Friday 24th February 2012

Angeloktisti Church in Kiti 

After a restless night we awoke to a beautiful day with clear blue skies and sun shining.  Very quickly the temperature rose to high 60s and by mid-day was 74F.  This stayed throughout the day until about 1630 when clouds started to form and the temperature dropped rapidly to 50s.

Once again not much to report of note today.  Julia was impressed at seeing a preying mantis sitting in the sunshine on the thermometer.  The first of the year.  Both Lillian and Julia went to the bank, post office and into Larnaca to shop at Lidl and walk.  I chose to sit and read and as the temperature rose I even took my shirt off to start the suntan process.  It was lovely on the patio without any breeze.

The shoppers returned loaded with two large bags of supplies and with tales of stopping at the Angeloktisti Church in Kiti.  An 11th century Byzantine church it has one of the finest piece of Byzantine art, a rare 6th century mosaic of the Virgin Mary.  Lillian and Julia were both impressed with what they saw and described the mosaic as ‘beautiful’.  They were not the only visitors and said that there was a lot of lighting of candles and kissing the pictures of the saints.  I have not been inside but certainly from outside it is a ‘work of art’.

An afternoon of sitting in the sunshine and as the afternoon cooled Julia and I went to collect stones and walk on Kiti beach.  Oh we do like to be beside the sea side.  The tide was out so we were able to walk around the headland onto the sandy Kiti beach which is like many of the Cyprus sandy beaches grey.

Still more to collect!

On return Julia set about starting her stone decoration for garden.  Earlier friends Chris and Nick Plastow decorated a stone using Lillian’s nail varnish with their name and date.  At that time we decided it would become ‘compulsory’ for all visitors to do the same.  Julia will I am sure set the standard to which others will aspire.  Already we have another four sets of visitors booked so it will be  good way to record their visit.  I hope that everyone will willingly do the same.

An enjoyable evening at home.  Lillian prepared once again a lovely meal and we chatted well into the next morning!