CYPRUS, SECOND WINTER December 15 – April 15,2013-14
We land at Girne (the Turkish name)/ Kyrinia (the Greek name) at the new harbor in North Cyprus. Out of respect for the Turkish Cypriots who live here, I will refer to it as Girne.
Susan is making coffee in the camper when the call comes to drive on to the ferry elevator. We are parked in an outside area at the topside of the boat. Ferry guys yell directions...back up! Turn around! No no no no...this way! Yell yell yell. We would have done much better without their 'help'. Susan hands coffee all 'round. And we are off the ramp and on to island ground...but are surprised by the final bumping of driving over a pile of thick sea rope and the coffee in our hands splashes out of our cups.
Now the process of getting out of the boatyard. We are still not free! Go to this agency, pay port tax, yadda yadda yadda...trucks, cars and people all in a muddle. Scurry, bump, confusion...a puzzle everyone must wade through. Ah, the final check out. A young man and woman are in the booth. Young Cypriots. So pleasant...and so proud of their heritage. They tell us that that their culture is quite different from the mainland Turks. It is exciting for David and I to be back on familiar ground. As we did last year, we headed for a hearty English breakfast. Bacon, eggs, cooked tomato and beans (from a can).
Next on our agenda is to visit Tim and Jackie, the owners of the home we will be housesitting for a few weeks, the home and cats, Millie and Charley, a lovely place with an internal courtyard, most living space on one floor. Jackie used to run a B&B so it is certainly set up for us. Our own rooms with bath and doors to the pool (which is far too cold to use). We will start our job here in five days.
In the meantime our friends Ingrid and Colin will be in England and Peru (at their son's wedding)and we will stay in their villa for the three months that they are gone. They have graciously agreed to this arrangement if we pay all our expenses and generally look after the house and garden. And Susan has also been invited to be with us. She will stay one month.
When we arrive the house is cold of course and it takes some days to get it back to a comfort zone. Most villas here are not built with central heating as the weather never gets too cold (it did hail small hard snowballs while we were here) but the cement construction holds the cold air in. Air conditioning is a must as the summers are very hot. We made up our beds and slept cozy under down comforters. The next day we spent at home, making ourselves comfortable, claiming it ours for the time we are here. The living room has a fireplace and propane heaters and a heavy curtain to close it off from the rest of the house. During the cold weather we spend most of our time here. It is a sweet home filled with good taste. Both Ingrid and Colin are artists. Ingrid was an interior designer so it is all interesting and pleasing to the eye. Our winter room is a summer garden ambiance; pink and white striped sofa and chairs whose pillows are feather so have to be fluffed and plumped every night just like in Downton Abbey which we watch every night until the end of the series and we are saturated and feel that the characters are family and friends. White embroidered and lacy throw pillows are all over the room. A large ratan chair with matching stool/ table for our coffee and tea. Turkish killim carpets of light color and stools with killim tops keep me looking at all the patterns.
The watercolor paintings on the walls are of never-ending interest, reflecting the life style of a country villa. All the art objects and paintings are good, including the one of boats in a harbor, painted in oils by Colin.
The kitchen is remarkable. There is nothing missing in it. The main dishes are that great IKEA white but there are such wonderful contrasts in the cups and bowls and special plates, of fruits and flowers in delicious colors. The kitchen ends up being Susan's turf as she cannot stop cooking and baking for us. David and I are certainly appreciative recipients, though our weight begins to go upwards! Shepherds pie, lemon curd, shortbread, warm baking powder biscuits with butter, jam and honey, chocolate chip cookies, and the list goes on. She gets an idea and it must be done!
Susan has a sunny bedroom facing the mountain range to the east. Ours faces the same range to the west, with a unique view of an old castle on the top of one peak and the olive orchard below. Our other window looks north down at the pool, inviting turquoise water but it is just a tease at this time of year.
Also the area is very quiet. This villa is a bit hard to find, hidden at the end of winding rural roads and then a skinny long driveway beside an olive orchard.
The first morning we have breakfast made and served by David. Eggs with cheese and chopped vegetables and toast with fig jam, coffee and fruit. Later, Susan makes a late lunch...soup, olive bread to dip in fresh olive oil, olives, cheese, fruit and halva. Tea later in the warm sitting room and then a happy humming comes from the kitchen. “Ratatouli coming up”. That is our day, an eat fest.
