Fourth time around the Salt Lake

Yesterday was the 56th day in a row that I went for a walk in the morning. I don't ever set an alarm, because if I weren't to wake up in time for a walk I figure I need my sleep more than I need a walk, not to mention that an alarm would also probably wake up small people, which would mean that it wouldn't be as easy as I would like to get out for a walk on my own. Since I like to be home by about 7:00, 7:30 at the very latest, because of the heat once the sun has been up for awhile, the length of my walk generally depends on what time I got going. The last few weeks I've gone eight kilometers almost every day, sometimes a little more or a little less, one day just three because I wasn't up until after 6:30. Last Sunday I walked all the way around the Salt Lake (about 11 kilometers) and really wished I had my camera, so when I was up at 5:00 yesterday, I decided to go again, with a camera. This first photo was taken from the front steps of our house at 5:04 a.m. (If you're one of those people who know how to figure out when a photo was taken and bother to check, yes, I KNOW I need to change the time on my camera...)

Just after I reached the nature trail (just to the left of the middle--the trail is four kilometers long) and turned right, to walk around the lake counter-clockwise. The lights are at the airport.

It's nice and cool in this "tunnel", wonderful in Cypriot July.

Turning and looking behind me about 500 meters from the end of the trail, about 5:20 a.m.

The aquaduct at the end of the trail. After this I was on various roads and paths through fields. The first time I walked all the way around the Salt Lake (three weeks ago), I was often not exactly sure if I was in the right place until I reached another landmark, but it was actually quite easy to figure it out and I never did make any wrong turns.

This sign looks nice and official, anyway...

Take the left-hand one. They stay more-or-less parallel for a bit, but then the right-hand one veers off sharply to the right.

5:40--it was perfectly light, but the sun wasn't quite visible yet.

I found these fence posts amusing. I guess they serve as a visual aid of the boundary to the wildlife conservation area.

A somewhat less than useful sign, since there wasn't really any other way to go...

Sun starting to appear over Larnaka at 5:45.

First view of the Hala-Soultan mosque.

An even less-useful sign post than the previous one, seeing as it's kind of anybody's guess which two of the three possible directions might have originally been meant...

For your reading pleasure if you feel like zooming.

A dairy farm, from the sound and smell. I didn't actually see any cows, though.

The mosque closer up.

And looking back at the mosque after having passed it.

When this bench was installed, nobody apparently expected the water to get as high as it did this winter. Three weeks ago the water was still lapping at the concrete under the bench, and a friend told me a few days ago that during the winter, the bench was actually submerged.

It took me 49 minutes to walk this distance, counting the stopping to take photos.

The walk along the airport road isn't so nice, because of being on pavement, along a busy road, and with little to no shade. This is looking back at the round-about to the old airport.

One of the little salt lakes across the main road from the big one, which is already dried up. I'll be very surprised if the big one dries up this year, though.

At the old airport round-about I crossed the road, because from there to where I turn off, there's a little bit of shade on the right-hand side of the road, none at all on the left.

Finally back to the nature trail.

And another blurry photo of the mosque, from the other side of the lake...

There were some offical looking vehicles on the road between the mosque and the airport road, with men wearing gas masks spraying something into the Salt Lake, which I'm guessing was pesticide, but don't know. I gave them a fairly wide berth and didn't think of taking photos. Then I saw some more of the same vehicles parked, and several men walking around in the water scattering something. Any ideas?

Several months ago, concrete blocks appeared on both sides of the trail at 500 meter intervals. After several weeks, a frame was added on the slanted tops, and pieces of stone were put around the sides. After another couple of weeks or so, mortar was put in between the stones on the sides. That was at least a month ago now, and I took a photo of one of them on the walk. Not very exciting, but I do like having markers every 500 meters.

 And then this morning I discovered that yesterday they FINALLY added wooden plaques inside the frames with the distances to each end of the trail--but of course didn't have the camera with me today.

A last photo of the Salt Lake before leaving the nature trail to head home.

And a final photo while sitting on our front steps, at 7:06 a.m.

