Category Archives: Holidays

We’re fast approaching Easter in the UK and a week after it will be Orthodox Easter and this year I get to celebrate both, being in the UK for their Easter weekend before flying back to Cyprus for theirs.
I love Easter, for me it truly signals the end of winter and spring and the start of the countdown to the heady days of summer. Whilst for many, it’s just a time to consume tonnes of hollow chocolate objects and have an excuse for another family dinner, for the more religious it marks the most important festival in the religious calendar.
I’ve often wondered, especially since living in Cyprus, why the Cypriots don’t really do Christmas and save all the celebrations for Eastertide until I looked up a theological essay on the subject.
As far as I can see, the birth of Jesus is relatively unimportant in its significance to the development of Christianity and I can understand why Epiphany is more important as being the first time he is acknowledged as King by the wise men. But it’s Easter and its implication in the ideology of eternal life that is the main festival because it’s when Jesus shows us that it is possible to be raised from death, if only as a soul, and to take our rightful place in heaven. The whole dogma of Christianity hangs on that one event and is summed up succinctly by the Easter morning Greek greeting of ‘Χριστός Ανέστη’ and the reply ‘Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη’, Christ is risen and the reply, truly he is risen.
On a far more light-hearted note, it’s this time of year when I laugh at the friends who have decided upon a ‘bikini diet’ to prepare themselves for their summer holidays. It usually starts when the clocks go forward only to be rudely interrupted when Easter pops up and they’ve just got to gorge themselves on the chocolate eggs and accompanying individual chocolates not to mention those fondant filled eggs that shall remain nameless.
So what should we get for those people who we know desperately want to look svelte in their swimsuit and not bulgy in a bikini? Nothing fits the bill better than a bouquet of flowers and especially at Easter when spring flowers abound and if you want to go for the traditional, you can send white lilies signifying purity and new birth. As always I find the best flowers come from Cosmea Gardens.  Feel free to use coupon “savethiseaster” on checkout and save 10% with a minimum order of 50Eur excluding shipping. It expires the 16th of April. I’ve never had cause to complain about the quality and condition of the blooms they’ve delivered and their flowers last for weeks; a benefit of them using only the freshest cut flowers in their arrangements. They might be a little more expensive than some but when a gift is important for the message it sends, a couple of euros extra is well worth it for the quality. So this Easter, if you need to send a gift to a horizontally challenged friend or relative, be a thoughtful person and send them flowers that will add considerably to their impressions of you and not their waistline!

I don’t know if you’re like me or not but at this time of year it’s always hard to think of what to get for Great Aunt Bertha or cousin Tilly for a Christmas present. Did you know that last year 34% of presents received were classified as ‘unwanted’ generally meaning that the good idea to get Uncle Eric that rotary soup maker wasn’t such a good idea.

Some people go for gift vouchers or cash but that seems too impersonal or shows a lack of thought, so what’s the alternative?

It’s a bit unusual, and personally I’ve thought it a bit unseasonal to do so, but why not send flowers. They last for a good while at this time of year, brighten up drab days and the everlasting message that flowers are sent with love fits in nicely with the season. Last year I sent my aunt a bouquet from Cosmea Gardens; red carnations and gold sprayed bracken and it looked beautiful. The carnations had a slight scent that pervaded the rooms of her house and the colours were in keeping with the season. Each time I spoke to her in the year she brought up that gift. So it shows that if you’re stuck for ideas, give flowers!

Although the weather is noticeably cooler, I can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas, so it’s time for some tips on how to make your home look effortlessly festive.

I love poinsettia plants and although there’s a myriad of colours to choose from these days, I still love the ones with the red bracts. You can spice them up by putting them in a festive looking container or simply get a terracotta pot, paint it green and then when dry, daub some wood glue in patterns such as bells, snowflakes or Christmas trees around it and press on some contrasting glitter. Don’t forget to bung up the drainage hole before putting the plant in it or you’ll have a soggy mess on your table!

If you want to keep the pot plain, then a quick squirt of spray-on glue over the leaves, followed by a dusting of silver glitter gives an instant effect.

