meal, I thawed and reheated a frozen rogan josh curry that I'd made in June, and some wholewheat pitta bread, plus the other usual bits that go with it. We had finished the previously-made naan that I'd frozen, and it's far too hot to think of making more at present.

In the evening, we watched the second episode of Doctor Who series 8.

Thus endeth the first eight days of August.

Half way through summer....?

2026-07-31T17:54:44.621+03:00

The end of July always feels like something of a milestone to me, particularly when we're in Cyprus all summer. The hot weather usually starts to feel uncomfortable by mid-to-late June, and it feels like the end is in sight by mid-to-late September. And yes I know that means that the half-way spot should be about a week into August... but I would prefer it to be today.

I didn't take many photos in the past month. Much of what interested us was at a distance: my younger son and his wife moved to a new location, where he's now the vicar of a lively church. I watched the installation by livestream, and some of the Sunday services too. My other son and his family made a trip to the Logos Hope, where they spent two years when the children were much younger. Not a long trip, as it docked in Edinburgh for a few days.

But we've stayed in Larnaca, which turns out to have been a good thing, for a variety of reasons. It was important to be here in July because our local friends (and cat-feeders) have mostly been out of the country. And since they have three cats, I was the one who fed them when everyone was away, on about ten or twelve days of the month.

These are outdoor-indoor cats who only need to be fed once a day; they only have dry food and water. Two of them needed quite a lot of stroking and attention too; the other one looked at me rather superciliously after eating, and stalked away. I watered their garden, too.

I went over first thing in the morning, when it was light but not sunny, and 'only' about 25-26 degrees Celcius. It made a pleasant 15-minute walk, leaving around 5.45-6.00am. Sometimes it was a bit over-warm when I walked home again, but it was still mostly possible to stay in the shade. It's not so easy to motivate myself to keep walking every day when it's hot out, and sometimes, if I'm not feeding cats, I only manage about half a kilometre.

At the start of the month, we had an aluminium-building expert replace some of our windows which looked like this:

with this:

It's purely cosmetic; the white bar things don't provide any extra strength to the windows. Apparently they were a trend at one point, made to look like the old smaller-paned windows. They're not unattractive when all the bars are in place. Unfortunately the sun eventually breaks down some of the glue that holds them in place, and they slide down, as in the first picture. We had some replaced a few years ago, too. We still have windows with bars that look fine, but no doubt they, too, will eventually need to be changed.

In the middle of July, St Helena's church had a major overhaul, with new air conditioners installed and the entire inside repainted and repaired. The communion rail was moved, and some of the wires had to be replaced. New trunking was put in to neaten several trailing cables.

There were professional decorators in, but several of the congregation worked hard, moving furniture to the centre, and ensuring equipment and wall decorations were taken down carefully.

Richard got involved because he previously did the installation of speakers and other PA equipment. He spent many hours dealing with the wiring and soldering, to get everything back in place for the following Sunday.

We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary with a meal out. Some years we've ordered in a takeaway for our evening meal. But this year it was on a Sunday, and we're still traditional enough that (usually, anyway) we have our main meal at lunchtime on Sundays. We talked about going to the sea front, but it was too hot for me to walk even the short distance from the marina car park to any of the restaurants. So we went to the mall, which is air conditioned, and where there are a few quite nice restaurants.

We went to Verde Caferesto:

The menu was fairly extensive, and not too highly priced. Richard had a large chop with salad and fries; I decided on some halloumi tacos (an interesting combination of cultural specialities!) with sweet potato fries, and it was delicious.

It was more than I needed, but I didn't think it would reheat well, so I ate it all. It was worth the feeling of being very over-full later...

The following day we drove to Limassol to have lunch with friends there, taking with us some friends of our friends, who were staying in our guest flat. After an excellent lunch, we were surprised with a special cake to celebrate our anniversary:

And so, with these and other low-key activities - or lack of activity - the month has passed. I have managed to avoid using the oven, although the air fryer has been on a few times. I'm not quite bored with salads yet, so hope to keep making a variety of them through August. I've worked on photo books, I've read fourteen books and reviewed them, I've done puzzles online, and written emails on discussion groups and forums. I try to stay in my air conditioned study from about 10am until 6pm or so, with a brief foray out for lunch, and (when relevant) hanging out laundry. It's not very sociable, but I don't feel at all sociable in the heat.

There haven't - yet - been many roaches, thankfully; at the end of June Lady Jane was going outside on the upstairs balcony, finding them - on our neighbours' roof, perhaps - and bringing them in, usually to the bathroom. We've started closing the door that gives her access to the balcony as soon as it starts to get dark, and since then haven't had any nasty surprises when going to bed. It probably helps that I found a lavender-scented toilet cleaner, and apparently they don't like that scent at all, so it stops them coming up the pipes.

On the other hand, we've had a lot of tiny ants in the kitchen, as happened last year. I don't know where they come from, or where they have their nest. They just appeared one day. If there's anything out on the counter-top, they'll find it. They even found a loaf of bread which I had enclosed in TWO double-sealed plastic bags. If Lady Jane leaves even a tiny piece of her wet food after her lunch, the saucer will be covered in ants within an hour.

So I'm using bio-kill (now called 'clean kill') on any clumps or trails of ants that I find. I don't really like doing it, but we can't have ants all over the kitchen. I'm using a lemon-scented spray, too, on the counter tops and when washing the floors, in the hope of disrupting their trails. Theoretically ants don't like the smell of lemon, but it hasn't kept them away. Perhaps Cyprus ants do like lemon, as there are so many lemon trees here.

It's been hot... but not as hot as some of the heatwaves we've heard about in mainland Europe and the UK. It's been a bit humid in the evenings, but nowhere near as bad as it sometimes is. Perhaps August will be worse... but I hope not.

I finished the end-of-June post with an image of the predicted weather for the following week. So here's one for July. It doesn't look all that different, but in practice it's hotter in the daytime, and already 28 degrees or so by 6am most mornings.

Random Larnaka images for the end of June

2026-06-30T17:00:29.699+03:00

May appeared to last rather a long time. But I'm not sure quite what happened to June. As it's the last day already, here are some random local photos from the past month that I didn't use in the only other post I wrote in June. I wrote a similar post at the end of May; it may become a trend on this blog.

We think this is some kind of fashion show that took place in Salina Park early in the month. Everything was set up the evening before, and taken down by the following evening.

Onion quiche. With home-made shortcrust pastry, home-made vegan cheese, and home-made oat milk. But not actually vegan, as I used regular eggs. It was very tasty!

Continued construction work at the end of the Salt Lake trail:

The snapdragon that seeded itself in the pavement outside our house, still going strong on June 12th, without any watering - and no rain either, since the end of May:

And the sad stump of the snapdragon, after the municipal weed-trimmers went around, as often happens before summer really gets going:

First frappé of the year, June 24th, as the temperature approached 30 degrees during the daytime:

First evening with all salads, on the same day. Hopefully I won't use the oven again until September:

Lady Jane, unimpressed by the boxes of the 'Patchwork' game...

