A Winters Tale

Now I do realise it is all relative, but Winter seems to be a long one this year.  I am sat typing whilst there is a raging storm outside.  Temperatures have been low this winter, we have even had a few nights below freezing and now the weather has just warmed up a little and the storms have set in.   There are signs of spring though, flowers are starting to bloom and the lemon blossom outside the kitchen window is stunning, I will soon be chittering on about high temperatures I'm sure.

We have had a quiet few months since Christmas, work has been dominant with a few black tie 'do's' thrown in for good measure.  The main event though was a trip to Kermin.  We can now get flights direct from Larnaca to Paris so off we pootled for a week of rest in France.  Andy's idea of rest is to crank up the chainsaw, take down a couple of trees, move seasoned logs to the wood shed, chop and cut more logs and plant fruit trees.  The latter being easier said than done, the ground in Kermin is almost pure stone in places, digging with a spade is impossible - a trusty pickaxe is what is required! It is heavy work, but Andy finds it particularly theraputic.  I resorted to much weedkilling which I hate doing, but at the moment because we are there so infrequently it is the most sensible and effective way of keeping the nettles and brambles at bay.

We also partook of all those things which should be enjoyed while in Brittany, we slurped a few glasses of wine, munched on cheese snuggled in around the fire and visited the coast.

Beccy xx

Donna Nook

Rather a delayed post, I have had this sat in drafts since Christmas just waiting for me to finish uploading the piccies!  During our flying visit back to the UK we pootled off to Donna Nook Seal Sanctuary in Lincolnshire.  Why we have had to move two and a half thousand miles to Cyprus before we decide to visit this absolute gem of a place only 30 minutes drive from Barton I will never know, but hey, atleast we made the trip now.  It was a beautiful day although the North Sea winds were a tad bracing.  After oohing and arrhing at the pups and their mums we had to visit Skegness for the obligatory fish and chips and a steamy cup of tea.  A great day was had by all and if we are ever in Lincolnshire during November or December again we will definitely be returning to Donna Nook.

Cyherbia

Here are the photos from way back when ...................................I can't remember exactly, but it was September/October 2016.  These are the pics which sent me into a whirlwind of technophobia when nothing worked, we needed new leads or something and then another thing didn't work, all a bit on the technical side for me really.  All that is now a thing of the past and I can now release these few photos from my camera!

These were taken at Cyherbia, a herb garden/shop/tea room only a few kilometres from Oroklini.  We had been talking about visiting many many times but never quite manage to get there.  We had a lovely jaunt around the gardens which if I am really honest were well past their best, but then visitng in late summer probably wasn't the best idea!  There were a few determined yarrow flowers and the rosemary was beautiful, the many many olives were just about ready to harvest and the maze was impressive, we only got lost a couple of times before making it to the middle, but then getting back out again was a whole different ball game!!!!!!!

The bougainvillea was displaying itself beautifully, and there were many bees buzz buzzing around trying to find the last bits of pollen.

The fairies didn't come out to play today!

The coffee shop had beautiful cakes and tempting herbal teas and the shop had a wonderful range of oils, teas, gifts, skincare (all paraben and SLS free).  

We will visit Cyherbia again, if not before definitely in June for the lavender harvest.  They have demonstrations on essential oil extraction which I am really keen to learn about, and in general it is probably just a great place to pop to for a brew and a wander.

Beccy xx

2017

I am struggling with 2017, I keep writing and saying 2018!!!!! For some reason I have a need to miss out 2017, skip the year, ignore it ................I digress.............

Happy New Year to you all, hope you all have a fab Yule and a great start to this year.

There is one missing from our family group this year, Jess was busy living the life travelling around Australia in a camper van but we have skype and facetime, loving seeing her updates about her travels and I have to admit to being just a tad envious, she is having the time of her life.

We were in UK for Chrimble and then on to our annual New Years jaunt to Kermin.  there just wasn't enough time to catch up and see everyone, that is worst thing about being overseas.  Living in cyprus day to day is great,  facebook, email, wotsapp, instagram, snapchat and all those other wonderful app things that I am eventually managing to use and get my head round are fantastic and make us feel close to everyone even though we are 2500 miles away.  The problem arises when we are only a few miles away, I want to see everyone, and think we should see everyone and is just isn't doable.....................sorry folks.

We have not made resolutions, I can't remember the last time we did, but not surprisingly along with many many others we are adopting a healthy eating regime!  I am not sure how long it will last but it is a necessary evil, so we need to be prepared, have food in the fridge/cupboards and make time to prepare and cook.  Planning is not my strength, but I am determined, I have been shopping despite wanting to run out of the shop.  I just hadn't planned very well and decided on food shopping on a Cypriot bank holiday.............big mistake, there were far too many people in such a small supermarket, but I battled on through and achieved my aim.  The cupboards and fridge were full ................................... we opened a bottle of wine and ordered pizza to celebrate!!!!!!  There is always time for the healthy eating regime to start the next day.

