ReedosInCyprus

I am sailing. I am sailing

2008-06-07T12:51:00.002+02:00

Well not right now I'm not, but for the last two weekends I was. I've done a sailing course at the Yacht club and am now qualified to RYA level 2 and can sail a dinghy. It wasn't without it's moments - at the end of the first day, if I'd seen another dinghy it would have been ever it would have been too soon. I was wet - having capsized what seemed like 12 million times (but at least it meant I was the best at capsize drill) - and had lumps on my head where the boom had coshed me on it's way across as I failed to duck soon enough. However I persevered and Sunday went much better and last weekend they moved me up from a "Pico" to a "laser". The instructor then told me that actually the Pico was designed for somebody about half my weight, so it was no surprise it kept capsizing!!!!
Today I've been under the water - it was the dive club try dive day - so having spent a couple of hours making sausage and bacon banjos, a cool off dive was in order and very pleasant it was too. For my sins, as well as being the barman, I'm PR guru and webmaster so I was just glad some people turned up.
I know it's all relative, but it's starting to get hot here now - high 20's, low thirties most days and humid in the evenings and no rain still - so basically none is coming. They are still rationing it in the Republic (well unless you like in Paphos or Agia Napa where they are still sticking two fingers up to the rest of Cyprus and saying "we aren't doing that") - and here on the bases the water police are out checking nobody is watering their gardens or washing the car with a hose, so keeping plants alive is still erm testing. But so far I'm not doing too bad. Some tomatoes are starting to ripen, as well as some chilli's (unfortunately I have lost quite a few chilli's). Al lavatera which was disguised as a hollyhock is flowering it's heart out and the herbs seem to be coping with the watering regime.
This weekend we get the first of our summer visitors - my cousins fly out tomorrow afternoon - so I'm driving over to Paphos to get them. It'll be good to see them.
I have rescued another dog - "Frankie" is still here, but we have a home for him in a few weeks. He was living at the checkpoints for a coupleof weeks before I tempted him in. He was all skin and bones - but is much better now and a lot less timid. He chews though !! He's a hunting dog, who I reckon was crap, so they've just turfed him out.
Well thats about it for now - buit in true "Soap" style - will Frankie go to his new home happily, will Andy ever sail again, will those chilli's ever recover. The answer to these and many other questions will be in the next installment of "Reedos in Cyprus". (Cue music.........)

Going for it

2008-05-16T19:46:00.005+02:00

While I'm here, I've decided that I need to do all the stuff I'd never get chance to do while back hime and take every opportunity to do get myself as many certificates as I can. To that end I'm diving as often as I can, 3 times so far this week and heading North to Kyrenia on Sunday here's some fish and stuff
Next weekend and the weekend after I'm doing a course in dinghy sailing and I'm now a helper at Youth Club where I am the Football coach, Turkish lessons are being done on a Thursday. The gardening course is kind of on a back burner at the minute - I'm still doing my plant portfolios but there's only so many hours in a day and they still make me work out here.
In the garden I've had a small harvest of potatoes, some beetroot, some aubergines and some Green Grape tomatoes - the chilli's are really starting to grow now as my cucumbers and the gazillions of tomatoes I have. I've managed to kill my courgettes though - but some emergency seeds came through the post the other day - so I'll be getting them in over the weekend. I seem to be saving enough grey water to keep things going at the moment - not sure if I'll manage it in July mind but I'll keep trying.
Rescued a kitten this week, and have managed to find a home for him - Saw a car in front of me slow down the other night, open the door and next thing I know there's a kitten in the middle of the road in front of me - I drive into a small ditch to avoid it and go back to see if I've hit him, he was about the size of my hand meowwing in the ditch I had parked the car in !!!

What a week

2008-04-25T23:12:00.002+02:00

Begins with beating the Mackums - watched the drubbing of the great unwashed with Geordie Tait - a Mackum from Shiney Row, called Geordie cos nobody in the army can tell the difference in accents - and are dead original in their nicknames - anybody from North of Hull is called Geordie, he's embarassed to be called Geordie _ I won't call him it !!!! Well not to his face anyway.
Ends drinking cider with Drum - (Capn Drummond) see told you the military are good at nicknames.
In between times, I plant out cukes, some toms and peppers - suspend two of my staff for gross misconduct and deriliction of duty, acquit two others of similar charges but take minor disciplinary action against them (neither of which was a unilateral decision I must add), take part in a tennis tournament, don't win but do OK, thrash Drum at tennis twice (how did he get to the final ???)and tomorrow man the bar for the Dive Club while they run "try dives" for the new batallion.
Drum has been posted - he goes (probably) to Milan in August - one of the things I've found living with the military is that you make friends, and then they go - the soldiers are used to it, it's kind of how they live, but to a civilian it's strange.

Still no rain - although some is forecast tomorrow - I'm not holding my breathe though and so far using grey water has kept most things in the garden alive. As an aside - if you eat beetroot soup, be prepared for the colour it leaves your toilet !!!!!