The Larnaka Salt Lake, still with some water, but also a lot of pink - apparently due to extra breeding of the algae and tiny shrimp. It happens every year, as reported by the Cyprus Mail.

Friends and family in the UK have reported extremely high temperatures over the past week or so, higher than those in Cyprus. It's more difficult there - and in much of Western Europe - where houses are not designed for the heat and air conditioning is only really common in shops and public buildings. On the other hand, heatwaves there usually only last a few days, perhaps a week at most. Here it's at least a couple of months.

Still the rise in temperature has been gradual this year, really only feeling over-warm to me in the past week. Some years it has been far worse. I continued early morning walks with my friend Sheila until the end of last week, but on Saturday morning we were both hot and sticky by the time we got back here. It's very draining. So we agreed to leave it, now, until at least September.

Moving on from spring

2026-06-19T16:36:21.628+03:00

Towards the end of April I wrote about moving on from winter - packing away our warm clothes, duvet etc. In May, we enjoyed slightly cooler weather than usual, and a surprising amount of rain. According to the Cyprus mail, rainfall was more than twice as much as normal for the month. But still there's a potential water problem, and hose pipes are still banned, other than for watering plants.

By the end of May, the temperatures were increasing, though the humidity was still low. It was time to start getting ready for the summer. By July I won't want to do anything much during the daytime. On the last Saturday of May, I did some extra laundry, so I could put away even our thinner jackets, as well as stray gloves and hats that were still out.

We hang things on lines here, and they were all dry within a couple of hours.

The wall that takes jackets in the cooler months looked quite empty:

The 'winter' closet, however, was packed tightly. And I put away even our thin duvet, as by then we only needed a duvet cover at night.

Richard went around the house with a ladder, thoroughly cleaning all the ceiling fans. In the summer I dust them most weeks, but they tend to get a bit grubby over the winter.

The other thing I did was to clean the kitchen cupboards that we use for food. I've often mentioned insects - large and small - that can appear in the summer. We had quite a plague of tiny ants last year. I thought they came later than June, but wanted to be prepared. So I removed all the food, threw away a couple of open things that were well past their use-by date, and cleaned all the shelves thoroughly.

When they were dry, I sprayed liberally with 'clean kill' (formerly biokill), then waited while that dried before putting everything back. We keep everything in sealed containers, but sometimes there are drips, or a lid doesn't get put on fully. I wanted to be ready.

As it happens, we started seeing a few ants a week or two later, not in the cupboards but on the work surface. If I don't put a used spoon in the dishwasher straightaway, ants appear within an hour. It's not yet a huge problem; I'm remembering to wash non-dishwasher things straightaway, and keep the work surfaces free of crumbs. I'm also back to mopping the floors three times a week. Three times now we've had a sudden power-cut which was not a widespread one, but something tripping our power. We can only assume it's ants getting electrocuted behind the power sockets.

The first Saturday of June is apparently my normal day for washing the curtains, something I do annually as they accumulate dust. So I did that for all the curtains on our main floor, and also cleaned all the windows. That was quite hard work, and I was very tired by the end, but I think it was worth it.

We had cleaned the air conditioners in our guest flat a week or so before the end of May, as we were expecting visitors whom we thought might like to use them. But we knew that the ones in our part of the house were well overdue for a full professional clean. This is supposed to be done every three years, but it's more like every six when we decided to do it.

They were eventually booked for 9th June, and were here for a couple of hours doing eight air conditioners in all. They were very thorough.

This is the equipment they use, with a pump to push water inside, and a trough to catch it.

Here they are, cleaning the living room air conditioner after removing the front panel:

And here's my study one, which was one of the dirtiest, with extra sheeting as they prepared to do more cleaning than they had on some of the others.

It's the one that is probably used the most during July and August when I 'estivate', so it's not surprising that it was dirty. We do clean them ourselves, of course, in the years when we don't have the professionals in, so that keeps the mould away. But we can't get at all the places the professionals so.

A couple of days later, I noticed that the thermometer inside our fridge was reading 9 degrees on the middle shelf, rather than the usual 5-6. Had we opened it too much? Was the fridge too close to the wall...? Were any of the vents blocked? I couldn't find any problems, and it didn't seem to be iced up anywhere.

I recalled the lengthy fridge saga of a couple of years ago, when the fridge was running even warmer, and an engineer eventually came out to clean the very dusty filters at the back. Richard was pretty sure we could clean it ourselves with the aid of our mini vacuum cleaner/dustbuster. We had decided to do this annually, around the same time as we cleaned the air conditioners. Last year we did move the fridge out but the filters looked pretty clean.

This year, when he unscrewed the panel at the back, we could see that they were coated with dust, almost as bad as they were when the engineer came out. The dustbuster was almost full by the time Richard had cleaned the dust, and he used an old paintbrush to get at the awkward places. I took advantage of the fridge being moved to clean the inevitable dirt and gunk that had accumulated underneath, and to spray fairly thoroughly against insects.

It took several hours before the fridge temperature started to drop, but by the following morning it was back to the expected 3-4 degrees.

On the second Saturday of June, I washed the bedroom curtains. And when I changed our bedding, as I do every Saturday, I decided it was, already, time for just a sheet on top rather than the two layers of a duvet cover.

We've used the air conditioning three times in the bedroom since it was cleaned, for just an hour. Combined with the ceiling fan, this is sufficient to keep it reasonably cool overnight.

At least, it is until summer really gets going. I hope it waits until July.

Random Larnaka images for the end of May

2026-05-31T16:37:00.000+03:00

Once again, after a couple of posts on specific themes, I still have other images that give something of the flavour of Cyprus. So here is a selection from May with brief explanations:

Lady Jane investigating some plants on the upstairs balcony outside our bedroom (the only outside place she can get to). Neighbours were doing a lot of improvements and changes to their house and outside areas, and were going to get rid of these plants if we didn't want them.

The brown metal structures in the Salt Lake Park are now surrounded by a flimsy fence. We still have no idea what they are for.

A coffee festival in Salina Park:

This hut, with no windows, in the Salt Lake Park is now brown and has a door. We are still wondering what it might be for.

This little snapdragon plant seeded itself in some of the paving slabs in front of our driveway. I like the colours very much though I suppose, technically, it's a weed:

A colourful service for Pentecost Sunday at St Helena's Church:

Construction work at the end of the Salt Lake trail, by the aqueduct.. but we're not sure what exactly is happening:

In addition to normal daily life over the course of the month, we attended two enjoyable birthday gatherings, and went to a teenage drama production of 'Peter Pan'. We also said goodbye to our young friend H, whom I've known since babyhood, as she's going to Germany for a year to work as an au pair.

Yet another microwave oven (Samsung brand)

2026-05-25T15:49:00.000+03:00

In March last year I wrote about how much we liked the Westpoint microwave we had bought a few months earlier. It replaced one which had become corroded and rusty inside; the interior surface looked more sturdy than the previous one, but we were careful to keep the door open after each use, to cover anything we cooked in it for more than a minute or two, and to dry it if there was obvious moisture inside.

