12 Days on the run up to Christmas

 1.  Decide what to eat. Tick. 

Fairly easy for us.  Favourites abound in our house and we tend not to use holiday for trying out new receipts.

Individual beef welling, fillet steak wrapped in pate and puff pastry, baby potatoes, mixed vegetables.  

2. Decide who to invite. Tick.

Another easy one, no one.  Two reasons for this, one being the virus restrictions. Second being we don’t have close friends that we would choose to spend Christmas lunch with.  We did that one year when we went to a restaurant in Latchi with some new comers to Cyprus. Our daughter was here recovering from a broken heart and their son was visiting.  It was a pretty good day but relationship broke down a little while after so the ‘never again’ came into play!

3. What would we like for presents?

This is usually something for the house, an extravagance we take as a treat for us.

This year was slightly different.  Mr D’s electric wet and dry razor packed up.  It was a long, slow death with the razor hanging on to the last gasp and then after three or four days jumped back into action on its own in the bathroom.  By that time a new replacement had been ordered and a proper barber found in Polis with recommendation from several gentlemen in the area.

The supplier then said they could not dispatch the Cyprus.. God alone knows why.  So to ease the carriage of much needed razor the help of a friend in England was  enlisted and he tried to send it via Royal Mail.  The man at Royal Mail he say non.  Let’s try TNT thought our friend.  Ahh, looking good.  Accepted and on its way.  Not so.  Address not recognised.  I feel like cutting my throat.

Thank god for the barber in Polis.

Eventually it did arrive at the local bakery and all’s well with the clean shave.

4. And for me...

Well, I had recently taken delivery of a mini food processor. Oh, what a delight. The one I had was years old and the blades were not in a good shape. 

So, I decided to go for something a bit girly from  Marks and at the same time get some slippers for us both.

You may think boring, but these tiles are cold, cold, cold and I particularly wanted something to go with my new pink fluffy pjs.  Ok?

By the way our Marks order took a whole six or seven days whereas the new razor took about three weeks!

5. Book call with daughter. Tick.

Sounds a bit weird but she is a support worker so I never know when she will be free.  But hooray, this year she has Christmas dat off! 

6. Make soup. Tick.

Mmmm, celery and tomato.  Last year I got a soup maker. I never knew there was such a thing but heard someone talking about it and as we always make lots of soup in the winter it was a ‘must have’ thing. 

I got a recipe book from the internet aptly called ‘100 soup maker recipes’ by Liana Green. I have the Delia one but this is the business.  

One thing I find really useful are the two indices, one in page order and the other alphabetical by ingredients.  This is where the green marker pen comes in handy.

7. Trifle. Tick.

We have been doing a fair amount of comfort food recently and Mr D said oooohhh trifle (and 100s and 1,000s on top). 

I must admit to getting shop bought Swiss roll and ready made custard but it is the thought that counts, surely.

8. Chicken liver pâté. Tick.

To be used on the beef Wellington.  I made a pate recently but wanted fresh, so all in hand to make tomorrow, with help from the new processor.

9. Get Christmas Day steak from butcher. Tick.

The butcher in Polis has supplied us with fillet steak and we have been very pleased so chose them again.  

10.  Collect gammon joint from local butcher. Tick for tomorrow.

We have decided to have a go at an amazing recipe featured by Jamie’s Oliver on his channel for out post-Christmas meat. Looking forward to getting the juices flowing on that one.

11. Clean the house and sort a few decorations. Tick.

Ever since March we have not had help around the house so things have ticked over between the two of us.  It can be a bit hit and miss but it works.

Decorations put together from a manic box which lives in what is equivalent to a Cyprus loft.

12. Sit back, relax, and be thankful for all the positive things in life. Tick.

We sometimes get bogged down by things going on but we should never loose sight of the important things.

Live, love, laugh, and be happy with your lot.

Happy Christmas to every one and see you next year. xxxxxx

Christmas cabbage and chrysanthemum

 Well, winter has arrived with a Big Bang, flash and wallop of a storm at five am this morning.

I may have mentioned before that our lovely dog was found tied up in a forest, lost, alone, no one knows for how long, and as a result is she is terrified of storms, hunting days with guns going off and any sort of loud noises.

We do get tranquillisers for her from the local vet and she happily takes her medication when a storm starts, but needs lots of hugs and petting.  The light weight duvet comes in handy at the same time.

