Light rain much of the day, which would be unsurprising were it not for very clear radar maps showing rain nowhere near the island and the squiggly blobs of rain that do exist near Cyprus clearly not headed our way. Difficult to argue with the drops hitting the puddles on the patio, though.
Should have bought bread yesterday, but instead make a loaf of Irish soda bread. Make it a couple of times a week at home but there is a difference. Not the lack of buttermilk here as it’s easy enough to sour milk for the purpose and works quite satisfactorily. Often do that at home. Nor the fact that I use whole wheat flour. Have for years used it for everything. It’s really the fact that the flour here is a much finer texture, almost talcum powder fine, and it handles differently. Bread tastes fine but somewhat more inclined to crumble when slicing - though that could be down to the fact that we can never bring ourselves to wait for it to cool before cutting it. The only time I’ve bought flour of similar texture in Canada was when I purchased flour imported from India, the only 10 kilo bag of whole wheat flour the store had. And yes, what on earth is Canada doing importing wheat from India?
Meanwhile south of the border - the Cypriot border that is - reports of a ceremony yesterday to commemorate the fifty-first anniversary of the death of George Grivas. Grivas fought with EOKA, a guerilla group seeking enosis - political union with Greece. The group was declared illegal and engaged in a violent coup d’état when the government rejected enosis. There were strong objections raised by non government political parties to official sponsorship of a commemoration ceremony and clearly the government knew it would be controversial as over two hundred police were in attendance with water cannons on standby. Bizarre from any outsider’s viewpoint - official veneration of a man whose lifetime violent fight was to become part of another country. And goes some way toward explaining why most Greek Cypriots are unable to see Cyprus as anything other than Greek. Well, this is the Middle East.