And life goes on

Sheila is about to order prints from our holiday to the Orient for the photograph album, which is a sure sign that the trip has been consigned to the memory! Greek lessons are well and truly back on track and our first visitors of the new season have been and gone, although as you shall learn that was not without its difficulties. So life in Kavousi resumes its usual pattern as we get on with our lives here in paradise.

Spring has arrived – it’s official! The buds on the σταφύλια (grape vines) are beginning to appear, sometime after our friend Thassos came, unbeknown to us, to prune back last year’s growth. I have been looking out for them ever since we arrived home and finally, at the beginning of the week, after a few days of sunshine, out they came – including new growth on the cutting that I grew and planted out last year.

Flowers too are beginning to appear

although they must have got a tremendous shock from the terrible winds which we have had here over the past few days (of which more later). Unfortunately, the blossom on the mandarin and orange and lemon trees have suffered badly and it remains to be seen how our crop will develop as the year progresses.

As mentioned, our first visitors arrived last week from Scotland. Crete was a new venue for both Maggie and Andrew so we could have hoped for better weather for their arrival, particularly after the sunshine of the previous week. Unfortunately, their first few days were not great but it did at least mean that a few walks were undertaken, to Tholos along the high road and back on the paved road (with me on my bike),

the lower gorge, Azorias and the ancient olive tree and the highlight last Saturday in the sunshine, up the E4 to Thripti where I met them in the car. As an added bonus, the taverna in the village was open so we enjoyed a drink (well-earned on the part of the three of them) together with copious plates of μεζέδες (mese).

Food-wise, we also had a memorable evening at Bobo’s taverna eating κατσικάκι στο φούρνο (goat in the oven)

We also took in a trip to Tertsa and Myrtos and back through the mountains

and last Sunday, again in the sunshine, a visit to the east coast, including Vai beach, Itanos and Xerokambos.

On their last day here, they walked to the waterfall in Koutsounari while we had our Greek lesson and then caught the afternoon bus to Heraklion where they intended to stay for two nights, taking in Knossos and the archaeological museum before returning to Scotland on Wedenesday.

As we all know however, the best laid plans do not always work out! We are used to very strong winds here in Crete but the last couple of days have been unusual even for here. The southerly winds have a profound effect in the north of the Island where the wind picks up speed as it comes over the mountains. Apparently it was Force 12 in the west and the Force 10 in Heraklion was enough to mean that no flights departed or arrived on Wednesday. In fact the airport was closed. This meant that Andrew and Maggie had to stay another night. No great hardship in itself of course, as long as you are retired with nothing important to get back to, although I seem to recall that Maggie was supposed to playing golf the following day!

One other aspect of the southerly wind which is worth mentioning is that occasionally it brings with it, clouds of dust from the Sahara. What this meant on Wednesday was that the sun was blotted out and the world was turned yellow. Our cameras are not sophisticated enough to record this phenomenon but our friend Rich took the following shot from their house on the south coast (thanks to Rich for use of the photo).

There were three ‘casualties’ here, as a result of the wind. Firstly, the remaining ‘old’ plastic sun lounger smashed itself to bits against a wall, the cupboard outside the kitchen door blew over, smashing all the clay and china flower pots inside and the car was covered in brown dust. So, with great glee, Sheila dispatched the sun lounger to join its ‘friend’ at the rubbish tip (see last Post), we now have lots of broken pottery for the base of what will in future be plastic flower pots and this morning we had to wash the car! It could have been worse.

And finally, next week we go back to the UK for ten days or so. The main reason is to attend the UK memorial service for my sister Bridget, who died in Canada last year. The service will be held at Mells in Somerset where we grew up after WW2.

