Poor weather...

It is Tuesday and the weather is appalling, the hail overnight makes it look like it has been snowing - this might actually not be far from the truth as snow is forecast in this area tonight.  Last year was the first year since we have been living here that we escaped any snow, in fact the winter was mild and wet but this year is awful.


Pickleball restarts today but we have a couple of people unavailable and so I spent the morning trying to find enough people to play otherwise I would have gone down myself to make up the numbers which I really didn't want to have to do but rather that than cancel it.  As a result I had to postpone seeing Mina until tomorrow and then she phoned me to say that there had been some damage to the kennels caused by the weather so she wouldn't be able to make it plus she was taking delivery of her new puppy (which she had forgotten) so it was definitely out of the question.  We agreed that I would pop round and see her on Thursday and take some soup with me so we could have a bit of lunch together and catch up on what has been happening.  Before we know it Claire will be back from her trip to the UK!!!

With pickleball sorted (for which many many thanks Tina for filling the space) I set off down to Polis to run some errands.  The rains have made the end of our road into an impromptu lake and when I left if wasn't raining but started again soon after I had left which was a bit of a bugger as I had forgotten to put on my waterproof Kagoule or pick up an umbrella.

I did my shopping in Paps and was so pleased that they had pigs' livers in but not as pleased as Boris and Minnie will be when I get home - they have had to put up with chickens' livers which are not their favourite!

I was calling to see Sonia who I have not seen since her 70th birthday and decided to call into the cake shop in Polis to pick up some traditional Cypriot sweet cakes to take with me.

I got a selection which were all nicely wrapped up in some festive paper - I am not sure exactly what I chose - apparently they are all different but all look like a take on Baclava to me.

As I left the cake shop I passed some poor workers trying to deal with an overflowing drain.  I am not entirely sure trying to sweep the excess water back down it was having an impact on the flood waters - they seemed oblivious to the fact that the drain was BLOCKED and so no amount of sweeping was going to do any good!  I had read somewhere that earlier in the week they had removed the drain covers to let the water subside which is ok if you are aware that they have done that and can see that there is a bloody great hole that your wheel could go down.

Sonia lives in a really nice part of Polis - it is hard to think that this is almost in the centre of the town because you approach it via a very rural road and today, if it weren't for the fact that the trees on the right are olive, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in England somewhere.  Anyway Sonia is fine and she tells me that she is hoping to get a car later this week and go back to driving which she had to give up when she had her stroke.  This is a major step forward for her and I am so pleased that she has been able to make such a good recovery.

We had a lovely chat before it was time for me to leave and get the shopping back home and ensure that Tom was going to be around to unlock the pickleball court otherwise I would have had to shoot down and do it as I am the only other key holder.    It is hard to imagine once the winter is over and the sun has been out a couple of weeks just how green and lush the countryside can be.

I nipped down to take a photograph of this horrendous 'development' which is being built at the place we used to call Eucalyptus Beach or Our Beach - John and I used to go here for a walk in the Spring and would always find loads of driftwood.    It was a very quiet and unspoilt stretch of coastline at the end of a an oldish development (which includes an very derelict and defunct 'nightclub') but which now has these concrete monstrosities being built - quiet no longer I am afraid.

There was nothing particularly appealing about the coast today - the sea was grey and the skies were grey although as I was leaving it looked like there might be the possibility of a little sunshine.  I made my way back home and actually for a short while the skies lightened and the sun began to show through.

A bit of sunshine can make all the difference but it was very shortlived and it was raining again by the time I got to Droushia.  We think Angela and Philip from 3B have left - they have been here for two weeks and have had terrible weather the whole time - in fact I don't think they have had a day without rain - still they have central heating so I don't expect they have taken any notice but there is a distinct difference between chosing to be indoors for two weeks and not having any choice in the matter plus we cannot believe that the strange thing the builder did by cutting off the roof tile overhang helped keep the rain from penetrating the building and we have had soooooo much rain.

Once in we battened down the hatches - it is bitterly cold and I feel like I have a bit of a chill.