January 3rd: It's cold and grey at the moment.
It was reasonably warm at the end of last week, but the New Year
seems to have brought winter with it - although looking around,
a casual visitor would probably think it's Autumn. Most of the
large-leaved trees seem to have shed their foliage in the last
few days, so there are leaves just about everywhere: either soggy
(when it's been raining) or crunchy underfoot.
January 8th: It still seems slightly incongrous
to buy bedding plants in the middle of winter, but that's what
we did today. Really I should have got some about a month ago
or maybe even before then, but Richard was away in November and
then, as usual, December was remarkably busy. We went to three
plant shops before I found a reasonable collection of bedding
plants, including some plugs - in the end we bought about 60
plants for the grand total of £12.50. There were quite
a few petunias amongst them, as they always do well, and some
new antirrhinums since our last ones seem to have died. I think
they're biennials - they certainly last more than one year.
The sun has been shining
all week although it's a bit chilly. I spent about an hour planting
out some of the new plants, having to do quite a bit of weeding
as I did. I put some in the front and some along the wall at
the end of the back garden. We haven't put bedding plants there
before and I don't suppose they'll survive at all once it starts
to get hot as it's in full sun, but it should look nice in the
spring. By the time it started getting dark I had only planted
about half of what we had bought, but since each one probably
took about five minutes that's not surprising!
Tim made our first batch
of lemonade this week, and I'm squeezing oranges most morning
for juice - the citrus trees are laden! The 'grass' is looking
very green and lush, albeit full of weeds. But we cut it this
week, over a couple of days, and it looks almost like lawn. It's
certainly greener than it's ever been at this time of year.
January 15th: We should probably have cut the
'grass' again this weekend, as it's started to look more like
weeds than lawn, but it's raining. I suppose I should have trusted
the forecast, which predicted rain starting today and then continuing
for the next ten days, but it's not always very reliable and
it's been sunny (if cold) all week. I've done some weeding in
the past few days but haven't put any more of the bedding plants
out, although I watered the ones I planted last weekend and they
seem to be doing well. At least I won't need to water today!
January 18th: It's rained almost constantly
now for three days. Sometimes like English drizzle, sometimes
really heavy, tropical style. Tim's roof is leaking though nothing
like as badly as it was last year. We have a plastic tablecloth
over the floor and some buckets in useful positions. Richard
wants a ladder long enough to get into the 'loft space' so he
can check from inside if there are any holes; apparently nobody
can go on the roof until it's been dry for at least a week since
the tiles are prone to cracking if anybody steps on them when
they're wet.
I had to do some laundry
today, but there was no chance of hanging it outside. So I hung
it over the airer. We turned the kerosene heater on at lunch-time,
it was so cold and damp in the house, and now the airer full
of clothes is standing in front of it. I hope everything will
dry.
January 28th: We're thinking about buying a
couple of new sofas for the living room. The three-seater one
we have is remarkably uncomfortable; we have a house group here
every Friday evening, and although nobody complains it would
be nice to have something a little more comfortable! I realised
just how bad it was when I watched a DVD sitting there, and ended
up with the most awful neckache.
So we've been visiting
the thrift shop every Friday morning before doing our shopping;
stock moves quite fast and sometimes there's very nice furniture
there sometimes. Unfortunately we haven't found anything we like
yet. I'm not even sure exactly what it is we want, although I
expect I'll know when I see it! We did try looking round furniture
shops to see if there was anything in the sales, but most of
them were rather dreary. Perhaps we were looking in the wrong
place, although we drove around for ages and visited several.
Leather furniture seems to be in fashion at present: it looks
very smart, but with four cats in the house it wouldn't stay
that way for long, and scratched leather looks dreadful. Besides,
with our cold winters and hot summers, we'd rather have them
covered in fabric.
We did find one shop downtown
which had quite nice suites, at not too great a price: they can
do any combination of three-seater, two-seater or single chairs,
and in a selection of coverings, so we may well decide to go
for that. If we ever get around to it..!
The weather seems surprisingly
warm for this time of year, though no doubt we'll have a cold
spell before Spring begins. It's about 20C in the daytime - overcast
but not wet. The citrus trees are packed with fruit; I'm squeezing
oranges for juice every morning, and making lemonade weekly.
January 30th: This morning we had a major service
at church with the affirmation of two Elders; this is the result
of about 18 months of discussion. Initially some folk wanted
to call a Pastor - we've been without one for about eight years,
run by a church council. So discussion forums were set up to
talk about what we wanted of a pastor, what funding was available
etc; they went pretty well but the concensus in the end was that
a pastor from out of Cyprus would take a long time to adjust
to the oddities of the island, and that the Scriptural principles
are generally for God to call people from within a congregation
rather than from outside, equipping people as necessary within
each local church.
So then there were more
discussions and prayer meetings, and nomination forms, and so
on, with eventual agreement to form an eldership - which meant
changing the constitution, and that had to be approved by the
signed-up membership... all very lengthy and complicated with
so much beaurocracy!
They had hoped to have
three elders; four were nominated and agreed to stand, but in
the end only two were chosen. So this morning they were officially
accepted, and the church was absolutely packed. Tim wasn't there
- he was playing the organ at St Helena's, the Anglican church
over the road. The regular organist is away for a couple of months
so he had agreed to play at all the evening services and then
said he'd do some morning ones too. Apparently their church was
also packed as the Synod for Cyprus and the Gulf is happening,
so they were pleased to have Tim this morning.
times since 11th April 2005