If you can get hold of any evergreen foliage, it doesn’t have to be holly or ivy, make up a wreath by intertwining the stems and tie in red or gold ribbon in bows, add small Christmas decorations or small sprayed pine cones – there are hundreds in Cyprus at the moment – then hang it on your door or over a fireplace.

Finally, if you can’t afford one of the really expensive real Christmas trees this year which, to be honest, won’t survive long in the Cypriot climate, buy an Araucaria, otherwise known as a Norfolk Island Pine, which looks exotically similar and which will grace your garden afterwards. A 1.2 metre specimen in a pot can be bought for around 20 euros, less than half the equivalent for a Norwegian Spruce. Check out Cosmea Gardens for their range of festive plants and have a Plant-astic Christmas this year.

All summer long I’ve been mesmerised by the sight of trees on the road past Coral Bay outside Paphos which have bright green frond-like leaves and vivid scarlet flowers with yellow centres. To say they’re striking is an understatement and I’ve spent ages trying to find out what they are.

I recently holidayed on my second favourite island, Cuba, and saw the same trees there. A local told me that they were called Flame Trees and when I got to a computer I found out that they’re also called the Royal Poinciana and they have been voted into the top five most beautiful trees in the world.

I looked at them in a new light once I’d returned from my holiday and find that each time I pass the tree I’m reminded of my holiday. I got to thinking about flowers that evoke memories and talked to my parents about flowers that brought back memories for them such as Montbretias that remind my dad of his mother and lilac that reminded my mum of her mother. For me, roses always remind me of my wife as they’re her favourite celebration flowers and I’ll be buying some more on Saturday for it’s her birthday. Try thinking about the flowers that bring back memories for others and stir up some with a bouquet from Cosmea Gardens.

I’ve just spent over a month in the UK experiencing what you might call the English summer which, with its usual washout had left gardens and parks looking dull and bedraggled. All it did was to make me wish for the sunnier climate of Cyprus so last Wednesday we grabbed the easyJet flight out of Gatwick and headed for the sun. Before leaving, I texted a friend to ask them to open up the windows so it wouldn’t be too oppressive in the apartment.

We arrived late in the evening and struggled with our bags up the stairs and flung open the door, glad to be home. I wasn’t prepared though for the surprise that greeted us when we went into the dining room for they had organised a bouquet of all my favourite flowers that brighten the island so even though it was dark when we arrived we immediately had a taste of what we’d missed back in the UK. There were the roses that bloom through the most intense heat set against white bougainvillea that in the garden looks like fresh snow in the wintry sun backed with rolled banana leaves. What an amazing creation I thought and looked at the label that accompanied them – Selected and hand-tied especially for you by Cosmea Gardens I should have known!

So it goes to show that if you want something really special or just to say something as simple as ‘Welcome home’ Cosmea Gardens are the ones to help.

For most of the world the celebrations of Christmas and New Year have passed and we now look forward to taking down the decorations on twelfth night and get on with 2011.

Not so for Cyprus for at the end of next week we have St Basil’s Day and Epiphany, major celebrations on our beautiful island.

Mothers and wives across the island will be digging out their recipes for Vasilopita and children will be looking forward to extra presents and two days off school as the island celebrates a key event in the Christian calendar forgotten, or at least overlooked by most of the world.

St Basil is the Greek Orthodox santa and is looked forward to greatly by Greek children. Epiphany was the day when the Wise Men arrived at the stable bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus.

If you are visiting friends or family for the bank holiday weekend be wise and take your own gift. The host may well love a gift of gold, may not be quite so keen on frankincense or myrrh though. take your own gift of gold with a bouquet in gold from Cosmea Gardens and your host will treat you like a king!

Near where I live is the area known as Sea Caves/St George and it is a beautiful area that is slowly being spoiled by creeping development. For now though it’s an agricultural area that is dotted with pretty villas that overlook the stunning natural scenery.

I love cycling in the area, even though there’s a mile long hill down to the sea which I need to cycle back up at the end of my ride.

