A Different Sunday for Us

It started out as a remarkably beautiful and warm day today and remained like that.  We have a coptic due which is a Saharan Gale which is due to last for two days and which means it will be muggy and overcast as the sky is laden and then everything gets covered in a layer of pinky brown dust. This storm is known as El Shams or El Seghira.

Charlie likes to sunbathe on the mat which is outside the kitchen door - this gets the early morning sunshine and, if there is an ant colony on the move, he benefits from a little snackette as he loves an ant or two.  He seems to have fully recovered from his nasty encounter with a blade of grass so for that we are very grateful but his body clock is definitely out of sync which means he is sleeping all day and then wants feeding during the night.

Today, unusually as it is Sunday, John and I had the day to ourselves.  Mum's lovely friend Lilian had invited her for Sunday lunch giving me the day off which meant that we were free to do anything we wanted.  It actually felt like a holiday as we could have a lie-in.  Our meal was in the slow cooker and I didn't have to worry about what time we would be eating.  Normally I spend Saturday cooking our meal for today which has to be transportable and reheatable and then we have to pack it up safely, get down to Mum's, eat it and digest it and return home all within the three hour window we are given.  We didn't have anything planned but we were determined to make the most of the day.

We decided that we would go for a walk and recce a couple of tracks which appear on the map but which we aren't sure actually exist.  The first is on the road out to Pittikopis so we decided to walk to the beginning and see where it took us.  Sadly we have found that in some places what used to be a track is either no longer passable because it has become overgrown or someone has built a house or a photovoltaic park over the top of it.

Droushia is known for its rocks.  They are incredible and the views today were equally incredible and the weather was perfect.  You could see all the way down to the Bay.  We found the beginning of the track and set off - the beginning was reasonably clear but then it became harder to see but appeared to follow a natural watercourse and in places it was pretty wet and soggy and I was so glad I had showered beforehand as I stepped in one patch and ended up splattered with mud.

It was a lovely ramble with beautiful views and the flowers were incredible - originally I had thought that this was not the right terrain for orchids but I was wrong and we saw loads along with the native anemone and ranunculas that are flowering at the moment.  I am really going to have to find a better book on the wild flowers of Cyprus - they are fascinating.

Anyway it was all going swimmingly until we suddenly got Narky Nora declare that we had left the track which had been difficult to make out for quite some time.  We managed to find our way back to the main road but not without some wrong turns - nothing serious but if we are going to walk that way again we need to have a better idea of the route so that we are not marching through someone's field.  As we approached the main road that bit of the track was easy to see so there is just a small stretch which has become overgrown.  Looking at the map there is a second exit further down that meets up with the main part of the track so maybe if we go and have a look at that one it might be better - if you get my drift - anyway that is something to look at again on another day.

We wanted to go and look at the track we walked yesterday under the Radar which was great until the very end when the track disappeared and we had to scramble up the hill to get to where we wanted to be.  That bit of the track has clearly gone but on investigation we could see where we thought it used to be and it wouldn't be too difficult to reestablish it if we went with some secateurs and chopped back the gorse a little.  It would be nice to walk that way without the mad scramble at the end because the rest of it is lovely.

We returned home a bit muddy but had enjoyed being out in the fresh air and decided that we would have an early lunch so that John could settle down and watch the not so Mighty Blades playing Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter finals.

Our meal was lamb shank with hasselback roast potato and hot coleslaw and it was delicious and it set us up nicely for the game - good job lunch was good because the game was not - there was one goal scored by Ollie Norwood of Sheffield United but into the wrong goal so the Blades lost 1-0.  It has been the story of the season - stupid mistakes costing them and thereby costing Chris Wilder his job.  

I spoke to mum later in the afternoon and she had had a lovely day with Lilian - I am so pleased - it rang the changes for her and for us which isn't a bad thing.