Sam's Special Spaghetti Sauce

Sam's home grown beef tomatoes.

Sam is the son of my dear friend Deb, and when we left Mazatos Sam was starting to show an interest in growing his own veg. So we donated our veggie box to him as it was too big to fit on our terrace. He has subsiquently planted loads of other things in his garden and has become really good at producing different varieties of Tomatoes, he also has cucumbers, maize,strawberries,spring onions, lettuce, corriander and basil.

Sam's home grown spring onions

Most lad's of his age,15 would not even be aware that veg comes from anything other than a can or a freezer bag so I find it really encouraging that he has shown such an interest and is being so successful with it. So I was delighted the other day when his Mum passed by for a cuppa and gave me a basket full of goodies from Sam's garden. What a beautiful gift.......

Our herb garden.

So I got to work, picked some basil from our herb garden, the basil Sam gave me I am going to see if I can root it and add it to our collection. Then I blanched the tomatoes until the skins split, then peeled them and chopped them. I chopped the spring onions and diced a normal white onion and some garlic, sauted this in some olive oil.

All the lovely ingredients.

I added the tomatoes, brown sugar, worctershire sauce, and salt, let it simmer to reduce down.

Home made tomato sauce.

In the evening TBH boiled up some brown pasta and grated some parmasan, re heated the sauce and hey presto.... dinner was served.

Sam's special spaghetti sauce.

What better way to end a day than sitting on the terrace watching the clouds cast long shadows across the distant mountains enjoying a meal of home grown, home cooked food.

THANKS SAM!

Saving Cyprus Energy

We should all be concerving energy in order to help save this planet for future generations, and yes every little bit does help, and yes you can make a difference.

Solar lights up the staircase.

The disater on July 11th in which the Vassiliko power station was destroyed, is a prime example of just how easy it is for us to be thrown back to basics with out electricity and without water. However, it should not take something like this for people to realise that we MUST conserve energy. The world is rapidly running out of these resources and we simple cannot sustain this way of life.

Unfortunately Cyprus is very much behind the times in this instance, with energy saving only just on the frindges of conversation, talked about more recently beacause of this disaster. But in a country where there is very little water, but where solar power is in abundance to heat water, one would have thought that, it would be more aware of energy conservation.

Instead I freaquently see patios being hosed down with good drinking water, cars being washed and hosepipes gushing water down the streets, airconditioning units running day and night. TV'S balring out whilst people are asleep in front of them.

The fact is Electricity in Cyprus is the most expensive in Europe and with us now having to buy at an even higher price from outside sources, we will definately feel the difference in those energy bills. Perhaps those who manage to lower their energy bills should be rewarded, to encourage people to start taking notice, and stop waisting electricity and water.

When we lived in Mazatos our first electricity bill was 125 EURO per month. By the time we left I had got it down to 60 EURO per month. So being mindful about what you are using, saves energy for the planet and puts money into your savings account.

So here are few tips on concerving electricity and water if you have any other suggestions perhaps you would share them with us in the comments box.

1.Turn off the TV. Don't have it. Talk with your loved ones, play board games, paint, be creative. We have not had TV for nearly 2 years.

2.Use solar powered lighting wherever possible, all our outside lighting is solar powered.

3.Put in energy saving light bulbs, all our inside bulbs are energy saving light bulbs.

4.Turn lights off when you are not in the room.

5.Turn electrical equipment like TV's, DVD players, off at the wall, you would be supprised at the amount of electricity that still flows when they are on sleep mode.

6.Use fans instead of A/C units.

7. If you must use A/C keep it at 26 degrees this is the most econmical.

8.Sleep outside under a mosquito net the you don't need AC.

9.Use your gas BBQ to bake cakes, bread, cook roast's, quiches ect.

10.Put your washing on at night just before you go to bed, electricity consumption is much less then and the cost is less.

11. Stop using the dishwasher and wash up by hand.

12.Sweep and mop instead of using a hoover. Use the dirty water to water your plants.

13. Invest in a Slow cooker, they are far more economical than an oven.

14.Collect the water that runs before it gets hot and use it to water your plants, or collect it over a few days in several buckets to clean your car or fluch your toilet.