Blimey - doesn't time fly

2008-04-21T16:35:00.002+02:00

It can't be March 2nd since I last posted, somebody must have nicked them !!!

Let's think, what's happened since the beginning of March ??? Right I've harvested some aubergines, they are sitting pretty in the fridge while I decide what exactly to do with them, I've harvested some beetroot which is sitting pretty in apn having been boiled and pureed and turned into soup. Borsch it's called apparently, but I can't bring myself to eat cold soup so warmed up borsch with coriander it'll be. Delia reckons you either love it or hate. Whatever it tastes like it's a fantastic colour.
The water situation is getting out of hand really - there's no more rain coming - the Republic has started cutting water to only 8 hours in every 48, but by the time they get round to turning it back on it's about 5 hours in every 48, well apart from Paphos and Aya Napa councils who are busy sticking their fingers up at the rest of the Republic and saying we aren't doing it. On the base we aren't at the situation yet - but it could happen. I've built a gravity fed watering system involving a dustbin, a hosepipe, all the grey water I can collect and the laws of physics - hopefully I'll be able to keep the garden from completely frazzling with that. I'm just wondering how long it'll be before the hosepipe police come around and see what I've been doing.

I managed to get out diving with Jeff hopefully here's a couple of photo's to prove it

Mad dogs and Englishmen

2008-03-02T21:11:00.002+02:00

In this case don't go out in the midday sun, but head off down to the beach to collect bagfulls of seaweed. Me (the Englishman) and Charlie (the mad dog) went down to the bit of rocky beach just near to the office and collected a jeep full of seaweed. No I haven't invented a way to make Zivania from it, it's is now proudly sat atop my beds as a thickly laid mulch, well most of my beds anyway. I read somewhere that it was a good soil conditioner and made a good mulch, and seeing as how they don't do stuff like that in bags here and it's free I thought I'll give that a go !!! Apparently they use in Jersey to cover their Jersey Royal potatoes - so Impy tells me anyway.
Spring has been springing, the fields are mainly yellow with bits of purple and red in them so look quite pretty and down on the beach today there were lovely tiny purple flowers growing in the sand.
All my chilli's are coming along quite nicely thankyou very much and are soon to be pricked out, I've planted some toms outside and they are flowering, it still gets quite chilly at night, but they seem to be happy enough and an aubergine I've had outside all winter is starting to flower.
It was warm enough outside today to be working in just shorts, summer must be coming.

Oh and Happy Mother's Day Mam, hope you've enjoyed it XXX

I'm rubbish at this !!!!

2008-02-18T17:49:00.002+02:00

Once again I forgot to blog !!!

Not that I've had anything particularly startling to say, life is just kinda plodding on as it does. It's definitely winter here - windy and rainy at the minute and relatively cold. Not cold enought to stop the tatties I planted a while back from poking their leaves through the soil or stopping the lettuces, radishes and peas I sowed outside coming through. I've sowed a boatload (well propagator full) of chilli's - about a dozen varieties - so am hoping to have a chilli plantation this year. Last years still have chilli's on the plants - no leaves mind, I'm leaving them in to see what happens.
Haven't done any diving for a while, partly cos it's cold but mainly because my "dive buddy" Jeff is in the UK and won't be back for at least another week (his wife has been really quite poorly).

See told you not much startling has happened - but at least I remembered and I will try to post a bit more often from now on !!!!

Already

2008-01-03T20:30:00.000+02:00

It's 2008 - I'm 40 this year - how has that happened then ????!!!!!

So ignoring my impending middle age, what's going on here ??

Christmas came and went, got some nice stuff - thanks everybody - specially like the knife I strap to my leg, very James Bond - somebody else said Lara Croft but I really haven't got the figure for that. Santa was good to the boys - managed to bring them a couple of bikes - I've just spent the afternoon finding and fixing 3 punctures in Sam's tyre..

There's been no more rain since the last post, they tell me more will come, but I reckon it's just wishful thinking on the Cypriot's behalf. So taking advantage of the sun, the holiday break and a quantity of seed potatoes which George thought were being smuggled but weren't and then conveniently split open outside the office I have nicked some more land and dug a new potato bed. No idea what the tatties are but I've stuck them in anyway.

I've set up what was Sam's room until he decided he did really want to share with Mattie as an office and got my books, drawing boards etc etc out. That's as far as I've got so far but it is a start. Plant Portfolio part 2 here we go. It means I can plan my football coaching sessions better too.
Diving wise, I've done the Zenobia (or the Zen as us Advanced divers like to call it !!!) a couple of times since my last post and another dive with Jeff - the drysuit Drum lent me has been a Godsend - it's heaps warmer in it. I mean it's cold diving here and the water is 18 degress Celsius - I dread to think what it's like of Whitley Bay. My big computer has broke and eaten all the pictures I've taken - and the plant stuff for my course and I haven't got round to trying to get it off yet so no pics again today, but maybe I'll have a go at rescuing them tomorrow.