We had planned to go on an early morning run to the supermarket but obviously had to delay everything because of the storm.

Mr D was hoping to go go to the barber for a wet shave (still waiting for new razor to arrive) and other ‘must do’ things (we only go out once a week now as infection rates are so high) and we had a few other things to do.

Nothing that cannot wait until tomorrow!

So, last night we had a mini roast, lamb, roasties, using up veggies from the fridge, and.... first cabbage from the garden...

Yummie.

We are definitely having fun with cooking and we still stick to our no waste policy.

Chess and knitting are coming on and our log burner is a god send.  We have the cleaning out and re setting down to a fine art of about 9 or 10 minutes.  Not bad. 

Christmas is just around the corner now and plans progress for our foodie day, then I think I will have a bit of a light and dry January.

I was going to maybe bring this plant in but it has now been bashed up by the storm but I do have a Christmas wreath to decorate for the wall so that should be quite festive.

I will try and get another blog on before Christmas, but I wish you all a splendid time whatever you are doing and look forward to a better next year.

The cat, the rat and the snake

 With me feeling unwell for a day or so one of our cats decided to bring me a couple of presents to make me feel better.

The first day I hadn’t felt well I woke up at about quarter to five.  Mr D and I have an agreement that if either of us don’t feel well in the night we will wake the other.

So, with us both awake and the dog grumbling about the disturbance in the night we felt it  was just one of ‘those moments’ and nothing more to worry about.

We drifted through the day but was glad to get back to bed at a fairly early night.

We always have a light on over-night and at about two a.m. I was woken by the cat calling me from the hallway outside the bedroom.

Sitting up and very bleary eyed I could make out Daisy the dog, Honey the cat and something else.  Getting out of bed I realised it was a rat, which I can only assume Honey had brought in as a present.

Well, the next hour or so was like something out of a French farce ... close our bedroom door to stop Roland (the rat) getting in there.  Put Daisy Dog in bedroom.  Open kitchen back door.  Try and chase Roland out into the garden. Try and keep Honey off Roland.

All to no avail.  Roland took cover at the side of the dish washer.

There was absolutely nothing I could do!  I didn’t want to wake Mr D up again at some unearthly hour.

The only thing to do was to leave the back door open with the hope it would get fed up and bugger off on its own and for me to go back to bed.

Daisy the dog was pretty fed up with this game by now so I hoped we could get some sleep.  It all went well for about half an hour then Daisy wanted to check on the situation in the kitchen so proceeded to paw at the door.

Me - get out of bed, let Daisy out, get back into bed.  About half an hour later Daisy decided to give up and come back to bed.  Daisy - paw the bedroom door, me - get out of bed and let her in, Daisy - jumped on the bed and took up most of the space, me - got back into bed and dozed off until about six.

Went into the kitchen and Roland seemed to have moved on just leaving some poo on the sitting room floor for me to clean.

Out with the bleach and mop,then on with the coffee. Ahhh, bliss.

I should mention that throughout the whole of the saga Jaz the Cat sat very comfortably on the sofa watching with great interest.

We are still lucky enough to be getting some warm, sunny days and in the afternoon decided to sit in the garden to get some fresh air.

Honey was in her usual spot on the fence with Daisy pottering around enjoying her toys.

Suddenly Honey jumped down to the other side of the fence and was very interested in something.  Mr D went to investigate and she had got a snake and decided she should share it with Daisy.

Get a dog, they said (they should have said cat as well) it will be fun, they said.

First priority, get Daisy in the house.

Second priority, distract Honey from snake.

Third priority, ‘encourage’ snake to exit the garden and not come back.

I feel that if I had not  been poorly none of this would have happened!

Well, I made up for it today by doing a short supply run and found bean sprouts AND jalapeños, how good is that - 19 days and counting.

Annual field cut back ...

 We understood that any one with land has to cut back the dried undergrowth once a year.

Now, why would we want this to be done now at the end of the dry season?

Well, ours is not to reason why apart from the fact that our landlord has his own tractor which has not been up to the job for years.  So, today, he sent in the troupes... thus the big, blue tractor.

See the results..

Only two of the three which surround us, but looking much better and safer.

Oh, my. What a sun set

 

Garden .... knit .... soup

More work carried out in the garden this week as I finished the cabbages needed to be thinned out and also the lettuce.