I would like to chitter on about Christmas, but it seems a age ago so I am racking my brains to bring back the memories.  We stayed with Wes and Rosa, visited mum many times, had a wonderful trip to Donna Nook Nature Reserve to wander along the stunning and slightly chilly Lincolnshire coastline and ooooohhhh and aaarrrrghhhh at the seals and their pups, ate far too much food, wandered along the banks of the Humber, ate even more food, drank bubbles and generally had a relaxing few days.

No comment needed!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas isn't Christmas without a variety of bubbles and Percy Pigs

Mr Reed was a happy boy playing with his ukulele

We visited John and Marlene to get our smallholders 'fix', the smell of a male goat during the rutting season is one never to be forgotten.  We had cuddles with this years kids and had a good catch up.

Boxing Day saw us shooting off to Brittany.  As usual we felt immediately at home, despite the long journey and the house being so so cold and the mice having paid us a visit.   We arrived in the early hours of the morning on a very clear night, the stars were stunning, the moon was huge and the owls were busy hooting to each other...........perfect.

The weather was superb, it was cold and we had some wonderful frosts but the sun shone.  We are beginning to make more plans for moving there now, and during this visit Andy moved some fruit trees from the area which will be fenced to create a goat paddock.  Andy also spent a lot of time planting soft fruit bushes and taking cuttings in the hope that they will be productive fairly soon after our arrival in 2018.

Time to write a blog post..............

When technology works it is a wonderful thing, however, when it doesn't Beccy is a grumpy girl!

I have sat down more than once to blog, the first time I had a camera full of photographs, I can't even remember what the photographs are of now.  I knew we hadn't blogged for a while and thought I had a good selection of pics.  I did the usual, made a cuppa, gathered the camera and lead while Andy watched the football. Then it happened................................One Moment.....................that is what the camera said, so I waited for a moment, I waited for many moments.  The huffing and puffing began, I tried using a different USB, switched it on and off (that always works), then came the familiar declaration, " I hate technology, why can't things just be simple, why can't they just work".  Up popped the head from the sofa and over he pootled and did all the things I had just tried (because of course switching the camera on and off and trying a differnet USB would work for Mr Reed if it hadn't worked for me!)

Well it didn't work, we tried the laptop, tried to put the memory card into the pooter, but it didn't fit, then much to my disgust the camera battery failed and we had to abandon ship!!! (OK so that is a bit dramatic, but I did feel it was time for a glass of soothing, relaxing wine).

After battery charging, which seemed to take an age, we tried again, and again ........................................One Moment........................moments later, and moments later, nothing happened........................except.................the flippin battery failed again!  It was way past time for another glass of wine and the whole blog attempt was aborted!

The man of the house decided a new battery was needed, and a card reader.  These had to be ordered from the UK, the camera is a little aged so attempting to buy the battery in Cyprus would probably involve travelling the width and length of the island only to return home empty handed.  The camera's age probably contributes to the enormous size of the memory card too, but I love my camera, or atleast I did love my camera so I aint replacing it until it well and truly doesn't work anymore, and it does still work a little.......................it does take photographs................................I just cannot get them off the camera!

I think my final comment of the evening involved me muttering something along the lines of "Why can't cameras be like they used to be, it was easy, take your piccies, trot along to Boots, hand over the film, pay some money and trot back home with my photos in a lovely little wallet.  there were always surprises in the wallet, " Oooooooooooooooooh, I can't remember taking that!............. Did I really look like that?" but then I suppose there was always the dread of all the photos being rubbish, blurred, or everyone having the dreaded red eyes! Perhaps the good ole days weren't quite so fantastic afterall? Atleast we had some flippin pics though!

Update.......................I typed and saved this post and then promptly forgot about it!  I should be awarded the most useless blogger award for October and November!

Another update......................new battery and card reader have arrived!  You never know, I may manage to blog again before the end of 2016 with photos!  I leave you now waiting in suspense for the next installment .............................

Is it cooling down?

It's all relative....................

We haven't used the air conditioning for three entire days, it must be cooling down I hear you say, so off I pootle to consult the thermometer - oh yes its cooling down, only 31 degrees now!!!!!!!  But honestly and truthfully to me it does feel quite pleasant and much less sticky than this time last week, now the only thing really to worry about is how cold I will feel when the thermometer reads 15 degrees?  So thats the obligatory British chat about the weather over and done with, now what? Well not a great deal really, we have had a steady month not a lot to report oh except three kittens (if I had a rolling eyes smilie I would post it here).

Abbie called, and it went something like this

"Mum, there are three kittens locked in the cleaners cupboard"

"Oh"

"We got the cleaners to unlock the cupboard and they say its has been locked for three days"

"Oh"

"There is no sign of mum and they are very tiny and hungry"

"Oh"..............big sigh!!!!!

"What shall I do?"

I turn to Andy and repeat Abbies tale of woe, he turns to me and says

"Tell her we ll be there in half and hour"

So of we go and arrive back sometime later with three additions to the family.

