Wednesday, January 30/2019

Mario the tailor is Greek Cypriot but grew up in London. May in fact have been born there. Told me once that odd as it may sound his visits to Cyprus when he was young were always in the summer, so for years he didn’t realise that Cyprus could be lush green instead of brown - but in the temperate winter not the broiling summer heat. Another feature of Cyprus is that its rural origins often thread themselves through city centres as well as suburbs and outskirts. So a block away from us is a small field where wild mustard grows and an old tractor sits, seldom if ever used. And wild flowers grow like the weeds they are everywhere from the cracks in the pavement to chinks in walls, or around the base of palm trees and orange trees which are often, unaccountably planted in the middle of the sidewalk  - possibly for shade in summer but at great inconvenience to anyone trying to pass with a wheelchair or a pram. 

And returning from Prinos the greengrocer we pass a house where the fenced back garden includes grape vines, orange trees and a traditional outdoor brick and mortar oven, suitable for baking bread or roasting meat in clay pots.