Gifts, Gardening and Gastronomy

I have run out of time to make Nicky a birthday present which was my plan - I shall keep that under my hat because when I do have time I will get back into the swing of making handmade gifts - I like doing it and I hope people like receiving them.  So thankfully I had found someone on-line who made me a nice gift and I had arranged to go down to pick it up this morning and we were meeting at the Go Kart place on the road to St George's.  I was pleased because I had heard good reports about the little fruit and veg place there which is called Sielis Farm Foods.  What a corking little shop this is and if you go on-line you can order your items and have them delivered.  The veg was lovely and fresh and well priced and the lovely lady behind the counter was a joy to do business with.  John and I love to support little shops like this when we can and actually sometimes they work out cheaper.  Mum will benefit because I got all our veg fresh there for Sunday Lunch and we will be having some carrots, green beans and leeks rather than frozen peas!  

I also must give out a huge thank you shout to Fiona at Ceratonia Crafts for making a beautiful gift at short notice.  I can post the picture because by the time you read this Nicky's birthday will have been and gone.

I chose the charms specifically because they all have significance (I have written down their meaning on a card which I will put in the gift box) and the shell and pebbles come from beaches here on the island.  I loved it and I reckon that if I love it then the recipient should love it too - or at least I hope so.

Once again it was nice to support someone locally and I would encourage you to check out her work - she does some great stuff and if you are looking for a gift which would remind someone of Cyprus you would be sure to be able to find something really lovely and unusual.

 

It was a blustery and changeable day and I stopped as I got up the hill near Kathikas to take a photograph from the viewing point.  The land is green and looks beautiful except if you were to look directly down from this point where someone has dumped a load of furniture - why?  I just don't get the attitude to litter here - there are now so many more places where rubbish can be disposed of but people insist on just lobbing it over the side of the road or down a ravine.  It is such a shame.

On returning home I managed to spend a little time in the garden.  The recent weather has decimated our fruit trees which do bugger all at the best of times but do generally have some leaves on them!  The lime tree has been dealt a double whammy because last summer I tried to control an outbreak of mealy bug which was partially successful but not entirely.  

We decided to give the lime a drastic haircut and open up the framework of branches.  This gave me the opportunity to get rid of all the burned growth and to get into the heart of the tree and check for bugs.  I think the cold weather had killed most of the mealy bug but they thrive in moist damp conditions which meant that the tangle of branches was an ideal breeding ground.

The little tree now looks rather sad but hopefully we have created a good skeleton and we left some green on it to encourage it to survive and grow.  Time will tell.  It was a bit of a shame as some new blossom had arrived before the very cold weather and this tree did normally produce a certain amount of fruit.

The lemon tree has always been a disappointment so we simply gave that a bit of a haircut  and we left the clementine pretty much alone.  Hopefully they will buck their ideas up and soon!

We had our date night meal tonight because we had been out with Mum for lunch yesterday.  As we normally do, we had our fillet steak fix from Naz.  It was outstanding.  It made up for the abject performance of the Mighties who lost tonight.  

John insisted that I slept in the spare room tonight to try and get a good night's sleep - he put the heating on and did a turn down service and propped up the pillows so that I could sleep upright as I am supposed to do.