Village legend has it that Mells is the subject of the ‘Little Jack Horner’ nursery rhyme. John Horner was a King’s Messenger at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in England and for his efforts, Henry VIII, allowed him to choose one of the deeds of various Manors, whIch he had brought from the Abbot of Glastonbury to London. He ‘put in his thumb and pulled out the plumb’ – being the deeds of Mells Manor, where the Horner family lived until recently. It’s a good story but I now read that there is some doubt as to its authenticity! All the same, I prefer to believe it.

Mells is a beautiful village and I always love going back but this of course will be a bitter sweet visit. For the last day or so, I have been dusting off my tribute to my sister and re-writing it for the UK audience. Life goes on!

John

Rain

This afternoon, I should have been at Tholos beach, listening to music. It is a public holiday in Greece called Καθάρο Δευτέρα  (Clean Monday) and marks the beginning of Lent.  Unfortunately the afternoon is cold and wet and while I do like to support community initiatives, a huge shower of rain and hail,

dampened my enthusiasm.   Instead I am consigned to the house, making bean soup and writing about the weather!

Despite the rain this afternoon,  the conversations with my neighbours have been dominated by the lack of precipitation over the winter.  John and I we were pleased that there was no sign of water getting into the house while we were away. In fact, there was no rain, so our new doors and windows have not been tested.  An article in the newspaper, Νέα Κρήτη, on Saturday, showed the extent of the problem and confirmed our neighbours’ concerns. There has been a serious drought over the winter. The bar graph below shows that that compared with last winter, there has only been a sixth of the rain in Agios Nikolaos  this year.

Last year was exceptionally wet but it is still less than half the average water for the winter. We wait to see what will happen over the next few months.

Whilst the lack of rain could be serious for everybody around here, the rest of what I write is not of huge consequence to humanity!  Last week, I did have a major personal crisis when I discovered that the main documents relating to the car (tax, insurance, MOT, manuals ) were not in the car. Before we left for China, I decided that if we were leaving the car for 6 weeks, then it would be safer to put them and the road atlas etc in the house. When I came back, somehow the road atlas etc. did get back to the car but not the important documents.  I checked and checked in our small house for the missing wallet but to no avail. John came up with the most likely theory that for some peculiar reason, I threw them in the rubbish bin by mistake.  The irony, of course, is not lost on me. I end up losing documents that I moved for security reasons! Anyway, we have lost the car and service manual  but the rest has been brought back to life through the computer and a nice man at the MOT office. John has been very kind about all of this except I know what he really thinks…….

Despite, the fact that we have not been here for six weeks, the house was surprisingly dirty so some cleaning has been required. And our friends, Maggie and Andrew, arrive tomorrow and a visit from someone always sparks some critical look at our home. The inside of the house has therefore been subjected to some serious cleaning. It was so serious that I decided photograph albums needed to come off the shelves that I could dust the shelves. When I tried to put some very heavy albums back on, the shelf protested and was not to be persuaded to keep the status quo.   I was lucky that John had time for a small project and brackets have been put in place and the photo albums are now back in place.

I always have had severe reservations about dusting!!!!

On Thursday, my eyes looked at the outside of the house and in particular the sunbeds and decided that at least one of them definitely needed to go.  I put the broken sunbed down beside the village dustbin. There is a derelict truck there (I don’t think the dustbin men see vehicles as their remit but worth a try!).  Next day, I was amused to find that the sunbed had been put into the truck.

The day after, it was removed from the truck but it is still there. Generally things are recycled by somebody but I think it has been recognised that the sunbed is not fit for purpose!

By the end of the day, we had ordered new cushions for the outside chairs and bought two wooden sun beds.

The driver who brought the sunbeds tried to get his van as close to our house as possible and in doing so a tree has one less branch!  We have also some new hanging baskets so all we need now is some warm weather!

There was some major wind a couple of days ago which was very good from a washing point of view,

although I did have to peg it seriously and check it on a regular basis that it was still on the line. But the gale did mean a severe reduction in the blossom of our two mandarin trees which have been a source of enormous joy since we came back.

