Capturing the detail

Sometimes when we have gone on holiday and come back, we remember the bigger things we experienced and I shall write more about that in the next blog. We quickly forget the detail, the weather, the land, images we see even fleetingly but which at the time leave their mark on our day and on our mood. As the years go by memories of such detail recede, disappear and all that is left is the feeling of well being we have taken away from that particular time.
So this blog is all about capturing the beauty in the detail which was abundant in Cyprus this June. I say this because it is not uncommon for June to be hot and dry - and the island was cool and even a little wet. The result a profusion of flowers, which fill me with untold joy.

Along the road of the villa where we were staying for the first time in my life I saw a whole field of prickly pears. Normally they are seen on the edges of roads, really more like big weeds rather than cultivated plants, so this field was quite exceptional and I stopped to wander among them and take pictures of their delicate flowers. They are from the Opuntia family of indian figs and come from the new world. They are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants and we would have them for breakfast when we were young. There is an art to picking them and peeling them so as to avoid the fine but prickly spines which cover them.

On a drive in the mountains of the Akamas we came across many goat pens and a river-bed which was painted pink because instead of water it was filled with flowering oleanders. You could pick out the snaking of the river bed through the flowers and it was quite exceptional but the pictures perhaps don't easily convey fully what an extraordinary sight it was.

The coast line of the area of Pomos and my sister's beach house on the hill.

 The holiday would not be complete without the some sweet balls !