Everything in the garden ....

 

...

Is looking more than lovely after some really nice touches by the gardeners last Thursday.  It was quite a hive of activity with everyone set to by ‘the boss’.

I have really enjoyed playing around with seedlings which are now getting quite big and some have needed transplanting into larger pots.

Some have been identified by garden crew because I got them all mixed up.  The beetroots were east (if you have seen them before) as the leaves are tinged red around the edge (and have reddish roots).

The courgettes are the most exciting after last year’s mishap.  They look like they are getting buds already.  

Tomatoes and celery are looking good with tomatoes showing signs of flowers.  The runners and garden peas are going to need some more patience as they are being a bit slow.

Now the flowers have been moved to the fence area I feel the hard work and help is showing great results. Irrigation will be in place by early May which will make the watering job so much easier.

There has been a lot of work carried out on the lemon grove behind the house, and the strimming has made all the difference.

Weed killer to go down next week and then the whole cycle starts again.  Even the fields around the house have had their tidy up plough.

So, it has all come together and I am so happy.  Especially with restrictions and the virus, we can be in our own little piece of Cyprus without going mad.

Church of England Easter this weekend and Greek Orthodox Easter around the corner, what ever your belief, stay calm, safe and happy.

 

Coptic storms in a teacup

 Tuesday 30th March 

It was quite a turbulent week last week when there was a Coptic storm (and a half for good measure).

Very high winds which were very warm, so your brain telling you one thing and your eyes telling you something else.  It also brought with it orange sand in the rain, which stuck to EVERYTHING.  What a mess, but at least not so much damage to the garden, just a big clean up operation.

Things like this always upset the pets, whether it is the air pressure or nor I don’t know but none of them were happy.

We are forecast more rain this week, hoping it will be clean rain and complete the clean up for us.

We took the opportunity of making some changes to the lay out of the garden.  When we were sitting on the terrace recently looking at a fairly bear fence the other side of the pool it occurred to me that we don’t get to enough of all the pots around the corner with the flowers.  With lock down restrictions I am sure we nee£Ed to brighten up that view so we moved the pots and it has made a Hugh difference.  I need some help from the gardeners to swop over some of the pots so we will get some compost and hope we can do it this week.

That’s better.

I am on a run up to a very special birthday and we are playing with the idea of having lunch out.  That will be the first time for a year.

My second vaccine is on Wednesday and so I should be covered by then but Mr D won’t be as his second one is not until June, but mad really as we live together.

It will be nice to get out and dress up a bit! 

Well, I had better go and make a hair appointment and maybe nails.

Just before I go, this  is proof winter must be coming to an end .....

Bye for now.

Holidays and whistles

 Hi everybody/anybody

I have had a break and holiday from everything and anything.  Not for any particular reason, just needed to take a break from things.

So, what have you all been up to? Trying to keep up with Cyprus government do’s and don’ts.  That is as long as you don’t live in Limassol and as it appears they can get away with murder, which is what I think it will amount to because they refuse to follow any of the restrictions the rest of us have to do or face a 300 euro fine, but oh no, not in Limassol.

Anyway, on a more positive note, I had planned to be exercising on a vigorous basis around the garden on a three times circuit building up to improve balance and lung function.

Well, the first outing was not great!  I told Daisy dog she could help me, so I put her lead on and off we went.  

Circuit one - fine, circuit two - ok, start of circuit three - she sat down, and said “what the hell do you think you are doing” ( or something like that in dog talk) and refused to move.

Well, I don’t have time to mess with all this so will have to look for plan B. Who knows where that will lead.

Everything in the garden is thriving and I have now decided to replace the two rose bushes which seem to have gone to briar.  

We are moving some pots over to the fence where the lemon trees are to make the view more interesting.

I am having a bit of trouble seeing at the moment having been diagnosed with cataracts which were supposed to be sorted out with a minor  procedure last Wednesday but the government (bless them) have cancelled, along with all other non urgent surgery.  

Ho, hum, once again - watch this space!

But, there are good sides to life.  Mr D and I have a really good life and understand each other’s pressures which may occur with this life style, and the pets bring endless fun and  smiles, together with worries.

No pictures with today’s blog but maybe on the next one.

See you soon.  Thanks for reading. xx

Birthdays and sunshine!

We are still getting lots of sunshine and are able to sit in the garden most afternoons to enjoy it.

We are heading for Mr D’s birthday on Sunday and, as usual, we are planning a bit a of feast over a couple of days.

A few kilometres from us is a lovely restaurant called The Farmyard.  We have enjoyed several Chinese meals there, which is part of the menu as well as more Cyprus traditional.

Although they had to close in one of the lockdowns and they lost their chef they are now able to have take away meals and with new chefs they are able to have some service so we will be collecting our meal to enjoy.

Can’t wait.

We have been building up ingredients to use in our wok, the local supermarket has quite a range and we love it.

Some years ago when we first got the wok we spent ages getting oils, spices, weird and wonderful veg. The latest addition is prawn crackers, which I cooked as a side dish the other evening.  Very odd the way they cook, nothing happens and then suddenly they appear and puff up and take.over the hob.

I am being a baby at the moment because for about a week I have had a splinter embedded in the top of my right index finger. Ouch.  Antiseptic every day but not much happening.

I am on the finishing off stage of my knitting and looking forward to that. It has been a long road.

The garden is a great source of patience and soothing.  

I got some tubs for growing runner beans and garden peas.  Can’t wait for the seeds to germinate.

