More Holiday Fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Another whirlwind week in progress here at our holiday house in sunny Cyprus. After recovering from New Years, Chris and I took a fantastic hike on a trail in the north-west peninsula known as the Akamas region. There is a sort of nature preserve there with four hiking trails. We took a 7.5 km one that started out going pretty much straight up a hill, what would in Texas probably be classed as a mountain. It did afford us spectacular views of the bay of Lachi which this photo hardly does justice to (yay for dipping into my 2011 photos now, love that fresh feeling of a new year!).
It got pretty warm hiking and I was down to just a tank top - I know Chris will not like the plunge back into the London cold next week! We saw some pretty good flora, including lots of cyclamins which are my favorite.

We also saw this strange new bush with unusual berries.......(the picture isn't great so I'll tell you they are shells from shotguns)
We heard quite a few gunshots while we were out, and even ran into a jeepload of hunters. I was repeating "don't shoot don't shoot" as we were hiking but as I don't know how to say it in Greek it probably didn't make a difference one way or another..... When we got to the top there was a large stone structure and some ruins, it looked like an old church or monestary, with a few remnants of paintings on walls still visable. I took some of the stones that had fallen off the ruined walls and put them back on - every little helps as they say in England.

Another day we went to the little botanic gardens that is set up here, but to be honest it was pretty dissapointing, mislabeled plants and very small gardens. We were also the only people there, I think they were preparing for some big event because the tavern was set up with chairs draped in white fabrices, but no one seemed to pay us much attention anyway.

One of my favorite things to do in the world is to finish things, specifically craft projects. Chris's mom has had these needlepoint projects in her closet certainly as long as I've been coming to Cyprus, and most of them were started when Chris's sister was 5 or 6.

This time I decided to really get cracking on finishing some. We took a trip to the local habadashary to see if they had some of the same yarn, the woman said whoah those are really old, we don't carry that knid of thread anymore but you can try a shop called Evros. We went there and took a look and lo and behold he still had most of the colors I needed! I asked about the white for the background and he said evyerthhign I have is there because the factory stopped making that kind of yarn a long time ago. I may very well be the last person that buys that kind of tapeestry thread off of him.
As of the writing of this blog I'm just about done with the one with the girl in the white background....... no idea really what I will do with them but they were just calling out to me to be finished and liberated from their bag in the back of the closet. If you see anything you like feel free to call dibs! I can make it up into a pillow, or it can be framed, turned into a bag.... you name it.

Finally on Tuesdsay we caught some of the solar eclipse that was visable here. I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't turn out at all. Here is chris checking it out behind the safety of some polarised glass he has just for that purpose.
I never saw a proper solar eclipse before, even a partial one like this. It was pretty special.

Tomorrow is the Epiphany, the last day of Christamas and an important day here in the holiday calander. We are going to try to get up early enough to watch them throw a cross into the sea an see a bunch of grown men swim after it to try to catch it..... not sure what that achieves but it'll be a good cultural experience anyway. After that we are driving to the capital to see Chris's sister and her family, in the quiet of their own home instead of the craziness of the holiday.

Home again home again on the 9th....looking forward to it. I like being here on vacation and learning lots of Greek, but there really is no place like home!

The sweet face of success.

Hello Dear Readers,

Stuck on holiday where I don't speak the language well means lots of posts! I got to meet my nephew in person today and give him his Christamas (New Years) present in person for once. He got a little owl and a sweater vest. It fits! Hooray! Here is Theo Christakis holding him down for a photo.....
Way to guess on the sizing! I think I've trained him early enough that he won't be adverse to handknits or allergic to wool, but I'm not going to take any chances, sweater number two is all ready to be delivered for his second birthday and I see a sock monkey in his future....

Happy New Years Everyone! Drink lots of champagne and think of me, it's my favorite....

Greetings from Cyprus!