December 18 and 19
Time for Susan to see Girne, our little town, and its harbor. It is lovely to walk its stony streets down to the Information center and harbour-side cafes and restaurants. We pick up guide books and maps of North Cyprus so Susan can anticipate the terraine, the villages and the ancient sites. In the evening we watch Lawrence of Arabia as Peter O'Tool has just died. Those eyes!
The next day our dear friends Josanne and Mike arrive on a villa finding mission in the daylight. It is good to see them! They will be coming again in the dark for dinner. There is much to say as Susan and they connect for the first time.
December 20 through January 2 House sitting for Tim and Jackie.
We have been invited to lunch at noon afterwhich we learn the ins and outs and quirks of the home and the cats. In the early evening the three of us go off to a Christmas carol service at St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Girne. It is really our first taste of Christmas other than the tree and decorations that Jackie has left for our enjoyment. Jackie and Tim will be gone before we are up in the morning.
Our time in this commodias house is filled with Christmas and New Years, two holidays that are hard to celebrate away from family, but we make it work with lots of laughter, food, friends and wine...and even a few little gifts. Susan bakes to share at festivities...mince tarts, lemon curd tarts, shortbread cookies and hard sauce with contreau and orange rind. Mike and Josanne have invited us for Christmas day. There are so many choices of festive foods to put on to our plates. It is gorgeous and delicious. Josanne is a very together lady, beautifully accomplishing anything she sets out to do, emanating a feeling of a household of well-being. Another guest is with us, their friend Mary, and the conversation is fun and diverse. Boxing Day, usually full of visiting or visitors for me, was quiet, enjoying our own company. Susan is in the kitchen again making Shepherd's Pie!
New Years day we have a party at 'our' house! We have invited 12 of our old friends and some new. David gets an award winning recipe for Chili from his brother in Arkansas. Chili is not a popular English dish like it is in North America. That is why we make it! He fools with the recipe some, to his own taste, and it is fantastic. We have the Food Lodge, a local bakery, make our corn bread, also a new taste for most. Michael, the new Anglican minister, raves about it. He used to be a Television Chef for a Canadian network! If chili wasn't 'their thing' the guests had lots to choose from, as well as an amazing cake that Josanne brought. Many of the guests did not know each other and in a small community like this it is fun to meet and see new faces along with their stories.
Here are a few recipes from Susan's collection:
LEMON CURD
Whisk together:
4 large eggs and 4 large egg yokes
1 ½ Cups of sugar
2/3 Cup lemon juice 9about 4 lemons)
salt
2/3 Cup or 10 Tbsp. Unsalted butter cut into pieces. Place pan on medium heat and add butter. STIR CONSTANTLY! Do not stop stirring for 8 to 10 minutes until it is the consistancy of loose pudding. Push through strainer. Cool with a piece of plastic wrap over it...the wrap sitting on the curd mixture. Refrigerate.
Use this lemon curd anyway that sounds good to you, on toast, on biscuits or cookies, cake topping....
If you want to make
COOKED LEMON CURD TARTES...here's how...
Whisk 6 large eggs with 6 oz. of caster sugar and then mix together well with...
10 oz. lemon juice (275 ml)
Zest of 6 to 8 lemons
7 oz. Whipping cream
Pour into tart shells and bake for 30 minutes at 350o F
TURKISH HUMUS
5 oz. Chick peas
4 to 6 Tbsp. Olive oil
juice of one lemon
4 to 5 cloves of garlic crushed with salt
1 tsp. Cumin seeds, crushed or not
1 to 2 Tbsp. thick yogurt
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pound chickpeas in a solid bowl with the garlic, cumin, olive oil and lemon juice. Adapt the flavor to taste by adding more olive oil or lemon juice. Bind with the yogurt and season to taste.
Spoon the humus into a bowl , then moisten the surface with a little olive oil. Sprinkle kirmizi pepper over the top and eat with warm fresh bread or soft bread pouches...OR you can add pine nuts. Melt butter in a pan and stir in nuts and pepper. Pour over humus and bake in oven for 20 minutes. Serve hot with bread.
AND JUST ONE MORE FROM THE FRY'S COCOA TIN... Can't be beat!
FRYS COCOA BROWNIES
30 minutes, makes 24 brownies
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
1 cup butter
1 cup Fry's cocoa
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla
Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl.
Melt butter in a large saucepan.
Remove from heat.
Stir in cocoa.
Blend in sugar, eggs and vanilla.
Blend in dry ingredients.
Pour batter into greased baking pan.