Last week I had a bit more time on my hands and spend a little of it exploring the area more thoroughly and was surprised at what grew there. I was able to find avocado trees laden with shiny fruit on long strands like some natural Christmas decoration. Further along there were guava trees with the air surrounding them pungent with the scent of the sweet ripe fruit. Oranges, mandarins, bananas, pomegranates and massive fig trees abuzz with bees and wasps looking for the split fruit spilling their sweet contents. Earlier in the summer there were peach and nectarine trees alight with the golden globes of juicy fruit. As I sat on the cliff edge eating the figs I’d gathered from the roadside I thought how close this must be to what the Garden of Eden was like, fruit in abundance provided as a result of warm sunshine and fresh water. I’ve turned my balcony into a little citrus grove but my exploration made me realise just how much more I could be growing. I’m looking forward to my next visit to Cosmea Gardens to find which other fruit trees I can add to my collection.

I hope you all missed me! I went on a trip last week with some children from school and it meant that all week I didn’t have access to a computer.

What I did have access to was the most wonderful plant experience I’ve ever encountered. We took the children to the Eden Project in Cornwall UK and explored everything to do with plants.

We saw the world’s largest flower, the world’s most repulsively perfumed flower and some really unusual flowers that caught the eye with the way they didn’t seem to follow the way flowers normally look. All in all a great experience.

Anyway, now I’m back and I wanted to tell you that if you’re ever in Cornwall then the Eden Project is a must see. We all do flower arranging and think we know lots about them but what struck me most was when I could see them growing in a replication of their natural surroundings. From time to time I like to tell you a little about flowers you might use in arrangements and hopefully it will help you to understand the flowers a little more. The first one I’ll tell you about in my next post is Agapanthus.

I recently visited an attraction called ‘World of Flowers’ in Devon, near where I used to live. They’d begun their quest about ten years ago carving huge flower beds out of the hillside in the shape of the countries of the world. Then, a few years later, rather than rely on just the flowerbeds for the country, they cut out beds for the seas and oceans and planted them with gentians for the spring seas, dwarf ceanothus for the early summer and lobelia for the late summer and autumn. On a sunny day, the view from the other side of the valley was spectacular and in many ways it was like a floral version of the chalk designs ancient man used to carve into hillsides. On this occasion I was surprised to see that they had built a huge domed greenhouse over another plot of land and had planted the countries with their national flowers. Many weren’t yet in flower and many had finished flowering but it was an education travelling across this temperate ‘globe’ identifying and marvelling at the ideas they had used. The head gardener there said that trying to keep all the flowers from the different climate zones happy was a mammoth task but with the help of localised cooling machines and humidifiers they managed a semblance of the natural conditions. I hurried to the area of Cyprus on the ‘map’ and found to my delight that they had what had recently been declared the island’s national flower – the Cyclamen.

In my various conversations with my Cypriot friends occasionally the term ‘Name Days’ would arise and yet I’d never really got to the bottom of what they’re all about. So, on the last occasion, rather than admit my ignorance, I nodded sagely and hurried home to dear old Google for some education

I discovered that it’s not just Cyprus that has them, most Orthodox countries have them and a few others too! Now I think I’ve been fed a few lines about Name Days, most notably that there’s a bank holiday for each one. If that was the case then looking at the list I’d never be at work! Someone then told me that it’s like a personal bank holiday so when it’s your Name Day you have the day off work. Sounds great to me!

Thinking about it more deeply though I realised what a lovely idea it was. You celebrate your own birthday and then have a second celebration on the saint’s day after whom you were named. On that day it’s traditional to have a small get together of family or friends and if you are fortunate you’ll receive small gifts. I was invited to the Name Day party of my friend Dimitra in October and it was a beautiful occasion. We were blessed with a warm autumn evening and her garden was decorated with tiny lanterns. An icon of the saint had been placed in a candlelit corner of the garden and the evening had almost a reverence to it. Guests brought small gifts, carefully chosen, which included small bouquets of flowers. I’d taken a little carved jewellery box I’d found in a market but such was the beauty of the range of flowers given as gifts mine felt insignificant.

After a delicious meal served under the stars I talked to the host and she said she had loved the gifts of flowers as they had reminded her of the wonders of God that had brought her into the world and yet was also evident in the smallest, simplest flower.  So next time you’re invited to a name day party and are stuck for a gift, remember Dimitra’s words and visit Cosmea Gardens for that special gift