Friday, March 27/2026

Love the fields of wildflowers flourishing after the rains. And how did that poppy get there?

One positive result of the current hostilities is an increased interest in and knowledge of geography. Or maybe not.

All the gold dots on the map purport to represent responses of Americans asked to pinpoint Iran on a world map. May not, of course, be a fair sampling, though not sure you’d get better results by taking your map and pins down Main Street in other countries. The borders of the countries are outlined, which would be significant help for anyone who had a clue. As some people clearly didn’t. Australia?

And, of minor interest, every war seems to acquire its own catch phrases. So all references to efforts to end the war seem to involve looking for an “off-ramp” rather than an exit. And plans to escalate are referred to as “going up the escalation ladder”. Though the experts fear that will lead to “going off the cliff”. 

Up the escalation ladder

Find an off-ramp

Going off the cliff

Thursday, March 26/2026

Terrace is fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms. The unusual amount of rain must have been appreciated by the shrubs and trees if not by the humans. And, yes, we do reluctantly acknowledge that rain is valuable, especially on an island at risk of desertification. 

Electricity disappears this morning while we’re reading the news. Happily after J has made the coffee, though he could have heated the water on the gas hob and the rest is done in the French press. An end to the news, though. Remember reading online that there was to be a planned outage today but had thought the area didn’t include us. 

So a good time for errands. First (uphill) to the municipality where we need to pick up a paper and then (downhill) to Bestmar where there’s a sale. Notice, belatedly, that backpacks are meant to be left at the till. Maybe we look too old to be thieves? Handy for carrying heavy things home, though. And first time in a while we’ve been looking for the shady side of the road.

Electricity back on by the time we’re home. And yes, the notice of a planned outage was for communities well  to the west of us.

Five miles all told and quince gin on ice well earned. Until I check the map again and see that it’s actually five kilometres, not miles. And pour the quince gin anyway.

Wednesday, March 25/2026

 

The season of conflicting dates. This coming Sunday marks the beginning of summer time aka daylight saving time. Affects most of Europe and lasts from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October. North Cyprus changes at the same time as the South, despite Türkiye, which is not part of the EU, not changing to summer time.

Much of the Americas change time - Saskatchewan is far from the only location that doesn’t (and not all of Saskatchewan - just ask the 1500 inhabitants of Creighton). But not on the same dates as the Europeans. North Americans start daylight saving on the second Sunday in March and end it on the first Sunday in November.

Forgetting for the moment those territories that do not wish to change, one would have supposed that it would be advantageous and not too difficult to agree worldwide on the dates of implementation. But apparently not. Presumably there must have been conversations along the lines of “why us - why don’t you change” that led nowhere.

In Israel summer time begins the Friday before the last Sunday in March while in Palestine it’s the Saturday before the last Sunday in March. Though that can’t be high on the list of issues requiring negotiation there.

But it does make one despair of international agreements on more critical matters. We’re clearly not much good at co-operation.

Tuesday, March 24/2026

Not a dry stane dyke but love the flowers that make their way through the cracks and crevices in stone walls along the roads.

Morning sunny. Showers in the afternoon. Have to admit that a rainy afternoon provides more info than it did in the days before WiFi. 

Have just learned that in 2022 Canada extended copyright from fifty years after the death of the author/artist to seventy years, basically in order to harmonise with the US. So novels that might have been freely copied as of January first this year will have to wait until 2043. Will not have reached my hundredth birthday by then but 75th will be a pretty distant memory. Not that we’re short of books but it was always a pleasure seeing a new lot hit copyright freedom day.

And, in happier vein, a group member online has advice for those wishing to watch YouTube without being interrupted by advertisements. You can choose Albania as your VPN location as YouTube advertising is illegal there and will not be shown. Works for YouTube. No idea re other sources. 

Test the theory by watching an old episode of the Scottish sitcom Still Game. No intrusive advertisements. Show as funny as ever. With added humour from the subtitles. It’s meant, one supposes, to allow non Scots to understand the Glaswegian accent but the AI subtitle generator hasn’t been well primed and its guesses are often as funny as the dialogue is.

Monday, March 23/2026

 Very unusual for a crow to come close enough to have its photo taken. Unfortunately through the glass as I knew that opening the sliding door would scare it away. Also a perch on the bougainvillea insecure enough to guarantee it wouldn’t stay long.

Local online query asking if anyone knows whether the mustard office is open in the village of Karşıkaka tomorrow. Interested enough to pursue the responses, though we don’t live in Karşıyaka, a village to the west of us, and aren’t looking to buy mustard. Mildly surprised to think that there would be anything much in the way of mustard production or distribution here. Doesn’t seem to be particularly popular and the jars we’ve seen have all been imported and not underpriced. 

The explanation is that predictive text has been up to its usual tricks. It has an especially difficult time dealing with foreign words, although quite good at messing up English terms as well. A bit like being assisted in composition by a bright and enthusiastic six year old proofreader. Eventually it dawns that the poster is looking for information on the mukhtar’s office and predictive text has done its best. (The particular PT I am using at the moment invariably inserts an apostrophe in “its” whether it’s wanted or not). 

The mukhtar is a neighbourhood elected official, a sort of lesser mayor whose signature is frequently required on documents, so not unusual to see inquiries re office hours. And interestingly the Greek Cypriots have the same name for the same position, presumably dating back to the time when the whole island was part of the Ottoman Empire.

Sunday, March 22/2026

Clouds tease us most of the day suggesting that they could dispense rain but may not just yet. A couple of pretty decent showers and then the kind of sunset, seen through the neighbour’s grape vine trellis, that should be a promise - but may not be.

But we may have missed the real drama in the skies. Zoe, from our weather group, posts photos from the Cyprus Meteorological page. We did hear the  thunder in the night but didn’t feel compelled to get up and take photographs.

Not sure how long most locals feel the holiday weekend is in effect. The arrangement with Mehmet is that we send him a WhatsApp message the day before we want him to deliver a 19 litre bottle of water. Considering that we know virtually no Turkish and Mehmet almost no English the system works not too badly. We both rely on translation apps when necessary. Asking for a bottle the next day no problem. Complicated questions like how much time is he likely to take off for Bayram best avoided. Accordingly I messaged yesterday wishing him (in Turkish) a happy holiday and asking (in English) if he could bring water on Monday. So far he hasn’t checked his messages, so we’ll see if we’re boiling water on his week off.

Saturday, March 21/2026

 Officially spring as of yesterday. Admittedly not cold and no heavy rain today but taps on and off and alternating with sunny spells. Correspondent in North Cyprus posted a photo of roads with a lot of snow but turned out that was in the Troodos Mountains. South of the border and high enough that snow is not unusual. When we stayed in Larnaca there were often warnings that Troodos roads were closed to vehicles except those with four wheel drive or chains. Interesting that there still are cars using chains but presume that snow tires don’t exist here. 

As gas prices soar around the world there is an interesting announcement from the TRNC government. Apparently petrol prices will not be rising at the pumps. This by virtue of reducing VAT (value added tax) to zero. There are a number of basics here - petrol, gas cylinders, basic bread - that are controlled by government. They do go up but aren’t subject to profiteering and don’t fluctuate wildly.