And again....

2007-12-05T17:27:00.000+02:00

This wasn't in the brochure - sun sun and more sun they said !!!! It's been lashing down at times today. Cyprus is a funny place, they complain that they don't get enough rain then when it does all they have are storm drains to channel the water into the sea - none of the houses on base have gutters and drainpipes so water butts are out of the question - such a waste. Anyway at least my potatoes - which I hope to harvest for Christmas dinner have had a good water today.
My citrus tree with the teeny tiny fruit on has loads on it - they are quite tasty the only trouble is they have loads of pips - one I had the other day had 26 pips in it - now bearing in mind the fruit is the size of a penka (a big marble) 26 is a bit excessive.
I'm part way through my Advanced Open Water Diving course, you have to do 5 dives - Deep and navigation are compulsary and you choose 3 others. I've done a drysuit dive, in a suit borrowed from one of the soldiers - very strange being underwater and being dry, and the navigation dive today. Didn't enjoy the navigation one - the wind and rain had stirred the bottom up - so there was literally zero visibility - but managed just using a compass to dive a square starting and finishing in the same point, the same for a straight line and to navigate us back to the beach to get out. I do feel a sense of achievement though, the instructor reckoned if I can do it in that I can do it in anything. I was supposed to be doing the photography dive today - if I'd wanted pictures of sand close up it'd have been fine, but good for nothing else, that can wait for another day. We were supposed to finish tomorrow, but the wind has blown up more so it'll be Friday at the earliest before I get back in the water.
And I've found somebody to coach - woohooo - been coaching at soccer club (yes I know it's called football but I didn't name the club !!!) after school on a Tuesday and I think I'll be starting at the Youth Club come January, so hopefully I'll get the assessment done spring next year and be qualified.
No pics today cos I've not taken any !!

It rained.........

2007-11-11T17:33:00.000+02:00

On Friday night and then again last night, not heaps mind you, but enough to wet the soil and maybe mean I don't have to water the radishes, onions and garlic or a couple of days. Hopefully it'll continue through the night as the reservoirs are very very empty here. It's still strange for me to have plants starting off and growing away in November, I reckon I'll just about have the hang of by the time we leave.

Obviously it was Rememberance Sunday today, so it was up to Church in best dress uniform (minus the jacket which has been hanging up ready in Akrotiri for the last 3 months, well apart from the gold braid for the sleeves, which they've run out of). Anyway it was interesting to see the old guys of the Cyprus core who all joined up in 1943.

Diving is going well, I've got an underwater camera housing, so can take pics now - and as to prove it here's a couple. One of fish and the other the underneath of the pier here.

I'm starting some coaching at the school next week, hopefully that'll kick start me on to get the FA badge, we'll see how it goes.

Oooops

2007-10-23T18:52:00.000+02:00

It's ages since I posted anything, no excuses really just haven't. Well what's happened since the end of August. Erm all of September and most of October !!!
Right - I passed my RHS exam with commendations (which means I scored more than 70%) so I'm dead pleased with that - now I need to start pushing on with the rest of the course. The dark nights are coming in, so I'll crack on over the winter. I just need to find a few gardens to practice on. My garden itself is coming back to life after the heat of the summer, I've got chilli's growing strongly still, french marigolds self seeding themselves, citrus' coming into bloom, fruit on the big tree are tiny, but starting to ripen, some potatoes I planted rather than chuck away are coming through and I've got loads of seedlings sown over the last couple of weeks coming through. I've planted out garlic and onions, peas will go in at the weekend.
I've not been diving for a few weeks now, but hope to at the weekend and have now got my own air cylinder (not oxygen tank !!) and a underwater camera and housing so should be able to post some pictures.
I've bought a bike and cycle to and from work nearly every day, organised weekly 5 a side at the garrison gym and am still playing tennis, my knees are shouting at me a bit, but well I'm managing to run about still, so am not ready for the knackers yard yet.
I'm sure there's been much more than that happen, but I've forgot - so this'll have to do you !!!