II had already collected some more troughs from the garden centre.  I think next year I may like to change over to raised beds. My poor old bones are complaining about bending.

Interesting to look back over the changes in the garden over the last months...

From this ....

To this ...

How good is that!

 I have lost count of the relaxed hours I have spent in this paradise.

I am still ploughing on with my knitting projects, not sure they will be ready for this winter though!

I was very happy with the help from Jackie from Wool and Whatknot to find someone who can repair a crocheted blanket which had belonged to my mother.

It had followed me on all of my travels over the 30 odd years since Mum passed away.

Unfortunately, when we got Daisy the Dog she decided to nibble several holes in it.  But now it is now on its way to being repaired.

We really need a new cooks knife but have had some trouble sourcing one locally.  Help was at hand with some good suggestions for Paphos, so next time we go will try and pick one up.

The soup maker I got last winter is going to be put to good use again this year.  Lentil and bacon chunky soup is the order of today.

I will slightly change choices this year, each batch makes three servings, so I intend to use two then get another batch ready.  I refer you back to blog ‘I like chaos’.

We went for our flu jabs yesterday.  Lucky to get it as supplies are low again this year!

Quite exciting as we are ready for our first fire of the winter, electric blanket already on the bed. Cats in the house over night and Daisy having to share her space on the bed! All is well with the world.

Supper tonight - pork loin chops together with bubble and squeak.  How about that for comfort food?

I hope you are all keeping well and warm and are enjoying my blog.  See you soon.

Oh, my goodness... have you missed me?

 Hi every one.  

Well, it’s been a while but, like my knitting, everything is a bit hit and miss at the moment.

We have had more, and rapidly changing, restrictions here in Cyprus for the virus. Mainly affecting two areas, one being Limassol and the second being Paphos region, which is the area we come under.

It is all too complicated to explain, and probably not a lot different to any other country.  None of them particularly affecting us as we have been shielding anyway.

I have been sticking to my plan to keep busy and not let this get me down,  which I manage most of the time.

Mornings have household chores and afternoon drifts into various things, cooking, knitting, reading, chess, (which I must say seems to be coming along well, even getting Martin into ‘check’ on the third game) and back to gardening.

I have now split the green cabbages, and tomorrow will split the red ones and the lettuce, which are starting to look like lettuce now.

I will take pics tomorrow.  I try not to make it a ‘holiday snap’ moment.

This is the time of year we get fabulous sun set

This was taken from our garden where all the musing goes on.

Some more recent pics are..

We asked our gardener to chop back a rather overgrown yellow flowering tree.  He has done the first cut, but the cats wanted to know why one of their favourite climbing places have been hacked back 

Well, we are sort of prepared for the next few months of cold weather.

Snuggling under an extra duvet, first wood delivery made, chimney swept, and more than enough food to keep us going for the next few weeks.  

Our hearts go out to people on the island who are in a desperate situation.  I have linked up with someone who is involved with helping destitute families.

It may seem like a drop in  the ocean but at least it scratches the surface.

On the knitting front, not such a success.  I completed the snazzy mits, but felt they were a bit of a disappointment.  

I am going on with the jacket, jumper and draft stop, so may go back and do a second pair of mits later.

Well, Mr D is cooking us lamb tomorrow for Sunday lunch and I plan to have a go at fish cakes on Monday

UI hope you have enjoyed today’s blog,. I would welcome any comments or suggestions.

All in the best possible taste, of course.

See you soon.

.

What a dreadful situation

 It is very hard to stay positive today with numbers of infections in Cyprus roaring away and England announcing ( at last) restrictions are to be re- introduced Wednesday of next week.

It’s a bit bloody late now mate.

That’s not to mention France and Germany who have been high news in the media, and everyone else.

Thinking about numbers is mind blowing.

Whatever normality we try and keep I sometimes think who do we think we are kidding.  

But, like millions of others , we knuckle down and learn to adjust to the ‘new’ norm, which now seems to be used as some sort of sick modern phrase.  Not one I have particularly taken to.

I don’t usually use my blog to have a rant but just couldn’t help it this morning.

Just to mark the day complete we have started making preparations to get our driving licences exchanged in line with the law and so I have been sorting out documents that we will need.

We are still enjoying sunshine and spend most days outside, so being a Saturday thinks glass of wine is in order.

Very best of luck to everyone and let’s hope people can stick to the rules and stop this virus from spreading any further.

