Wildlife in our garden

Sparrows and swallows we have known in England but we have encountered some unfamiliar creatures in our Cypriot back garden.

There are sun-loving lizards who sit on the rockery and the wall and then scuttle away; locusts, and praying mantis. We christened one rather splendid preying mantis who had clearly just eaten a sizeable meal the "queen of the bush" as she took up residence in one of the shrubs in the garden. Another built an egg sac on the back of our post box. Come to think of it perhaps it was the same female and she'd previously been digesting her mate! After a couple of months a tribe of weeny mantis emerged.

Some lizards have made it into the house. One lived under the dishwasher for several weeks; we named it Slinky. A gecko, Shrimpy, may still be lurking upstairs providing pest control. Salmon pink and almost translucent with beady dark eyes it was first spotted clinging to the overhang of the top stair.

Other things we've spotted and managed to capture on camera are a big black beetle and a tiny frog with a big leap.

But perhaps the most amazing sight, and the most alarming, was the whip snake. Being a girlie my immediate reaction was of course to shriek, get the children indoors and shut the doors! But once I'd regained my composure and ascertained that snakes found in Cyprus are rarely poisonous to humans I went for a closer look. The snake was in fact in the process of constricting something. I couldn't tell if it was a rodent or a bird.

I really must dig out some facts and useful links for Cyprus wildlife. It has been interesting seeing new things but I do miss the English landscape and particularly the birdsong which is so evocative. I caught a snippet on the CBeebies website of all places the other day of woodland sounds. I want my robins, blackbirds, tits and wood pigeons back!

Swallows

Now that most of the sparrows living in our verandah roof have fledged (although we're still finding the odd corpse) our attention has now been grabbed by the swallows. We'd been seeing them flying around and occasionally swooping down to drink from the swimming pool. Then one evening they started showing an uncommon interest in the underside of the verandah roof. We thought they might be after insects but it transpired that they were looking for a nest site.

Last weekend they started building just outside the kitchen window and fascinating viewing it was. The pair worked together, one bringing mud (although in this dry climate it must have been been pretty dry) and the other bringing straw. Given the amount of building materials that were dropped we were surprised how quickly the nest took shape and by Sunday evening they were both sleeping there.

• Video of nest building for Facebook friends

The female is now sitting - with luck in a fortnight or so there should be babies. Watch this space ...

Hot, hot, hot

The temperature is gradually cranking up here, currently in the high 20s C, around 80F. In Limassol we can expect an average temperature of 33 (91) during July and August, and no rain until October. We hit 33 already on Monday! By contrast in Troodos high in the hills the temperature is about 11 degrees lower, quite a contrast for such a small island.

It's amazing how quickly you acclimatise. When I visited in early February it seem positively balmy (well it was, compared with the UK) during the day and was astounded to see so many people in their woolies, but when the temperature doesn't generally drop below 20 degrees for a full six months you start to understand how 12 degrees could feel chilly. My perception and tolerance of heat has already altered and I'm now reasonably comfortable at the current temperature as long as nothing too strenuous is involved.

We obviously get plently of sunshine (in Limassol an average of 9.1 hours per day) but being in the eastern Med it doesn't stay light as late in midsummer. Sunset is around 8.30pm even at the equinox. This has the advantage of both an absence of those really depressing dark winter mornings and the fact that the temperature starts to drop off from late afternoon.

There is a commensurate lack of rain too (an average 18" per annum in Limassol) but when it rains, boy can it rain! I got caught out one day in April with monsoon-like conditions. An hour round trip to collect Elizabeth from school took double the time with a landslip closing the highway and the roads in town churned up and flowing brown.

Some useful links:

• Limassol climate averages
• Cyprus climate averages (thank goodness we don't live in Nicosia!)

Driving in Cyprus

Some advice - when driving in Cyprus expect the unexpected or the plain stupid.

Not that you'd notice it but all the sensible rules designed to ensure safety on the roads apply here, like seatbelts and not using your mobile phone whilst driving, all made simpler by driving on the left. However, Cyprus has been ranked in the top three European countries, per capita, in terms of road fatalities, with even more worrying statistics involving young people.

According to the Cyprus police service the main causes of road traffic accidents on the island are:

1. Speeding
2. Careless driving
3. Tailgaiting
4. Failing to obey traffic signs
5. Driving on the wrong side of the road
6. Driving under the influence of alcohol
7. Pedestrian carelessness

There are some interesting, if rather grim, statistics here.

The traffic department also claims to be clamping down on driving transgressions (they'd certainly make a financial killing if they did) but I haven't seen much evidence of this. If they started with the twits who ride motorbikes without helmets and the parents and grandparents who let children go without seatbelts it would be a much safer place.

