Cold and Blustery

It was to be a leisurely start to the day today - the weather is still very cold and blustery - in fact we reckon it is considerably colder now than it was in January and February.  I think it must be my fault as we, by mutual consent, removed the duvet last week when it was warm and sunny and have a quilted throw and fleecy throw only - it meets with Mr Boo's approval - he comes in early in the morning and plonks himself up against my legs or John's legs - it is not so good if it is between us as he pins the bed covers down and I quite often end up with nothing over me and cannot shift him!!

This was the scene from up on the roof terrace - you can see the white horses being whipped up on the coast down at Argaka - that looks chilly and over to the right snow can be clearly seen on the top of the Troodos and on the news it said that quite a number of roads have been closed to vehicles.  This area has probably seen more snow over the last couple of days than the whole of the winter months previously.

We were glad we had done our 'walk' yesterday because the weather was definitely better - we had rain first thing this morning and it was quite heavy and the wind was biting but we decided to go down and check the post and go to the cemetery.  I dug out my puffer jacket but John said he didn't think I would need it - how wrong was he????  As we turned the corner out of the estate I was nearly cut in half!!!  We walked up to the top of the village and then down through to Palates and then on to the Post Office and then the Cemetery.  In doing so, the mystery of the old village bus that had taken us on John's 50th birthday trip to Tsangarides Winery in Limona and back and then had been sitting in a shed in the village ever since was solved.  As we reached the Mobile Phone mast near Andy Savvas's house we bumped into our friendly neighbourhood taxi driver Tassos parking up his big OSYPA bus and he stopped to have a chat.  What we learned is that the old village bus actually belongs to him and he had let Jack and Sons use it - we had hired it from Jack and Sons but he said another time to speak to him direct - we said we certainly would!!!

We continued our walk down through the village and on to the post.  The village is actually looking much better now that the vast majority of the 'improvements' have been completed and the rubbish cleared away.  It would just be nice to see the few eateries open and fully functioning and some life brought back to the place.  With eating and drinking only allowed outside it really is far too cold for them to contemplate opening on a regular basis at the moment.

We picked up our post and the some for the Rosenquists who live in Sheila and Klaus's old house and put it in their postbox as we passed by en route for Dad's.  Everything there was fine save for the fact that his memorial was covered in a layer of dust which even the hose couldn't quite remove - I will have to go up with a brush but it was really too bitter to get my hands wet today.  As we walked back Ros Rosenquist came out to say hello and retrieve her post and we had a bit of a chat and then carried on back home.

We walked back along the main road and turned up opposite Kelly's - we have worked out that this little circuit is about four and half kilometers and so is a good distance without actually going for a 'walk'.  It remained dry all the way round but I was glad to get indoors as my hands were freezing.

We didn't do much for the remainder of the day - John watched the second One Day International cricket England v India which was exciting and for once England were victorious although blooming Stokes managed to get out one short of his century with a terrible shot that he had no reason to even aim at!!!  Well that's my opinion for what it is worth.

I spent the afternoon fiddling about with my watercolour pencils and my oil paint paper which gives some interesting results.  It kept me quite for an hour or so, so John wasn't complaining and it was much warmer to be sat in the conservatory.

Our day was rounded off with the second half of our superb takeaway from the Farmyard - it was absolutely delicious and somewhat spicier the second time round.  We had planned to stay up and start watching a new series but that was wishful thinking!!!