15.Fill kettles and pots and pans for cooking with the cold water that runs before it gets hot.

16. Collect the water form your A/C units to water your garden or wash your patio.

17.Think twice about having a pool. It is very expensive to run a pump on a pool and keeping the water topped up in the summer months uses a lot of much needed drinking water.

Solar Powered Lights.

What ever you do, just do your bit.

A Nation In Grief

It is a very sad and difficult time for people here on this beautiful island of Cyprus.


Yesterday 8 funerals took place there will be more...........


Today, now as I write a mother is preparing to bury her son's 19 year old twin brothers born together, they died side by side,tragically, on Monday.

We woke in Lefkara 17 Kilometeres away, to the massive BOOM of the horrific blast that ripped through the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base, destroying the islands main power plant, knocking out windows in neigbouring villages, and dropping debry all over the motorway.

The whole thing could have been avoided and these souls still with us, but the warnings that the 98 containers full of confiscated explosives, sitting for 2 years in the stifling heat, were on the brink of explosion, fell on deaf ears???????????????????????

No one listened to the warnings, no one cared what might happen, as they had their own agenda for the ammunition.

Now not 12 but 13 people have died as another 19 year old who clung to the edges of life has been annonced brain dead after his fatal injuries.

Why why why..............................

To all who are injured I wish you a speedy and full recovery.

To all of those who have lost their loved ones, I do not know you, but believe me my heart goes out to you, I cannot take away your pain but please know that I am thinking of you in these dark and difficult days and I along with most of Cyprus feel your grief.

May your loved ones rest in peace.

There's No Place Like Home

You put the key into your front door, turn the lock and walk in, kick of your shoes and sit down on your compfy sofa. Ahh..... it is good to be home, do you know, so many of us take that moment for granted.

Many people are displaced in this world, often due to conflicts that have risen around them and engulfed their every day lives, conflicts generaly caused by a bigger power pulling the strings much further away than the fields they plough and land they nuture.

Though thankfully as yet, I have never had to endure the attrocities of war, I do know what it feels like to yearn every single day for that place that you know deap in your heart is home and for this reason I have always had an empathy with displaced people.
At age 11 having lived blissfully in the same house all my life,surrounded by the same friends, going to the same school and knowing the land and nature around me, I was put on a plane to England for what I thought was another annual holiday to see the grandparents. I was wrong.

My family abruptly left Kenya.

I was lucky, there was no barbed wire fencing, no guns and no tanks preventing me from the land of my birth, just years of inner turmoil and constant travel trying to find a place I could call home.

25 years later I made it back and there is no place like home.

In my travels around the world, I have met displaced people, heard their stories of how their mothers still hold the keys to a house they were dragged from kicking and screaming as a child, the only possesion they had was the teddy bear they had slept with, before the soliders, tanks and guns took away their lives and destroyed their dreams.

Last Sunday whilst on a day trip on the island, we accidently found ourselves on the UN buffer zone between Southern and Nothern Cyprus, and we looked across the fields to Famagusta, a city which due to the conflict of 1974 has been left ghost town for 36 years, with 45 thousand Greek and Turkish Cypriots displaced. It really hit me and sunk in how absoloutely awful it must be to loose everything you own, everything you have ever known and to see it all there but not be allowed through the barbed wire fence that some other force has put in place to keep you out. It must be totally and utterly soul destroying.

I whept....................... I whept for every innocent broken heart, shattered in a conflict they don't belong.

Standing there and seeing the empty desolate buildings of what was once a vibrant, buzzing tourist resort, slowly rotting in the sizzling shimmering heat, with the grass and foliage it's only life source, the cranes still in the same place that they where left, building new hotels, back in August 1974 ....... quite frankly it was a SHOCKING realisation that this seemingly tranquill idylic island has seen some horrific, horrendous times.

May all the worlds displaced people one day feel the soil between their toes and smell the earth from which they came. May the red tape of bureaucracy and the barbed wire fences of armies one day be removed so that everyone has the freedom to go home.

Family, Friends and Ffffffffff........orty!