Melted waterbutts and diving

2007-08-26T09:33:00.000+02:00

No not diving in my water butt.....
I'm on the hunt for a new water butt that doesn't melt. The old one was a dustbin, you know the type, the ones that say no hot ashes. Well they should also say "don't leave out in the sun" on them as well. It melted - not completely but enough for the water to all leak out !!!! And they don't seem to do the type you lot have back home - oh well I'll keep looking.
Some of my diving gear I brought back passed all the tests, but the regulators - the things that you breathe through (so they are quite important really) brought laughter from around the shop - apparently Jacques Cousteau used to have a set of them - the bloke said they'd probably work but that he wouldn't trust them. So seeing as how I don't fancy drowning I took his advice and bought some new ones. Very shiny they are too. The old ones were dead cheap so some you win and some you lose. Anyway went out on Thursday with Jeff - first time for both of us without an instructor - and what a couple of amateurs we looked. We had to do bouyancy checks to get our weight right - got it wrong - were both too light so it was a major effort to sink, which in normal circumstances is great, but when scuba diving isn't, then air just started free flowing out of my new shiny regulators. Took them back to the shop and was told "Oh that often happens with new ones - I'll adjust them for you now". So we tried again yesterday after helping out at the sub aqua club "try dive" day. I spent the morning squeezing people into wet suits - which was more fun with some people than others !!! When they'd all done in we went - and it all went well swimmingly - was down for around 45 minutes, and had a thoroughly good time. It's good having your own gear and just being able to go out and do it !
The seeds I'd sowed last time are starting to germinate, and I think I'll be getting comments like "loony" soon cos I'm planning on going back to the stables and getting several jeep fulls of manure to spread on the garden before I plant this lot out. I'm also picking up some timber today and will make some fancy planters to put the citrus and pomegranite trees in. I've got a new book about Mediterranean gardening - and instead of telling how the gardens at Alhambra or on the Cote D'Azure were designed actually tells me which plants will grow here, so that's good, but I have resisted the urge to go out and buy a whole garden full - I'lll wait until it's a bit cooler before I plant up - even lavenders I've planted out have died in the sun - I reckon it's cos the shops water them too regularly (so that they look good) but it means that they haven't been grown hard enough so can't cope when planted out. I'll be growing my stuff quite hard in future.

Back from holiday and need a rest

2007-08-19T20:24:00.000+02:00

The title says it all, back in sunny Cyprus after two weeks in not so sunny Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and we've all pretty much slept and done nowt since we got back !!
To all those we saw - it was good to see you, to all those we didn't well there's always next time.

Arrived home to find all the toms dead and the chilli's gasping for water - they've had some and have perked up no end. The tomatoes are in the compost bins. As part of the "lets see what I can grow at strange times of the year" experiment - I've sown tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, chives, carrots, courgettes, snake gourds and a whole bunch of annual flowers. We'll see how they go - I might have tomatoes at Christmas, who knows. And over the next couple of weeks I'll be back up to the stables to get more manure to improve the soil. I've written July and August off as productive moths - it's just too bloody hot, or more accurately it's too difficult to keep it all watered.
I returned home with a load of diving gear - it's being tested at the diving gear testing shop (run by diver Dave) to make sure I won't drown whilst using it. Hopefully I'll get out this week.
It's time to start studying again - this time learning how to draw stuff for the design part of the course - this is much more fun than plant physiology I can tell you. Intermediate Greek lessons in September and the FA course to do as well so busy busy busy.

The Last Post.....

2007-07-30T09:24:00.000+02:00

...... well for a fortnight or so anyway, unless I get a chance at my mother in laws. We fly home for a couple of weeks on Wednesday. Got a family wedding next weekend, so it'll be good to catch up with everybody there, then start a round of visiting friends and family, culminating in me taking the boys away camping for a weekend, whilst Jo goes to London shopping and doing "London" things with her mates down there. All I can say is the weather back home had better improve before then !!!
Went to a Grenglish wedding this weekend - a colleague (an English Cypriot) got married, it was a strange mix of traditional Greek and English. The Greeks don't usually do speeches, but Marcos did - I really felt for his best man who had no real idea what was expected from a best mans speech. And I'd been out to a leaving do the night before, if I'm not careful I might start developing a social life. Apart from that spent most of the weekend playing in the sea with the boys, so am suitably pink to prove it, and poor Mattie burnt the soles of his feet walking barefoot on the road looking for Charlie who had snuck off, oh well it'll teach him not to wear his flip flops !!
I fully expect to come back to a garden as dry as sticks, I've started pulling out all the dead and dying stuff, leaving in the chilli's and tomatoes and gazania's which are all doing OK - the toms are flagging a bit but still producing, whilst the chillis mostly have fruit on them, but are surprisingly struggling a little bit. I'm starting research for next years plants - I think I'm going to have to have a few more succulents - the only trouble is that generally I don't like them very much!!! I went out onto the bondu yesterday and collected some seed from stuff that grow out there, some alliums, echinops, cistus and lantana - and they have all died back too so I reckon I'll have to accept July and August as the times when the garden looks poor over here and adjust things accordingly.
Here the weather is really quite strange - today it is cloudy but incredibly humid - and that is the biggest problem, the humidity has been at around 80 percent and apparently temperatures are about 5 degrees higher than normal for this time of year - the humidity makes it very difficult to do anything, just moving leaves you covered in sweat and you just can't get dry !! Not expecting much sympathy considering what is happening at home but just saying anyway!!! It's bizarre, I was looking at something about last summer which said the North East of England had no rain for over three months last year - and look at it this. Who says climate change isn't happening?
For those of you who I'll be seeing over the next couple of weeks - see you soon, and those I won't I'll be back on the 15thish.

