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.

Busy, busy, busy - and it is 9th February

 What ever am I going to find to do for the rest of the year?

One of the highlight of my social activity is going to the local nursery, which has large open spaces enough for lots of people to ‘socially distance’, although it is not compulsory in Cyprus.

Sunday morning is a good time to go, and if you are lucky as I was last Sunday, and have the place to yourself.

The really good news is things are picking up on the raised bed and re-furbishment of the garden 

furniture.

The base of the raised bed has been dropped off and now needs some work to make it usable.

The garden table has a design for the mosaic top and a plan for sprucing up the legs to match garden chairs

(Something has happened to stop photographs)

I managed to squeeze in at the hairdressers last week, bless her.  I had missed going for quite a few weeks before the last lock down, just to be on the safe side. Even though she is very, very thorough.

Mr D had been partaking of visits to the barber while the problem of a replacement razor was sorted out.  Luck on two counts, the razor arrived a day or so before lockdown and secondly a barber (in Paphos) was traced as being a source of infections so barbers were included in the lock down.

I must tell you about a very clever lady I have met. Not only in she part of the garden team, she also repaired a broken zip on a sofa cushion, without having to take the whole thing apart.  She is re-furnishing the garden furniture, and will mosaic the table top.  There is also a rumour she may make curtains!  She also cooks, cleans, looks after her family, like horse riding and shopping!  How good is all that, and just to top it off she is modest. Take a big standing ovation - you know who you are.

Oh, and she has recommended an oven cleaner which works like magic.  If you have ever been into a Cypriot supermarket and don’t read Greek you will know why this is important.  I will be buying one next time I shop.

Our sunny weather continues and we feel for people suffering the snowfall, it looks truly shocking.

One more go  at the photographs .....

Cooking feast

 Is it feast or fest?  Anyway, whatever.  It has been going on in our house over the last few days.

Today’s soup is red pepper with lime, except in this case it is with lemon due to the lack of lime in local shop.  Wow, what a bite added by a chilli fresh from the garden.  Add garlic,onion, proverbial veg stock and away we go.

 And tomorrow it will be Moroccan Chickpea,  another winter warmer which looks really good.

Yesterday also took on the task of a chicken and leak pie.  Chicken had been defrosted and not used so, following our ‘no waste’ programme and having a spare leek in the fridge, it looked like a good idea.

Absolutely amazing.  Even better now the short crust pastry has been hunted down.

Just one more to add to the list was American pancakes with real American maple syrup to boot for breakfast this morning.  Can you believe maple syrup purchased from our Cypriot butcher!  He has amazing things on display and I often pick things up as an aside to the meat order.

A bit of wow, I must have that, and then find out what to do with it.

A bit closer to home my daughter has her birthday tomorrow and I mailed her hoping to book a catch up call.

Looks like a no go, she is taking a day out from work and a day which sounds like it is much needed.  Happy birthday sweetheart, and catch up soon. xxx

As a key worker she must be under extreme pressure, as all key workers are, and any time off must be very precious.

My excitement levels are rising while waiting for the big garden change over for the raised bed! Let it be soon.  I am about to burst.

Weather not brilliant at the moment but did manage to get a while out in the garden this afternoon.

Knitting progressing at a fairly slow rate but am happy with the result.

I am enjoying our wood pile at the moment.  Some very interesting shapes coming to light.  I found one yesterday which looks like a cross between a horse, camel, donkey. Didn’t get a pic of it today but will get one tomorrow.

Experiment for carrots and garlic coming along.  And hyacinths showing fabulous colours.

I think that brings us up to date so more again soon.

Thanks for reading.

Getting ready for Spring

 Friday 22nd January

Work getting started to prepare for the Spring.  Plant plugs will be ready about the second week in March, so plenty of time to make sure the garden is ready and hazard free.

The old table has served us well.  We bought it from IKEA when we got our first home together back in 2002.  They don’t make them like that any more.

Cats wanting to know what’s afoot and jockeying for positions in readiness.  Poor Daisy the dog has to take what’s left.

The old gardening table is going have a spruce up by our gardening team and replace the glass topped one, which is too big for us. 

I am hoping once we have all the troughs and pots in place we can rig up a small irrigation system.

The first of our hyacinth has started to bloom, and looks gorgeous.  I still get a buzz when anything bursts into bloom.

The roses are still going strong as the weather has been so mild during the day. But freezing during the night.  Thank god for electric blankets.

I am off the ‘see’ an eye specialist on Wednesday.  My eyes have been getting worse and it’s time to get a check up.

I did go to one a couple of years ago and she told me I didn’t need glasses.  Well, thought I, and why would I have been wearing glasses since I was about seven?

I have found a magic lady who can replace a broken zip on a sofa seating cover.   I thought we would have to wait until some of the restrictions are lifted.

Talking of which, this crazy government are talking about re-opening airports as soon as 1st March, just as the infection rate is going down.

Looks like we will just keep doing what we are doing!

I will leave you with that thought and, as they used to say on Hill Street Blues, “let’s be careful out there”.

See you soon.