And it kept working well...except for one little thing. The digital time display started to deteriorate. I suppose we'd had it for about nine months when the first bar, the bottom one at the right, started to vanish. At first it was just fainter than the rest, but over the course of a few days it disappeared entirely.

It wasn't a huge issue, just mildly annoying that, for instance, a digital 8 looked like a digital capital A, and a digital 3 looked like a backwards capital F. Then, a few months later, the top bar became fainter, and also vanished not long afterwards. I don't know why I didn't take a photo of this - I take photos of pretty much everything else, after all. The only one I can find is one I took of the whole kitchen when it was quite messy, so cropping to just the microwave makes it very poor quality:

But perhaps it's still clear that it should say 12:07 and the 7 just looks like a back-slash.

It was still under the standard two-year guarantee for appliances. Should we, we wondered, take it back to Superhome Centre where we had bought it? The trouble was, we use our microwave every day. Yes, I could reheat Richard's coffee in a pan over the stove. Yes, I could bake potatoes for a couple of hours, rather than for just 45 minutes after microwaving them. I could melt chocolate over a pan of hot water, I could thaw things from the freezer in the same way, though I'd have to be a bit more organised. I could possibly even cook frozen peas in a pan, though they're not as nice as microwaved.

But coming up to Christmas I knew I would want it for all kinds of things. And while I could find alternatives for many of them, I daily heat Lady Jane's wet food for 15 seconds in the microwave, since she gets stomach-ache if given wet food directly from the fridge. Any more and she finds it too hot. Any less, and she runs around crying for a couple of minutes after eating.

So we coped. It was only the last digit that was difficult to interpret, after all. I did try checking online to see if there was any possible troubleshooting, and learned that this is not an uncommon problem. I tried turning the microwave off and on again, but that made no difference.

And then the first digit started to go, too. By the time we returned from our UK visit in the first couple of weeks of April, we knew we had to get something done. This was clearly an ongoing problem, and we didn't want to wait until it was totally unreadable and (probably) out of guarantee.

So we chose a period when our guest flat was empty for a month, meaning we could use the guest flat microwave. We took it into Superhome, and explained the problem. They said they would have to send it back to the manufacturer's, and that it would likely take a couple of weeks. But they would send a text to Richard's phone, they told us.

Three weeks later, we had heard nothing. I looked at the paperwork we had been given, and saw to my horror that there was one digit incorrect on the phone number. So we went straight to the store, and explained the problem. We thought we might see our microwave, repaired, waiting to be collected.

Alas, this was not the case. The staff were friendly and helpful, but told us that the manufacturer had only collected the microwave ten days after we dropped it off, and that it would probably take another week. And we made sure they corrected the phone number.

A week later, we returned, having heard nothing. This time, the staff member on duty called the manufacturer, who told her that they were unable to repair the display, so they were giving us a replacement. We were a bit frustrated at the delay, and also at the waste - other than the display, it was working perfectly well, and was probably my favourite microwave so far. We said we needed it: that we were borrowing one, but had to return that. We had guests coming in just a week later, and they would need the guest flat microwave back.

No problem, they said, it would be there on Monday.

And still, we heard nothing.

By this time, it had been nearly five weeks since we dropped the microwave off. Under EU rules, it shouldn't take more than a month. If something under guarantee isn't repaired in that time, it must either be replaced or refunded. So we went in again, and were more assertive than previously. It wasn't there, and they didn't know why. In that case, we said, we need a refund.

The staff member on duty went to call someone higher up, who said that the store didn't offer refunds, but they would give us store credit for the amount we paid. We weren't entirely happy about that, but we do go there from time to time, and the credit didn't have an expiry date.

We checked whether they had any suitable alternatives in the shop, but they didn't. So we went round the corner to Stephanis, where they had exactly what we were looking for, at the same price. And it's a Samsung, a brand we know and tend to trust.

So the last one was with us for less than 18 months. We really hope this new microwave will be more reliable, and won't have any problems.

About three days after we bought the Samsung microwave, Richard had a text message from Superhome, telling him that our microwave was ready for collection. Apparently the fact that they had given us a refund in store credit hadn't been passed through the system. We decided to ignore the text rather than respond and try to explain. Since it was a new replacement rather than a repair, they should be able to sell it to someone else.

Update about shopping and ultra-processed products

2026-05-10T14:44:00.000+03:00

During January, I tracked all our grocery shopping, and even took photos. I was following an unofficial 'challenge' to see how long we could go without buying anything other than fresh or minimally processed foods.

I updated this at the end of February, listing the processed (possibly ultra-processed) products that we had bought during the month. They were still minimal. And by that stage I was taking more notice of the ingredients of even standard products which we had previously bought: packaged tortillas, for instance, or pitta bread.

I did try making pitta bread early in March, but it wasn't very successful:

Quite apart from the strange shapes, there were almost no pockets on the inside. And it was a lot more complex than naan bread, which I do make about once a month; my recipe makes eight, so we use two and freeze the rest in twos.

So I looked at the ingedients on the packs of pitta breads which we can buy fairly inexpensively at the fruitaria, and they weren't at all bad. They're locally made too; so pittas went back on our shopping list.

Tortillas, on the other hand, are over-priced here, and full of ultra-processed ingredients. So I tried making those at home, and was surprised at how straightforward it was. I had to do a lot of rolling, even if using a tortilla press initially, but the results were tasty.

They're not as big as the ones we get in packets, nor as soft - but then the softness is in part due to the additives. And so long as I stack them in a tea-towel as I cook them in the pan (no oil, no extra flour, just a couple of minutes each), they roll well enough to make enchiladas:

The shape isn't perfect but it's not bad. Well worth the extra effort, I think - it's not that time-consuming, after all; the cost is minimal, and they have to be healthier than the shop-bought tortillas that we can find here.

I'm still making all our bread and (at times) bread rolls, so the only bread product we're buying again is the local pittas.

I've made several nut-based 'cheese' substitutes, which have mostly been successful. There's a basic cream cheese which I've used for making cheese frosting on a cake, a kind of mozzarella which works well on pizza, and a harder cheese which can be sliced. None of them take very long, and the taste is good, though I'm still working on flavourings. I don't add nutritional yeast flakes, as they are a migraine trigger, unfortunately.

However, I haven't found a way to make cheese that's grateable, for instance to put on enchiladas, after the tomato sauce is poured over them. So we're buying a 'Violife' brand of grated vegan cheese which tastes reasonable, melts reasonably, and isn't too bad ingredient-wise.

On the other hand, I've never had much joy with making home-made 'butter' equivalents. Happily there's a new Flora plant-based spread called 'buttery' which isn't too bad ingredient-wise, and which tastes extremely good. It isn't always available here, but the last time I saw some in Metro I bought three packs, and we froze two of them as the expiry date wasn't all that long.

