Northern Cyprus at it’s best and a lemon on steroids

Even though the weather this time has been dreadful, windy, cold and a lot of rain, it has been a pleasure to be be there. During one month I have measured on my weather station a whole gale 3 times, that is an average wind speed of more than 25 meter per second. We are directly to the sea and take the wind when the direction is from the north. It has been cold, down to 3 degrees and rainy, a lot of rain. However, we managed to keep a temperature of 21 degrees inside, thanks to our new aircon and our newly insulated apartment. The cost of insulating the apartment was worth the price.

In between we have had nice and sunny weather with up to 20 degrees in the sun. There has been mornings with our morning coffee, sitting on the roof terrace. One day we had our daily walk just wearing a t-shirt and short trousers.

This rainy season does the island well. The nature now looks quite different from the brown and dry we are used to during the fall. The whole island is now lush and green. When spring now commence, the colour will change and it will flourish into bright yellow. This has already started.

Our own lemon tree carries enough lemons to be an alcoholic on gin and tonic. The lemon pictures below I nicked in Jackie Kinnersley’s garden. Couldn’t resist it and I know Jackie doesn’t mind. Thank you Jac.

The lemon weights in at an amazing 996 grams and I wonder if Jackie feeds them on steroids.

Couldn’t resist on posting the 2 pictures below. One of the restaurants we like, is the Los Amigos restaurant in Kyrenia. Went there for lunch one day with David and Ozi.

Our last evening this time, we spent with our good friends Özlem and David, Sheila and Phil, on my favourite local restaurant Çiftlikdüzü. The restaurant is run by Leyla and Orhan Güvenlier together with their children Muzzi and Olgun. I rate it as having the best local food. All meze’s are ecological and handmade by Leyla, all meat from their own farm across the road. Atmosphere is friendly and I enjoy the chats we have with them at the table. Leyla and Orhan, you are truly family ?.

Flight back home this time went without any problem. Stopover in Istanbul though is hard work. The new Istanbul airport is so big that you surpass your daily anticipated walking distance. No problem to record 10000 steps walking about here.

Coming home, my first task was to taste my new porter. It was made just before leaving for Cyprus and set to mature when we were gone. Spot on ?

The real reason for going home this Friday, was to celebrate our Amalie on Saturday. 9 years old. Happy birthday Amalie from grandpa. Had a lovely party on Saturday with you and the family.