2nd Feb (02/02/02) : February seems
to have brought rather warmer weather than January. Today it
was really quite pleasantly warm in the sun - even Richard sat
outside for a bit! It's cool in the evenings, still, but that
will change when it gets dark a bit later- currently it gets
dark about 5.45pm-6.00pm. We may have another cold spell before
it stays predictably warm, but at least it feels as if the worst
of winter is over. There are plenty of oranges on our tree still,
though they're smaller than in previous years. Strange, when
there has been so much rain. We're also having a reasonable number
of lemons, though not a huge number. They're in the shops inexpensively
now, too.
I'm cutting our 'grass' about once a week so it's looking reasonably
under control, albeit full of weeds. I'm doing a little weeding
every day as well, pulling out some of the dandelions and local
varieties of weed that seem to multiply overnight, but it's a
losing battle, really. Just keeping the whole lot shortish seems
to work reasonably well and looks a great deal better than the
50cm high weeds that we would otherwise have by now (looking
at some other gardens we can be quite certain of this!) It also
keeps the flies and mosquitoes down, somewhat. We've noticed
that our cold water tank is now looking very rusty.. presumably
made worse due to the very wet winter. We've contacted our landlady,
and she's agreed to get it changed, although as it's so high
up on a scaffold tower, we're not sure how it will be done!
Daniel is getting busier and busier; he seems to be out almost
every evening now, with one activity or another. The latest is
that he's joined a drama group called Theatre Antidote. Apparently they're starting
rehearsals on a new play which is going to be entered in a competition
run by the London National Theatre. They allocate two people
to each part, which seems like a good idea, rather than having
a main actor and understudy. I gather they will do several performances
around Cyprus.
It turns out that the drama group isn't just the regular Friday
evening; last week there was a Saint's day on Wednesday, so the
schools had a day off, and there was a drama rehearsal all morning.
This week there's one on Wednesday evening, which is Daniel's
only free evening, other than weekends. The people who run it
seem very dedicated. I gather they run a group for younger children
as well.
Tim is still happy just having his piano and guitar lessons,
and going to youth group. I did ask him if he wanted to take
up anything else but he said he's doing enough. He does quite
a bit of practice for both instruments. Daniel is happy walking
everywhere, if Richard isn't available to give him a lift forwhatever
reason, so it's good that Larnaka is safe.
Last night the youth group did a car 'treasure hunt' which Richard
organised; he thought it would take a couple of hours but actually
took him about a day and a half of planning, typing cryptic clues,
organising envelopes for each team, dropping various clues in
to people to be collected along the way, etc. Daniel helped him
and made an excellent 'treasure map' for the final location -
back in the church grounds! Not content with drawing it, he carefully
burned the edges and rubbed in some dirt so they looked like
'real' treasure maps! It was an extremely successful evening,
apparently. There was some 'treasure' (a small box of chocolate
bars) for each team so it wasn't too competitive, and everybody
enjoyed it.
Feb 7th: Weather has been pretty good,
up to about 18C and sunny during the daytime, though still chilly
at night; however the barometer has dropped today, and rain is
forecast for the weekend, along with rather cooler temps. There's
usually a cold spell mid-February and then it warms up again
by the end of the month, although March can sometimes be chilly..
Tim and I cut the back garden today again. He likes using the
lawnmower and usually does about half of it, then I finish off
and do the awkward bits (of which there are many, with so many
trees). For a couple of days after cutting it almost looks as
if it might be grass everywhere, if we don't look too closely,
but of course once the weeds get growing it becomes more uneven.
Probably we ought to cut it twice a week, but it takes about
2 hours in all, so we've decided once a week is sufficient. Also,
when it's beginning to look untidy it's more satisfying to cut
it and see the difference! I shall throw out a bit more grass
seed if I can manage it when rain is imminent but not falling;
what we have does seem to be spreading, and I'm trying to get
rid of dandelions etc in half an hour or so each day. At least
if I can stop them flowering and seeding they shouldn't multiply
too much this year.
Feb 25th: We thought it wasn't particularly
nice here, as it's been raining and was quite windy on Sunday,
but it's not particularly cold; up to about 18C in the daytime
and no less than 10C overnight. Apparently the UK has been having
appalling weather with frosts and rain, so at least it's better
than that!
Richard's been very busy working all hours with some people from
Jordan who are over here for just under a week working with him
on an Arabic web-site. Last night another visitor arrived - a
young man from Colombia, who's here for a few weeks learning
about dubbing and other technical stuff. He's staying in the
office, where there are now 2 guest rooms. He and the Jordanian
couple all came to supper tonight, although mostly I haven't
been having to feed them as they've either had kebabs or something
at the office, or eaten out.
times since 16th May 2002