Our dollhouse

I didn't think to start taking photos until the house had been put together. I was careful to do all the jigsawing while Jacob was NOT home, because I didn't want his comments, and the one time I did some sanding while I was home, I knew I was justified in that decision. Anyway, here are the photos from when I started taking them. Katie and I designed the dollhouse, measurements being decided based on the scrapwood we had.

 The floors and walls are all from the VR-G family, who left us a bunch of scrapwood when they moved to South Africa in February. The front (or back...depending on with which family member you are conversing, and it is UNBELIEVABLE what an argument they can make out of it...) is from another friend (Richard), whose office was closed down in May.

And yes, I measured many more than two times before making any cuts, but there are still some somewhat weird angles. Oh well. I glued and nailed everything--the glue I did buy myself a couple of years ago, and as of yet, glue is the only thing we have bought. The nails were from the VR-Gs. As was the jigsaw, come to think of it. The sander was borrowed from Richard.

 The paint was from Richard's office. Katie and I painted everything, inside and out, white to start with.

 I put a second layer of paint on all of the window and door frames, the ceilings, the back walls of the bottom left-hand room and top middle room, and the outside. Here, the staircase (made from blocks that Lukas donated to the cause) and carpets (from a book of upholstery samples from Sue) are not yet glued down. Oh, and the doors to the outside have high sills because, despite sketching and measuring everything multiple times, I managed to forget that I'd planned for the outside walls to go on TOP of the bottom floor...Then when I wanted to correct that (by cutting out the extra bit of wood at the bottom), Katie insisted that we leave them so that it could be like an ancient Egyptian house to keep the snakes out. I wondered where she learned that...she says that I read it to her. From a book that I have read to all of the children, multiple times. And which I didn't remember.

The wallpaper is from two books of wallpaper samples that I got from a wallpaper store. Katie chose the paper for the bottom right-hand room, Marie the bottom left and top middle, and Helen the other two. Katie chose all of the carpets. (Which are still not glued down in this photo.)

 Here the staircase, complete with railing made from "craft sticks" (I would call them popsicle sticks, but they are called craft sticks on the package, and I don't remember where I got them--probably from a fellow homeschool family that moved away last year), is finally glued into place, as is the carpet. Oh, and I'd added white craft-stick doorsills between the rooms by this point.

 I confess to being pretty pleased with my bannisters. And Jacob wants to make a cupboard under the stairs.

 Jacob started to make this water tank for the roof, but wasn't happy with it and took it apart again, so we still don't have one.

 Helen and Elisabeth playing with the furniture I'd saved from my childhood.

The bed in the back right-hand corner is one of several pieces I bought on Pioneer Day or Fourth of July celebrations in Colfax as a child. (I bought one piece each time.) The black wooden furniture my grandma brought back from Japan. Under the table I see a trumpet that I bought at the Christmas market in Germany shortly after we got married. The things that look like matchboxes are sets of building blocks--I know that I bought them, but not sure when or where, although I'm pretty sure it was when I was still a teenager. The mirror on top of them is from my grandma, and she sent it to me when I lived in Germany. I have no idea where the mice came from, but I know I used them as rugs in the dollhouse I used to have!

More of the Japanese wooden furniture and a birdcage from the Colfax summer celebrations, but best of all is the real lamp, which Jacob made. (There's also a toy lamp, on the tall table in the back, but I don't remember where I got it.) The rug is from my original dollhouse. I saved only two things from my original set: this rug and a rocking chair. I gave the rest to my youngest sister when I left home. I have no idea what Helen and Elisabeth were using the red bowl in the back for.

Here the lamp from Jacob is plugged in and working. He covered the stand and shade with wallpaper. He's also made a ceiling fan, which runs on a battery concealed in an armchair, but he hasn't finished the armchair or figured out how to attach the fan to the ceiling yet.

Finally: the reason we went to Germany! My friend Peggy and I met when my son Lukas and her son Florian were toddlers, probably in 2003 or 2004. She's originally from eastern Germany, which was still the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik: German Democratic Republic, and anything but democratic, and from the point of view of West Germany, occupied territory) at the time. She moved to the west after the fall of Communism and has come a loooong way in rebuilding her life. Peggy and Florian have visited us three times in Cyprus, and after her nightly two-hour phone calls with "just a friend" during her last visit here, we were not particularly surprised to hear of their engagement!