Hello Dear Readers,

Chris and I made it to Cyprus on Monday with no difficulties, it was amazing to come here for the first time without being totally jet lagged! And flying into the Paphos airport (15 min drive from Chris's house) instead of Larnaca (2 hours drive). The weather has been really great, sunny and warm, a nice change from London and I get to give my summer clothes an airing, which is good since I'm tired of the winter ones now! So far we've spent our days visiting friends which means drinking a lot of tea and coffee and eating.
I did get a chance to take a walk around the village and see all the changes in the past 4 years since I last came. Here I am with Chris's aunt and his cousin Christiana. They are the two that are helping me the most with learning Greek. Today we worked on colors!
I get a lot of oportunities to pratice as well as listen when we go to big family gatherings like this one at his cousin's house. This was after we ate when about half the people had left or were in the other room! Of course after about an hour of loud Greek chatter I need a little break, so I always have my knitting handy for tuning out and unwinding. I brought my blue lace sweater and I think I'll probalby finish the sleeves by the end of the trip, especially as we'll have more big get togethers around New Years.
I have been trying to take photos for the blog, but we are just so busy! And it's hard to wrangle people in to photographs (here are Chris and I with his other cousin Valando, Christiana's sister. They live next door to Chris so they are more like sisters than cousins). I also have been taking many family photos to put in the digital photo frame Chris brought his mother last time he was here. He hadn't loaded it with pictures so I've put on a bunch I had on this computer but am trying to get some more current ones on. Tomorrow his sister should be here with his nephew and I'm sure I'll be snapping lots of photos of that. New Years, not Christmas, is the gift giving day here, and it's also the big dinner and celebration. It's nice because it's like I get two Christmases this year!

Happy Christmas All!

Merry Christmas Dear Readers!

This will be a pretty long post as I've been saving things up till I got around to posting! Busy busy week as usual, we had our work Christmas Party this week with a theme of "What I wanted to be when I grew up" (the English are obsessed with costume or "fancy dress" parties). I hadn't planned on going until the last minute so I'm not dressed but my two office mates did. Later I snapped a shot of them in our bay in the Cryptogamic Herbarium ("Crypt").

Hannah is wearing her "thinking cap" leftover from her Christmas party costume and Elina is gloriously draped in barcodes for our specimens. Just outside and to the left of the stone windows you see is our very own gargolye. I love this buidling!

Speaking of which, I made Patrick keep his promise of taking me to see Harry Potter (he had free movie tickets and Chris has trouble following the plots so we agreed to see it together) and as he had a half day of work Friday I made him come to the Museum so I can show him the behind the scenes tour.


These monkies crawl up the arch near the steps to our door, such detail! The museum was closed to the public Friday so we pretty much had the place to ourselves to poke in the neat corners, open the old books in the library and generally enjoy the place. Afterwards we had a snack at Carlucci's, a place I always see on my way to work outside the bus and wanted to get in. Then we saw Potter which was AMAZING! See it if you haven't already!

Later that evening we did presents via Skype with my parents and spoke to my sister this morning. She showed us her "Chocolate of the Month Club" gift from her boyfriend...... NOT!!! A few hours later she called us back from her boyfriend's parents house and showed us this:

The chocolate of the month was a decoy! (of course I'd prefer that to a ring but still) Congratulations Cat and Jeff! Now you just have to decide on a day! After having a traditional American Christmas dinner (Turkey, potatoes, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin pie) we sat playing with our toys, here is Patrick on Guitar Hero and Chris simultaneously playing with his laptop and his new IPAD which I gave him for Christmas, which we've all had a few turns on... it is SUPPOSED to be for him.

The most fun toy tonight has been the long paper roll from the wrapping paper we finished off this season, we are using it as a microphone, megaphone, telescope and giant comedy ear horn....... ah the simple things in life.
Probably the bottle of champagne Patrick gave me as part of my amazing Hotel Chocolate gift box of which I'm on my second flute of doesn't help....

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you are all having some kind of fun or at least catching up on rest and relaxation! Off to Cyprus on Monday, will report on that soon!

let it snow!

Hello Dear Readers,

Yeah yeah, fell down on my resolution to post every weekend. Oh well. It's been pretty busy at Chez Felsham, one of our room-mates is moving out and we've been interviewing all last week to find a replacement. We've got a lovely guy called Nathan from Wales who will move in as soon as our old roommate moves out. That also means Chris and I are moving from the smallest room in the house to the second smallest room, yay for space! I'll even have my own table area for my sewing machine and crafts!

I've also been busy working, in addition to my new job at the Natural History Museum I still work on Saturdays at Kew and every other Sunday teaching Knitting at a local sewing shop. Busy busy, plus Chris has been knocked out with a viral chest infection this week so I've been cooking and and cleaning trying to help him to feel better, if not get better. Last Thursday was our Kew Christmas party which I attened and had tons of fun at! It was spectacular to see the old faces again, even though it's only been 3 weeks it feels so much longer. Photos are probably on facebook soon for those that use it.