Home baked goodies

Family,
Well, it has been a busy time here at HBH, with lots of scurrying around, dusters dusting, the sound of hoovers buzzing through the house, even the silver could be heard squeaking as it was polished to shine and sparkle. Cushions and cushion covers have whizzed around the washing machine,furniture moved and beds made up with nice crisp sheets. Homebaked bread,cookies and cakes are in the freezer along with coconut ice cream and the home made ginger beer is brewing in the fridge..............

Bubbling in eager aticipation for a big family feast.

Today,my family are coming to stay with me for the first time ever and I cannot tell you how excited I am!
It has really given me the opportunity to fluff up my feathers and tend to my nest and I have tried to make it all as comfy and cosy as possible, though doing that in 33 degrees heat has been a challenge.
The visit is their present to me as I head down the path over this next week to the transition into my FORTIES!!!!!! and it is a fantastic present. Though they won't be with me for the actual day, I am so delighted that they are going to be with me on the run up and that we can spend some quality time together, sharing and caring for each other. I have had such a great time preparing for this, that alone has given me so much pleasure, now I cannot wait to share it with the ones I love. What a simple joy in life!

Friends,
On Saturday we shall have a BBQ bash here at HBH with some new found friends, that we have met here in Cyprus and I am really looking forward to a day filled with chitter chatter, laughter and happiness.
When you make a big move like we have done, it is such a good feeling to finally say that you have made friends, last weeek I went out for a ladies lunch with them, they showed me new places,you know the little funny places in life that aren't in a guide book, like where to get keys cut and where the material shops are and where to get woodwork done and furnature mended,where to get arts and crafts,which supermarket is cheaper, how to get across town, all these things that one needs to be shown one needs to learn form others, picks up in a community,we had lunch in a really cute taverna and chattered away, I had such a wonderful time,listening to their stories, discovering more about who they are and their views on life and it really warms my heart as it is even more reasurance that we are another step closer towards settling in our new enviroment.

Freshly picked Figs from a tree in the village.

40...............................
It is interesting that for me turning 40 is far less daunting than it was to turn thirty, in the run up to thirty I was so disturbed, my life was not where I wanted it to be and nothing seemed to have fallen into place as I had hoped or planned and I really struggled with it.
But now...... in the run up to 40, I am definately where I want to be, well, yes I could do with loosing weight so I am not phycically where I want to be, but emotionally, wow...... yes where I am right now is a very good place. I have a wonderful supportive husband, live on a beautiful Island and have the opportunity to really explore who I am and what I am about. Living more simply away from consummerisum, trends,superficial niceties and high speed life, here in this place in this space,I feel wiser, more self confident and I think that is what pushes me forward to 40 with a big smile on my face. I am not loosing my youth,or becoming middle aged, I am gaining my wisdom, becoming more self assured, finally knowing and understanding what I do want in life..... Simplicity, enjoying the little things in life with the ones that you most care for,and working towards that every day, letting go of what I do not want, and the best of that, is that at 30 I would have felt guilty about letting go, but at 40 it is toatally liberating.

Sowing The Seeds.

We were at a BBQ over the weekend, and someone asked me ' so how are you? what have you been up to'

In my previous life I have no doubt that I would have very quickly responded with something like, ' Oh you know, getting the boss in and out of Kuwait for his latest meetings has been a nightmare, or finalising a holiday booking for a honeymoon couple going to the Maldives, it so sweet she doesn't even know what he has planned, or did a complete restyle on this client, she had hair down to her waiste and we cut it really short and put three diferent colours through it, she looked fantastic and loved it, but the hubby wasn't so sure.'

But in this instance, in my new life, which is much quiter, much calmer, much more focused on TBH and I

When asked ' what have you been up to ?' mmmm I was somewhat flummoxed as I didn't really know what to say, what had I been up, home making, blogging, researching the internet, learning and oh yeah.....planning, making and sowing, but it just didn't seem interesting enough to talk about in that situation at that particular time, then when I came away and thought about it, I wanted to shout hey!!!! Actually I have been really busy achieving what I have spent over 10 years working towards I have been living my dream regardless!!!!! Thanks pj great advice.