Too hot

2007-07-21T08:57:00.000+02:00

It's just too hot for the garden. Whilst the UK has been basking in monsoons, we've been having a heatwave. In the back yard it reached 50 degrees during the week - now that's hot by anybodies standards. Even though I've been defying the hosepipe ban on the basis that every bugger else does - a lot of the plants are just getting too stressed and are giving up the ghost. I pulled out my sweetcorn, the cobs hadn't swelled, raddish, lettuce and carrots I sowed a few weeks ago haven't germinated and even some of the tomatoes have chucked it. Having said that I don't owe the tomatoes anything, they've been supplying the neighbourhood for weeks now. I knew July and August would be tough on them - it's a learning curve I guess. Matthew has been "helping" this week, this mainly involves digging holes and pouring water into them - but I don't want to discourage him, as long as he doesn't start digging unsupervised holes during the school holidays!!
I may have a designing job to do sometime soon. Huseyin one of my colleagues gets married soon and has just finished building his own house - he has half an acre of land and wants to do something with the garden. So I've offered to come and measure up and draw something for him - he gets a free design - I get something that hopefully will be good enough to submit to the college.
Away from the garden, I started playing tennis this week having been ordered to go by the fiesty 70 year old bloke coach who Jo signed me up for some lessons with. First time I've played a match since school. I don't think I made a complete muppet of myself - and I enjoyed it, despite it being hard work in the sun. I've not been diving since I qualified - have done some nightshifts this week so haven't really been awake enough to go diving during the day. Maybe next week cos I'm on late shifts so can go before work.

Life has.......

2007-07-12T17:20:00.000+02:00

.........kind of settled down a bit, and I know I said it last last time I will do this more often - OK Teatree ??

Well what's happened in the last month or so. Seeing as how this was a gardening thingy in the first place I'll start with the garden. Things are very hot, the kind of hot where you get sweaty, have a shower and can't get dried again,, anyway it doesn't do much for the garden !!! Coupled with the fact that the Garrison has unilaterally declared a hosepipe ban (the Cypriots use water like there's no tomorrow). It's an effort to keep things green, but I knew it was going to be like this. The tomatoes are doing really well, I've been feeding them to half the street, the pot marigolds, marigolds and have just gone over, but I've got some more almost ready for planting out. The chilli's are doing really well, but just about everything else is struggling. Think I'm going to have to ignore the hosepipe ban or give up during July and August.
We went to Disneyland Paris for a weekend, it was my Mam's 60th and Mam and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary so with one of my brothers his wife and their two kids off (and Mam and Dad) off to Paris we trooped. We had a lovely time, the kids especially. After a brief stop back here (two days) I jetted back to the UK to do the RHS exam - I think it went OK, results sometime in September.
Since coming back I've started and will complete tomorrow, my PADI open water diving course, it'll mean I can go out independently from the dive shops. I've not managed to drown so far so that's good, and it's opened up a whole range of stuff and gadgets to look at. I should be getting a disc soon so I'll post some pics when I get it.
The football coaching bloke rang yesterday, the assessor is back in August for a support day, I'll miss cos I'm back in UK for my cousins wedding, he's coming back at the back end of November for final assessments. I'm going to have to find a team to coach, but I maybe helping out with the Army team later this month.
Oh and I occasionally go to work!!!! Where I've managed to rescue 4 dogs and a kitten since I was last on. The dogs have found homes, the kitten which currently has no name is here, as long as it has no name we can pretend it's not moving in !!!

Done it again Haven't I

2007-06-10T08:48:00.000+02:00

Well having promised to try harder and not leave it so long I failed that test miserably. And now for thexcuses : We had a weeks holiday at a place called Bogas in the North of the Island, it's only about an hour - if that- from here, but it was great just to get away from the phone and the base for a bit and just lie about and do nothing. And that's basically what we did. Me and the boys played in the pools or the sea or a version of cricket that I'm not sure the MCC would recognise as being their rules, I joined in obviously and whooped the pants off them - 2223 not out I was !!! (well not really but there was a lot of Daaaaaad play your worst - which is actually harder than you think). Jo lay in the sun and topped up the tan. Would post some pick but we haven't got any cos we forgot the camera - but if anybody wants to have a look this is where we stayed http://www.pihome.co.uk/sbc_prog.htm
Before leaving I was worried about what would happen to my plants in pots - would they frazzle in the heat, so inspired by something Wren once mentioned sometime - I took a bucket of water and an old towel, wet it thoroughly and stuck one end of the towel in it, then stood all my pots on the towel - and it more or less worked, had a couple of casualties - lost my basil seedlings and my fat babies (a type of cucumber thingy to the uninitiated), but I think it was because they were too wet !!!! I'm harvesting tomatoes like a good un - as ever I've done way too many, when will I remember that there's only me eats them ?? Even though I'm having salad every day (ever so healthy me!!!) I struggle to eat them all and I've more plants fruiting - oh well. My cucumbers are doing really well too.
I think next week I'm having a "try dive" - Jeff has persuaded me to have a go, he's been doing it a while and a couple of weeks ago did his open water course so is dead keen at the minute. I was supposed to do it last Friday, but the instructor couldn't fit me in. So this week instead I think, that's if I can fit it in cos Jo goes home on Wednesday for few days to go to a wedding.
Am well past roots now thanks Teatree, am currently learning how to grow properly the vegetables I've been growing incorrectly for the last few years - there's no mention of hurling or bunging anywhere - sure I must have missed a chapter out!!! I hope to get the text books done by Wednesday and revise from then until the exam.
And lastly -- I have to go to a car boot sale today -- in an official capacity, I have to approve them selling beer to the public, as I've said before very different job over here.
Take care all.

