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.

Taking Back The Tap

Ok, so it has taken a while for the penny to drop with this one. I am not a big water drinker at the best of times, just don't like the taste of the stuff, where ever it comes from, but I hadn't really really thought about it until today.


For me to drink water it either needs to have had Lemons soaking in it for a while or I get it down me with a nice refreshing Rooibos or mint tea. Even then though in certain parts of the world you can still taste the chlorine or whatever chemicals it is that they put in it, especially when it is desalinated water out of a tap.







However, for many years I have pondered..... over my tea or water.....

as to how it was that I lived in the dessert and yet ' Natural Spring Water' from the near by Majestic Hajar Mountains, was bottled in plastic bottles and placed on the shelves of supermarkets. I gaily bought it but 20 years later, during which time we had less and less rainfall to refill the spring water in the Hajar Mountains in the desert???????????? Are you with me on this.......

So with an empty spring due to no water how come so many other companies were coing up with ' Natural Spring Water'.
It is the same here in Cyprus, there is a whole isle of bottled water yet, Cyprus hardley has any water so where are the narural springs that it is all produced in?
Then yesterday whilst doing some research on the internet I found a fantastic clip on youtube

The Story Of Bottled Water.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S49d-U5rHw
It is part of The Story Of Stuff project that just has to be seen! It is the scariest story of all!

So I have taken the plunge and I am Taking Back The Tap,

Cheers.

Baking On The Barbie

This is not a weekend indulgance, for us, it has become a way of life. Electricity is very expensive in Cyprus, added to that we both prefer gas to cook on, however the place that we are in has an electric cooker, pushing up the electric bills and producing for us, not such good food. So I came up with a brian wave, we love eating outdoors, under the sun or beneath the stars, so why don't we get a gas BBQ. We toyed with the idea but at the time didn't feel that we could justify spending the sort of money that they cost. I mentioned the idea to TBH's parents and they very kindly donated birthday money in advance and hey presto we are in business with the Barbie. Thank you!

So, as the saying goes if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen, and as the summer is fast approaching it is far nicer and much cooler to be cooking outside where at present we still seem to be getting a breeze that keeps the temperature down. We started by doing the usual home made burgers, chicken legs, and jacket potatos and then the chhallenge began, with both of us being keen cooks, it was clear that between us we had to come up with something other than the usual to Bake on the Barbie.
So I did everything else as normal for a sponge cake, whisked my butter, sugar, and eggs together,

Grated and hand juiced my orange,adding the juice to the mixture, before the flour,



added my village flour, baking powder, and orange rind for a final whisk before putting my mixture into a grease proofed loaf tray and onto the Barbie with the lid down for between 20-30 minutes.

Topped with some chocolate butter icing ,

I initially did this for TBH'S birthday after I did some research and figured that the bbq could be used in a similar way to a gas oven, guess what it worked! So as I had some tiny tums to feed yesterday with the Barefoot Mama Clan coming round for an afternoon cuppa I thought I know just the thing that they can get their sticky little mits into, and it went down a treat.

High Tea at Hay Bale Happiness!