Mum update...

Mum text me at 7.00am this morning and it frightened me to death - that early I thought there must be some terrible issue and that it was probably to do with her eye but it was to tell me that she wasn't doing too bad after her fall.  Phew - great news but probably not that early in the morning.  I did not tell her that I was going to go down and see her today to double check but that is what I did.

Prior to that I had agreed to take George and Pam on an easy walk around the outskirts of the village in search of asparagus which George planned to cook for their supper this evening.  It was quite chilly when we set off but within a few minutes I had located some asparagus for them to pick.  Showing them the 'mother' plant and the fresh juicy purple shoots poking through they knew what they should be looking out for.  At the crossroads we bumped into Paul and his mum Helen.  Helen and her husband Gregory are great friends of George and Pam and so they were delighted to see them.  In true Cypriot fashion we conducted the whole conversation in the middle of the road at a junction!!!

My foraging students were excellent, as I said to George once you know what you are looking for and you get your eye in you cannot stop noticing the fresh asparagus and you just want to pick the plump sweet stems.  Because of the poor Winter it is unusually late to be able to find such a good supply but I am glad because there is nothing better than finding ingredients for your supper from the land around you.

We walked to Inea and then back to Droushia and I tried to point out all the places of interest and all the plants which I could recognise.  It is so lovely to see George just taking pleasure in being back after all this time and he gives me cooking tips - based on the food he ate as a child and I think he likes the fact that I can recognise lots of plants and like to try and cook some of the traditional foods.

We are lucky to be living in such a beautiful part of the island.  There is so much bad going on in the world at the moment that it is something we really should try and appreciate a little bit more.  We made our way home and I left George and Pam at their house.  John was out catching up with Rob somewhere in the village so I got myself organised to go down to Paphos and see Mum and pick up a bit of shopping in readiness for Easter plus I had ordered a special mop for Pam from Cyprus Emall yesterday and they had rung to say it was in Paphos awaiting collection today!!!  We had also missed the butcher yesterday because we were later leaving the afternoon tea than anticipated and that was because we were later starting because of Mum's fall.  Argy had asked me to order her a leg of lamb for Easter and although she said she wasn't desperate for it having told her that we missed the butcher I felt guilty so decided to call in there as well.  I also had a mountain of grapefruit to pick up from Marianne in Arodes!

Mum was thrilled to see me and she looked much better than I had anticipated.  Her wounds were healing nicely because we were using all the right stuff and her eye seemed none the worse for the jolt although she will have to have new glasses.

I was exhausted by the time I got back from racing around the various shops in Paphos before they close for the Easter holidays.  

There were so many grapefruit that we decided to share them out with neighbours rather than them go off.  It actually gave us an opportunity to speak to Pete and Gail who live opposite and up a bit.  He was trying to change some taps and John offered some tools to help.  When he came over to collect them he was amazed by the garden being a keen gardener himself and asked if Gail could come and see it as well.  Our house and garden layout always confuses people because it is back to front and we have a bit extra garden so it is difficult for people to translate what we have with what they have got!