7th January

It was a bright and breezy day today so we got our walk and Richard came with us.  There was a great deal of debate between John and I as to whether we should wear our lightweight waterproof jackets.  I was adamant that they would not be required, the weather forecast showed no rain for our area but John was not so sure which meant that if I were to be proved wrong I would never hear the last of it!!!

We walked out the back of the village heading for Fitos via Arodes.  This takes you past the official/unofficial dump at Droushia - I have never worked out which it is, whichever it is, it is a disgrace and I have never seen so much rubbish here in the 12 years we have lived in Droushia.  There is so much just left on the side of the road - stuff that will never rot down and disintegrate - a full three piece suite in one instance and quite a recognizable one I should think.  Shame on the fly-tippers and double shame as there is an excellent recycling centre a short distance away in Chrysochous.  I question how anyone can love their island and then indiscriminately dump crap all over it.

Where we turn off  in Arodes we pass the bonkers house that has a small menagerie which includes these deer.  Whilst I cannot begin to imagine why they are here or whether their conditions are suitable I have to say that they never look unhealthy and you can imagine that the magnificently antlered specimen in the middle of the picture was probably in demand over the Christmas Period.

This walk is about a 14 kilometre round trip and isn't too onerous - there is a hilly bit around where Liselotte and John live and the walk back past the tip is a long gentle incline.  

On the hilly bit in Arodes it must be a sheltered spot because there are spring flowers already blooming.  Loads and loads of Anemone which I love but I am sure it is far too early for them.  They will be ruined if we have a hail storm which would not be unusual in January.  They come in a range of colours white, cream, pale pink, dark pink and red, pale lilac and purple.

I was so excited when I spotted the first two, I took a photograph and then looked around me to see that the field and the bank was absolutely full of them.  So pretty, so fresh and so cheerful.

We carried on crossing the main road and taking the track which brings us up the back of Fitos's grill house.  Sadly there are fields and fields of vines where the grapes have just been left to rot - there was a reason why the government paid producers not to harvest their grapes but I don't remember exactly why - it was bound to have been something else that fell foul of Covid - maybe they wanted to reduce the supply to keep the price of wine up - not sure.

Anyway it was at this point in the walk that we would have hoped to smell some cooking coming from Fitos, we had set off not knowing whether or not it was open after the holiday yesterday so looked like the Bisto Kids - we were not to be disappointed!

We arrived reasonably early and thank goodness that we did because by the time we were leaving the place was packed out and with only two people serving our meal could have taken quite some time.

We were able to secure our favourite table in the corner by the windows.  The sunshine was beginning to disappear and be replaced by dark clouds, John spoke wistfully of his little rain jacket which he was sure he was going to need, but what sunshine there was made our little corner table nice and warm.

Outside the window was possibly the newest on the road car that we have ever seen - John did a double take looking at the registration but it was a January 2023 car and it was only a week old.  We couldn't make out the owner form the people dining although John reckoned he would only need to give the bonnet a shove for that person to put in an appearance.

I fancied something light for lunch after all the eating we have been doing lately and Fitos has extended the menu over the last year which now includes some rather interesting sounding salads.  I chose the halloumi one which was absolutely lovely.  I would have it another time but tell Joanna not to bother with the croutons which I am not bothered about.  Richard had a man sized bowl of vegetable soup which he said was lovely and John settled for chicken souvlaki.  It was all very nice and it was so relaxing sitting there that we had to remind ourselves that we were only half way through our walk.

As we started on our way home the sky was absolutely amazing.  To our left and over the coast there were blue skies and puffy clouds, to our right over the mountains it was as black as your hat.  John looked at the sky and looked at me and looked back at the sky but I was confident that if we walked quickly enough we would avoid any rainfall.

We walked back via the little coffee shop by the church in Arodes for a coffee and a comfort break.  The local old boys of the village were sat around a table engrossed in a game which they called Poker but which looked a bit more like a form of rummy to us.  We were in luck that it was still sunny at that point but the remaining stretch back to Lordos 1 is all uphill.

We made it back in the dry - it had been a lovely walk - it would be nice if it were circular because I think we would do it more often - without the stop off for something to eat!!!

The remainder of the day was spent snuggled up at home, SUFC managed a win in their FA Cup tie and we had a snack of leftover bombay potatoes and onion bhajis from last night!