I arrived in Paphos, Cyprus, late Tuesday evening June 30. My sister Rachael, who is married to a Greek Cypriot, met me at the airport. I had been reading a book “Agent ZigZag ” by Ben MacIntyre about a double agent during WWII – in the book
I had found a photograph of Rachael’s godfather, Ronnie Reed, who was Zig Zag’s M15 British handler. Some coincidence!!
As soon as I came into the house her youngest son Leo asked me if they could do oil pastels. Ne ne endaxi . Yes Yes OK! It’s part of my staying here to bring my oil pastel supplies and supervise their drawings using Rachael’s own home grown organic olive oil as a medium.
Rachael and her friend Lise, who runs an informal art studio “Turtle and Moon”, had attempted to line up a small oil pastel workshop for me but it had not caught on. However, the next day, at a relaxed open house, I took my supplies and did a few small pieces as a demo. Holy Cow! Tomorrow I have group of 8 signed up!
The next day we went to Lemba to visit Paul Croft aka “The Bone Man,” with a large bone Zenon had found on land around the house. Paul is a British archaeologist who reconstructed the Lemba Round houses and excavated the “oldest known well in the world.” Paul brought out two bones, a donkey and cow bone. Holding up Zenon’s bone it was clear it was the bone of a cow!
That day being Thursday, Christos, Rachael’s husband returned home to Paphos from Nicosia, where he works part of the week. I heard his unmistakable tenor profundo from my cool “dungeon” room downstairs. That evening we ate souvlaki and drank his home made wine on the large back porch the size of a bowling alley with displays of Tae Kwon Do from Zenon and Alex against the twilight. The next three evenings were variations on this theme with food and entertainment changing slightly. Very lovely.
Rachael picked up a new addition to the family, a dog they’ve named Lizzie, on the road. She needed to be spayed and the deed was done. Dogs are not allowed in most Cypriot houses, so she has a crate but she pined. While looking for lost shoes Rachael discovered she had made a nest for herself hidden behind the back door and in her lair our shoes were found (My kind of dog -No?)The story of Lizzie is on Rachael’s Little White Donkey blog.
There is a constant soundtrack in the house, a Greek video cartoon, “Batman Returns” played again and again. Because of the heat the little kids watch movies from 10- 2pm. After Alex gets back from his morning job he and Sophia vie for the computer. All of this in the big room that extends to the kitchen. It takes a bit of getting used to after the still silence of my studio in Chinchon.
Rachael does plenty of work in her organic vegetable garden and orchard. Every day picking -yesterday planting more beans and cucumbers for the next cycle. She says spring is the busiest. She makes boxes of veggies for people every week, the cost depending on what is available. Now there is karpuzi *(water melon) sugar melons, eggplant, courgettes, Swiss chard, beetroot, Italian parsley …Loads of fresh vegetables.
We eat plenty of cucumber and cherry tomato salad but I do have to buy celery, (My staff of life.) since it is not one of her crops. With the surplus of apples she creates apple jelly, apple cake, apple crumble and still grumbles about how many apples are left.
I’ve done some work with her in the field but somehow got “poison ivy” blisters from something, striking the fear of god into me.