Sorry !!!

2007-05-19T20:18:00.000+02:00

It's been ages since my last post, in my defence I have been up to my eyes in stuff here. The coaching went OK, although the last day was cut somewhat short by soaring temperatures, people were dropping like flies. I was later told it had been the hottest May day for 50 years - reaching 42 degrees !!! I now need to do 16 hours coaching, and be assessed and pass - easier said than done, in the last group of 16 only 5 passed !!
I'm studying hard, wading my way through plant science, easily the most boring part of the course, which makes it the hardest to get through. Why do I need to know what meiosis is ??? Just that you put stuff in the ground and it grows. Anyway nearly finished that bit - then onto soil structure - I'm sure I'll get to something to do with gardening soon.
Here the weather is erratic, we've had huge storms one day then blazing sunshine the next, today was a blazing sunshine day and I am suitably pink to prove it. I can't remember if I said that I'd rigged up an irrigation system for the patch of ground I nicked using a bolt, a hosepipe and a drill. Seems to work fine, but isn't the prettiest to look at. Things seem to be doing OK, the toms are swelling nicely - I've had a few strawberries, not enough for anybody else to have any but hey they don't even know they are there. The mirabilis Flo sent me are doing well, I've got some little cukes starting to grow and the lettuces are ready.
Now back to roots, root caps and apical meristems - I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

Bitten off more than I can chew ??

2007-04-23T20:03:00.000+02:00

Well my college work is all submitted, and assuming they are happy with it, I'll be flying back into then more or less straight back out the UK at the end of June to sit the RHS exam. So proper studying starts now, I've got just over two months to learn all I need to know. Now that in itself I reckon I could manage, but I've also managed to sign myself up to do the FA level 2 coaching qualification, starts on Friday for a long weekend, then the following weekend toowith a load of post course assessment stuff to do, and I've signed myself up again for Greek lessons - it'll be like being back at school again !!!
We are now visitorless, having waived bye to Mam and Dad yesterday, it was good to see everybody.
Weatherwise it's starting to get hot now, still a bit changeable but it was upto 28 degrees today - with the rain we've had things are growing like mad - I've got fruit on my tomatoes and things are flowering well. Now before anybody calls me a lucky get - just remember by August everything will be frazzled and your stuff will be romping away. For those interested I remembered to take my camera out today and took some pics of some of the wildflowers and of a Swift (or maybe a swallow) that is nesting at our office, and they are in the photo's link. And for those who can't be bothered there's a pic just for you at the top !!!

Feeling ancient !!!

2007-04-09T09:19:00.000+02:00

My little boy is 8 today - how did that happen ??? I'm only 26 how can he be 8 ??? Up at the crack of dawn today, bounced awake my Mattie, desperate to come downstairs and open his presents. It's great to see him so excited, he even went to bed early last night so that his birthday would come quicker.
It's been a busy week with visitors to entertain, they left on Saturday - the next ones come on Thursday, gives us a few days to put the house back together after the whirlwind effect of 4 small boys (and assorted friends) running in and out of the house. I've done 3 of the 4 test papers I need to do, hope to do the last one tonight, then I've only two trees, 5 perennials, and 3 bulbs to do for the plant portfolio. I've done all the drawings I need so that helps. With a bit of luck I should be able to get it all packaged and send off to the college before Mam and Dad arrive. :-)
In the garden I've planted out some more tomatoes, put up another wigwam and planted out some cukes to grow up it, and planted out a courgette, I'm not certain that the snails won't get it so I've sown some more just in case.The sweetpeas have just started to flower, they are still quite small, I'm hoping that they grow up the wigwams a bit more. Out back , the big citrus is absolutely covered in blossom, releasing a very strong scent that I'm not sure whether I like or not. The fields where I walk Charlie are ablaze with colour, they are like cornfields as you imagine them, yellow, blue and red flowers intermingled with the grasses. When I remember my camera I'll take a picture. To the back of the field there is a tree covered in purple blossom, I think it's a Judas tree - I'm going to explore further later, whatever it is it's lovely. Cistus are also growing wild and starting to flower on the bondu.
The only problem with the weather warming up is that the snakes have started to come out, saw one about 6 feet long the other day just sunning itself by the bushes, fortunately it saw me and slithered off before Charlie saw it - he is stupid enough to go "dancing" around them barking. Only a couple of them are poisonous, but I'm not planning on going up and asking them whether they are the poisonous ones or not so am just going to try to avoid them all. We have been given some medicine to inject into the pets should they be bitten mind - enough to keep them alive until we get to the vet !!!!!