The speed limit and particularly red traffic lights are optional extras. Mind you the speed limit on the main dual carriageways is 100 kph (a modest 65 mph). The number of times I've seen people blatantly go through red traffic lights or edge across junctions is nobody's business. And it would actually be dangerous to stop at a red pedestrian light if there weren't any pedestrians in sight.

So to survive as a driver in Cyprus, keep your wits about you, and to a large extent go with the flow as the locals will expect you to be as aggressive as they are.

Look, a beach!

Eleanor was, and still is, amazed and excited at seeing the sea so every time we drive anywhere she invariably calls out "Look, a beach! Izzabiff, a beach!"

We've tried out a few since we've been here. We had access to a small, private beach while we were staying at the Ermitage which if nothing else was convenient. The sand around Limassol is volcanic, so quite dark, but not unpleasant. The tourists of course largely use the beach along the main drag but if you go a bit further east you can find some quieter spots between the grander hotels and close to the Amathus site along the coastal pedestrian path (if you don't mind the sound of traffic 30 yards behind you). By far the nicest, and incidentally closest public beach to where we live, is one between the St Raphael and Meridien hotels. The water is clear and shallow and the beach is deeper than most. I can't remember its name at the moment - I shall just have to go back!

The other two major beaches close to Limassol, to the west, are Ladies Mile beach and Kourion (Curium) beach. The latter is apparently very attractive because of its backdrop of cliffs and the Greco-Roman amphitheatre. Ladies Mile runs along the eastern edge of the Akrotiri peninsular next to the salt lake so you can see whole of the Limassol coastline. This is also a good beach for children as the water is clear and shallow. Further along the coast the attractive village of Pissouri also boasts a pleasant beach.

Going the other way along the coast towards Larnaca there is Governor's Beach with extremely white rocks which contrast with the dark sand. When the tide is right you can walk along into various small coves.

If you want golden sands then there's Ayia Napa. We visited Nissi beach with its turquoise water. I wouldn't want to be there in peak tourist season as I reckon it's a bit of a Club 18-30 spot but just before Easter it was very pleasant although sadly cloudy for most of our visit. The harbour at Ayia Napa is also worth a visit.

Sports day

This morning was Elizabeth's school sports day. It was for the pre-reception and reception age children only. They were put into teams (red, white and blue) and all participated in five different races. Some were individual and some were team races: egg and spoon; shopping; bean bag; dressing up, and buggy.

It was great fun with lots of gentle encouragement (and help) from staff and the year 6 prefects and all over by 9am. The PTA provided refreshment with contributions from parents, including a rather solid fruit cake baked by yours truly.

Elizabeth sadly dropped her "egg" early on in her race and came a lonely third but redeemed herself by winning the shopping race by a nose. She was chuffed! She carried the bean bag expertly (probably aided by her hat) but was clearly let down by her slower team mates. The dressing up race was great fun. They had to don a scarf, hat and a shirt. Somehow Elizabeth managed to put a hat on over the one she was already wearing. If the buggy race had not already been lost it certainly was when Elizabeth decided that she had to spend valuable time getting "baby" comfortable before proceeding!

Elizabeth's birthday

Elizabeth turned five during April. It wasn't much of a birthday for her as it was during the school holiday but she had the obligatory cake and Sean and I "sang" to her.

I had come armed with a present from the UK for her from Nana and Grandad and she got a few cards in the post as well as a present from my friend Hannah. We weren't around when the postlady came so had to collect it. It took a while to work out where to go. In Parekklisia, as I expect in other villages, the postlady herself retains undelivered mail and we had to go to her house.

For some gifts from us I had success in the Early Learning Centre (home from home!) and Jumbo which is a cross between Toys r Us and The Range. Elizabeth's "main" present was a wonderfully cheap doll which came with a bath and shower (which works) and a small rubber duck, sponge (now ripped to shreds), pretend soap and soap dish and a couple of fake bottles for bubble-bath and shampoo.

I had a rather complicated brief for decorating her cake. It had to have a pond, a flower and a butterfly on it. Hmm. We found some icing and decorating paraphenalia although not such a wide selection as in UK supermarkets. The first snag was that I'd made a chocolate cake and I thought stark white icing would look a bit odd so I attempted a pale blue which could double as sky and pond, but as I spread it the top of the cake crumbled into the icing so it ended up a rather attractive, but unpractical, marbled blue and brown. I soldiered on and made a somewhat unconvincing pond and a not too bad flower, butterfly and sun. See for yourself ...

As some of you may know, Elizabeth has been diagnosed with an allergy to egg white. At her last hospital appointment and skin prick test this was downgraded to "borderline" so as she was keen to try her own cake we thought we'd risk it. Unfortunately the poor girl was sick on her own birthday. Still, she soon recovered and ate ice cream instead!