We live our lives forever taking leave - Rilke

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Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Wednesday, February 18/2026

Storm warning issued by Girne municipality, Girne being the regional centre ten miles to the east of us. Wake up to amazingly strong winds and the sound of lashing rain. This has to be the stormiest winter we remember experiencing in the Mediterranean, and there have been over twenty of them. On the other hand winters here really don’t last very long. 

Like the phrasing, particularly the bit about taking precautions against adverse events such as roofs being blown off - be prepared to duck? Though not as amusing as the tongue in cheek posting by a FB correspondent: “With all this wind I’m worried about the caravan in the garden. We didn’t have one yesterday.”

Unsurprisingly, the skies were far too cloudy to spot the crescent moon today, but the assumption is that it was there beyond the storm and Ramadan will begin tomorrow. For the observant this means fasting between dawn and dusk for the following month. Times of sunrise and sunset are calculated for pretty well every location in the world, in modern days easily checkable on the Internet.

And tomorrow’s forecast is for sunny skies and gentler winds.