Before we left the H family's house, we got Barbara to take a photo of all eight of us together, dressed up and with someplace to go:

We do technically own an iron here in Cyprus, we even bought it ourselves, so that I could iron the t-shirts that the children made at a holiday club in 2009, to set the colors. (Never mind that I ironed them the day before the holiday club in 2010.) That is, to date, the only time I have used that iron, and it stays in the guest flat. Most of our clothes for the wedding did need ironing, but Barbara has a very fancy, special iron, which she wouldn't let me use. It did not make me sad in the slightest that she ironed everything for me. Admire those wrinkle-less clothes--they only appear for weddings. (I ironed our clothes for my brother's wedding in 2009 and my sister's wedding in 2010, too, so it's not that I NEVER iron...)

Lukas was VERY excited to wear a suit and tie, still being sad that he hadn't gotten to keep the tuxedo that had been rented for my sister's wedding. We got most of the pieces at the thrift store, but did have to buy the shoes new, since Lukas refused to wear tennis shoes. (Florian wore tennis shoes, though!)

A blurry photo of the procession into the church, Florian and Lukas with the flowers, followed by Peggy and Hannu.

The church had pews on three sides, the middle ones facing the front and the ones on the two sides facing each other. We sat in the front pew on one side, so had the absolute best view of the bridal pair, as well as of the Blumenkinder. Which was quite...interesting. Lukas totally rose to the occasion and behaved flawlessly for the entire hour, even while Florian was being a bit more of a typical nine-year-old boy...

Helen fell asleep against Jacob.

Marie (wearing the dress she'd gotten for my sister's wedding), Phil and Margaret Daniell, and a sleeping Elisabeth on my shoulder.

Katie was extremely impressed with the horse and carriage.

As we drove from the church where the wedding was to the church where the cake reception was, Jörn took a photo of the horses in his rear-view mirror.

M & M's with Peggy and Hannu's names on them were scattered on all of the tables. As the reception wound down, Lukas got permission (not from us...) to go around and collect all the M & M's that hadn't been eaten yet. We probably brought home close about 500 grams of them.

The official "wedding cake" had six different cakes (the bottom one isn't visible in this photo) on a stand, and there was also a cake buffet with many more. Everything I tasted (didn't count how many...) was scrumptious. Germans really know how to do cake.

Lukas and Florian.

After the cake reception, about 40 of us went to yet another location for the evening dinner and dancing. Lukas danced nearly the entire three hours between dinner and when we left, mostly with Katie, but grabbing any other partner he could when she took breaks, or just dancing by himself when he couldn't get anyone to dance with him. I have a great video of Lukas dancing with Katie, which I keep meaning to post on Facebook, and here's a photo of him dancing with Helen.

Helen's shoes, which we found in the too-big-for-Helen things right before we left, started to come apart during the reception. Jacob whipped out his trusty roll of duct tape and repaired them. (No, I do not know why he took duct tape with him to a wedding. But I'm glad he did.)

Peggy and Hannu. :-)

Nobody took any photos of Jörn and me dancing, but here's a nice blurry one of Marie with Jörn. Her dress is actually bright turquoise (with a black sweater over it), I don't know why it looks so dark here.

Elisabeth, my only non-party-animal, wanted to go to bed. She kept asking to go out, to go to bed, go to sleep. She finally fell asleep anyway, without a bed, and I put her on these chairs.

Helen sharing a special moment dancing with Jörn.

Peggy and Hannu danced the official first dance, and just after that a few other people joined in for one or two songs, but for the vast majority of the evening, it was only Langes on the dance floor, sometimes up to seven of us. (Jacob was the only one who wouldn't dance.) We had a great time and were sorry to leave before the party was over, but both of us had to drive (we had two cars), and we knew we had to get up early-ish the next morning, so we left at 11:30.