I will be back soon, hopefully in a better frame of mind.

Stick to the day job!

 Yes,I think my sketching skills need some work putting in on them.

Before ........

Maybe I should have left it alone.

Oh,well, onwards and upwards. I am not going to let one small sketch ruin things.

I maybe can do better with the family tree.  

I was inspired by a post from an Australian friend of mine when she posted one that had been done for her father.

We had our first roasties from the new oven yesterday. Wow, what a delicious meal. Mini roast with chicken and roasted vegetables on the side. 

I did say I was going to keep the oven clean so will get on today to give it a spruce up.

We have been living off the freezer for a couple of weeks.

Every year when we approach the August holiday season we always stock up on food to avoid having to go shopping.  Well this year we sort of overdid it, thus living out of the freezer.

Only about five more days to go and we can go visit our butcher!

I have a feeling I may have mentioned this before, but then I have been known to repeat myself.

I finally worked out how to knit the draught excluder without having to use four needles.  That would have been a bit complicated. But anyway, it is now underway.

One of my mitts is completed and cardigan really looking good.

So, generally, all’s well with the world.

Off to clean the oven!

I enjoy a bit of chaos!

 On the proviso it is fairly organised at the same time.

My brain in chaotic which is why I am forever making lists to keep myself in check, seems to work for me.

Mr D says he thinks it is a touch of OCD, but where would we be without my lists?

One example is that because of the virus and various states of shielding, restrictions etc we have increased our cooking ( also with the use of an oven which actually works). With that being the case we have increased not only our stock of different flours but also a collection of herbs and spices.

In the kitchen. We have a glass fronted cupboard and said herbs and spices lived on the first shelf, sort of eye level.

It wasn’t really a good way of working, we had to move half a dozen to find what we wanted. So, I had a bit of a brain storm this morning.

I found an empty top drawer in the unit and decided to utilise it.  Having scrabbled around and found some (matching) plastic containers and, hey presto, all fitted away nicely.  We can also see the label on each jar - you may think I am slightly mad, which is as maybe but I am quite happy with the result.

Perhaps I should explain about ‘eye level’ and ‘top drawer’, we are both fairly tall and are getting a bit old to be bending to retrieve bits and bobs in the kitchen.

Now most of the hard work has gone from the garden I have started a couple of new projects, one being Mr D teaching me to play chess.

We got the chess set years ago but just never got around to playing.  It was only yesterday we noticed that half way down the left hand side one of the squares is the wrong colour!  Bit late to send it back now so will just have to get something to cover it.

Armed with my new, super duper face mask I made a journey of great importance ( and an acceptable risk) to go to the local wool and whatnot shop where the wonderful Jackie kitted me out with not one but three lots of wool and all the needles I need for the various patterns.

I would have had these needle years ago but went the way of the charity shop before we came to Cyprus.

This was all in an effort to avoid the virus which is running amok locally.

We also went on a small supermarket run at 7 this morning to pickup some essentials.

As usual the veg was awful so we stopped at another shop on the way home, wonderful display of fruit and veg.  Looking tasty and fresh.  But the best bit is they had risotto rice.

Well, in the words of Jamie (Oliver) you will have no trouble finding because no one else wants it.

Not true, we have been looking for at least three years we should have some fun making the two cheese risotto.

We do have a rest from meat every now and then.

Well, it’s been lovely as usual but I really must get on with at least one of my hobbies! Hope to see you soon.

Here we go again ...

 I may sound selfish but we always knew as soon as the government of Cyprus opened the airports that infections would rise.  And, sure enough, they have gone from about 1,000 in June/July to 2,500 now with the numbers going up by over 100 a day.

And just to add to the chaos there was, apparently, a huge engagement party in our local area last weekend  with staff being brought in from local restaurants and bars.

The government has also given way on the restrictions on number of wedding guests.  Are these people mad!

So, we are back to firmly self shielding.  We did it before and now we do it again.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen department we have had an interesting week with breakfasts after raiding one of our receipt book.  Scrambled eggs with anchovies, poached  pears with ice cream, to name just a couple.

Mr D has found a way to download books onto the Kindle, and is happily ploughing through the Game of Thrones books.  

Having watched the TV series, he recons the  books are far better.

Meanwhile, I am pressing on with my knitting and have resurrected my family tree.  Not sure how far I will get with it.  I did quite a lot before but got stuck.