Yah soo ti kanis, si kala ?

2007-04-02T18:33:00.000+02:00

They've arrived - the first of the summer visitors. Michael, Jane and their little boys Christopher and Stephen hit Cyprus over the weekend - it is bedlam in our house now, feel like a permanent referee as boys of 7 (nearly 8), 2X9 years olds and a 10 (I think) year old do what boys of that age do. But it's good to see my two so excited, it is however, quieter to be at work !!!
I've decided I like late shifts more than earlies - it's a struggle getting up at 5 to start at 6, but coming in at 2, gives me chance to do things in the morning. Today I took a table top thingy made up from a mosaic we bought in Jordan to a carpenter in Xylotimpou, and spoke my first proper Greek to somebody I didn't work with. OK I only said hello, how are you are you well and do you speak English (to which he replied hello, so -so and you and a little English) but he knew what I'd said and more to the point I knew what he'd said. I was ridiculously pleased with myself !!
The late start also gave me the chance to sow some sweetcorn (although I'm not sure where I'm going to put it), plant out some peas that I sowed in pots a couple of weeks ago and sow some more - Impy I told you it peas were a doddle when you come out squatting I'll show you how !! Oh and BTW Max sorry mate couldn't find anything to that spec in the South - more chance in the North of the Island (apparently you are allowed to lock your kids in the cellar up there - no EU regulations against it you see) And prick out some rudbeckia seedlings. To my amazement the thyme I sowed a little while ago has germinated - it must be Teatrees sage advice on herbs (sage do you get it??) that gets the credit for that. Drawing wise, things are coming along nicley, I'm on target to get the stuff completed and submitted by April 20th - and that's without even tracing anything Wren !!!!

Sun, seeds and studying

2007-03-28T14:08:00.000+02:00

The weather forecast keeps telling us every night that there is going to be rain in Cyprus, don't know if that's wishful thinking on the part of the Cypriots, along the lines of if we say it enough it will happen. It's barely rained at all. Which is just as well really because this weekend is the start of the summer visiting programme. My brother in law, his wife and their two kids arrive for a week or so on Saturday, followed by, a couple of days after they leave, my Mam and Dad. It's about now that Jo starts manically cleaning and tidying althought everything is already tidy and clean !!!! That combined with a new shift pattern (which I can't complain about cos I drew it up), studying for the RHS exams and putting together my plant portfolio (for the design part which needs to be in by April 20th) means that the next few weeks are going to be fairly hectic in the Reed household. So when I've written this I'm going to sit in the garden and do nowt !!!
On the gardening front, not much is happening as I wait for the seeds I sowed at the weekend to germinate - generally the other stuff that already out is just growing as it does. The few plants I thought would struggle on the water front are struggling but I guess it's no surprise !!

Cypriot summertime

2007-03-26T06:24:00.000+02:00

Yesterday the clocks went forward, the same as in the UK and we forgot, spent at least half the day in a minor timewarp, however it's all sorted now - and to my surprise it's meant that this morning it was still dark when we got up !!! It was a beautiful hot sunny day yesterday - a walking Charlie topless kind of day (that's me not Jo !!). Spring is definitely here, when out on the bondu it's obvious that more and more wild flowers are coming into bloom everyday. In the garden things are realy starting to put some growth on too, the first tomatoes I planted are now about 18 inches tall and have their first flower trusses, the gazanias are starting to flower together rather than just one at a time, the sweetpeas starting to climb the wigwams. I've out up a trelis at the back up which I hope some everlasting sweetpeas (courtesy of Windy) will grow and I've planted out the pansies I sowed months ago. The citrus I bought were looking a bit unloved in the beds so I've dug them up, given them some fresh compost and some food and put them back into big pots. Jo wanted some hydrangeas that she saw in a garden centre - so they are in big pots too, very pretty they are but they are going to need loads of water to keep them happy. On that score I've put a bin by the back door into which all the washing up water goes and I'm using that to fill me watering can for watering the shrubs. It can be a bit like "It's a Knockout" getting the water there especially if Patrick is under your feet !!!! Speaking of Patrick he is now less of a cat - but he doesn't seem to be holding that against me.
I just about finished sowing all my flower seeds yesterday as well as some lettuce (ta Flo), still got sweetcorn and some beans to sow but there's plenty of time for them yet. The snails are still feasting on the lettuce I bought, but only the green Cos types at the minute, they seem to be leaving the red frilly stuff alone, they don't seem to like Kio or at least they aren't leaping into the beer traps like the slugs did at home !!!