I am very excited about our lemon trees, which we got about four months ago, followed by the orange tree. 

They are all showing sign of blossom 

 If you look carefully about half way down on the left hand side you can just see the start of orange blossom!

The top picture shows our very own lemons, with the second tree coming into its own with tiny blossom waiting to bloom.

We are expecting another announcement from the government tomorrow and will know what, if any, changes are going to be made.  We still have to sent out a SMS message to get permission to leave the house.  As I have said before we try and make just one journey a week but it is still bloody irritating.

I have just re-read this blog and it seems a bit all over the place.  Don’t know why but maybe it is one of my chaos days.

My special thoughts go out to my very dear friend in this very difficult time. I can’t be with you but be sure I am in spirit. x

A garden full of fragrance and veg

 No surprise that I am back today with a tale of day one, shift one at the veg patch.  But first I must share the fragrant parts which are so lovely and quite traditional in gardens

A super array of hyacinths in full bloom.  It doesn’t take many to achieve this.

Next are some stocks

Once again, not many needed to make a difference against any wall or as a space filler.

I meant to get some anterrinum, also called snapdragon or bunny rabbits.  But a good excuse to visit my nursery.

I have spent a lovely few hours on my new ‘veg patch’, now there’s a surprise!  Also a chance to enjoy sunshine with a breeze to blow away some cobwebs.

A selection of re-potted bits such as spring onions and lettuce, peppers and carrot tops which are now sprouting roots as I hoped.

Also a selection of seeds for cucumber, melon, beetroot and with squash and eggplant to finish the picture for today.

Tomorrow I need to get some pots for runner bean and peas in a pod.  I saw a brilliant idea of pots in a circle with long canes forming a teepee for veg to grow up.  Also I have two lots of radishes which can go in into one of smaller troughs I have.

I am sure this is going to give me many happy hours, nit much to ask from life is it.

Oh, and yes, I did finish the sleeve I was knitting yesterday.

Just in time for Spring.

Have a good weekend and come back soon.

The veg bed has arrived!

 I am thrilled to say the veg bed has landed and is absolutely fab, much more than I ever could have expected or hoped for.  Thank you so much the garden gang.

Oh, what joy I shall have playing with it.  I also have more seeds to put in pots and await picking our first runner beans, radish, peas in pods (now that takes me back a few years), and other weird and wonderfuls.

Still needs a bit of tweaking to do but so far, so marvellous.

It looks like the weather has picked up from the last couple of days so tomorrow will be wrap up warm and make a start.

 

I am going to do my best today to finish the sleeve I am knitting so if I get a rainy day I can, at last, finish one jacket.

It is coming up to the one year anniversary of when we decided to self isolate, it has been an interesting time but not unpleasant.  We have both extended our interest in cooking, Mr D has borrowed my Kindle and kept himself with a good supply of reading material. So much so he is contemplating getting one for himself.  I bought mine just before we came here and the look of shock on his face was a picture.  I am not the gadget person but on this occasion it has been invaluable, not least because we had parted with 90 percent of our books.

It also very much came into its own when I set up the polis book club, it was a prerequisite to have one due to the lack of book shops in our area.  That led to several interesting discussions . I moved on a couple of years ago but I understand they are still going well.  Albeit nearly all members of a local church and that makes that makes them a bit exclusive in my opinion.

Any way, I wish them well and I am sure they will continue to flourish.

As I have said before, I am much more comfortable in my/our surroundings and company. I also truly believe it is safer that way no being able to upset sensitive souls!

We are just waiting for our delivery from the local kiosk then we can kick off shoes and have a glass of wine.

Here’s hoping you all stay positive and active. Until next time...

Thanks for reading.

Valentines Day and hot soup

 The cold weather has finally arrived with a flourish.  Fire was lit early and comfort prevailed in an extra cosy home after the draught excluder had been fitted to both outside doors.

My goodness it has certainly been a year for sorting things out that have been on the ‘to do’ list for some time.

I am not sure why we have felt a lot more secure this year, but it has made a noticeable difference to us both.

I made a different soup recently - red pepper and lime - but we never  got around to trying it.  Today is the day for lunch together with warm mini pittas.

Just to complete the picture, supper tonight will be Sesame Chicken for the slow cooker.  Another one which is a recent find!

Mr D recently found an app called Paprika.  It is designed to store receipes, and a lot more. I/we are still playing around with it but looks pretty good and may stop me from saving and then loosing new recipes.

I still love using my trusted cookery books, but good to have a change.

We had Valentine’s Day last Sunday.  We don’t usually celebrate but this year has been a bit of a game changer in many ways, and I wanted to show Mr D how much I appreciate him, so he is now in possession of some beautiful red roses. 

We were lucky to have a sunny afternoon so sat out in the garden and soaked up how lucky we are.

We have hit a bit of a delay on the raised veg patch which I am missing.  But to make up my mate the gardener came to the rescue with some veg seeds which will be going into pots today.

Photos to come.

By the way, the carrot tops are coming along nicely and I have some baby potatoes to sprout and put in a pot.

In between all this I still plough on with my knitting. And to think when I got the wool I gave myself six weeks to finish both sweaters!

Oh, well.  I will get there.

The virus ploughs on with its disruption. We listen to English radio and watch UK TV and the bumbling humming and gaffawing by the so called experts is enough to put more and more pressure on people in England.

There used to be a child’s game called ‘Simon says’. ....Simon says do this, do that’. Well, change Simon to Bumbling Boris and you get the picture.

On that note I shall get on with my day.

Thanks for reading.