Saturday, April 18, 2009

Cyprus goes green


Fields at the back of where we live, & a big old tree with the sun reflected on it. We're staying in the house in the background.

It seems that we have finally reached the end of the winter, with not much rain expected from now until about November.

Cyprus has gone green - certainly not in the eco sense, but in colour. Everywhere there is an abundance of plants flourishing in the warmth after quite a lot of rain over the winter.

The fields are full of almost-ripe grain, the citrus trees are in blossom, with their gorgeous smell wafting all through the villages, and there are wild flowers everywhere.

I've been struck by the colours, which seem so much more vivid against a bright blue sky.

It almost seems as if all the plants are racing to get in their glory now, while the going's good, before the heat of the summer dries everything up!

Temperatures are in the twenties and I can sense it getting gradually warmer, week by week.

Below: the barley field with the sun just disappeared behind the hills.



Flamingos Gone


I thought I posted this ages ago, but I can't see it on the blog so I must've forgot.

All winter flamingos have been living on Larnaca salt lake. They migrate there from Africa, arriving about November and leaving again in March.

Here's a pricture of them with the Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque in the background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hala_Sultan_Tekke



And here's a closer picture of them.

Friday, April 3, 2009

A little green visitor




I realised with shock as I looked at the blog to write this, that I haven't posted anything here for over a month. Oops.

We've been so busy with a new business, researching and writing webpage content, that I haven't got around to the blog. There hasn't been much to write as we've not been doing anything very interesting. Just living, working, eating, sleeping! Not very interesting reading!


But today, we had a visitor looking in the patio doors at breakfast, who caused quite a stir! Here's a photo of the praying mantis that was goggling in at us!
It hung around quite a while (long enough for everyone to have seen enough of it), and then flew off up into a tree in the garden.
This week has seen a sudden increase in the temperature in Cyprus. Three days ago it went from an average of about 17 deg C to 28 deg C overnight. The wind has dropped, and the kids are in the pool! They are still in wetsuits as the water is cold, but they can come out and lie around like seals to warm up again.
Thankfully last week we missed the tornado that moved over Larnaca, cascading huge hailstones which made dents in car roofs and cracked some windscreens. Here's a video on YouTube if you want to see! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1w5CX8QZIQ
We've also signed up to stay in this house for another 6 months. The main reason is because we've been just too busy to spend the time looking at properties. So we're still out in the sticks of Mazotos, escaping the hailstones, but wondering just how bad the sheep are going to smell over the scorching summer!!