The other thing we're buying is mayonnaise, Helleman's brand. We don't eat a lot of it, and it does have one or two ultra-processed ingredients in it. I've tried making home-made mayonnaise with aquafaba, but it doesn't taste as good, and it's a major hassle. It also doesn't keep very long.

But I think that's all I'm buying that is more than minimally processed. Well, other than Greek yogurt for me, and a vegan yogurt (Planton brand) for Richard. And, I guess, canned coconut milk which I use to make most of our ice creams. Also breaded fish, mentioned in the previous post.

Oh, and Lidl brand dark chocolate.

Of course, there are other dietary concerns which we need to be aware of: too much sugar isn't good for us, nor is too much saturated fat, even though both sugar and coconut oil count as minimally processed. But we only really eat desserts when we have guests, and we don't use that much coconut oil. We do have quite a few nuts, but they have plenty of health benefits.

Moving on from winter

2026-04-24T15:50:00.003+03:00

It's usually some time in April when we start to feel a bit warmer, and as if winter has finally come to an end. Not that we experience 'real' winter here; there's no snow, rarely any ice, and the sun usually shines at some point. But the houses feel cold, with the high ceilings and tiled floors.

At the end of March I was still wearing two warm layers in the house, sometimes three. I wore a knitted hat and sometimes gloves when going out for a walk, morning or evening. We were using our microwave wheat bags every night, the heating was coming on when the temperature dropped too low, and we were snuggling under our double thickness duvets at night.

Then we spent just over two weeks in the UK, where it was chillier but mostly sunny. The houses, with carpets and better insulated walls, are rather warmer than those in Cyprus. We had heard that Cyprus had had a major dust storm and a lot of rain while we were away. But when we came back, it felt significantly warmer than it had at the end of March.

The first night back, we threw off the thinner part of the duvet, just using the medium one. We didn't even think of using wheat bags. In the morning, I only wanted one warm layer, and when we went out for walks I had no need of hat or gloves. We had turned the heating off before we travelled: we've seen no reason to turn it on again since returning.

So - once I'd recovered from the brain-fog and exhaustion that I always feel for a few days after returning to Cyprus from the UK - I did some extra laundry, and then packed away the two blankets we use when watching DVDs in the winter, and the wheat bags.

I also washed my winter coat, and hung that in an upstairs closet, along with hats, gloves and scarves. And I packed away Lady Jane's knitted bed, which she hasn't been using for at least a month.

Tomorrow I expect to switch the medium duvet for the thin one.

Yesterday afternoon I did some weeding of the plants on our front porch, something I had not done in a while. It was long overdue, and I filled an entire green bag with the weeds, and some dead leaves and branches of plants. I also realised that it hadn't rained for about a week, so I watered the plants, too. I had to use a watering can as there's still a hose-pipe ban here, despite the reservoirs doing much better than they were at this time a year ago.

And I'm delighted that there is yet another bird of paradise bloom on our plant:

Two weeks out of Cyprus

2026-04-16T15:50:00.115+03:00

Earlier in the year, we had talked about the possibility of flying to the UK early in April, so that we could see Richard's mother on her birthday. She's living in a very nice care home now, in Sussex and they make quite a thing of birthdays.

We then pondered going first to Carlisle, to spend Easter with our older son and his family. We checked with them that they weren't going anywhere else, and we started idly looking for flights.

Then I spotted flights from Larnaka to Glasgow on March 31st at just 27 pounds per person. It was with EasyJet: a budget airline that we have used many times, and which we generally like. That price doesn't include any luggage, of course, other than an under-seat bag. We tend to upgrade to what they call 'easy boarding' which gives us an overhead carry-on as well, but even so - the price was excellent.

We know from experience that prices vary all the time, and can be extremely high over the Easter period, so we booked at once. Then we filled in the details - a rental car, accommodation when not staying with the family etc - and finally booked a flight back on April 15th.

We were all packed and ready at least half an hour before our friend Sheila came to pick us up to take us to the airport on March 31st.

The flight wasn't until after 9.30pm, which is when I usually like to be getting ready for bed. So I was delighted to realise that it was an almost-empty flight. This meant that once we had taken off, we could have three seats each, and lie down to rest. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but I think at least a couple of hours. So when we arrived at Glasgow in the early hours, I wasn't as tired as I might have been.

We stayed in the nearby Premier Inn, then, in the morning, got an Uber to Glasgow city centre to collect the car we had booked. The young man in the office was friendly and helpful, and the car was in the nearby multi-storey car park. And we arrived at our son's home around one o'clock, good timing for lunch.

It was wonderful to spend nine days with the family, hanging out, playing games, going for walks. We had a couple of meals out, and one day we went to the Watchtree nature reserve, where the children had rented vehicles - not exactly go-karts, but similar:

Meanwhile, we had an enjoyable stroll around the perimeter. It's not just Cyprus that has an abundance of yellow plants in the spring:

But all good things come to an end; on April 10th we embarked on the long journey south, stopping for a couple of hours to visit my brother and his wife who live around half way along the route. We had lunch, and a walk around their village, as well as a look at my brother's church. I really liked the Easter garden display inside:

Our 'home' for the next five nights was the Premier Inn right outside Gatwick Airport. It was extremely convenient, just five minutes' walk from the monorail that took us to the other terminal (where the railway station is). We took our car back, as we knew we wouldn't need it in and around the London area where trains and other public transport are so good.

The little party at the care home was well organised, with decorations, sandwiches and a cake. Richard's brother and his wife joined us too, as did our younger son and his wife. On the Sunday we visited Richard's mother's church, and caught up with some people Richard has known for decades, then went into London to spend the afternoon with our younger son and his wife.

And on the last day, we did a tourist trip to London, starting in Westminster where we saw that Big Ben was displaying two different times:

We looked at statues, we did a short river 'cruise' along the Thames, we saw lots of famous sites:

Then we met our younger son for a meal, and his wife joined us for 'Mamma Mia' at one of the London theatres.

It was extremely well-done, though unfortunately some of the music was WAY too loud for me, particularly the finale. I wasn't the only person with my hands over my ears. But despite that it was a wonderful experience, even thought it was past midnight by the time we got back to the Premier Inn. I noted that we had walked more than 10km that day.

All in all, it was a very good break. An unexpected bonus is that the sun shone almost every day...while we read that Cyprus was covered in dust for a couple of days, and experienced heavy rain and hail.

The following morning, we sorted our room and packed in a leisurely way, then made our way to the airport around noon, after checking out of the Premier Inn. Our flight was almost on time and we were home by about 9.30pm.

Lady Jane was delighted to see us, and refused to be shut in the kitchen/dining room area where she usually sleeps.

A new printer

2026-04-07T17:04:00.003+03:00

Short version of this post: I bought a new printer:

Long version with historical context:

I thought I had probably had my last printer, an HP laserjet, for about twelve or thirteen years. I recalled my younger son buying it - or contributing to it, anyway - when he needed to do significant printing. It was in 2013 when he came back to Cyprus after five years in the UK, so I thought perhaps it was bought around then, although I couldn't work out what it was he needed to print.