When I was a kid in Kenya, we had quite a large vegetable patch, and when I was peckish I often indulged myself in a little digging of carrots from the earth,vaguely rinsing it in under the garden hose, and crunch, biting into all it's crunchiness and goodness, or I could be caught scoffing a whole load of peas fresh out of their pods.... mmmm there really is nothing quite like fresh home grown veggies straight out of the ground.

Many years later I remember working in a salon that was next to a veggie shop that sold peas in their pods, so I went an grabbed some for an afternoon break, one of my colleagues said ' Oooh what are they' I explained and they replied ' wow I didn't realise that is what they looked like, I have only ever seen them in a tin or a freezer bag'.................... that was one of my first realisations that sadly so many people in this day and age have no idea where their food comes from or what might be in it, or how it goes from being a seed in the ground to a beautiful pretty plant giving us the fruit of it's labours.


TBH and I both love cooking, we do it quite differently however, but we both used to watch with envey these chef's who were able to go and pick their produce straight out of the garden, knowing where they come from knowing the good nutritional value that they are going to add to a meal.


We have wanted a veggie patch for years now, we did try a few herbs and tomatoes on our balcony in Dubai, but nothing really materialised, might have had something to do with fall out from the nearby alluminium smelter, but hey, in our plans to leave Dubai one of our criteria was to FINALLY be able to grow some of our own crops. We had planned on buying a small property here in Cyprus with some garden, but as that has not yet materialised, and we are currently in a rental property, so our plans for veggies subsided for a little while..... I got all despondent, thinking that because we were in a rental and it already has every little cacti and ornamental plant in place, then we wouldn't be able to grow our own stuff, that was 4 months ago, before I started to learn, and that is where the internet is so so useful. By researching and learning what others do, on float cabins, on boats, on balconies, and on large farms I got inspired and came up with a brain wave, lets make a veggie box out of old pallets,( which has been done else where).TBH gets loads of pallets at work, they are free and it is a good way to recycle them. Using these means that if we find our dream property or if should we have to move, we can take the veggies with us. So TBH got to work on a box and I will post about the making of it seperately.

That is also the reason that this is quite a long blog, I wanted to share with others the small ideas that I came up with to reuse,and recycle in order to achieve what you have been dreaming of for so long. I pondered over what or how I could make seedling box's............ then I started saving egg boxes. ( Am sure this too has been done before)

I punctured holes into the bottom of them with a knife for drainage,

Then cut them in half and placed the bottoms into the lids

I filled these with soil ( Thanks Mum for the donation) making sure the soil was really moist,

Then I proceeded to dig a small whole in the egg cup full of soil and begun to sow my seeds, Carrots, Cucumbers, Corriander, Corn,Tomatoes, Green Pepper and Rocca, so we are looking forward to a nice healthy home grown, home made salad, how fantastic would that be.

I covered the seeds with soil and gave them another sprinkling of water from my home made recycled watering can, which is basically a 4 litre fabric softener bottle, ( I no longer use fabric softner) I skeward holes into the lid and there you have it a watering can.




I knew I would get totally confused as to what seeds I had put into which box so I cut up a yoghurt carton and made the signs out of that.

It has all taken time, a long time, as with many things in life it has not been an overnight process, and we still have a long road ahead,learing what will grow,learning how to help it grow, it has taken time to think through ideas and put into practise those ideas, it has taken thinking outside our usual box,TBH and I are both creative, but not always practical at putting things together. It has been a learning curve for the two of us, helping each other to re asses, is that really the best way to do it? Perhaps if we did this or perhaps if we did that, and teaching ourselves to stop, complete a process and then move on, and in much of our veggie box/begining to grow, one idea has arisen out of another idea, as the mind works gently to find soloutions.
We have put the veggie box at the front of the property, not overly pretty, and whilst I was stood there knowing that it is the most practical place to have it as the sun will be on it all day long in both summer and winter, but wondering what ' others' would think of our veggie box amongst the ornamental perfectly placed cacti, an elderly gentleman pushing his grandaughter in a wheel chair , walked down the street, he stopped to chat and we discussed my dilema, to which he replied ' it is not whether it looks pretty or whether other people like it or not, you come first and if it serves your purpose, my dear THAT is what really matters.' What wise words! This very kind man not only taught me a lesson that day, he also gave us a very good soloution to how to cover our seedlings to prevent the cats, or Harry the hedgehog from messing up our good work.