No pictures today, but garden looking good and mini fruit trees coming along really well. 

More news soon, need some more readers though.

New oven

 It is amazing what you can do with a new oven which works!

Scone anyone?

In a field near us

 There is lots of work going on.

In one field the beans have grown at an astounding rate

and are now being picked by the Asian women in the lovely pointy hats they wear to shield the from the sun.

They will soon be in the shops and seem to be a main veg in Cyprus.  They taste quite sweet, a bit like garden peas but shaped like a butter bean.

The next field has a mixture of established olive trees on the road side which, judging by other fields,will be ready for harvesting any day.

The man who owns the field told Mr D that the olives this year will be sent to England.

This is a manic time for olive pickers, olives not sold to shops are taken to the press where the oil is produced.

We have never ventured inside but on some days during this season there can be as many as 30 to 40 vehicles waiting with their loads at one time.

The olive field also has avocado trees which have been grafted onto other trees over the last few years.

Their harvest season is going on now but the magic has not worked to make them soft, I don’t know how that is done!

If you look very carefully at lower middle you can just make out a pear on the tree,not a good picture but the best I can do on my iPad.

Hope you have enjoyed our little jaunt.  Of course, there is lots more going on in fields, but this is just a peek close to home.

Winter is coming!!

 As they say in Game of Thrones....  well, we are ready for whatever it throws at us this year.

The knitting is growing...

The log burner is waiting....

And the First load of lemon wood has arrIved and is neatly stacked ...

It is hard to believe we will, at some time, be heading for cold wet weather when it is still so warm.  I am not in a rush for it but it will be a bit of a relief when it does arrive.

I had a lovely long chat with my daughter today WhatsApp, which we have finally got u0 and running on my phone.  She has just has a week’s holiday in Cornwall and in spite of the rain she looks remarkably well rested.

Just wish she could get out here for a break.

Maybe next year to celebrate my 70th!

I have been taking loads of pics, and when I have sorted them out will post some on here.

This weeks lunch outing was at Finika Restaurant in Polis.  We used to go there when we first came to Cyprus (we had our 8th anniversary this week) but they closed for an apparent refurbishment. Well,that took 18 months and reopened a year ago, but what with one thing and another we have not managed to get there.

It was amazing, the service, the food,the ambience, we could not have asked for better.  One of the reasons we like going out for a late lunch is we usually have the place pretty much to ourselves, which serves us just right.

This weeks choice is. going to be Pantellis out on the Polis to Paphos road.  They advertise fish and chips, which is on of me favourites.  They also brag a couple of pool tables so that should be a bit of fun!  Will let you know how I get on.

Well, better get on with my knitting if  I am to finish by Christmas.  Have a good week.

The old and the new, the fast and the slow

 Going back a bit to ‘how does your garden grow’, I was thinking this morning what to write in my blog and went into the garden to get some inspiration.

That done, together with a few more photos, I looked through some of the pictures I have put together and thought you may like a walk down memory lane, and also some new stuff.

The Old

We have had the Passion Fruit plant for about three years.  I spent the first couple of years trying to get it to grow up the car port legs without much luck although I did get one fruit in the first year.

Anyway, I was watching a gardening programme some months ago and the clever Charlie Dimmock was talking about creeping plants and her advice was take them out sideways, not up. They don’t like it.

Well, I had nothing  to loose so I moved it over to the front fence and it taken off from there.

The best thing is this morning I have counted no fewer than four fruits, and that’s only the ones I can see.

The New.

We had ordered an orange tree last week when we were at the nursery, and I got a telephone call on Friday to say it had arrived.  How exciting.

We went to collect it yesterday and also get a new pot for it.  Have you seen the size of the pot?  Marianna at the nursery could have got in it!

Well, not being one to hang around we brought it straight home and got it in it’s pot, but first we had to move several pots.

While we were At the nursery I was also tempted to some hyacinths, I love the fragrance of them but will have to wait till spring For them to flower I suspect.

The Fast

28th August

15th September 

4th October 

Even though these are in my garden, I was still amazed at the dates when I went through the pictures!

I know things grow fats in Cyprus, but this is just silly, in a lovely way.

The Slow

Not much t say about the slow, except to tell myself sometimes to slow down and take it a bit easy.  I am not a child in a sweet shop!

Have a good week, and enjoy the slightly cooler weather.  Thanks for reading.