Battles

The Harbour in Kyrenia.

I have once again been wearing my tour opperater hat taking our visitors island wide. We have been valley low and mountain high, enjoying every corner of this beautiful place and soaking up all that it has to offer and the cherished memories that we gain from experiencing it together. Sharing these moments with a sufferer of Altzheimers, and watching him fight this degenarative disease like a true hero in his own battlefield, makes it even more important to cherish every moment for the moment and live the here and now.

Inside The Castle Walls Kyrenia.

Today the castle in Kyrenia is beautiful quiet and peaceful place where one can sit in tranquility and soak up the stunning scenery that evelopes it's exterior. However, it wasn't always this way. In a time gone by this would have been filled with men preparing and returning from war. Walking across the bridge and up the cobbled street of it's entrance one can imagine the horses gallpoing in with their riders, the likes of Richard Lionheart exhausted from battle, their armour weighing them down, drained from the blistering heat, returning to the saftey of the castle walls.

The High Walls of The Castle.

As I sat here imagining this bygone era, I wondered how much have we learned? Battles are fought, wars are won, but do we actually learn from it or does history just repeat itself?

Chip Off The Old Block

Saturday morning we set out with our visitors to have a stroll along the beach at Alaminos, on the way we stumbled across this Sculpture Museum which is a private house open to the public for viewing on most days. TBH and I had passed it beofore but didn't bother going in, but this time, curiosity killed the cat so to speak. We ventured through the entrance and were astounded by what we found. We didn't get the sculptures name, but we did meet him and he showed us around and explained some of his works to us. This is his hobby and he has been doing it full time since he was 50.

Forest Man on All Fours

Europe, each strand of hair around the statue represenst an EU country.

The artist described this as his depiction of a mass grave of Greek and Turkish Cypriots during the 1974 war. He explained how there was little if any time to bury the dead for fear of being killed ones self, so shallow graves were dug and covered with earth, but when the first rains came, the earth was washed away leaving a mound of body parts and corpses. A strong reminder of the sadness and loss that this Island has had to endure over the years.

Lemons.

His wife is also very talented and has done the icons for the little church that they have on the property and she also paints and this was one of her pieces in the gallery there that I fell in love with. The pensive look on the womans face is really moving and the stunning contrast in colour of the blue of the butterfly and the blue in her eyes and in the bead dangling from the and the stone in the ring on her finger is just exqusite, and how she managed to make the fabric of the dress come to life like that I will never know. Totally beautiful.

Pensive Woman.

Pensive Woman.

I so admire people who have the ability to tell a story with art. It was a wonderful visit and I recommend it to anyone coming to Cyprus.

The Latest Addition

10 days after Mischief passed away, this little tinker arrived in the garden howling for food and begging to be loved........................ I tried hard to resist and on the first eveing gace her a little food and water and left a box outside for her and I decided that I would see if she was still there the next day and decide what to do..............

I took CHI CHI LE ( she arrived the day the miners we rescued, CHI CHI CHI, LE LE LE, LOSS MINEROS DE CHILE)the vets, got her jabed and chipped, de fleed and wormed...... she has been with us nearly 3 months now and though nothing will replace Missey, we love our new addition and she brings much joy to our life.

Reuse,Recycle, Restain.

We have visitors again at the moment, and before they arrived I did the usual spring clean. We have had a lot of visitors this year so inside was looking pretty good already, but due to the heat of the summer I had neglected a few things outside and the sun had bleached a lot of the wood furniture that we have.

In the past I would have taken the furniture to the dump and gleefully wizzed of to a garden centre and replaced it with new.............................Not any more!

Instead I did what my Grandfather would have done,I went to the hardware store purchased a brush and some wood stain, rolled up my sleaves and got stuck into restaining the furniture. It was a good few days work but very satisfying, and every evening when we sit out and watch the sun go down across the valley and dissapear behind the mountais in the distance, I am really proud to be sitting on furniture that I have reused and made new, another step further towards simple living and changing ones mindset.