Life Observed

Hang up the broom, have a wash, make a nice cup of tea and have a sit down!  Lovely. I am very pleased to report that the Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down website is still there, and still reviewing cake and biscuits. Do encourage them and support their vital work, it's folks like them that keep Britain so sensible.

One of the treats I was expecting on our first visit to Cyprus was the chance to see some 4th century orthodox church in its original decorated state, all icons and wall paintings. I don't know where I got that idea, because your average Cypriot Orthodox church is nothing like that. Apart from the monastery at Agios Neophytus, all the churches we came across looked brand new... The stonework seems crisp, clean and, for want of a better word, recent. (The image above is from Ayia Napa in the south east, while the church below is Agios Pachyammos on the north west coast). Up in the Troodos mountains, the tale is the same. A mountain village may look tumbledown and shabby, but the church is always clean, crisp and looks quite new. Its quite a contrast to the UK, where churches are often in grave need of repair and restoration through neglect and falling numbers. You can see that your average Cypriot treats the local priest with suitable reverence and they cl...

Well here's an unexpected sight. Where did I find this, somewhere in the Highlands? No, this magnificent if rather flighty beast is pictured within sight of central Guildford. (This is the first occasion in my long association with cattle that I have had to exit a field at more than walking pace. Fresians and Holstein cattle are generally well behaved, and perhaps these Highland cattle were just feeling a bit lively, but its those horns I respect) Here we are just outside Guidford, quite close to the cattle on top of St Catherine's Hill. The hill is a curiosity, the road and railway cut though it and the river skirts its lower edge. It appears to be made of one huge pile of  yellow-brown Folkstone sand, and is responsible for a sand slick that reaches right down to the river. Atop the hill you find the 14th century St Catherine's Chapel, site of the old St Catherine's fair and part of the Pilgrm's Way. Consider the Medieval pilgrim if you visi...

We took the opportunity while visiting the eastern end of Cyprus to seek out the "Folkloric Museum" in Avgorou. It was open in an unofficial way, as is often the case. The gates were open but there was no one there. Still it was small but perfectly formed and I came away with this picture of rural pottery. Times must have been difficult before tractors and roads arrived. They were ploughing rocky fields with wood and iron single furrow ploughs drawn by oxen. Hard work indeed. You could argue that a lot of Cyprus qualifies as an open air museum. Once you get outside of the developed tourist areas, there is a kind of dilapidated charm to it: Long may it stay that way...

Mediterranean countries seem to show a constant theme of neglect. Rural buildings seem run down, even dilapidated my northern European standards. Everywhere you look you see shutters hanging off buildings, or worn and weathered wood facing the elements. Why don't they give things a good coat of paint? I should say I find the textures and patterns these neglected corners present to be endlessly fascinating. I suspect the reasons are complicated, but the obvious answer is that the temperatures are so high in the summer, and the sun us so strong, that a good coat of paint would blister and peel off quite quickly. Given the low rainfall, I can understand their reluctance to paint wood every other year. There does seem to be a culture of laissez faire though. If a thing has stopped working then just leave it where it is. It all looks rather unkempt by our standards, and what the ultra tidy Swiss make of Cyprus, I do wonder... Here, for example, is a beach front ...

I kept my photographer's eye open while on Cyprus last week, and it seems to me there is a lot of sitting around going on. Tourists  like us sit around with their beers and Greek Coffee Metrio planning where to go next. Ex-pats sit around and complain endlessly about everything. Locals just seem to sit around and watch the world's foolishness pass by before them. In the morning they sit in the sun to warm up, but they seek out the shade after noon. This excellent character with the splendid moustache is a waiter-owner of a neighbouring restaurant... I suspect he is recharging his batteries before facing what passes for the lunchtime rush. You cannot sit around if you have a job and are on duty. The Orthdox Priest here was standing in the shade overseeing the National Day parade. This is a long drawn out march past by all the students from the local school. They parade led by Greek and Cypriot banners and flags, and march in their best school uniforms to a pre-reco...

Greetings dear reader! Well, we are back from a week in Bedfordshire and I've started the photo blog once more.  So without more ado, here is my first Bedford for you to peruse: Isn't it splendid? Yes, we've had a week away in Cyprus, staying at Polis near the Akemas Peninsular. We do like Cyprus, its quite Brit friendly, and nice and quiet at the West end of the island.  There's a lot of British history attached to Cyprus - quite how the locals view it is another matter, because it was only after a long struggle through the fifties and sixties, they finally gained their independance from us. The colonial legacy that remains includes 13A mains plugs, driving on the left, and rather more old Bedfords than you see here in the UK. They will rust away eventually, but they take some time about it. This is a splendid Bedford coach from the late fifties I guess. It may well be a Bedford J truck converted to a coach because the bodywork seems a bit...