Wednesday January 9th - SNOW...

This is the scene which greeted us when we woke this morning.  Snow - real snow and not hail.  It was white over and snowing hard and looked set for the day and we had freezing fog to go with it - fantastic!!  I took one look and thought I really didn't want to be going out in that.  We then had a text from Irene saying that the roads in and out of the village were quite treacherous and not to drive unless we had to so I decided that I would not be venturing down to Neo Chorio and craft which was a bit of a shame because I wanted to see the ladies but I just didn't fancy the journey.

We were emailed a picture from Klaus who had obviously been out early and built himself a snowman.  Only yesterday he and Sheila were saying that we had had much worse weather than them even though they are only on the other side of the village but they are just that little bit more sheltered and obviously the dead people look after them!!!

Having made the decision not to go to craft we decided that the warmest place to be was in bed so John carried the TV in from the conservatory, brought in a couple of coffees and settled down the cats and all four of us spent the morning watching a film.  It took a while but eventually we settled on Seven Pounds starring Will Smith which was about the only film on the I-Pod which neither of us had seen before.

It took a bit of working out the plot but in the end we both thought it was quite a good film even though I thought it was quite sad at the end - so be warned girlies if you are going to watch it get the hankies ready!!

It was bloody cold when we got up, cold and miserable so we put the immersion heater on so we could have a good hot shower, dug out some beans and had comfort food of beans and cheese on toast for lunch and started to watch the skies clear.  There was a little sunshine coming through and that made the conservatory the warmest place to be.  We decided to stay in the conservatory and lit the gas fires and set up the TV to watch another film once we had showered.

Typical that the sun should come out again when I had made the decision not to go to craft but by this time it was too late.  The weak sunshine coming through the glass of the conservatory was very welcome and with the heaters on it was really quite pleasant.

The very very cold conditions outside are causing us all sorts of problems with condensation.  The bedroom door in the spare room which opens out onto the decking was soaking on the inside even though that room feels very cold at the best of times - it is obviously warmer than outside and so the warm air condenses on the inside of the door.  I had to clean it off and move the curtain out of the way so that it doesn't get damp.  The draught excluder has borne the brunt of the condensation dripping down and looked disgusting as it was pickled with mould - lovely - so I had to give it a scrub and a wash.  I hope to goodness that my clothes in the wardrobe are ok - it does make you worry.  

If we had realised beforehand we would probably not have gone for metal framed double glazing but wood needs regular treatment otherwise that deteriorates and plastic doesn't last out here so either way you are buggered!

Throughout the day we had a mix of sunshine and then heavy snow showers - it was most definitely a day for being indoors.  I know they said that last winter was the worst for 30 years but we never had weather like this last year in the first week of January - our beach clean on Sunday is looking decidedly iffy!!  and I think Cyprus is seriously going to have to reconsider marketing itself as a Winter sunshine destination!!

We had a visitor in the garden this afternoon - I did not take this picture as the only decent one I took it had its back to me!!!  This is a little Sardinian Warbler who probably got sold Cyprus as a winter sunshine destination but would be better off sunning itself in Sardinia.  The poor thing flew into the glass of the conservatory door and stunned itself.  We kept and eye on it to make sure it recovered and also kept an eye on Chivers who was taking an unhealthy interest in its progress.  Chivers is most definitely on the mend thank goodness and we are now trying to slowly fatten him up.

So this is a picture of the evening sky and the clouds forming over the sea.  We now have the wood burner lit and it is one degree outside and dropping.  We are off down to Paphos tomorrow so hope the roads aren't icy in the morning.