Almost 8 weeks of mermaid frolicking in the Mediterranean every morning, devouring scrumptious local produce, and bouncing our tanned limbs around the cobbled streets of Larnaka on 'Bumble' (our buttery coloured Vespa), and now we are booked to go home again...Boooo. Well, actually, a mixture of YAY and boo, ...cos we do love the warms and ease of travel to Europe from here, however we are missing our kids, grandkids, friends and plain old heavenly HOME. (me: art studio and garden) and for that we are bracing ourselves for the cooler climes of Melbourne's chilly winter. Brrrrrr
AND in the nature of our adventurous spirit we have had a few lovely trips in the last month...Frankfurt, Germany (a business trip - turned holiday side hustle) and a trip up to Edinburgh decked out in rain ponchos to be washed in the 'smirr' (drizzley rain) and chase up a family castle.
Creatively I have been pottering (ha! get it?) with the piece of clay I purchased from Emira Pottery, RE-vamped the piece of art in our apartment hallway (quite sneakily and still nobody has said anything about it's new Sara-fication???), had an absolute blast watching creatives all round the world respond to my online art lesson in 'Kaleidoscope 2023', and I am in the heavenly throes of creating a playful hands-on Art Journal to rock your creative socks off...It's called 'Creative Quest' btw.
Photos of: a piece of my handmade wonky pottery, our visit to Fig tree Bay, in Protoras (eating scrummy barbecued corn on the beach), sandcastle competition at Makenzie beach, the wee fishing village of Zygi, the Hallway Art Heist final piece (you can see the bit by bit transformation on my social media) the mountain village of Platres (including the wee shady stream and the lavender festival) seeing Michalis' amazing rock garden art studio in Kalavasos whilst visiting our lovely friends Laki & Yvette, Our adventures in Frankfurt including The Stadel Art museum with its unique contemporary collection, Romerburg square, Main River, us exploring on a scooter (THEEE best way to sightsee in the heat) then Edinburgh...Ohhh The GREEN! Cockenzie (Where Daryle's dad was born and all the way up to Inverness to visit the family castle (oh what a special kinda magic that was)
Some of my favourtist things:
Still one of my all time faves here is frolicking in the mediterranean...early morning soaks are precious in the stillness of the day before tourists fill the sun loungers (when the water is quite flat) and circles of older Cypriot women huddle and chatter with only their bonnetted heads bobbing above the waterline, the men march in small mobs along the shore, brown bellies out, gesticulating fiercely as they debate local affairs together and (my personal favourite) the occasional older Cypriot male, waist deep sloshing in the sea, arms out, crooning a lofty chorus to no-one in particular (well it may be to his lost love...who knows) but I smile under my straw peak, cos I love it and him for braving the watery stage.
Then in the evenings when we return for another submersion: this time to a warm water bath, with hordes of golden brown or crispy pink bodies flopped across sun loungers in all kinds of wayward configurations that tell of the soporific nature of a day languishing at the 35 degree beach, the sandy shore pocked full of spade holes, melted castles, strewn flip flops and tired bubbas. The water is no less welcoming to us in our sweat filmed 'end-of-day' weariness and washes us clean, it's salty sea medicine heals us as we float like apples in her tub of hospitableness. Sometimes whilst out deep, we relinquish our bathers and swish around naked for a few minutes enjoying the silky salty liquid and the feeling of liberation it affords...hehe
Heading up to Pano Platres (in the Troodos mountains, Cyprus) in pseudo search of a waterfall...I mean who are we kidding we didn't come to Cyprus to see waterfalls and it was a disguised attempt to just find a little cool relief from the rising temperatures of the coast...anyway we headed up into the hills and were thrilled to find not only a sweet little, Scandinavian like, village where the air was crisply fresh (so fresh it actually rained) we encountered by absolute sheer good fortune, the annual Lavender festival, sampled some wares and meandered down the rocky trail to a cool creek. There we stopped, meditating for some time, quite content in our find until the longing to fill our bellies with the origin of the delicious wafty food smells pulled us away without finding the waterfall. Well, having seen some pretty terrific waterfalls on other travels and our homelands we gave ourselves a hall pass and found the highest restaurant to plant our bottoms and EAT!
Scootering in Frankfurt...The heat made it strenuous to walk out and make the most of our days so we found partaking in a spot of scootering a magical way to go...literally! For me clinging limpet-like to Daryle so as not to throw off his balance as he slalomed his way through crowds, under and over bridges, between cars and bicycles... it was so much FUN! Plus we both like exploring and going off-map and that's where we find the best stuff, by following our intuition.
Scotland oh aye...what a fine, albeit wet, patch of green grass it is! My favourite aspects were the walking tour of Edinburgh, absorbing the magical skirl of bagpipers piping on the High Street, plus we did a night time ghosty tour of the underground vaults (Eeeeee) the visit to Cockenzie to see Daryle's dads birthplace, and then venturing all the way up the A9 to Inverness and see Calder Castle. (Daryle's family name)
Watching Daryle grow in height, somehow, as he encountered parts of his family heritage and took them fully in. I encouraged him to buy a gorgeous blue Harris Tweed flat cap which anchored it all in so perfectly. I loved watching him marinate in his heritage it was transformative, for sure.
Pottering with pottery: I feel I have only just begun to play with this lovely organic material. Learning its limits and quirks, and how I feel about it. Manifesting a little pottery studio 10 minutes walk from our apartment was the bomb! ...and them allowing me to use their kiln and materials at little expense was very kind!
I have loved making some pieces we will use in our daily life, forming and decorating them has been wonderful. Of course there aren't enough bright colours in their studio for me...
Cyprus has a unique mediterranean quality, an ease of village lifestyle, an air of 'anything goes' where locals park hairily on corner curbs (no rules parking) and stop graciously in busy traffic for you to walk across a road...where the waft of charcoal, charred meat and veggies begins late in the afternoon and lingers well into the night. The moon and stars seem brighter somehow, and everything seems quite possible, magical and timeless, moving at Cyprus pace...I am not sure when or if I will be back though I have certainly absorbed as much of her delights as I possibly can. I am content, and ready for home.
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