It’s all about calming down when you move elsewhere, and accepting what you have and stopping comparing and contrasting. I think now that I have been here in Cyprus for two weeks, I am happier, and go to the market with a view to cook what is there than fretting about what is not.

The oranges and lemons are in high season, as are cauliflowers and potatoes and we stagger home with great bags of produce and I have made such delicious things, cauliflower and potato curry, cauliflower with lemon and olives, and roasted beetroot soup, and the sideboard is groaning under the weight of citrus delights, and I am eyeing up the peppers and aubergines and have plans for them all.

The sun has come out, and although it is still very chilly at night, the days are delightful.

We walk along the beach for miles and yesterday I saw the mountains had been drawn by the sea. Silver slithery contours had been etched by the spume, and it was as though I was looking at the outlines of distant peaks. I traced over the lines and it was just art, waiting to be washed away.

The day was lovely, and it was quite a contrast from a week ago.

We did hire a car at the weekend and revisited Kyrenia, and ate under a sun lamp kind of heater in Bellapais (where Lawrence Durrell once lived, and wrote about Bitter Lemons) and the waiter charmed us with his tales of his ‘ex-bird’ who came from Derbyshire, and how the romance was doomed. We heard his philosophy of summer romances, and ate our omelette and chips, not such high dining – but perfect for a winter’s day when the sun had disappeared and puddles pooled in the cracked stone of the roads.

The following day we toured up to the Karpaz, the scene of St Andrew’s Church, where people come to pray for an illness to be cured and where once I left body parts of Barbie, like the message of a serial killer. I wanted headaches to disappear, and hiatus hernias! I wonder what the priests thought of the strange collection of head and torso!?

This time, when we opened the car door, we found the Brinjal pickle had leaked. It was all over the picnic box, and as I rescued it, I got it all over my hands. A wild donkey picked up the scent and decided he liked it very much and almost chewed my fingers off!

We also discovered the 3 litre bottle of water had leaked and soaked the carpet.

Anyway we enjoyed our picnic and later walked across petrified sand that must have been once a geologist’s delight. It resembled the desert.

Hard sand that had solidified, and made shapes from the swirling of rocks over millions of years. There were even two holes that resembled foot prints. Perhaps they were the Holy forms of St Andrew himself.

We have also been adopted by a little scruffy dog, which resembles Pippin from the BBC show Come Fly with me, which I used to show kids at school. She is loyal and so polite with such good manners. She sat quietly and waited as we went in to the beach shop, then followed us home after the longest beach walk ever. The following night she came to our door and I so wanted to give her a shower and blow dry…but I gave her some roast chicken instead. It was the least I could do. Here she is with Aunty Mabel from the programme.

They say so many people abandon their pets when they leave. Similar to other countries. I know Doha had a huge problem with abandoned cats and dogs.

Well, Pippin has charm and I have a feeling she won’t go hungry and she will definitely get exercised every day. John won’t countenance the idea of quarantine and all that red tape so there is little point of talking about it, but I can see her in Edinburgh, walking along the Water of Leith, and calling into the café in Stockbridge and having a bacon roll.

Today the day is warm, the sun is shining and I just walked over to the café to get on to WIFI and Lo and Behold!  I saw two girls in bikinis!

So, spring must be in the air, and we have celebrated by having all the doors and windows open which is lovely. A contrast to the evenings when we huddle around our little heater wrapped up in blankets. I don’t think we will be putting on the after-sun lotion just yet!