It turns out they weren't as young as we first thought, just under nourished, we were a little worried for a day or two and braced ourselves to loose atleast one if not all of them.  Gizmo, the black one was in the worst condition the other two marginally more healthy.  Fast forward four weeks and they are thriving and bouncing around like little bouncy things.  They have rapidly expanding waistlines and are just the cutest little kitties, they were litter trained within a couple of days, the only problem is that we really don't want three more cats! Two on island re-homing charities are advertising them and hopefully we can find homes, either in Cyprus or any part of Europe (actually EU countries, I wonder what will happen to our EU Pet Passports when we are no longer part of EU, will we be able to move our pets from here to France?  I digress.....................)  this has got me thinking now, how will the charities over here be able to send dogs and cats to the UK for rehoming? In theory they just won't be able to do that anymore, so what on earth will happen to all the dogs and cats so badly abused and mistreated which the Brits rescue and rehabilitate?  Best not to worry about that scenario just yet................... on to some photos of beautiful little bundles of fluff.

Kitty update.............I have to confess I started to compose this post a few weeks ago then got distracted........................since then Boo (tabby) has gone off on trial.  It all rests on how their adult cat accepts Boo, at the moment she has moved out and is only returning for food so we are hoping for a rapid improvement there.  There has also been some interest in Oreo (black and white) but the lady concerned is trying to persuade her husband.  Fingers crossed both these little kittens have found a permanent home, then only Gizmo left.

xx

Brussels

We arrived after a long car journey from Brittany and extensive security checks, but I guess that was only to be expected in Brussels at the mo!

We hopped on a particularly hot train to take us to the city centre.  Trying to find the hotel was interesting, google told us it was a short walk, and indeed it was, but we had arrived in a busy capital centre on a Saturday evening, it was hot and the streets were full of folks just milling about and generally getting in the way.  There were many many people begging with babies in their arms and quite frankly it was smelly, probably not helped by the extreme heat it was noisy and there were soldiers everywhere.  Eventually we found our gadgety hotel where there are no staff, just machines to check us in and issue keycards.  Andy particularly liked this bit though............I think his exact words were "not having to talk to people is always a bonus", not that he is antisocial at all!!!!!!!!:-)  We cooled off a little and showered and braved the crowds once again to get fed and watered, this was a needs must meal, not fine dining in any way, we wanted to eat then sleep it had been a long day.  The hotel was just what we needed though, clean quiet and the air conditioning worked well, so by morning we were feeling in much better spirits, especially when I wandered into a lounge area to find free coffee and pastries provided by the invisible staff, they were just there waiting to be scoffed, so scoff them we did.

We left the hotel and wandered off to explore, we saw some lovely architecture and there were considerably less people about, less noise and the temperature had dropped so we were beginning to think Brussels wasn't so bad after all.  Then all we did was turn left instead of right as we had done the night before and wandered into the Grand Place!!!!!!    WE WERE STUNNED AND AMAZED!  It was one of the most beautiful squares I have ever seen, and probably all the more stunning because we weren't expecting it.  The pics don't really do it justice but if you ever get the opportunity to visit Brussels, you must because it is beautiful.

Beccy has run out of words now so I've taken over!! As Beccy says Brussels turned out to be a real surprise after our first underwhelming impressions! We had planned on booking ourselves onto a beer and chocolate tour - only to be put off by the price, 150 euros for a two hour tour is just too much - it'd buy quite a bit of beer, but not as much chocolate as you'd expect. For 80 euros you could buy a 250g pack of hand made chocolates and get one pack free, now call me common if you like but give me a 2 euro bar of salted nut chocolate from Inter Marche in Callac and I'd be happy. Anyway I digress, as we wandered around Brussels, we went up past the Royal Palace, complete with the obligatory park with a lake surrounded by kids playing pokemon. I say kids, it wasn't really it was kids, toddlers and Grannies all staring fixedly into their phones. It's a weird thing, all these people clearly are there with their friends, they've chosen to go out for the afternoon with them and as soon as they arrive they stop talking to each other and try to catch a snorlax or some other strangely named computer generated thing. Contrast this with what we found up past the EU commission buildings - there's another park up here with a monument celebrating the anniversary of the creation of the kingdom of Belgium (the British picked it's King - ironic really when we say that Brussels has undermined our sovereignty), at this other park there was a vast array of tents with all kinds of people around, some dressed as characters from Lord of the Rings, others just enjoying what turned out to be the Brussels Games Fair. The tents were packed with people (kids, toddlers & Grannies) playing board games, together, with each other,talking and laughing as they did so. I be prepared to bet an expensive 250g pack of chocolates that those at the games fair were having more fun than those sat by the lake!
After leaving the games fair we walked back towards the centre, found an enormous church that looks barely used (the catholic cathedral we later found out) looking for some food and drink. In doing so I think we ventured into the "pink" part of Brussels, now the only reason I think this is that on one of the walls was a life size mural of Tin Tin in a very friendly embrace with Captain Haddock - now I certainly don't remember that from "Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin". Anyhow we found a decent pub - there's not much I can say about Belgian beer that hasn't been said many times before, but after living on a diet of Keo, Carlsberg and Leon for the past year a pint of Leffe was like manna from heaven. I tried several others, as did Beccy (for future reference she likes the fruit ones) before continuing our wandering. We ended the day fairly tired, a little bit tiddly and much more impressed with Brussels than we'd expected to be - that said we've done it now - not sure we'd make a special trip to go back!

Sante