A Day of Contrasts...

Today was a right old day of contrasts - we woke to clear blue skies and bright sunshine.

In the garden my lovely jolly daffodils are beginning to flower - the bulbs were brought over by Laura and Mark on one of their trips - it is a little piece of Wales in Cyprus and reminds me of them everytime they are in flower.

Laura and Mark have also come to John's rescue putting him up for the night before he returns from the UK - saving him a 4.00am start and massively long journey from Sheffield to Bristol Airport - for which I am eternally grateful because I would have worried like made about him getting there on time and in one piece.  It is nearly five years since John last went back to the UK and drove on the roads there - things will have changed and he will be in an unfamiliar car doing a route he has never done before.  Plus it gives him the chance to go back and sample the food at the Masons Arms in Odcombe - run by our lovely friends Drew and Paula - a place where we spent many a happy hour - fond memories.

I needed to pop down to Polis with a couple of errands this morning so decided to take a look at the beach in Latchi - it was glorious with stunningly blue seas and skies and the temperature was lovely.
This last week the weather has been so good - if you were a visitor you would wonder why we say that February can be unpleasant!  There were only a few people around at Latchi and I was tempted to test out the temperature of the sea water but I didn't have a towel so decided against it but I bet there will have been some mad tourist that went in!!

I took a few photographs and then got back into the car and made my way down the back roads to Polis - passing by the Eliofos Centre so I can confirm Matthew and Sarah it is still standing and looks to be being tidied up ready for the forthcoming season.  Normally there is only a short period of time between UK Easter and Cypriot Easter and I think last year they actually fell at the same time but this year Cypriot Easter isn't until May!

I had been asked to get some flowers by a friend for a friend - Louise had asked if there was a florist in Droushia that she could ring and get some flowers delivered - I said we had a tiny 'supermarket' and the best it could rustle up would probably be some rotting old lettuce leaves so I called into the Florists opposite George's and got a hand-tied bunch which I was going to drop off later.

Having got my shopping in readiness to cook lunch for Mum and Dad on Sunday I made my way back to Droushia leaving glorious sunshine behind in Polis - as I climbed the hill and got to about John and Susan's house things began to change drastically - to my left there was sunshine - to my right it was as black as your hat with what seemed to be a dense fog creeping along.

This was apparently the dreadful sandstorm that had been anticipated - it looked more like rolling mists but it had a weird smell and by the time I got to Droushia you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and it felt damp and chilly.

It got progressively worse and worse as the afternoon wore on and the view from the garden deteriorated - it was like winter all over again - what a difference in a couple of hours.  This weather was not exclusive to Droushia and Mum rang to say that they had experienced it down in Emba although not quite as thick and as prolonged as we had it.  We contemplated lighting the fire but we were going out and it really wasn't that cold so we didn't bother.  Amazingly we had generated more electricity this morning than we had yesterday when it felt like we had had much more sun!!!

We eventually managed to meet up with Lou and H who have been working like Trojans since they returned from their holidays.  We had a meal at the Brewery and at long last H was able to get to sample one of their burgers.  It was pretty busy in there with most tables taken and it was lovely and warm - nice atmosphere, nice food and great company.