Life in Cyprus: 2004

January: As so often, this month is wet and rainy, and Tim's roof leaks once again. Some new kittens appear on our doormat but vanish again so we don't adopt yet more!

February: This month heralds the end of winter although it continued to rain most of the time. Carnival week gave a bit of colour to the sea-front before the start of Lent.

March: Drum bands practise most days for the national day parades. Our lemon trees were producing magnificent fruit this year.

April: Visitors over Easter gave Richard a break from work. We had a picnic at Kiti beach and spent a morning in Lefkara seeing silver being made, and browsing the lace shops.

May: Cyprus finally entered the EU amidst cheering and fireworks at the sea-front. Our garden was doing well despite no rain for a couple of months, and I made a lot of jam!

June: Summer arrives in June, and things start to slow down. We visited a lovely picnic site with our church. Richard had a team from Northern Ireland out to help redecorate his offices.

July: I had to water the garden weekly, and the flowers more often, but to my surprise some of the petunias kept going. Daniel and I enjoyed traditional frappés after lunch some days.

August: The days were hot, but thankfully there was no major heatwave although by the end I was longing for rain. We managed to spend a couple of days in Troodos, and I continued watering the flowers, some of which still survived.

September: Still no rain, continued heat, and even humidity at the end of the month. The garden is brown and dry, but we do start eating some pomegranates.

October: STILL no rain until the very end. Lots of work to convert an old cinema into a theatre for the Antidote group.

November: At last we get some serious rain, and it gets much cooler. Richard is in the UK and I get organised for Christmas!

December: Richard is home again and we complete preparations for Christmas, which is a busy time as ever for Tim.

Christmas newsletter - summary of the year, sent to family and friends

Photo Gallery 2004 - the entire year's photographs with brief descriptions