Unwelcome visitors...

The extremely hot weather shows no sign of abating and we are melting.  It is also the middle of the main holiday fortnight for the Cypriots and with so many of them holidaying on the island, and an influx from tourists who have ventured over, Polis and Latchi are absolutely rammed.  Our 'quick' trip to Paps was an exercise in avoidance of those wearing next to nothing and those whose facemasks were doing everything but cover their face.  I read today that some of the restaurants and bars have been getting in trouble for not complying with the Covid restrictions.  For me the thought of mingling with the great unwashed is getting less and less appealing - I am becoming a hermit.  I know there is a huge balancing act between getting the economy back up and running and people's health but to me it looks like the former is becoming more important than the latter.  Maybe I just liked the period of time we had in lockdown with curfew just a bit too much but at least we knew that the vast majority of the population here were all doing exactly the same.

This morning I had got up early to tackle a job which I knew was going to be messy.  My lovely wall of variegated ivy has suffered all year with one pest or another.  Early on all the fresh new growth was jiggered with blackfly and so I had to cut it all off and hope that by the time the new growth returned the blackfly would have gone elsewhere.  More recently I have noticed the glossy leaves looking bedraggled and on closer inspection have found that it is all infested with Mealybug which is disgusting and which I do not want reappearing on the fruit trees as I managed to eradicate it from there last year.

We have considered removing the ivy in its entirety and then John would stone clad that bit of the wall and this may be the catalyst for doing that - although not until it is much cooler.  John needs some stone for the sides of the potting shed so he can get extra and do both jobs at the same time if that is what we decide to do.  In the meantime I set about cutting the ivy as far back as I could so that the wall didn't look too much of a mess.  The squidgy white infestation was everywhere and, can you believe, it is only the fat old females that sit and gorge themselves on my lovely leaves?  

After chopping back I liberally sprayed with a water and washing up liquid solution because this smothers the bugs and kills them apparently and will not be harmful to the cats.  I wonder if the thick growth of the ivy had provided a humid warm environment which had attracted the bugs and now that it has been cut back, thinned out and sprayed they will move elsewhere - or, preferably, die completely.

This was hot and sticky work but I was pleased when I finished and it didn't look too bad - what we did notice was that the ever thickening stem from the original ivy plant was raising up one of the slabs which would so become a trip hazard.  I think this may well make John's mind up about the stone cladding.

There are lots and lots more people around at the moment and likely to be more so permanently as we have seen that both 8b and 9a are back on the market.  We think they are overpriced and there is a massive difference in their prices (€65K!!!) as both have just been tarted up and flipped for resale so not had any of the really important work done to see them through a winter (if you were going to be living there full time).  Anyway as a result we have found that generally the cats are less inclined to wander during the day even thought it can be difficult to locate them at times.  Charlie seems to like to lie under the day-bed, Boris in a drawer and Miss Minnie has secured herself a nice cool and hidden spot on top of the wood store.  I don't know if it was her and Boris who got me up in the middle of the night having a set-to in the front garden - I only saw one half of the encounter and that was Boris but she was certainly the one having a go with Charlie a couple of hours later.  they must have had a right old ding-dong too as she returned minus her collar which she has been wearing for months, if not years.

I spotted her when I went up onto the roof terrace to check on the plants.  My fabulous cactus, given to me one Easter several years ago by Galatia is about to flower again - it does so periodically throughout the year with magnificent blooms which last only one day.

At the bottom of the ladder to the terrace is the mobile which my godmother gave me for my 60th Birthday when I was lucky enough to see her during my brief trip to the UK in January.  I reminded me that I had not spoken to her for a while so I tried Skyping.  No joy with an answer today so I will try again tomorrow.