Tuesday, 20 April 2021

Watching the Bee Keepers


It was a beautiful day today and John and I were walking - this is not the normal Tuesday combo so as a result I thought it was Saturday all day!!!!  We had decided to drive down to the edge of Droushia and do a walk which would take us across towards the other Polis/Paphos Road, take in Chrysochou village and then back.  This was to be a fairly gentle walk, mainly on minor roads and with just one hilly bit right at the end.


We had to cross the river at one point on our outward journey and at a different point on our return leg.  Fortunately both times via a bridge which was good news as the water was plentiful and free flowing.  It was a lovely quiet circuit - we met one truck throughout the whole of the journey.  This is definitely a good one for the girlies when we can walk together and are not limited to time.


We encountered our first live snake of the season.  It was a baby and looking at the markings was a coin or a cat snake - inoffensive and not poisonous.  We left it sunbathing on the road and gave it a wide berth and carried on our way heading towards the orange groves on the outskirts of Polis. The smell from the fully blossoming trees was unbelievable.


We took a photograph of this house because our friends Kim and Steve Haslam had stayed here several years ago and we had visited them, had a barbeque with them and swum in the pool.  Funnily enough it was Steve's birthday today so we thought it would be a nice reminder of good times shared.


Our next landmark was the Minaret in Chrysochou village - our friend Chris Pavlides Messis-Pefkaros Simillides was able to give us a bit of information about it...  He says  The village of Chrysochou was inhabited by Turkish Cypriots before the invasion. Chrysochou is an ancient Greek name which means Golden earth or soil that contains gold. The residents used to be Christians (Catholics settlers or even converted to Catholism from Orthodoxy under pressure when the Franco-Lusignians acquired Cyprus from Richard the Lionheart and eventually transferred to the the Venetians by the last Queen Catherine Cornaro) and so was the village of Terra (latin name meaning earth) , Kato Arodes (Arodes is a latin name that means roses), Androlikou, Fasli, Magunta. The mosque (minaret) in Chrysochou used to be St. Nicolas's church.   
 
Not only was it an interesting village but we found a fascinating wood yard which we didn't know anything about and might be the answer to Marky Mark's prayers!


Chrysochou was halfway and we turned to make our way back - at one point we could see two bee keepers tending their hives.  I stood at the end of the road to take a photograph and we were beckoned in because one of the queen's and her swarm had gone walkabout and were hanging in a tree and they were going to capture the swarm and return it to the hive and we were allowed to watch.  It was AMAZING!!  They told us that their honey is honey from Agii Anargyri and they are four times gold medal winners at a London Competition.  On returning home I looked that up straight away and there they were!!!  It was a really special moment - not least because we had only watched Kate Humble doing something similar on a UK TV programme two days previously.


We did a little off-pistery and took a detour up a hill to look at the view and we weren't disappointed.  There was a faint track traversing the field which we kept to and when we got to the summit we could see for miles in all directions.  We had hoped we might find a route cross country to the car but we hadn't realised that the valley between this field and where we needed to be was so steep.


This was the final leg of our journey - John is contemplating the downhill in front of him and then the long long uphill which goes sort of diagonally up to the right and the main Polis Droushia road.  It was quite hard going and if I did this again with the girlies I would drive down further to negate having to negotiate this last hard bit.

All in all a really nice walk and a fabulous interlude to our day - the day which I thought was Saturday but was in fact Tuesday!!!

Whilst we were out Sonia had been to the post office in the village and picked up a couple of parcels for me so I popped in and collected them.  It is two copies of the same book - I had purchased one for me and one for my sister who due to come here in May having rearranged her trip last year twice.  This isn't going to happen sadly so I will need to get the book to her.  I had ordered it because Tregunna was our maiden name - Dad was Cornish and this book is about a Cornish detective whose surname is Tregunna.  The author is from the Netherlands - no idea if it is going to be a good read but it gets reasonable reviews on various websites so as soon as I finish the book I started at Christmas and just haven't got round to completing I will be embarking on this book.  Big thanks to Sonia for collecting my post which saved me a trip and big thanks for the cuppa and the walk round the garden .

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