We've also had a bit of snow here as you may have heard on the news. Actually, it's really only a little bit of snow but it's caused major disruption for us here! So far I haven't been affected but Chris and I are going to fly out of Gatwick airport on the 27th to go to Cyprus, my first trip since I've arrived at the UK now that I finally have a Residence Card! Cross your fingers for me, White Christmas, Green Boxing Day!

Christmas Card Fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Well I seem to be managing to keep up with my promise to myself to blog once a week, so here we go with post 2 of December! This weekend my friend Nina came to visit me on Saturday. I made a lovely nut roast with roast potatoes and (brussel) sprouts, or just sprouts as they are called here. Not to be confused with bean sprouts, which I don't know if they really eat them here. Afterwards we did a little knitting and socializing, where I finished a child's vest for my friend Clare's son.


After that we made some killer christmas cookies in red and green, just like mom used to make. I bought a set of cutters that had a star, boot, candy cane etc. and one shooting star. After picking it up my brother was asking what relevence that has to Christmas. Duh! I was singing " a star, a star, hanging in the night with a tail as big as a kite, with a tail as big as a kite". Nothing. What a Scrooge! Oh well, he ate the cookies anyway. (and for Pat who I know reads this blog (and thanks for that by the way) this middle finger is for you.....)

In the middle of making cookies I remembered I wanted Nina to take some pictures of us in front of the house for the Christmas card this year. Patrick HATES being photographed so he was a real trooper, but Chris can't get enough of it. I wanted to do more funny shots, but this is the only one we managed...Even after all that cookie dough they could still lift me. What a good day. I'm trying to do something a little Christmassy every weekend. Next weekend Patrick and I are going to buy a bunch of hard candy (or "boiled sweets" as they are known here) and make a gingerbread house! Or something, maybe we'll do a gingerbread Double Decker Bus or Big Ben, or perhaps a crew shell in gingerbread? Hey, we are making our own so we can do whatever we like! Pictures to follow.

Today I'm sick in bed with a sore throat and therefore catching up on a lot of things while Chris vacuums and cleans and I listen to Christmas tunes. Ah, December is turning out pretty good.

Musings on a Snowy morning

Hello Dear Readers,

Ahh, the 2nd of December and the snow is gently falling outside my window as I sip hot tea and wait for the oatmeal to finish on the stove.....This was the scene that greeted me as I put the trash on the back porch:
Which gave me the perfect opportunity to photograph my newest sweater for Odie in the early morning light and the glow of the snow:
Unfortunately it's still in the 70's in Cyprus right now but hey, it gets chilly sometimes......

Still all the snow is great ambiance and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I have my penguin pajama's on, and have hung stockings by the chimney with care
and loaded up the presents delivered by Santa via my brother when he came back from visiting the States over Thanksgiving. Still haven't touched them yet, aren't I GOOD!

Yesterday was my first day at the new job at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. The old building is AMAZING as you would expect it to be. I'm in the "crypt" as it's called, short for the Cryptogamic Herbarium where the non flowering plants are kept. It's a really nice setup because the two other girls I work with have desks right next to mine (there are 4 in a square). So different from my isolation unit over at Kew where I could not see a soul for HOURS in between tea times...... One of the girls is from Cyprus, so I'm hoping I'll be able to practice my Greek a little bit more. Yesterday we started at the luxurious hour of 10 (as we do today which is why I'm getting in some early morning blogging and cooking/cleaning) and pretty much straight away went for tea and cake. I love working in England! Then we had tours around the buildings and met a ton of people. Everyone seems perfectly lovely but I couldn't help feeling pangs of homesickness for my friends at Kew, an Irish girl reminding me of my friend Emma, a fashionably dressed Londner reminding me of Nina. Sigh.

Today is more of the same I think, meeting people, learning about the collections, wandering like rats through the labyrinth of old and new and newer buildings. They keep telling me not to worry if I can't remember the way. I tell them I'm not worried, I KNOW I won't remember the way. But I'll figure it out soon, my army brat new places new faces instincts kicking in. Another year, another house, another job.

Time to eat some oatmeal and get dressed and get prepared to go out my front door into this:
Ahh, I love weather, and there is so much of it here! Hope the buses are running alright, I'll have my knitting (almost finished with a fantastic apple vest for my friend's son) so I'll have plenty to keep me occupied.