TBH managed to make a recycled seeding cover which again I will blog about at a later stage. But the seedlings have been out enjoying the sun's good energy which is helping to make them strong and healthy,

So that hopefully in the not too distant future we will reaping the rewards and bennifits from much hard work,and many years of dreaming. So next time at the BBQ when asked what I have been doing I will feel more confident to say, I have been planning making and sowing the fruits and vegetables of our simple but beautiful life in Cyprus.

By the way, have you tried the salad, it tastes really good.

Charalambous The Hedgehog

Or Harry for short.... not sure why we think it is male, maybe it should be called Henrietta or someting but anyway, it came into our garden on Sunday evening, gaily strolled up the garden path right under our legs and followed the path around the house and proceeded to have a good sniff under the Bougainvillea bush in the back. Isn't it the cutest thing you ever saw.

It bought a smile to my face on what was a rather emotional day as we had had some concerning news that we needed to get our heads around and

then despite my efforts of waving an orange sarong outside the window all week Holland go and loose the world cup. I felt exactly like this by the time I went to bed, I wanted to shut down and make the whole world go away.

Do you ever feel like curling up in a ball, looking after the innner you and leaving the spikes out to fight the rest of the world? What a great natural mechanism this little creature has to protect itself.

Pesticide Poisioning and Football Fever

It was an unexpected, but eventful day yesterday, that welled up all sorts of emotions, disbelief, shock, panic,worry, anger,understanding,elation, that is a lot of emotion for one day. It begun when I was happliy going through my usual morning routine of sipping a nice cup of redbush tea whilst checking emails and reading bloggs on the internet. Then I heard quite a comotion going on outside, I went to our bedroom balcony window to investigate and found one of the local farmers, with his tractor outside our front gate, with an assistant carrying a hose connected to a spray gun. As I tried to establish in broken English what they were doing, the assistant pointed at me to close my window. In a state of confusion not really knowing what was going on I did as I was told and they then proceeded to spray the palm tree that is outside our bedroom window with some horrific pesticide............................................ as the wind was blowing quite strongly and the windows in the rest of the house hadn't been closed for this unknown event, the pesticide drifted on the wind across the front of the property and down the alley at the side and in through the side bedroom window and the window for the snug.

While I stood there in utter disbelief that this had just happened with NO prior warning what so ever, the farmer and assistant proceeded to spill even more pesticide across the road, whislt they re-loaded their hose and went on their merry way down the street to the next palm tree.

Panic!!!!!! We have 4 cats, one of which already has no tail and no back right leg due to previous accidents, lives in doors and was thankfully in the spareroom on the uneffected side of the house,so I kept here where she was, but where were the others. 2 were oblivious to the whole situation asleep in the kitchen but the 3rd Mischief was no where to be seen. The mist from the pesticide filled the outside air as I went on my mission to find her, and there she was, hiding by the pump house wretching from the acrid stench that was pollouting her little lungs. I grab her and got her inside, thankfully once behind closed doors, she calmed down and began to eat, drank some water, and snuggled up on her usual mat, leaving me sick with worry as to what effect it will have on her long term.

We don't have children and our cats get all the love and devotion that we would give children if we had them, this made me wonder what on earth would I have done if this had happened and my young baby had been sleeping quietly in the fresh mornig breeze on the patio when this cloud of chemicals came flowing into it's lungs????????

After some research, it transpires that there is a plague of Palm Weevils that have recently arrived on the island and are killing palme trees everywhere.

http://wwwcyprus-mail.com/cyprus/palm-weevil-re-emerges-cyprus

Surely there must be an EU regulatioin somewhere that if an area is going to be sprayed residents should get prior warning in order to get our children, pets, laundry etc out of harms way????

I spent the rest of the morning trying to dilute whatever lay on the garden paths, windowsills and in the middle of the road in the hope that neighbourhood children, cats, wildlife, will not get contaminated when they go outside again, though I fear that my efforts will be in vain and in the mean time I managed to get an awful head ache and felt quite nauseaus from what I was breathing in myself.

