"Poo Bear and the Blustery Day" describes this morning's weather so no bike riding but a 90 minute walk, through the village and along the beach and home. 

Some pictures that were taken along the way:

Pervolia village	Pervolia village church
Pervolia Community Building	Football Stadium
Okra fields	Jogging!

Another week of doing fairly little ..

A garden visitor

 We are both well and enjoying the lovely weather there is here now, clear skies and temps very bearable. No doing much at all really.  Spend a lot of time pottering in the garden.  Lillian is in the process of overhauling the front garden, having taken all of the white stones up to clean cuttings from her prized olive tree, which has an almost perfect round shape.  I don't have the patience for this project but labour at trimming and collecting the fallen leaves each day.  The purple bouganvillea that I cut back in July has had a complete new lease of life with a whole range of new shoots that seem to grow daily and lots of new flowers.  Mixed with the white that is now rampant and dominates the swing it is all looking very nice.  The hibiscus plants although suffering from 'yellow leaf' are growing well and each day more red and yellow flowers show.  Such a shame they last only the day.

We try to swim each day even though the water is cooling.  Lillian does twice the number of lengths than me and she was cursing yesterday as I managed 30 very slowly.  I'm not a good swimmer.  We got the bikes out on Thursday night for the first time in a while and cycled for about 50 minutes along the cliff tops.  It has been too hot to cycle up to now.  I have a little gadget on the bike that tells how far, how fast etc and how many calories used.  We promptly put them back on with a nice meal and bottle of wine.  Both of us are having trouble with our weight going up ...... but what to do?  Eat  less, drink less and exercise more.  Sounds so easy.

Monday night and Saturday morning confirms what I know ..... I'm never going to be a bowls star, although somewhat better play than the first couple of visits at start of the season makes it more enjoyable experience and even end up on the winning side on one game of four played.

Friday confirms my retirement / end of work with final payments received, phone and laptop returned.  A moment of indulgence in the hot tub to celebrate.  Is this really the end of my working life?

A trip to the pub on Saturday full of tension watching the scores come in as Ipswich win and a meal at Pyrgos finishes the evening.

Sunday and an incredibly blustery day.  Such that the awning makes only one brief appearance out as the anemometer spins at an amazing rate, yet with temperatures at 88F the breeze / wind is actually quite pleasant.

Beach walking

No beach picture so another one from the garden!

Just back from an early morning (well 0830) beach walk in the most beautiful of conditions.  Absolutely no movement at all in the air which is as still as can be and of course not a ripple to be seen on the sparkling sea.

Perhaps its because it was early or the summer season is starting to to wane in terms of beach goers as not one of the three beach vendors had anyone sitting on sun loungers.

Despite the shock of seeing a cloud earlier in the week the weather is beautiful with blue skies and less humidity.  This really is an ideal time to visit Cyprus if you like to be in the sun as you can easily sit out all day without roasting.  Its just like November in Dubai!  Whilst still warm, evenings are starting to cool and it is having its affect on the water in the swimming pool which now feels decidedly cooler on the first length before you adjust.  Good job the hot tub stays at a constant 35C.

My first week of officially being  unemployed and retired.  Spent it doing nothing Monday to Friday, rested yesterday and now its Sunday and time to spend the day with 'The Sunday Times' on the iPad.  My biggest gripe at the moment is that there does not seem time to get everything done.

Bowls has started again after the break during the hot sun with two evening sessions and Saturday morning.  I guess with any game, especially demonstrated when I play golf, it takes a time to get back in the swing or in the case of bowls the roll.  Others do not seem to be having that difficulty but my play at times has at best been embarrassing. I don't think there is any chance of me ever becoming any good, however I am sure we will continue to go, especially as Lillian is the exact opposite to me and becoming quite accomplished.

Greek homework!

Lillian continues to persevere with her Greek lessons and is very modest in her assessment of how well she is doing.  A visit to the post office, a trip to Nicosia and chatting in the Pyrgos restaurant this week I can confirm that everyone she spoke with in Greek seemed to a) understand what she was saying and b) responded that her greek was good.  Well done Lillian ........ I am still having trouble with 'thank you' but seemed to have mastered 'good morning'!

Something new ..........

Saw a cloud today - first for over a month.

Haven't seen a swallow for over a week.

Is the summer over?

Thermometer says 34C ........... so I guess not yet.

What to do today?

Garden tidied ........... lengths done .......... so what now?

Garden Pictures

Petunias

towards the pool

Bird of Paradise

Yellow Hibiscus

Early morning beach walk this morning but still 86F even at 0830.  Usual route to Faros where there were very few who had arrived to settle for a day in the sun.  The sea looked beautiful as it sparkled with the early day sunlight, although we did not stop to swim.

Two weeks gone ...............

and life continues in much the same vain.  Sun - sweat, pool - swim, beach - walk, eat - drink, sleep - doze, bike - too hot, shop - wine, pub - beer, work - not much. (Almost finished with work now)

Emily working on the tan - with mobile phone of course!

