Monday - Blood Moon...

Can you see it?????  I got up at some ridiculously early hour to try and catch the blood moon only to have a blanket of cloud over Drouseia which meant that getting a photograph was impossible.  Still at least I made the effort!!  Apparently the next one won't be for another 18 years!!!

Explanation of the Blood Supermoon Total Eclipse

What's actually happening is a confluence of three things. The moon will be full and in its closest point in its orbit around the Earth, making it a so-called supermoon. Supermoons appear 14% larger and 33% brighter than other full moons.  In addition to this, a lunar eclipse will occur. In other words, the Earth will line up directly with the sun and moon, directly between the two. So the "moon will completely fall in the shadow of the Earth," Because a lot of light scatters off the Earth's atmosphere, the moon will not look completely dark but have a coppery red color — hence the blood moon moniker

Better off looking at this link if you want to see what it should have looked like - Blood Moon Photos

They say that the super blood moon brings with it wonderful things so I wondered how my Monday would pan out.  When I was working the thought of Mondays filled me with dread - I would get to a certain point on a Sunday and realise I had work the next day and my mood would spiral downwards.   What a difference retirement makes - even retirement on a limited budget!

I trotted off to Art at Sheila's this morning with a spring in my step and stopped on the corner of Lordos 1 to take a photograph of the beautiful Hibiscus flowers that are in amongst Savvas's hedge.  I was so busy taking the photograph that I didn't realise the flower had a visitor.- maybe green grasshoppers are lucky - I hope so!

This is the aftermath of the fire we had - what a mess - fortunately nothing much got damaged but it could have been very much worse.  This afternoon Sharon and I went racing out because we could smell another fire nearby - this time it was over the back near the garage and once again the fire crews were called out.

It was a typically busy morning in Drouseia - on my walk down through en route to Sheila's I saw no-one!!!  I had taken my camera with me as I am looking for the subject of my next picture - not that I am anywhere near finished on the current one but it is always good to know what I will be doing next.

I am really pleased with the progress I am making on this picture which is of a window of a taverna/shop in Kouklia - I really love the vibrant blue shutter so I am thinking of doing something along the same lines next time.

There is a lovely old building next door to Christos's taverna in the village which has blue doors and shutters and I know that Georgia lives in South Africa so I think I might try and do this next time and then when she is over next Summer I can give her the picture and she can take it back with her to South Africa and look at it a remember how beautiful it is - we will see!

On my way back home I called into the post office to check to see if we had any mail and to book a table to eat on Thursday night with Pam and George before they go home on Saturday.

The old ladies of the village were stringing almonds in readiness for making shoushouko  which is a particular favourite of my mum.  Traditionally they dip the strings of almond in wine juice and build it up like a candle so that there is the hard almond inside and a soft squidgy not-too-sweet covering outside.  They now also substitute the grape juice with pomegranate juice which is equally as delicious - probably a million calories but who cares!!!  Anyway Marina's mother and mother-in-law (I believe) were more than happy for me to take their photograph.  Not sure which is which but I know that one of them recently had a bad fall - hence the zimmer frame.

This afternoon Elena and I had decided to try out a belly dancing class - neither of us are born yogis but wanted to find something that might help us move and keep fit.  We had to leave early as Rabia had football practice at 5.00pm.  There was great excitement as we traveled down towards Latchi because we could see this massive and beautiful cruise liner anchored off of Latchi.  This is the MS Europa 2  dubbed the 'ritziest ship in the industry' one has to wonder exactly why it had stopped off at Latchi which has very little to offer the discerning traveller save for some nice restaurants around the Marina.  They would have had to ferry them in specially as the marina cannot accommodate such a big liner.  Still it was a sight to behold - very majestic in the waters.

We dropped Rabia off and then headed out to Pomos where Elena will be catering for a birthday party later in the week.  The venue was a villa we have seen being built over the last couple of years and which has an absolutely stunning view and an infinity pool to die for but the inside space was smaller than I had anticipated and there was an interesting range of artwork on the walls!

We had time to quickly stop off for a coffee on the way back before we were due to twiddle our tums and with lippy applied Elena allowed me to take her photograph!  She had not been to this coffee spot before and loved the rustic charm.  Having engaged the proprietress in conversation she ascertained that they used the lovely fruit growing around and about to make hand-made toiletries.  We were given a plate of absolutely delicious guava to eat and handed a bar of homemade papaya soap as we left!

Three of us pitched up for our free taster belly-dancing lesson.  OMG if we had thought it was going to be a doddle we were sadly mistaken!  You have no idea just how difficult it is to shake your backside and leave all other parts of you static or shake your boobies and leave everything else static!!!

Neither Elena nor I are very good at foot hand coordination so we opted for more free-style than anything else but it got our pulses racing and bodies moving and our teacher Sofi seemed happy with effort rather than content which is good - I have to say she was very encouraging!

We agreed that we would persevere so this is to become a regular Monday evening activity.  The class is to remain small as we need quite a bit of space for moving around so I am going to drag Diana along to make up the numbers.

By the time we had finished we were absolutely soaking and having picked up one small boy (Rabia) who had been running around football training for two hours there must have been a very pungent aroma in the car!

On the way home we watched the moon rising up over the mountains - it is still a super moon looking huge in the sky and making the villages below look very small indeed.  Nature is indeed truly wonderful and we are blessed that we can see so much without light pollution.

After a quick shower Elena and I went out Thelma and Louise Style down to the metrolops for a long awaited curry.  We felt very wicked being out late and on a school night.  Elena had chosen the Koh-i-Noor as she had eaten there some time ago when it was located near the Alexander the Great - it has subsequently moved next door to Zaffron (husband and wife own the two establishments).  We had a great night although I have to say that the food was merely ok - nothing to make us want to rush back again.  We just about got home before midnight!