But when I searched Google photos to see if I could find any old pictures of it, I found this, from July 2012:

and this, from June 2009:

It wasn't new then; that photo was for this blog post about the new Mac mini that I had been persuaded to buy after my Windows computer finally died.

Then, looking for relevant blog posts, I found this, from 2008, about mysterious test pages appearing. Same printer.

So now I'm thinking the printer must have been bought in 2006 or 2007, around the time our son was doing an 'open' correspondence course that required a lot of printing. That makes more sense, but I'm astounded to think that the printer may have been close to 20 years old.

It was a good printer, and extensively used. About four or five years ago, it started becoming a bit temperamental. If I tried to print more than about five or six pages at a time, it would jam. Annoying, but I learned to print things in small batches, then wait a few minutes. I suspect it was getting too warm.

It also became increasingly difficult to find toner cartridges for it. For the first twelve years or so, we could go to Cartridge World and buy a reconditioned compatible cartridge easily. Not that we needed one every year; on average I suppose it was every other year when the printing became too faint to be useful. Sometimes even longer.

The last time I bought a new cartridge was in 2021. We looked on the Cartridge World website, and it showed that there was a cartridge compatible with this printer. We went into the shop, and they sold us one, which was not, in fact, correct. So we took it back, and they had to put in an order for the right one. That took a week or so, and cost me €45.

I suppose I haven't done a huge amount of printing in recent years, but in the past year I was aware that the quality was getting worse and worse. I looked on the Cartridge World site last year, and they didn't have anything compatible with the printer. I looked at other sites in Cyprus, and I did find one that was selling a suitable cartridge for around €70, but that seemed excessive. So I didn't order it.

Richard has a printer in his study, so if necessary I would use that. But it's less convenient, and I really need to print things myself: utility bills that are sent by email, bank statements that I download, travel documents, and so on. When I realised that I could not read any of the times or dates on a flight information documents, I decided I would have to either buy a new toner cartridge, if I could find one, or consider a new printer...

As far as I can tell, nowhere in Cyprus sells the cartridges any more. I suppose that's not surprising if the printer really is twenty years old. I could get one in the UK, but bringing or sending a toner cartridge by air would damage it. And a bit of research demonstrated that a new, basic laser printer costs between €100 and €150 anyway. While many things have become a lot more expensive in recent years, technology becomes cheaper and cheaper. With a lot more options, too.

In general we like to choose ethical brands where possible, and there's a handy page that lists the most ethical brands of printers. Brother had been recommended to us as a good brand, so we narrowed down the search to that, and discovered that our favourite local technology shop, Stephanis, had a new-in inexpensive compact laser printer at an excellent price. Better still, even the branded cartridges were less than €30 each.

I'm not one for impulse buying, and had expected to do more research and pondering... but it seemed too good a deal to miss. And I had some bills and travel documents that needed to be printed.

So I bought it.

I was a tad shocked at the sheer volume of paperwork that came with it - and a CD, which is useless as my computer doesn't have a CD drive.

There was an instruction manual, too, in ten different languages. And none of the paperwork was any use; Richard had to do a lot of research online in order to get the printer to speak to my computer.

But eventually it worked, and while it's a tad noiser than the previous one, and possibly a little slower, the resulting print-outs are beautifully clear. It's nice and compact, too, and the paper tray can be folded up when not in use, which should reduce the dust.

Lady Jane was very happy with the new box:

More random Larnaka images for the end of March

2026-03-31T16:23:00.009+03:00

For anyone who thinks Cyprus is all sunshine and warmth... this is a screenshot from March 21st, on a morning when my friend Sheila and I decided that we would not be going out for our usual 5km walk...

According to local news reports, it has been an exceptionally wet March. It has certainly felt that way. It's a good thing, as the reservoirs are now in a much better state than they were at the start of the year, although we're still told to conserve water, and I believe the hosepipe ban is continuing.

The next photo is of groups gathering outside the Municipal Theatre, in celebration of Greek National Day on March 25th:

I had entirely forgotten that it was a public holiday last Wednesday. I didn't see the marching, which would have happened earlier, involving uniformed organisations and a lot of the local schools. Years ago when our older son was in the marching band, we would often go to watch the parades on national and other holidays.

This image, below, is of a pink shrub that has been flowering in our side yard. It's one we planted ten years ago, and which didn't do particularly well until the plant next to it died last year. Now it's flourishing.

According to Google lens, it's an Indian hawthorn. Plant shops here rarely have labels with plants, and I doubt if I would have remembered the name even if I had known. I'm not usually a huge fan of pink, but I think this is rather pretty.

I can't end March photos without some reminders that this is (or was, when we first came here) known as 'yellow month'. Yellow wildflowers are blooming everywhere:

I saw that scene, and the one below, while walking along the Salt Lake trail one morning:

The photos don't begin to do justice to the beauty. My phone doesn't take the best pictures, and I didn't have my camera with me. Clicking the images to enlarge make them clearer, at least on a computer.

Here's a closer look at one of the plants:

This kind of plant is prolific too:

I asked Google Lens about that one, too. Apparently it's an acacia. All these plants survive the hot summers without water for, usually, at least four or five months. Then when the rains come, the foliage springs back to life, with the blooms culminating in March and April.

But though many are yellow, there are occasional splashes of other colours, such as this, which I think is a red poppy:

Daylight savings (or 'summer time') started a couple of days ago, and I'm already appreciating the later sunrise in the mornings, and the longer evenings. I've also very much liked the longer-than-usual springlike weather.

On decluttering

2026-03-29T18:35:00.001+03:00

I see a lot of references to decluttering on social media. Perhaps it's the circles I'm in; plus, of course, as soon as I clicked one link on the topic, I was inevitably going to see a whole lot more similar posts. Clutter is something of a divisive subject. There are people who like collecting a lot of things, and are comfortable around boxes, bags and other unsorted items. There are people who would like to be organised, but have difficulty finding spaces for things, or who don't have sufficent time and motivation to do anything about it.

There is also a third category of people who somehow manage to get things away, and tidy, without any apparent effort. I aspired to be one of those as a young adult, but was firmly in the second category. The spirit was willing - well, mostly - but I was working full-time, and then had small children. It was far more important to spend time with them - and they seemed to acquire a lot of stuff, too, mainly gifts from generous friends and family - than to keep the house tidy.

Moving to Cyprus in 1997 forced us to be quite radical about our stuff. We donated some things to charity shops, although we had a large room and a couple of closets full of things we had stored, in addition to what we brought out. We also stored a lot of things in a friend's garage. In subsequent years, we moved more and more things here (mainly books), and when we sold the UK house, we gave away a lot of things that we had not used for nine years, and evidently didn't need.

Our old rental house had large rooms. I did try, on the whole, to keep it tidy, although we had a lot of shelves with a lot of stuff on them, not just books:

But I rarely did much actual cleaning, unless we were expecting guests. We had a passageway at the back with metal shelves, and totally unsorted clutter, gathering dust...