The high of the last two weeks has been having Emily here for 10 days, joined by friend Laura for 7 of the days ...... or as it happened nights for them, missing most of the days. Emily relaxed a bit and was working on her tan until Laura arrived, then it was party time! They befriended a young guy called Sam that we know from the pub and he showed them where to Club in Larnaka and Ayia Napa! Needless to say we didn't see much of them after that! They went out after we went to bed, and got home about the time we were getting up! Lol!  Anyway, I think they enjoyed it!

 Although time spent with Emily and Laura was fairly restricted to early evening eating we did have a nice meal at Lord Kitchener.  A second visit to this restaurant and it did not disappoint.  Food really is very good, the owners attentive and a nice setting.  can see us returning each time visitors come to town now.  Although next arrivals Lillian's friends Chris and Nick Plastow is not until mid-October by which time the sun sea and pool temperatures will have lowered, although still will be very nice compared with October in the UK.


As with any visitors Laura and Emily followed the tradition of stone laying, although it was very much a last minute thing for both.  Laura looking in a state of shock when she was reminded 15 minutes before departure, hence a quickie!  Emily who showed herself to have her mother's skills in picking up languages has inscribed hers in greek with Lillian's help.  'I want to stay here in Pervolia' is the translation.

Not much excitement

Home, roasting in the sun ......... and that's about it for the last week.  Time spent in the garden, in the swimming pool and the beach.  Each day the temps rise to over 90F with the afternoon average around 94F according to the app in my iPhone.  Sometimes it feels hotter as the humidity has been quite high this week.  Both Lillian and myself get have gotten used to high temperatures over the years, remembering that we used to play golf in Dubai with the temperature well over 100F but cant remember it being so hot here in Cyprus.  But of course we were not here for much of july and August last year returning to the UK for the Olympics.  Was it really a year ago?

The garden continues to take time each day and we have given the bougainvillaea hedge a serious trimming. Means that it is not showing so many flowers at the moment, the first flower phase having past however it looks in a better shape and will we are sure benefit longer term.

After waiting for two years, much to our surprise this week Cyta actually arrived to erect telegraph poles and cables for telephone, TV and internet connection in all the houses.  We have been continually fobbed off by the developer that they could not fix the road which provides access to the compound of houses before Cyta laid the cables.  We had therefore expected them to be underground, which they are inside the compound but much to our angst they come to us via four large telegraph poles!  They can be seen in both pictures.  In the end its no good sweating the small stuff.  Nothing we can do about it and they certainly don't cast a shadow although take a bit of getting used to on the skyline.  The big question is will this mean a start on the road?  A neighbour has been told 'In September'  .... Inshalla.

A new place to go ....

Usually a walk to Faros is taken early morning with the customary stroll to the lighthouse, down onto the beach, a swim and a walk home.  When we get up early enough!

Over the last couple of weeks we have watched the Cliff top cafe at the lighthouse being renovated as the new home for the 'Restaurant and Artcafe' which has relocated from just outside the village.  So a Friday evening stroll to see what is was like.  Very good too.  Always a perfect location with sea views on two sides the main building has been expanded and although we were virtually the first to arrive it will soon become a popular venue judging by the evening trade.  Only a couple of drinks and a small nibble for us but we will certainly be back as the menu looks good and the meals being served seem to be well received by those eating.

As can be seen by the picture we had very comfortable seating and enjoyed our time chatting with a couple on holiday from Northwood, only 4 miles from our London home!

Temperatures rising

How many dead blooms today?

As each day rolls into one it is becoming increasingly difficult to write anything new or exciting in our relaxed life here in Pervolia.

Each day is clear blue skies with temperatures around 94F and increasing to 102F at anytime when driving inland in the car.  This was especially true with a drive to Nicosia for some general shopping. The temperatures for the coming week are set at 100-104F. Whilst at times the wind can be very strong the afternoon breeze is always well received.

So its been time for swimming in the pool and the sea both of which are incredibly warm.  With night time lows not dropping below 82F its hardly surprising they are warm.  We have walked across the road a couple of times for dips in the sea.  Waves have been minimal allowing to actually swim rather than just bob around ...... 30 strokes one way, then turn and 30 again.  The buoyancy in the sea is good and just floating is easy.  Early morning beach walks have been limited by the fact that we keep missing early morning.  Have The Times newspaper each morning on the iPad takes time to get through and now we have 'his and hers' iPads we both sit in silence for the first hour of the morning with paper and coffee.

The garden continues to take time each day with snipping and clipping and of course picking up bougainvillaea leaves.  Despite giving the hedge quite a trim a couple of weeks ago new flowers appear each day and it is a mass of colour..  The white at each end are lovely although these leaves fall and blow with the wind to all parts of the garden and unfortunately to the pool too!  A daily competition ensues between myself and Lillian guessing the number of dead heads she will pick from the petunia pot.  The normal number finishes between 36-48.  It is a mass of blooms.

Trips into the village are always enjoyed with the largest ever pork chop at Pyrgos a weekly treat.  Saturday in the pub resulted in early season despondency and loss of all the pre-season optimism.  Ipswich lose 1-2 their first game.