From some meters away, you can smell the wonderful scent and here the insects are buzzing. But much of it is now on the ground. Nothing lasts forever!

I have been particularly appreciative of having a really good supermarket in the village. When we came back from our trip, I couldn’t face going to Ierapetra and just wanted to potter about in Kavousi. The supermarket has most things, except fresh meat and for a number of days, I was a very regular customer. I expressed my thanks and a couple of days later, Κατερίνα gave me a bottle of preserved komquats. That felt very nice. It is good to be back in the village and appreciate all the things that it offers – the greetings in the morning as I go down to the bakery, the chats with my neighbours, the gifts of oranges and peppers, the wonderful blossom

and the general feeling of well being I have about here.

Yesterday we went to the carnival parade in Ierapetra. Our Greek tutor, Μανώλης, had recommended it and so we viewed it with our friends, Shona and Rich. It was impressive, firstly because of the huge numbers of people who took part in it and secondly that the floats and costumes were fantastic.  There were owls from the local school,

flashy  crabs

and some pretty pineapples, to name but a few.

There were one or two queries about politically correctness but in the main it was a joy. There were streamers, confetti and big smiles everywhere.  Afterwards we had a nice meal at a favourite taverna near Ιerapaetra, beside the sea (Σχεδία) and we were entertained by lightning and thunder which was right on top of and it started to rain! And it’s been raining ever since.

So, I finish with reference to the weather. I would like there to be more rain, but I also want a nice week for my friends. Anyway as my mother wisely said ‘There is nothing you can do about the weather, Sheila!’

Sheila

From Kavousi to the Great Wall and back

Regular readers will be aware that we have been away for six weeks travelling in China and SE Asia. We arrived back in Crete last Monday tired after the long flights, to find all well with both house and car. So όλα καλά (all is well) as they say hereabouts!

It’s too early to digest everything that has happened to us while we have been away and to be able to put anything in context, let alone comment on the multitude of contrasting emotions and experiences that have engulfed us. At the moment, we are just concentrating on getting our diaries up to date and sorting out the photographs but you can be assured that if great thoughts should burst to the surface, we will be granting you the favour of our wisdom at some future date!

Suffice it to say for the present that we had a memorable, somewhat tiring but extremely enjoyable six weeks.  I liked almost everything about our trip, especially the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army in China, time spent with Gillie and Alan in Shanghai and with Emily in Hangzhou, the fireworks in Hong Kong, Halong Bay and cycling in Vietnam and the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Temperatures ranged from -15C in Beijing to +35C in Phnom Penh so there was lots to carry!

The local people we met were nearly all friendly although we did manage to become the victims of one minor scam in Beijing! Generally the food was delicious and very cheap and the hotels were normally very comfortable. We also got on well with the folk on our tour of Vietnam and Cambodia and hope to see at least some of them again.

However, on the downside, I realise that I do prefer to eat with a knife and fork rather than with chopsticks and we did spend many hours whilst travelling in Vietnam and Cambodia, sitting in buses which was not very interesting because the country was generally very flat. China is also very polluted and the cities everywhere, with the notable exception of Hong Kong are pretty uninviting places in terms of the quality of the air, prevalence of rubbish and obvious poverty.

Rather than ramble on about individual places and issues, I have chosen a selection of photographs which sum up my memories. Sheila may have others and if so, episode two may follow!

Oh and the beer was pretty good too!

 

Since we got back, the weather has been warm and sunny. Yesterday in particular gave every indication that Spring may have arrived.

We cycled the high road to Tholos (our nearest beach) and stopped at a secluded cove for an unscheduled swim.

The water was OK but there was a strong undertow so the dip was short!

However, we were able to dry off in the sun before pedalling back to Kavousi, noting that the almond blossom was beginning to come out.

Our Greek lessons re-start tomorrow morning, which is a cause of some anxiety as no doubt we will be expected to report in detail on our trip. Help!

John