When we moved to our current house, in the summer of 2006, I was determined to be better organised. We were going to have homes for everything, and either use it or get rid of it.

Or, of course, we could put things in the downstairs part of the house, which is used regularly as a guest flat...

On the whole, we've managed to keep the main part of the house reasonably clear, and have regularly sorted and upgraded the guest flat, as funds permit. Having Roomba robot vacuum cleaners keeps the floors clean, and has the added bonus that we don't leave random things on the floor for them to chew up.

But there are a lot of built-in closets, and we have tended to put things away: out of sight, out of mind.

Neighbours have been doing some radical sorting of a house where an elderly man used to live. Over the course of a few weeks they have filled up two entire skips, and many more bin bags of what I assume is rubbish. It got me thinking about reducing at least a few of our unwanted items and clearing a bit of space in my overcrowded closets and shelves.

For instance, in my study I had a lot of empty folders:

I also had my old photo albums which I don't want to get rid of, even though I've made photobooks of most of them. They were in several different random places.

I had a whole shelf of old handbags and small bags, some of which we'd been given and never used. They used to be played with by visiting small people, but not for many years.

Then on my shelf of useful wrapping paper, birthday cards etc I had a large number of cards which I knew I would ever send: not my taste, or not a sentiment I wanted to pass on.

I regularly buy cards from the UK as there's a much bigger selection than there is here, but we've also been given some, over the years, some of which I have used and others will never use. I've also probably picked up packs of them at times, using a few and rejecting the rest.

By the time I'd collected the things which I knew I would never use, I had rather a lot of bags:

Thankfully, the local thrift store was happy to accept it all as donations.

While Richard was away earlier in the month, I got out the stepladders and sorted the top closets in my study. I didn't do the drastic decluttering I've heard of, where everything is either given away or thrown if one isn't actually using it. I have a cupboard full of jigsaw puzzles, for instance; I haven't done a jigsaw for some years, but I might, one day. I have some unsorted stamps from various collections, too. One day I hope to pass them on to someone who might use them. And I now have all the old large photo albums in one high cupboard.

On the other hand, when I found about a hundred old jiffy bags (I'm not exaggerating!) taking up most of a cupboard, I took more drastic action. I threw most of them away, although a friend was willing to take about twenty of them. And I did keep some, easily accessible, as they occasionally come in useful for broken glass or other sharp objects that need to be binned:

When he got back, we went through some clothes we had put aside - about a year ago - to donate to the local organisation that helps refugees and asylum seekers. And we went through our closets, discarding some clothes we had been given but had not worn, some which we had worn a few times but didn't particularly like, and some which appeared at some point, but we've no idea how. We don't buy clothes very often, but we both seemed to have a lot of things that we don't wear: a large number of quite smart shirts for Richard, for instance. I had some tops which I didn't like, or didn't find comfortable, and there were some dresses and skirts which I don't even remember.

I was pleased with the results of the main closet in my study when it was tidied and sorted:

But I didn't feel the sense of elation one is supposed to feel after getting rid of surplus stuff. And the empty shelf on one of my bookcases is quite disturbing, even when I put some useful folders on part of it:

No doubt we'll acquire more stuff and fill up the shelves, and we still have stuff that we really don't need. But I think I've had my fill of decluttering, at least for now.

Random images around Larnaka

2026-03-19T17:01:00.048+02:00

I'm trying to post on this blog more often, and on one topic - or no more than two or three - at a time. But sometimes there are random things where there's not a lot to say... so here is a small selection of my most recent collection of local photos that don't fit other subjects, taken over the last month or so.

We were given a small papaya plant several years ago, and this is the first year that it has produced flowers:

We have no idea whether it will eventually produce a fruit; that depends on the flowers being fertilised, and whether it's a male or female plant. The flowers aren't spectacular, but there are a lot of buds.

In contrast to these tiny flowers which we almost missed, we were delighted that our bird of paradise plant bloomed for the third year in a row:

Meanwhile, lemons continue to be seen on every street, and are inexpensive in the shops. So I bought a few extra, grated some zest to freeze, and also made several ice cube trays of lemon juice:

These will be very useful in the summer, when the lemons in the shops will be small, with minimal juice, and much higher priced.

A less successful experiment in the kitchen involved an attempt to make pitta bread. Unlike the naan, which I've now done twice (and which work beautifully) the pittas were very messy to make, and I could not get them to the right shape. These are probably the best:

These are the worst:

And while they taste reasonably acceptable, they don't really open into pockets... and, to me, that's the most important part of pitta bread.

So that's one thing I won't be making in future, despite my focus on avoiding ultra-processed ingredients. One of the things considered least bad is bread, and while I make most of my own bread, I shall, in future, continue to buy locally made pittas.

I walked into the city centre a few days ago to collect a photobook that had arrived at the Post Office, and on the way back took a couple of photos of the ongoing construction in one of the main roads into town:

There are paths for pedestrians, but it's noisy and dusty... and seems to have been going on for a very long time.

Here's Lady Jane looking over her dominion. She's on quite a narrow ledge three storeys up.. but, thankfully, her balance is extremely good.

Here's one of Richard's photos which I have stolen. He calls it 'Schrödinger's pharmacy':

We didn't check whether or not it is, in fact, open or closed.

I've written elsewhere on this blog about restaurants we have been to, but we tend to stick to the ones we know we're going to like. However a friend took us out to eat at a very nice Chinese restaurant:

I was a little concerned about it, since I react badly to both MSG and soy sauce, but our friend assured us that they were able to deal with all tastes. Sure enough, they don't use MSG in the cooking, although they do generally add a little to enhance the flavours. But when we requested no MSG, it was no problem.

The manager did rather pale when I asked for no soy sauce, however. This is a staple in many Chinese dishes. But he said he would make rice and vegetables without it, and that I could have a lemon chicken which was soy sauce free. The rest of the party had a shared selection of dishes which looked very good, but I stuck to my lemon chicken with the rice and vegetables - and it was excellent.

And finally... for now, anyway. I wrote in January about the pot-bellied pig which has made itself at home along the Salt Lake trail. We've seen a little shelter built just outside the park, with bowls of water, and there's also what was evidently a feeding place inside the park.

Then a couple of days ago, above the feeding place in the park, we saw this notice:

Local people continue to bring random food, which the pig eats when hungry. We thought 'Rooney' was an odd name for a pig, until I had a lightbulb moment - as you do - early one morning, when I recalled, from the depths of my subconscious (and from Duolingo), the Greek word for pig: γουρούνι. Which is said something like 'you-roony'.

Basically it's like calling an English pig 'Piggy'.

Paperwork and admin in Cyprus

2026-03-07T19:45:00.001+02:00

I was beginning to feel that life in Cyprus involved rather too much paperwork. I've written elsewhere about the need to renew passports every ten years or so. We had a flurry of bureaucracy during Covid, of course, with the need for checking airline regulations, and taking tests with accompanying paperwork to demonstrate that we were Covid-free.

Just last year I wrote about the complicated process of trying to find suitable ID documents to prove that we are who we say we are. Also the need to prove that we are eligible for the national health system here.

