Living in Cyprus - April 1998
30th April:
It’s been very busy here (as well as getting hotter) as we’ve
had guests almost continually for over 3 weeks. We didn’t do any
‘school’ during that time - it’s nice to be flexible like that -
although of course the boys both did lots of reading and computer
things, including helping Richard re-install everything from scratch on
their computer!
Richard eventually finished the promotional video he was working on, much to his relief, as it had been dragging on for months with more and more tiny fine details to tidy up. After completing that he took most of last week off, which was nice, although he did spend one day installing something on one of the office computers which he brought home.
My parents’ visit went by much too quickly; we saw a few
historical sites including part of ancient Kition (the city which
Larnaka now covers), did some shopping, went to the beach a few times,
and relaxed here with my father playing cricket with the boys, etc.
They arrived the day after my birthday so Daniel organised a ‘party
tea’ with Garfield napkins and plates and balloons, and Tim baked a
cake, complete with candles which re-lighted themselves when I tried to
blow them out! My parents bought me a small bougainvillea plant - one
of their favourite flowers from the Middle East. Several people have
them locally, and they don't need much work other than watering while
they're still small. We're hoping it might get big enough to train
around the front of the porch, to give us a bit more shade when it gets
hot.
While our friends were here, before that, the weather went extremely hot, about 32C in the sun during the daytimes, and we found we had to stay in for at least 3 hours over lunchtime, although it was quite pleasant going to the beach around 4pm, after the worst heat had finished. It was very wearing too - I don’t cope well in extreme heat, and felt lethargic and headachy. I was worried this might continue and get hotter and hotter, but local friends assured us it was most unusual for April, more typical of August weather!
On the last day of their stay there was a mini tornado, although unfortunately almost no rain. We watched our huge pine tree bent almost horizontal in the wind, and dust and leaves blowing against the windows. No trees were damaged in our garden although a few branches were blown off, but in our Church yard two pine trees were blown right down! No damage, thankfully, to the Church.
The change in weather seemed to cool the whole place down, which was a good thing, and while my parents were here we had temperatures of about 20-25 most of the time, with cooler nights, so it was very pleasant. In the last few days of their stay the sky clouded over but again there was almost no rain. We’re told that when May begins there’s virtually no chance of rain until October, so the water situation is pretty worrying; we’re not getting mains water so often as we used to, but our tanks are huge so every time the mains does come on it fills up the tanks - we’ve not yet run out of water! Some people, with smaller tanks, have run out for a day or so. Of course we can buy bottled water to drink but it would be a bit difficult to wash clothes or have a shower with bottled water.
We’re coming to the last of the lemons now, though I’ve continued picking about a hundred each week and making continuous supplies of lemonade up to now. But at last it looks like the trees only have a couple of weeks’ supply left. We are enjoying fresh ripe ‘loquats’ from two of our trees: these are about the size of plums, the colour of apricots, and most delicious when ripe although they don’t keep well. We’ve tried cooking them with sugar, and they produce a stewed fruit a bit like a cross between plums and rhubarb in taste, but now they’re fully ripe they’re nicest eaten raw and fresh from the tree. Our next produce is going to be mulberries - we have two of those trees too, and the fruit is now green and looks a bit like unripe loganberries. I imagine they will change to a purplish colour. I’m not sure what to do with them but gather they too can be eaten raw, or stewed or made into jam. It’s fun experimenting!
We have about five pomegranate trees, they’re in bloom right now with the most fabulous big red flowers. I don’t think one can do much with pomegranates other than eat them raw so I should think we’ll have far more than we can begin to use - they’re not even particularly tasty - but the flower stage is very pretty. Perhaps we can give some away! Most of the trees have deep enough roots to reach the water table so they don’t need much watering, which is just as well; however we’re told we’re allowed to use a hose for up to an hour per morning, and that we shouldn’t let any trees or shrubs die, since having bare ground exacerbates the problems of dust and so on during the summer. So about once a week I do quickly give the smaller trees a good soaking, and we tip washing-up water over plants as well.
We're particularly thankful for email as a way of keeping in touch with friends - although not all of our relatives yet have email access - because there's currently a postal strike locally. It doesn't affect us all that much, though it means that letters are taking ages to get through - and some, it's rumoured, may be destroyed - but it's causing a lot of aggravation.