Palm trees cost ALOT of money so I fully understand that people want the 'weevils ' exterminated, but is this really the only way? Ok the pesticide will kill the weevils but it will kill so many other things too including the local wildlife. I spins off through the entire food chain, and last night when we were sitting having our evening drink out the front watching the shooting stars, and a tiny little hedgehog came rustling through the garden I worried that it would be picking up the dead beatles that had been exterminated that morning and now it too would carry this chemical around in it's small little body, then the beautiful big resident owl appeared on the telegraph pole, watching with beady eyes this morsel that scurried beneath him, and I realised that would also end up being poisioned if it caught the hedgehog, that had eaten the beatles that had died of pesticide poisioning.

It ends up in our food chain too, so much for our ORGANIC DATE CHUTNEY that we were hoping to produce, thankfully we have not yet started our veggie patch else that would also be contaminated, but what gets me most about all of this is that we had no choice, it was just done on private land without any interaction with the residents at all. I thought I had left that sort of society in Dubai, it is not quite what I expected from an EU country. .............. But EU fever finally lifted my dispondent spirits towards the end of the evening when across the valley we hear ' goooaaal Holland'..... so we rushed inside to read the comentry of the last 20 minutes of The Nederlands Vs Urugay semi final, YES!!!! I finally got TBH interested in footy! Despite being Dutch he is not usually into the football at all, but he actually had a smile on his face at the idea that his country will play in the final of the World Cup. We don't have a Dutch flag but I have hung an orange sarong from the balcony, just incase anyone in the village wonders who we are backing, and am hoping I can persued TBH to go and watch the game on Sunday.

Family and friends I urge you to be wearing anything that you have that is Orange on Sunday.

Come on Holland!!!!

Salute To The Sun

Wherever we are in the world we absoloutely adore watching sunset. I suppose at this time of day I take time to marvell at Mother Nature and The Universe, and as many creatures and critters are scurrying away to bed, others, like my cats are just waking up and scouring the street at dusk. There is something magical about the light at this time of day and a stillness that lets you breath deap and slow which is what TBH ( The Better Half) did when he just made it home on time yesterday to grab the photo bag, and a beer of course to drink a Salute To the Sun on it's longest day of the year!

Because we are lucky enough to have pretty much uninteruppted views here it has been really facinating to see just how much the sun has moved over the last 6 months.

These pictures are taken from our back garden, and yet in January when we arrived, there was no sun to be seen at all over the back of the house, and we watched the sunset from the front garden almost opposite from where it went down yesterday.

Sunflower Sunday

Sunday was another wondreful day, we arose early, enjoyed breakfast on the patio and then took a leisurely drive along the coast road towards Zygi, and found ourselves a place to have a splash in The Med. We have been on this side of the island for 6 months now and this was the first time that actually went to the sea. The water was chilly compared to the pool but it was just glourious. Swimming around like little fishes,our skin soaking up all the goodness of the salty water and re energising with the glow of the early moring sun.



I stopped for a moment and looked back towards the shore..... I really wanted to appreciate how lucky we are to be living here? Some people never get this opportunity, and others get it only for 2 weeks out of a year, but this..... this is where we live, this is our home, and the aqua blue mediterranean sea is at our doorstep. We have alot to be thankful for.

We decided to take a different route home, up the gorge, beside the dry riverbed, past the orange groves, through the village of Agios Theodoros.

Here we stopped at a picnic spot over looking the quaint little village and had a break with a slice of homebaked chocolate cake and a rasin,cinnamon scone, both of which were cooked on the BBQ the day before,washed down with you guessed it, a nice refreshing cup of Rooibos tea.

We sat for a while,memorised by all the comings and goings as people in the village below went about their weekend chores,cleaning their patios, servicing their tractors,hanging out their washing and tending to their gardens.Then we spotted the most beautiful sunflowers, they are one of my favorite flowers so full of happiness and sunshine, so went down into the village and had a closer look. They were giants and towered above us,like something out of Jack and the Bean Stalk.

They were utterly wonderful and obviously grown with tender loving care, as were these flowers that surrounded this stunning colonial style house.

Back at our house and we enjoyed a simple Roast Turkey Salad Sandwhich for lunch and soaked up the sunshine on a stunning Sunflower Sunday.