Bake at 350oF for 30 to 35 minutes or until done. Cool.
HOUSESITTING at Millie and Charley's (the cats).
> Charley, the blond male cat, loved to take swipes at us. Too bad, we still liked and petted Charley much to his dismay. Millie the calico female, was sick. Not moving well. We finally took her to a vet just before her parents came home. The report is that she is much better.
> Dorothy and Ian Betts, friends of Tim and Jackie's, came to check to see if we needed anything periodically. They became our good friends. Dorothy gave Josanne and I water color instructions one day. She also loves to play in the creative fabric world. She took us to the British Cemetery. Reading the headstones of folks who had lived and fought on this island was so very interesting. The British take care of this cemetery themselves, they even take care of the dead themselves, as the rest of the northern Republic is Islam (different customs). Dorothy has written a neat little book on its history. She and Ian's work has taken them to many exotic places...they have been Expats of England for years but for health reasons will return this spring.
> Jenny invited us on a few hikes with a local once-a-week hiking group, the first one was on the south facing mountainside. A dirt trail, up and down in pine trees and scrub with a few flowers trying to bring in the spring. Always a view but at one point we could see out to the lands and sea on both sides of the range. The regulars hikers were relaxed and talking with one another, almost skipping along the way. I was working hard! Lunch with the hikers on the mountain in a log cabin style restaurant offered delicious Cypriot traditional food. We went here often in the coming months as it became a favorite, especially with guests. David earned the name Mr. David when he entered the door...... Another hike we joined led to a monestery that was being refurbished. This was a more lowland hike and downright beautiful, much of it through hill and dale of fields and active farmlands. Old tractors at work. Dirt road through olive trees. Breathe it in...look hard enough to remember the feel. The regular hikers move fast. Some had to be at choir practice at a certain time. No time for dawdling. No time to see around you. No time to rest and talk. Susan and I were in the rear. David would just have to wait for us.
> We deal with a leaking boiler, no hot water and not much help. 10 days of tinkering and new parts. / We learn to use the electrical emersion system as a 'must' in this winter situation. Not enough solar energy. It proves a little tricky for us in our first days. / We think we broke the microwave and the wifi system...but both prove to be a result of lightening. / The antique clock on the mantle stops working. Jinxed!
> We watch movies and TV series. It is fun for us as it is something we do not normally do. The Jewel and the Crown. Pompeii. There is a variety of DVD's to choose from.
BACK TO THE VILLA, SAMINDIRA.
Everything here awaits our return. We settle in after unpacking. Good to be 'home'. David puts a long table up for me, below the west facing window in our bedroom, to write and paint on. I am ecstatic to have a quiet study place of my own. Susan, busy in the kitchen again, is russeling up fish and homemade chips.
Without boring you with an everyday diary I will give you the highlights of our month with Susan:
> Our friends Mike and Josanne offer an Alpha Course once a week in the church social hall, along with wonderful soups, breads and desserts for lunch. The course is a simple and interesting introduction to Christianity. Susan and I attend the first day. We watch a video and Mike tells the group a few stories. My decision to continue? This is not for me. I find that I am making my final run from Christianity as it seems defined in church ruling bodies. Susan decides to continue.
> The Girne tailors! We discover them in the main street of town. Georgeous fabrics in their windows draw us inside. Susan is in heaven. Everything is so yummy to the feel and the eyes. She begins her new wardrobe with a custom made jacket, a mild soft blue plaid with a rust line running through it and then chooses a silver lining and adds rust pants to go with it. And a really amazing flowered soft orange, green, blue for a unique long gored skirt, flippy at the hem. And a green soft sage tweed wool for another traditional blazier. Over the days of tailor visits and fittings she now has two tailors, two fabric shops. One of her tailors is a traditional tailor, a man who does a wonderful job of his craft. The other is a young woman who draws on-the-spot designs from Susan's suggestions. She is fun to work with but her sewing proves less perfect. As time goes by there is another fitted, large black and white box plaid jacket made to go with a splashy pink, black and orange skirt...a fabulous look together. I am having such fun watching, making suggestions and not spending a penny! I think she also has a few more pairs of pants made. Then off we go to the shoe store. And what a shoe store! She walks out with four pairs of shoes. An elegant pair of dark green buff leather 'wedgies' that will look stunning with her new skirts. And 3 matching pairs of soft loafers in white, orange and beige to wear with her pants! Ha! Our 54th high school reunion is coming up. What will she choose? (But in an email from home in Canada she tells me that she has bought two incredible designer blouses...1/2 price of course.)