Every time we get through another round of documentation, we breathe sighs of relief. Until the next time. Recently we seem to have had a lot of other paperwork to deal with. None of it particularly strenuous or complicated, admittedly, but somehow it feels rather overwhelming when several things come at the same time.

But sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming. A couple of weeks ago I wrote down the things we had to do fairly urgently:

- apply for me to have a UK pension
- validate Richard's existence, for his UK pension
- renew our European health cards
- chase up my ID card, which I applied for in October

I had not expected to be eligible for any UK pension, as I only worked as a paid employee for four years. After leaving to have my children, I did a couple of self-employed jobs, but was under the limit for National Insurance contributions. However, it appears that for every year when I received child benefit, a contribution was paid on my behalf. That was eleven years when we lived in the UK, and another seven in Cyprus, as we were still filing taxes in the UK. So according to the online calculator, I will be eligible for something later this year.

But in order to find out for sure, I had to fill in an extensive form online, covering several pages, with some questions which seemed almost irrelevant. Then I had to print it all out, sign it, and send it to the UK. I also had to send my birth and marriage certificates. It took most of a morning to sort this, and I was quite stressed by the end.

There's also requirements to prove that one is still alive and eligible for pensions; every year Richard has to go online to verify who he is for his BBC pension. But for the state UK one, he has to find a local professional who has an official stamp, and get them to sign a declaration that they've seen his identity documents.

And then there was my ID card. Six months ago, I didn't see any reason to have one. I have a British passport, and a 'yellow slip' giving me permanent residence in Cyprus. It was immensely complicated getting the yellow slips, something else I wrote about at the time. But mine had worked every time I needed to prove my residency. Then we learned that yellow slips are being discontinued, and that non-Cypriots are required to have a biometric ID card. And they're bringing that requirement in by this summer for British citizens.

But there's very little information online about how to go about it. I trawled through the government website - which seems to change every time I look at it - and eventually found an email address to contact, so I wrote and asked what I should do. I had a reply almost at once, telling me that I had an appointment at Immigration on October 3rd last year. I had to open the email on my phone to show it when we arrived:

We were mildly amused at the word which looks like 'Panty boy' although what looks like a capital P is in fact a Greek capital R, and the B sounds like an English V. It doesn't take much to amuse us. It was then quite satisfying to realise that the word, though translated as 'appointment', is in fact a Greek version of the French phrase 'rendez-vous'. The 'NT' combination is something like a D. (The word above it means 'printed form', which is a bit strange in an email message).

I'd downloaded a form and filled that in. So we went to the appointment armed with my yellow slip, my passport, the deeds of our house, an electricity bill in my name, and other paperwork that they might have asked for. Then all they needed to see was my yellow slip, and they didn't take the form I'd filled in; instead, they printed out something identical, and filled that in by asking me for my name, address, phone number, etc.

Then they took a photo of me, and I had to give some fingerprints. My fingerprints are quite faint, and it took a couple of tries before anything registered. And that was the end of the appointment. I was told that I would get my ID in the mail.

I didn't suppose it would be quick, and there was an article in one of the online papers saying that something had broken down, so ID cards were taking longer than usual. But by the beginning of December I was starting to be concerned. I trawled the government site again, and found a form I could fill in to enquire about delayed documents, which I filled in. And I wrote an email to the address I had used previously.

I didn't get responses from either of them, but then I found a system where I could send a text message, giving the number on my application form, so I did that. I had a response telling me that my application was approved, and that I would get an official response from them by mail.

With Christmas coming, and postal delays, I put it out of my mind, and then didn't even think about it until the end of January. I started checking our mailbox every day, but there was no sign of anything.

As an aside, Richard had applied to renew his British passport in November, as it was expiring, and received his new one within a couple of weeks. He has a Cyprus passport already, but new rules require that he will need a British one to travel to the UK. I thought it a tad ironic that a passport issued in the UK arrived considerably more quickly than my local ID. And with considerably more information - he received text messages regularly telling him what was happening. I received nothing at all..

Back to the present, and it was approaching five months since I had applied for my ID. I sent another text message at the end of February, and this time was told, 'your permit is valid'. I was quite concerned that it had got lost in the mail, and the process of having a replacement for a lost one is apparently very complex. But Richard wondered if it was waiting for me at the Immigration office. I was dubious... they had told me, twice, that they would contact me by mail.

But on the last Friday of February, we decided to visit Immigration anyway. I didn't know if we'd be able to get in; when I had my appointment in October, there was a guard in a little booth outside, ensuring that only people with appointments could go in. However, this time the guard booth was empty, and the gates open. People were milling around, and we spotted an office that said, 'ID cards'. As we waited outside, while someone else was talking in Greek to the man sitting there, we saw a crate full of what looked like ID cards...

Eventually we went inside, and started explaining that I had heard nothing and that I'd applied back in October. The man stopped us, and asked for my name. He rifled through the cards in the crate, and pulled one out. The photo was rather faint, but it was definitely my card. Then he wrote for a while in a huge old-fashioned looking book, to say that I had collected it.

What a relief to have it, at last, and to know that it had not been lost or stolen.

Perhaps, we thought, the system had changed in the months since I had applied, although it was odd that I had not received any notification that the ID card was ready.

Yesterday I glanced in our mailbox, and saw an official letter addressed to me.

It was, at last, the official approval of my ID card, with a notification that I should collect it within thirty days.. Dated January 15th:

The postal system here is not great, but it doesn't usually take almost two months for a letter to arrive. Just as well that I wasn't, in fact, required to collect it within 30 days or present that document.

After all that, we were pleased that renewing our European health cards, later yesterday morning, was surprisingly easy. We had to set up an appointment in advance, by phone, with the citizen centre. Knowing that they sometimes require all kinds of paperwork, I gathered up everything I could think of. In the end, all they needed was evidence of our identities. So I used my ID card for the first time, and within about five minutes we had our health cards.

Apparently it's not just Cyprus that has all this complex paperwork and systems, however. Coincidentally, the unit I've been doing in my Duolingo French in the past couple of weeks is about different permits, and how to go about getting various IDs - passports, residency permits, birth certificates, driving licences, etc. And it sounds just as complicated, with forms to fill in, paperwork required, and people being sent to different offices in order to apply and collect. And - according to Duolingo, anyway - there's also a 'family record book', where everyone is required to fill in details of important dates, with copies of relevant certificates. Interesting from a future genealogy point of view, I suppose, but at least that's one thing we don't have to worry about here.

Continuing to itemise my grocery shopping

2026-02-28T19:47:00.163+02:00

During January, I uploaded photos of most of my grocery shopping, and summarised at the end. I wanted to know how long I could go without buying anything other than fresh fruit and vegetables, and whether I could avoid anything ultra-processed. The reason was that there's increased awareness of the dangers of eating too many ultra-processed foods. And while there doesn't seem to be any absolute definition of what constitutes an ultra-processed food, the working definition is anything that contains ingredients that one would not normally find in a regular home kitchen.

