Ikea gets everywhere!

Just along the donkey track from us ...

Now, step a little closer …

2010 Ikea catalogue, in Greek

Our old friends Ikea are still doing a roaring trade here!

The yellow tree is a-buzzing!

Parts of the garden are still a mystery to us.  Before he left Mad Alex gave a rudimentary overview of some of the plants but it was far from complete and, as we’ve since discovered, not entirely accurate.  Gosh, there’s a surprise.

Near the end of the garden, and overhanging the stone wall, was a fairly forlorn 15 foot high tree.  During our first attempt at pruning we cut the tree back, mainly concentrating on removing the branches on our side of the wall as they were fighting with the yucca, an unknown fruit tree and one of the lemon trees.  We left the height, took the weight off the wall, and left all of branches hanging out into the street.

Its hard pruning seems to have done it no harm at all as it is now in full flower.  It is covered in hundreds of most vibrant bright yellow flowers, as well as clusters of seed pods.  We still have no idea what the tree is.

Today, whilst walking down towards the gate, we heard a loud buzzing noise.

For most of April the garden is alive with the sound of bees as they come along to harvest the pollen from the fruit tree flowers, and ensure we get a good fruit crop, but hearing this so late in the year is new.

A little investigation found that the yellow tree was full of the biggest, fattest bees we’ve ever seen.  The bees were moving from flower to flower, diving into each blossom to get the very last pollen in each one.  The sound was so loud that while we were taking photos tourists stopped to look at the trees and the bees.

It turns out that photographing busy bees isn’t easy … but there’s just no other way to get across their size.  So, please excuse any slight out-of-focusness – the depth of field issues were an interesting challenge!

The yellow-flower tree

The flowers in close-up

For sizing purposes that’s a 1€ coin nestling among the flowers; it just fits inside one of the trumpet flowers.  A little research confirms that the 1€ coin is about the same size as a UK £1 coin and, for our American cousins, the size of a US quarter.

One huge bee in a pretty big flower

Preparing for entry

We still have no idea what the tree is so any insights or suggestions would be gratefully received.  In the meantime … the buzzing continues!

The fruit trees, mid-October

The sun is shining, jobs are done for the day so before we put the kettle on for a well earned cup of tea we thought it would be useful to get some photos of the fruit trees in the garden and surroundings. The fruit is ripening day by day so it’s a good time to capture where each of the trees is in their cycle.

The small citrus tree is absolutely laden with fruit … they are tiny, but there are plenty of them.

Mandarins ... tangerines ... satsumas ... clementines?

So far we aren’t entirely sure what they are … mandarins, clementines, satsumas, tangerines?  Mad Alex allowed someone to strip all the fruit from the tree before we took possession last year.  For some time this wasn’t clear, leaving us thinking the tree produced no fruit at all, until we spotted two stray fruit lurking right in the very centre.  Clearly too hard to harvest for whoever took the rest of the fruit!  We picked the remaining two and they were lovely … not too sweet or too tart and not oversupplied with pips either.

So far it looks like we’ll get a good crop but at the moment over 95% of the fruit are still a dark green.  The occasional one or two are starting to turn to a pale green, then yellow before becoming bright orange in late November.

Just starting to ripen

The two lemon trees are also doing well.  The tree near the gate has larger, still solid green, lemons; the garage tree  has smaller but more advanced lemons which are just starting to turn yellow.

Green lemons on the gate-end tree

Ripening lemon on the garage-end tree

The pomegranate tree is presenting some problems with regard to its attractiveness to local wildlife, but that’s an issue for another day.  In the meantime the fruit that have escaped such attention are ripening fantastically well.  One of our neighbours has three trees in her courtyard.  Last year she estimated that they produced over 100 kg of fruit between them.  Far, far more that she could use or give away to friends, so she ended up bagging up the fruit and leaving them outside her house with a note offering them for free to tourists.

Near-ripe pomegranates

Just around the corner, down the donkey track, there is a derelict plot containing the remains of a partially renovated two storey house.  If anyone is looking for an adventurous renovation project then look no further!  In the absence of any care and maintenance pomegranate and particularly fig trees have been growing unchecked.  The figs are coming on well, with a mix of under-ripe and hard green fruit and delicious looking ripe purple figs.

Ripening figs

Yet more figs

Those with a keen eye may notice an interloper in the second of the fig photos.

The photographer gets no points for observation today having missed the tiny praying mantis posing on a branch just off to the left of the figs.

All being well, updates to come in due course!

The Flamingos are Back

The, belated, autumn rains have finally started. We mentioned a little rain in October but apart from that it has been pretty much dry since long before the start of the summer. Reservoirs are worryingly empty and talk of water rationing is common.

Over the last week or so there has been speculation that the rain was due and in the early hours of Monday morning it finally arrived, with a vengeance!

We were woken by a lightning storm around 3am and for about 90 minutes we were treated to a fantastic display of thunder and lightning to the north and east. Part way through we popped the final flyscreen from the upstairs windows as, with the windows opening outwards, we were in danger of having a flooded room.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning we had a repeat performance – without the flooding risk – but again with a fantastic electrical storm.

Later on Tuesday we popped into town to run some errands. On the way home we were speculating how much rain had fallen and if the Salt Lakes might have moved from ‘bone dry’ to at least a little damp. In the wet months the lakes are home to up to 12 thousand greater flamingos who arrive as soon as the lakes are wet and leave as the very last moisture disappears. Quite how they know that the Larnaca salt lakes are damp and it is time to make a move from their summer home is another question entirely.

Anyway, hoping to see water but not expecting flamingos yet we drove back via the salt lakes and were amazed to see dozens of flamingos. This was less than 36 hours since the first real rains and already they were back, and looking absolutely wonderful!

The flock spot us … some stay (bottom right corner) but a group fly directly overhead

In flight and heading for the lake next to the airport

Almost, but not quite

On the road on the way to the beach we drive passed a road sign in Greek and translated into English.

Glancing at the sign, at a distance, it’s clear that there are supposed to be some traffic calming measures ahead. Actually, we’re pretty sure there aren’t any but that’s another issue.

On closer inspection though the English translation just doesn’t work!

Digging the Roads

Here in Cyprus we seem to face pretty much the same problem we did in the UK with a stream of utilities, and others, digging up any given stretch of road in a random fashion. Eventually the surface becomes such a mess of laid and relaid surface that the whole road has to be closed for a complete resurface … and then the merry-go-round starts again.

Needless to say, in Cyprus there is an added nuance – laying a new road around any existing impediments …

A very large senior school is being constructed just up the road from us. Aside from it seeming to include the removal of a zillion cubic metres of hillside and a semi-permanet dust storm it, of course, needs a brand new access road. The pre-existing road, from which the new access road to the school is now built, leads to a major Police Station and a cluster of houses. It is common practice, a bit like the US, for electricity to be supplied via overhead cables on a network of telegraph poles and mini-transformers.

So what do you do if the new road plan says “build it here“, and the local electricity system is in the way?

Well … it’s obvious isn’t it? You build the road around it …