The tailor was adjusting a new jacket Susan had tried on. The owner was looking on. The lower shoulder area seemed too big. Susan began to giggle and begins to tell a joke. You must picture her body actions as she tells each part of it.
THE JOKE...
A man wants a jacket made. He walks into a tailor shop and has his measurements taken. He has a regular proportioned body. It should be an easy job. In a week he comes to pick up his new jacket. But when he puts it on it feels like it is pulling at the shoulder...so the tailor adjusts it...but as he looks at it he thinks the opposite sleeve length is now too long...he adjusts that. By now the customer is trying to fit into his new jacket and his body also adjusts. Each time the tailor adjusts something the jacket does not fit somewhere else. The customers body becomes contorted with all the adjusting and when he walks out the door looking very crippled, bent and leaning, a person on the street stops him and says, “Wow! You must have an incredible tailor that was able to fit your body so well!”
> British Television Series. In the evening we gather with a cup of tea to watch our favorite CD's, of which there are many to choose from in Colin and Ingrid's stash. Downton Abbey proves to be our addiction but soon we are watching everything that appeals to us, including old movies that we have missed or not seen for a long time. It is cozy in the warm sitting room, each with a blanket cuddled in a comfy fluffy chair.
> Sites we visit. One day when I have a cold, David and Susan go to one of the three mountaintop castles, KANTARA, and also visit a much crumbled Orthodox church. The grave stones and crosses have been put away in a hut by the Turks so they do not get lost or desecrated, a thoughtful act. The ruins were resulting from the Turk-Greek fight for land. Land to keep, land to take. // We visit Bellapais abbey which sits above us in the little and charming village of Bellapais. Susan and I were sitting in a big stone room that has been kept as the concert hall for the community. We began to sing. The acoustics were so amazing that we thought we were really good! A man kept coming in and looking at us. Does he want to listen? Are we not supposed to sing in here? No! He wanted to close up the hall for the evening!!!// GIRNE CASTLE is on the harbor of the city, probably first built to defend Girne from Arab raiders in the 7th century BC. Since then it has gone through different occupants and additions. It is worth a wander around its wall and down into its big courtyard. In part of the building are exhibitions showing antiquities found in and around the castle, even a wooden boat skeleton pulled from the sea. The gift shop was my favorite...not usually the case, but ceramics have been copied to scale and design by a very talented family. I love these new old pieces. Susan generously buys us a fantastic vase/urn. We find a picture of the original in a book they keep in the shop. I look forward to unwrapping it and finding a place for it in our apartment. // NICOSEA. The center and captitol of the island, the city is split in half, the north Turkish and the South Greek. The north old town is not much changed, still the charm of the old. We find Susan a hotel in the heart of it, not the best but convenient for walking. David and I find a street to park for the night and we all wander the city. The mosque, the shops (a necklace for Donna, a tablecloth for our apartment balcony), no Whirling Dervishes at this time of year it seems. We have soup in the smallest of places, only two tables for customers, and we are served by the woman who also made the soup that we order. This is the kind of thing we love. She sits by us in her traditional clothing. Her husband arrives and cannot do enough for us. // HILLARIAN Castle, the one I can see from the bedroom window. The magical castle that inspired Walt Disney. A zig zag trail up and up and up. Then the stone castle walls and rooms and lookouts to explore. // FAMAGUSTA. The church, turned mosque, is in the center of the old town along with old domed baths and small shops. We hear church bells ringing in this very Islamic area. People walk sections of the old wall around us. We stay overnight, finding Susan a good, but maybe noisy hotel, where betting goes on all night, and then try a restaurant close by, Ceviz Agaci. The walls are lined with glass bakery shelves, full to the brim with fancy sweet or savory treats. You point at what you want to eat with your cup of coffee or cold drink...but we order chicken fahitas from Mo'min our Palestinian waiter. Chicken tenders come instead. Oh well. We don't want to embarrass our waiter, he's new on the job... attending school here to earn a masters degree. His wife is Canadian, from Ontario...baby on the way. He gives us his email address in case we need something. “I will give to you all of the helps.” Back to the hotel where Susan will weigh and repacks for her flight away the next day. In the morning Susan gets help from a handsome young Canadian hockey player, working as a consierge in the hotel. He also plays soccer...these sports for Cyprus against Bosnia, Albania etc. We get Susan to the airport, with much stress...just in the nick of time.
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