World Order Restored

2007-03-22T08:35:00.000+02:00

Well some of you will be pleased to see that I am back in Cyprus again, and won't be able to be prosecuted under trade desciptions or whatever it was Wren was on about tsk. I left the frozen North East yesterday morning, (wearing the coat I'd had to buy on arrival cos I'd forgotten to take one - a tip don't ever be in desperate need of a jacket at Schipol Airport unless your filthy rich or have jusr robbed a bank!!!!), where the temperature was -1 and arrived here last night where it was 17 degrees. It was good to see people, most of whom seemed intent on inflicting severe damage on my liver - so thankyou (in no particular order) to Nick, Stevie D, Thompa, Dave, Kevin, Phil, Pat, Colin, Brian, Michelle, George, Simon and Ant for giving me the opportunity to talk b****cks for a few days, Viv for feeding me and buying cheese and dried onions (don't ask), Helena and lastly the chef at Jury's Inn Newcastle who got up early everyday to make me breakfast. It was good to see you all !!! And to those I didn't get to see, or didn't get to make a second visit - sorry !!!
On first inspection, my seedlings/little plants have managed without me for the week - I may have lost a couple of melons - but I've not given up on them yet and there's plenty of time to sow some more. Outside the shrubbie tree thing that I didn't hack back too much turns out to be a mimosa(I think) - it's all awash with yellow flowers, the bourgainvillea which I did hack back is sprounting back into life - it is lovely but the spines on it aren't !! The first flower trusses are forming on some of my tomatoes, the carrots seem happy, but I need to sow somemore as they appear somehow to have clumped themselves together I think they may have had some help from a cat (but revenge will be mine - the poor little bugger is to become less of a cat today). One of my strawberries is flowering as are my citruses. Not so good are the things eaten by snails - they've chomped quite a few marigolds and some small tomatoes, but it's a lesson learned - don't plant them out til they're bigger - do snails like beer or is it only slugs ??. Speaking of lessons learned - I need to get my finger out - I need to get my Plant portfolio and a certain amount of course work to college by 20th April if I'm to do the RHS exam in June - and my laptop is broke - so feel free to nag !!
And I'm all excited - (yes my dear brothers it's sad !!) - Whilst potting up some some thymes - which aren't going to die on me this year thanks to Teatree's advice, I noticed growing out from under my hibiscus some fresias. Now I've tried every year to grow fresias, from seeds, corms in the house in the greenhouse and failed miserably everytime - and what do I find here - well they just grow. What do I know about gardening ?? Anyway this prompted my to investigate further - my plumbago has started to flower, the big citrus out the back is covered in flower buds and an as yet unidenfied climber has got some yellow flowers on it - I've only been away a week !!!
BTW when I get round to it I'll probably link RedClanger/Impy, Teatree, Wren, Max, Bob et al to this site if none of them have any objections.

Home Newcastle

2007-03-12T19:39:00.000+02:00

And before you all start bursting into song with the immortal "Busker" lyrics, it's only for a week or so to sort out some work stuff back home.Be back in the UK from Wednesday, I've dug out my wooly jumpers!!! I'm looking forward to having a few beers with some of my mates and generally visiting a few people who I wasn't expecting to see again until summer.
Spring has most definately sprung here, it's been noticeably warmer during the day - to the extent that I was pootling about shirtless today - and we haven't needed the fire in the evenings. It's been a long week at work, was on for 7 days, but now am off until I come back from Newcastle. So today have been making full use of the sun and have been out planting stuff. I've found a nursery in Paralimni, which is great, I bought some strawberries, lettuce, cukes and aubergines plants for about tuppence ha'penny along with a lemon (£4) and a pomegranite tree (£4) so am well pleased. So today they were either stuck in the ground or potted on. I then went upstairs onto Mattie's balcony - which has become my seedling factory and spent a pleasant hour or so pricking out - and yep I said pleasant, it's so much more fun when the sun is shining !! Tomorrow it'll be more seed sowing and probably some more pricking out - unless I get the urge to go back to the nursery.
Over the weekend we bought a ginormous barbeque - it's a cheating one cos it's gas fired mind - I don't think there's enough lighter fuel to get one this big going - you can fit a whole cow on it !!! We tested it yesterday and I think Mattie did actually eat a whole cow - he is his father's son...Sam picked at things and said what's this green stuff or it's a bit burnt - that's all down to his Mam LOL.

It's March and it's......

2007-03-06T16:02:00.001+02:00

Without wanting to cheese anybody off - it's starting to warm up. It's been in the 20's today, sat here in shorts and a t-shirt.

I seem to be getting a few more people looking in on this - so I guess I've got to keep it going now don't I. Not really too much to say on the gardening front, other than Cyprus had loads of snails and they really like marigolds. Little gits. The Greek Cypriots eat them by the kilo - we seized 85 kilo's the other night (you aren't allowed to bring them over the Green line) - I reckon they were released in my back yard !!

Hello Wren - good to see you, in first with the helpful comments - but why did you publish it twice. Tsk

Like I said not much to report at the minute - been too busy at work - yep they make me work and have to go back in tonight. Hey ho