I've never bought a lot of ultra-processed products, in part because many added ingredients are migraine triggers for me. What used to be a nuisance turns out to be a blessing, if it's true that artificial nitrites are carcinogenic, and that everyone should avoid additives such as MSG and artificial sweeteners. Of course there are other problems with the western diet - too much sugar, for instance, and too much red meat. But very often they go together: for instance, deli meats are often from pork, and contain ultra-processed additives. Some sweets have no valuable nutrition, containing nothing other than sugar and additives.

I continued taking photos of shopping this month, for my own interest, but I won't bore readers with uploads of everything. Suffice it to say I spent rather more, since several things had to be replenished. We did more entertaining in February, too, and I had used up most of the meals that I had prepared previously and frozen.

I continued mainly buying fresh fruit and vegetables. But in addition, during the first week of February, I also bought:

800g chicken mince
2 x 800g chicken breast
800g chicken thighs
1kg pangasian frozen fish
4 x 70g pots of tomato paste
1kg Greek yogurt
2 4-packs of toilet paper
2kg wholegrain bread flour
1kg sugar
1kg white cake flour
500g oats

On the first Friday, we went to Lidl, mainly for canned 'wet' cat food. We were fairly restrained - we didn't need any more chocolate, for instance - and this is what we bought:

In addition to cat food we bought coffee, washing fluid, soap, frozen beans, large lentils, frozen salmon, more frozen pangasius fish (as it was on offer), and - yes - our first possibly ultra-processed product of this year, Alaska pollock fillets in breadcrumbs. I had read an article online from a reputable source (though I can't now find it) which said that, while we should in general avoid anything highly processed or ultra processed, there are some foods which are beneficial in other ways that we shouldn't boycott. They included jarred pasta sauce (so long as free of nitrites or colourings), wholegrain bread, ideally with seeds, and fishfingers. We're all supposed to be eating more fish, after all. We don't generally eat fish fingers, but we do like these breadcrumb-coated fillets, and the ingredients list isn't too bad. So they were included in our Lidl shop.

I did not, however, buy any puff pastry - something which is good value in Lidl - and I experimented with a flaky pastry recipe using hard vegan spread [bought in December], to make spanokopita. Rather more work than using ready-made puff pastry, but I was able to use half wholegrain flour, and it turned out pretty well.

The following week, as well as lots more fresh fruit and vegetables, I bought some cartons of juice, some small jars of spices to replenish ones we were running low on, some cartons of passata, a bag of dried red lentils, frozen peas, frozen broad beans, and a box of twelve free-range eggs.

In the second half of February, I bought another kilogram of Greek yogurt (I do like on my breakfast muesli; it's my one regular dairy product), two 300g tubs of 'planton' vegan yogurt, a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and some coconut oil.

We went to Metro, for the first time since Christmas, as I wanted to buy some more dry cat food; once again we were mostly quite restrained, and this is what we bought:

Cat treats as well as dry 'Brekkies' food, some white cleaning vinegar, some malt vinegar for cooking, two jars of instant coffee (another thing I have to admit to liking, though I know it's not considered real coffee by many), pineapple chunks, brown basmati rice, a rather large bag of garam masala, but I haven't been able to find it in smaller quantities, two cans of coconut cream with minimal additives... and some mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is processed, maybe ultra-processed, but I haven't been successful in making it, and it's a lot of hassle. And we don't eat a lot of it.

We made another nut shop visit, too, and bought our standard nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc, as described last month.

The following week, as well as yet more fresh fruit and veg, I bought another kilogram of wholewheat bread flour, and one of white bread flour. I also bought a bag of cornflour, and another processed product: a pack of digestive biscuits. I use them from time to time to make various desserts, and don't like to run out. But I'm going to look for recipes, to see if I can make something equivalent to keep in the freezer.

So, rather more 'extra' products this month, but the only ones that might be considered ultra-processed are the breaded fish, the mayonnaise and the digestive biscuits. Given that reports state that, in most western countries, over 50% of the food eaten is ultra-processed, I'm not too worried.

Construction in the Salt Lake Park

2026-02-23T20:03:00.001+02:00

When our sons were younger, we liked the Salt Lake Park for safe bike-riding, though we didn't go all that often. When visitors came with young children, we would sometimes go, too; there was a nice little playground. However, that was demolished many years ago and now the park mostly seems to be used by dog-walkers.

On early morning walks with my friend Sheila, we take different routes to the Salt Lake trail, depending on where we meet in between our houses. And, fairly regularly, we go through the park - also known as Patticheo Park - as it has a path that takes us to the trail.

Construction in the Salt Lake Park

It's more than two years, now, since we were aware of something happening in the Salt Lake Park. I took this photo early January 2024:

Evidently something was about to happen. I found an online article which talked about a huge development, with a nature centre and a park and a restaurant. Here's the official announcement about it: redevelopment of the Pattichio Park area. Spelling of names in Cyprus can be somewhat variable, which is why this article calls it Pattichio. I've seen Pattichion, too, as well as Patticheo.

I don't know when that article was published, and note that it doesn't give any details about the expected completion. Online newspaper articles seem rather difficult to find, but I had seen one which mentioned early 2025 for completion, and another which said the end of 2025. There was a haiatus, when environmentalists pointed out some problems with the potential plans; I'm not sure if that was before or after the article above was posted. In any case, construction paused for a while, and then resumed.

At least, something started happening. This is what we saw in May 2024:

Gradually, more paths started to emerge, mostly quite attractively edged with stones. Some of them are quite steep, and seem to wander in random directions, but clearly something was being done. Slowly, and somewhat unpredictably, but there was progress.

In December last year we were startled to see this odd-looking metal construction near the entrance:

It went up over the course of a few days, and we discussed what it might be. There's a similar one near the other main entrance.

It's clear that things are happening, although they all seem a bit random. Early in February, we took a detour before joining the Salt Lake trail. Here, for instance, is a pile of gravel:

Here are some new paths, currently fenced off:

This is evidently going to be a new restaurant... eventually:

Here are some steps going to a stone plinth:

No idea what this might be:

A view of the bridge, which was started well over a year ago, and which has at least some planks to stand on, but no way to get to it. We're not sure where it's going, or what it might be joining:

Back to one of the side trails... evidently more construction is happening here:

And here's a deeper hole, fenced off, and stopping access to the path:

We wondered whether there is an overall plan - we assume there must have been. But are all the contractors working to the plan? Are the measurements exact? It seems that so many parts of the park have the beginnings of something, but nothing is finished. If it all works as it should, then eventually it will all join up, and make an interesting place to walk. But at present it all seems very confusing, with only random progress, some of the time, on one or two areas.

On February 19th, it appeared that the strange metallic structures were going to be painted grey. But we were puzzled as to why they were only partially painted:

A few days later, we saw a truck nearby, with a young man evidently about to start painting some more. We asked what the metallic structure was, but he had no idea.

And his paint was brown. So the next time we went to the park, it was back as it was when we first saw it: