Acropolis Closed

 The Acropolis is temporarily closed because of a heatwave.  A lot of you have already had heatwaves and now it's our turn.  A week of red hot temperatures.  42o - 45o celsius.  45o C is  113o F.  

The Acropolis hasn't actually closed but it's not open between 12 and 5, mad dogs and Englishmen having been foolish enough to venture up there in the midday sun.  The Hellenic Red Cross has been handing out bottles of water to the tourists, a few of whom had collapsed in the heat.  

The Acropolis is Athen's, probably Greece's, most popular tourist attraction.  There are something like 17,000 visitors a day and it is time to start crowd control.  Anyone wanting to go up there will have to book their ticket and a time slot, so we have heard.  I scrambled up there many, many times in my first years here, with the girls when they were young and with family.  That was many years ago.  Been there, done that.  The marble steps leading up to the top entrance are steep and slippery.  Many a visitor has slipped and fallen and a few have broken limbs.  There are plenty of other ancients sites that are easier to visit and far less crowded.

  

 Naturally on an island like Poros it's a few degrees 'cooler' but there's a hot wind and the last 2 days we have spent the noon and after-noon hours in airconditioned bliss.

We put the airconditioner on in the smallest room and use it as a sanctuary.  By 5pm we are going stir crazy.  It's time for watermelon, iced coffee outside on the verandah.

This morning's bounty.

Little by little

The tomatoes though sweet have very tough skins and are not pleasant to eat.  I have plunged all those tomatoes, the cherry ones and the normal size, into boiling water and removed the skins.  Then I made a simple tomato sauce.  Tomatoes, salt, a little sugar, oregano, boil and blitz.

I asked Mr Google and he says they need more water.  I have been watering daily and twice daily during extreme heat.  I'll give them extra water and see what happens. 

Neighbours gave us more tomato plants and a cucumber.  There's not much space left as I've just planted a dozen pumpkin/squash and they'll be  trailing all over the place in a few weeks.   I hope they'll be spreading themselves out and producing little squashes and such.

So far this summer we have had no ants inside the house.  In summers gone by they have been a major nuisance, hordes of them converging on every scrap or crumb at the speed of light.  There are still large ants outside.  Did they eat the smaller ones who lived in the door jambs?  There seemed to be so many I was afraid they were hollowing out the walls and one day we'd have a major collapse.

Very mysterious.  Even the little red man eaters have disappeared.

Not complaining!!  Just wondering

Of course the water problem continues.  Twice this week pipes have been cobbled together and as soon as the repairmen leave the pipe bursts again.  

As you can see the wild goats use the puddles as watering holes and come up morning and night to drink.  One afternoon after a cobbling job on the pipes we got a bit worried the goats wouldn't find water so we put a couple of buckets out in the road.  By evening the puddles had returned and grown into lakes.  No need to worry about a water source for the goats. 

Watermelon

karrr-poo-zi

I cut them up into easy slices

And then cube the peel so it can turn into compost 

Watermelon peel can be made into a sweet preserve  but I'm no longer inspired to make such things, which no one really wants to eat.  The compost benefits instead.