fruit and dogs

Persimmon - 
 known as 'lotus' fruit here.  This is the fruit that Odysseus would not let his crew eat on their way back to Ithaca after the Trojan war.  The fruit was so delicious they would not want to leave.

I vaguely remember Harry having a lotus tree in the back garden, somewhere near the banana passionfruit ( over the back loo door) but don't remember ever eating them.  Our neighbour Vasso has a tree and gave us a bag.  They are really soft and ripe and certainly are sweet and luscious.  Her pomegranite tree is loaded as well but the fruit is bursting too early and the chooks are getting them all.

Earache - 
 K has a blocked ear.  After two weeks I think he has finally decided he must do to a doctor.  Drops from the pharmacy didn't work and neither did the oil from the lamp of a saint that his sister gave him.

Compost -
 what a waste of time.  I left ours all over the summer and it  decomposed all by itself.  I have now emptied the compost on the garden.  Same place in the garden for the third year.   It doesn't seem to make any difference to the crop.  Rocket grows well and so do lettuces, but they grow well anywhere in the garden.  The front compost bin under the grapefruit tree  has been going for years and has never been emptied.  The grapefruit tree always has a bumper crop of big grapefruit but who wants  so many grapefruit.  

The grapefruit tree had a rotten turtle buried under it for 6 months.  Kyriako's father used to be nightwatchman at the fish farm over the hills and down on the shore under the sewage plant.  He found the turtle washed up on the shore and brought it up to us so we could clean and use the shell.  He had this bright idea that we should bury it for 6 months and by then the shell would be cleaned and cleared by the bacteria and worms.
Unfortunately the shell dissolved as well.  But I am sure it was greatly appreciated by the grapefruit tree.  

Think it is time for action there.  When Danae and the kids come up next time they can empty that compost bin and move it over under the mandarine tree which rarely has a good crop of mandarines - mandarines full of pips.

We also put sacks of goat and sheep droppings on the garden each year.  I know, we need the soil tested.

Dog - 
five months of hell for me.  I  discovered I really don't like dogs.  I don't like dogs shedding hair, dogs barking, dogs digging up my garden or dogs anywhere near me.  I spent a summer inside hiding from the dog, named Flox. 

He was abandoned down on the beach below us and the owners of the beach bar thought we might like to adopt him.  He was a 'low' dog as in 'cur' AND 'daschound and not a year old.  We actually knew the girl who abandoned him there and I can quite understand why she did the dirty deed.  He originally lived in Elli's neighbourhood and was known to the kids as 'Balou'.  The beach people called him 'Rocky'.

We didn't tie him up at all so he just took over the yard, back and front.  At least he didn't bark all night like 'Pita-Dennis', BUT, he jumped up all over us and shed hair by the kilo, stripped the roses, dug holes to China, ripped to pieces anything left lying around from plastic bottles to cushions and tablecloths.  We found a nice man on Galatas who just loves dogs and just loves  looking after the  mongrel.

Thank you God.

Olives and wine -
K has already salted the first lot of olives and that was back in September.  As olives are usually ready for picking in late October, November these are really early.  Most of the trees around us have no olives for harvest this year - they only have a crop every two years.

K and friends just love these black salted olives but they have not been soaked and have been salted for only a few days.  They are bitter and obviously, very salty.

K has no wine in his barrels this year.  But plenty of our neighbours have wine.  Most of the wine is from grapes harvested only 2 months ago and has hardly stopped fermenting.  However 2 of his friends have already opened their barrels and are drinking the 'stuff'.

Some may remember K doing the same thing about 9 years ago so he could provide the wine for Nels baptism at the end of October.  Paul probably remembers better than most.  He might also remember the word ' ponokefalo'.