The island is gripped at the moment by a mass migration, not quite on the scale of the wildebeest in Africa but equally impressive...
Millions, if not billions, of painted lady butterflies are making a stopover on their way to the Balkans as part of their annual migration. Now they say "Annual" but everyone is agreeing that, in all the years they have lived on the island, they have never witnessed this spectacle before. The air is awash with the delicate lepidoptera going on their holidays. The butterflies pass through Cyprus at a rate of 25,000 per hour! Amazingly as we were driving through them en route to pickleball yesterday
they seem to career towards the windscreen and then somehow divert upwards and over the top - we didn't appear to kill a single one.
This morning we were clearing the space outside the kitchen door so that we could put our new furniture there. We had decided that it didn't need decking at the moment because as we were putting a sort of sofa and two chairs and coffee table ensemble there once they were in the right position they wouldn't need to move and therefore the legs and feet wouldn't get damaged by the shingle.
We had advertised our sad old furniture making very clear that it needed some serious TLC and Tracey from the Bowling Alley in Prodromi had asked for it and as she is friends with Sharon and Sean they were going to take it down for her which saved us a job - once which was going to be night on impossible as the furniture wouldn't fit in the Pug and might well have disintegrated further trying.
It is amazing how big the space looks with no furniture there. It gave me a great opportunity to remove any weeds that had been hiding and to check the plants and cut any of them back if necessary.
I like this space - it is a great place to sit and relax and is right by the drinks fridge which is located in the pump house. It gets sun nearly all day when the sun is high enough and is a great place to get some washing dried hence John has put a couple of lines by the pump house doors.
Having busied ourselves to get the old furniture out of the way early doors I failed miserably to get the bed made - when I returned to do so the boys had got their first so Boo, Charlie and Chivers were peacefully snoozing away and it seemed a real shame to move them. Ultimately they get up and get off and then I can get the job completed.
This was the adult jigsaw that we were going to be faced with once we had got our new furniture out of George's and unpacked - it looks robust but there are so many bits and the instructions are scant to say the least - a few pictures and that is it - I tried to identify the various parts but even that proved a bit of a challenge so we decided to return to this job after we had been to meet Simon, Melanie and the girls down at Yialos for lunch!
You know that Summer is just round the corner when Yialos opens after its Winter break!!! This year they have installed a wood burner in the covered area and I am hoping that means it will stay open much later maybe even right through - we would certainly go there if it were open. The inside area has been nicely decorated and the toilets and kitchen buildings have been stone clad which looks lovely.
It was good to meet up with the Rogers' Family. It was fascinating to watch and hear the girls doing their Greek homework which they just take in their stride. They were learning a word for each letter of the Greek alphabet and although I recognised most of them I was stumped when it came to υποβρύχιο which was not a word I recognised. Little Frances just rolled her eyes at me and said "It's Submarine - OBVIOUSLY" - thank you Frances, yes obviously!!!!
So Yialos has streamlined its menu but the Chicken Caesar Salad is as fabulous as ever and we all enjoyed our food - particularly Jasmine who munched her way through taramasalata and pitta breads with some of my salad. Not quite what you would expect a 7 or 8 year old to chose!!!
We returned to what turned out to be like an episode of the Krypton Factor but between us we managed to get the new furniture built. It is much more robust than what we had before and because it is moulded and not woven should withstand the ravages of the weather better than the old one. The cats gave it a good old 'once over' but Boo wasn't overly impressed by the quality of the cushions so wandered off whilst Chivers checked out the stability of the table.
Millions, if not billions, of painted lady butterflies are making a stopover on their way to the Balkans as part of their annual migration. Now they say "Annual" but everyone is agreeing that, in all the years they have lived on the island, they have never witnessed this spectacle before. The air is awash with the delicate lepidoptera going on their holidays. The butterflies pass through Cyprus at a rate of 25,000 per hour! Amazingly as we were driving through them en route to pickleball yesterday
This morning we were clearing the space outside the kitchen door so that we could put our new furniture there. We had decided that it didn't need decking at the moment because as we were putting a sort of sofa and two chairs and coffee table ensemble there once they were in the right position they wouldn't need to move and therefore the legs and feet wouldn't get damaged by the shingle.

It is amazing how big the space looks with no furniture there. It gave me a great opportunity to remove any weeds that had been hiding and to check the plants and cut any of them back if necessary.
I like this space - it is a great place to sit and relax and is right by the drinks fridge which is located in the pump house. It gets sun nearly all day when the sun is high enough and is a great place to get some washing dried hence John has put a couple of lines by the pump house doors.
Having busied ourselves to get the old furniture out of the way early doors I failed miserably to get the bed made - when I returned to do so the boys had got their first so Boo, Charlie and Chivers were peacefully snoozing away and it seemed a real shame to move them. Ultimately they get up and get off and then I can get the job completed.
This was the adult jigsaw that we were going to be faced with once we had got our new furniture out of George's and unpacked - it looks robust but there are so many bits and the instructions are scant to say the least - a few pictures and that is it - I tried to identify the various parts but even that proved a bit of a challenge so we decided to return to this job after we had been to meet Simon, Melanie and the girls down at Yialos for lunch!
You know that Summer is just round the corner when Yialos opens after its Winter break!!! This year they have installed a wood burner in the covered area and I am hoping that means it will stay open much later maybe even right through - we would certainly go there if it were open. The inside area has been nicely decorated and the toilets and kitchen buildings have been stone clad which looks lovely.
It was good to meet up with the Rogers' Family. It was fascinating to watch and hear the girls doing their Greek homework which they just take in their stride. They were learning a word for each letter of the Greek alphabet and although I recognised most of them I was stumped when it came to υποβρύχιο which was not a word I recognised. Little Frances just rolled her eyes at me and said "It's Submarine - OBVIOUSLY" - thank you Frances, yes obviously!!!!
So Yialos has streamlined its menu but the Chicken Caesar Salad is as fabulous as ever and we all enjoyed our food - particularly Jasmine who munched her way through taramasalata and pitta breads with some of my salad. Not quite what you would expect a 7 or 8 year old to chose!!!
We returned to what turned out to be like an episode of the Krypton Factor but between us we managed to get the new furniture built. It is much more robust than what we had before and because it is moulded and not woven should withstand the ravages of the weather better than the old one. The cats gave it a good old 'once over' but Boo wasn't overly impressed by the quality of the cushions so wandered off whilst Chivers checked out the stability of the table.
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