Pissouri, Cyprus - gardening from scraps and health care

I will start with Health Care. It has been one of my major concerns since "getting stuck". On 2 levels 1) the medication that I take for acid reflux. This stops a persistent, annoying cough that disturbs my sleep and is not good for my throat and larynx. 2) Medical insurance for any number of possibilities that I don't even want to think about.

I set off this morning to the Pharmacy to look into the acid reflux medication and, as one is a prescribed pill, find out how to get that prescription filled here.

Good news - the prescription meds they just handed to me, even though it says on the package "Medicinal product subject to medical prescription ". I just got 20 tablets so I can check that it is fine.

The Pepcid, that I take once a day only came in a double dosage but my Canadian package says I can take 2. So again I will try it out and see how it is. No prescription needed and both cost me about 1/3rd of what they would have cost me at home. I may stock up.

So now to the travel medical insurance. I sent TuGo an e-mail last week and left them a phone message today. Today I got a phone call and paid for the longest extension that they will give me which is 10 days. In the mean time I will look into OHIP (Nic's suggestion) and they will look into the possibility of a policy excluding Coronavirus. Best I can do right now.

So, back to my walk down to the Pharmacy. This was at the side of the road. It looks like a melon vine though I am sure it is just a weed.

I don't have to worry about the cats in the Village Square, O'Vrakas Restaurant is obviously still feeding them.

This Mimosa is now in full bloom and smells divine.

The farmers have been out preparing fields. This vineyard, plowed in both directions, looks like a plaid, from above.

In conversation the other day Kay said she missed being able to go to the Panorama Lounge. Well Kay, here is the view, sorry it is closed.

Looking up at where I walked 2 days ago I could just make out the goat sheds

and the chapel below. I have a better idea which track to take now.

Tree flowers

Cactus tree flowers? Lots of new, yellow growth anyway.

Fig trees are not just leafing out but also

setting fruit.

As I was 2 days away from a coffee crisis, I went to Paps as well as the pharmacy and got ground coffee (not the instant that is so popular here), ground decaf and Melita filters. Crisis averted!

Proud of myself that I was able to walk straight up to the village and home without my usual rest on the bench, half way up the hill. For the record; to Paps and back is 5,000 steps.

 After lunch I pulled weeds, next door in Cameron/Nikki's garden but now I am going to post pictures of my gardening experiments. Gardening from scraps!

3 days ago I bought a lettuce. Cut off all the leaves and washed them (lots of dirt in them) and stored them in the frig in a plastic bag. I took the base and put it in a dish of water:

2 days later it is already starting to regrow leaves. I think this info was from Carla, via Nicky. When I see roots forming I will plant it in soil.

So then I started to look on the internet (search "gardening from scraps"). Nicola suggested I look in my recycling for containers. So here, in an egg carton, I am planting green pepper seeds (from a green pepper) and snap peas.

In the old strawberry container I have planted green pepper seeds, halved cherry tomatoes and edamame (from a frozen package - well if you don't try you wont know)

My little indoor vegetable garden. I will keep you posted. Mick, I will owe you for a bag of topsoil when (and if) I plant these out.

I also planted sage and mint (that I snipped off in the Village Square - no-one there to enjoy them anyway) and zucchini seeds in a pot in Cameron/Nikki's garden. Something kept digging them up (cats?) so I covered the seeds.

These could all fail but it is an interesting experiment and, lets face it, I have time right now to experiment. I will keep you posted and would love to know if you try similar experiments.