Thoughts on the Earthquake

 The earthquakes in Turkey  levelled 10 cities. 

Tens of thousands dead.  Houses fell, street after street, leaving nothing but piles of rubble.

I've tried to write  several times but it's so difficult. Can you imagine having to run for your life, terrified, in the dead of night, in a freezing mid winter, in your pyjamas.

Now you're mourning the death of loved ones.  You're maybe completely alone, family and friends dead, crushed as their homes collapsed. You yourself have nothing. No house, no job, no bank card. No smartphone, no any-phone. No identity. You're in some sort of shelter hoping for something to eat .  Or maybe you've left, been flown to the other side of the country to temporary accomadation. In shock. 

How about the hundreds of unidentified children. Frightened, hoping to be reunited with their mother, father, brothers or sisters. Family. 

8 days later there are still a few survivors being rescued from the ruins. Eight days of despair probably losing consciousness in a  freezing space which could be your coffin. Hoping for the sound of human activity. 

And that's in Turkey. How about Syria where millions of refugees already live in tents, in  camps, hoping each day for food, water. Having relief supplies being held up by civil war, closed borders, armed rebels.

Greek and Turkish foreign Ministers embrace 

Neighbour helps neighbour in times of disaster.  

Poros residents donate clothes, food, medical supplies to earthquake victims.  There were donation points in every town in Greece yesterday gathering relief supplies.  I hope they get to the people that need them, fast.

Not Barbara-Ann either

 Woke up this morning to hear the beach boys 🎶Barbara Ann🎶 being blasted out from the morning tv news show.

'Barbara-Ann' this storm is not. No tanned bods balancing on surfboards around here at the moment. 

The sun is shining but the atmosphere is icy. Good old K who gets up long before me had lit the fire. 

I'm sitting with the sun pouring through the big windows and as close to the fire as I can.

Then there's the tremendous earthquake in Turkey and Syria. We didn't feel it here but the islands over on the coast must have been rocked by that 7.8 tremor .

Greece and Turkey usually forget their differences at times like this and  send rescue workers and other aid. Ordinary Greeks and Turks offer assistance and sympathy. 

Politicians convene think-tanks to make the most of the situation. And then continue their aggressive policies.

News is just coming in.

 Along with live broadcasts of a snowy central Athens.

A light cover of snow on the Acropolis

NOT Santa Barbara

 Barbara is the name of the cold front which has moved into Greece from southern Europe. 

We are sitting beside the fire watching the Athenians in the northern suburbs struggling with snowy roads. It was announced on tv days ago that anyone driving on city and national roads must have snow chains. If there's no snow they must have them in the car or there'll be a fine of 80 euros.  We are goggling at the number of drivers being turned around as they try to drive onto the snowy  Athens motorway and ring roads. 

Honestly, where do they think they're going. I hope they are actually being fined as well.

It has been raining here this morning but no snowflakes yet. K was supposed to be going to the yearly cutting of the ex-Navy New Years cake. Greek tradition which goes on till the end of the month. He decided to stay at home and warm up with a tot of something fiery. I'm not sure that's a good idea.  He could easily have gone down and would have had company to swap Navy tales with other old-salts. They're worse than fishermen with 'the one that got away'.

Here he's stuck with me and the TV.

To make it worse the television crews are highlighting tavernas in small villages with spits of roast pig and offal. 

I roasted a chicken, with lemon and oregano, in our wood fire oven last night so it only needs warming up.

Sad for K though. Roast chook does not compare favourably with roast pig on a day like this.

Snow is falling on the hills opposite.

Those clouds are unloading snow. It probably won't fall any lower than the mountain top.

Thanks for the photo Elli 

Northern Greece is properly snowed under.

Schools all over the region of Attiki (Athens, Piraeus, suburbs, and us) will be closed tomorrow.

Only essential shops and services will be open.

High winds, rough seas have meant inter island boats aren't allowed to leave port. Poros car ferries and taxi boats will still be working unless the straits get very turbulent. That probably happens a couple of times a year, for several hours.

But who knows. News is that there's worse to come. And it will last till Wednesday.

The US nuclear aircraft carrier, George W Bush, is moored out in the Bay near Piraeus. They don't have to worry about the weather. It carries a crew of 6,000 and 85 fighter jets. 

It's here to strengthen the NATO alliance, so they say. A message of strength being sent to Turkey!

Mid Winter

 K went for a haircut today. There are usually 3 barbershops in different parts of town . They were all closed . The owner of one has retired, one was closed up tight,  one had a phone number and a sign

'Hair cuts by appointment'

So he made an appointment. 

One of the 3 breadshops has closed .  But bread, one of the staples of Mediterranean life is sold at the grocers shop.   Wine is sold cheaply in a 1 1/2 litre plastic bottle and olives are scooped out of a sack into a plastic bag, black, green, salted, wrinkled or not.

The lemon trees have lots of fruit and my oregano plant is still flourishing. It doesn't mind a bit of icy rain.

Those are the basics of life here. Old neighbour Vaso would add an onion, strong and raw. 

Most of the cafeterias are still open but only a few on the main waterfront strip have  numbers of coffee drinkers. 

All of these cafes have only a tiny amount of space inside for tables so the outside area is surrounded by plastic wind breaks and gas heaters. It can be freezing out there. But regulars will still appear to pass time with their chosen company . And smoke. 

There are some which get virtually no sun in the winter. They've closed, till April maybe when Easter visitors arrive and it's a little warmer.

Tavernas, restaurants, close for a couple of months and then in March start cleaning and painting for the new season.  Only 4 or 5 stay open.

 English friends wanted to eat souvlaki, the Greek fast food. The souvlaki shops, souvlatzidika, are all closed .

We sent them to a waterfront restaurant which hopefully will be able to serve them pitta bread, tzatziki, fried potatoes and grilled chunks of chicken or pork.

Grocery shops close at 2pm and only re-open at 5pm on 4 days of the week. Winter hours.  The big supermarket seems to remain open all day.

On Sunday all shops are closed, except those cafes and tavernas. 

A drive through town at 3 in the afternoon is like creeping through a ghost town. Banks, offices, chemist's, the few shops, are closed by 2.30 and everyone goes off home to eat their bean soup and have a few glasses of warming wine. 

 Nightlife still happens. This is Greece! Those cafes and tavernas which are open will go on till the last customer staggers home. There will be noisy voices, music after dark. 

The little taxi boats still ply the straits every 20 minutes. The car ferry leaves every half hour till the afternoon when it's every hour. We are not isolated. The hydrofoil from Athens comes in 3 times a day.   

The temperature today was 11oC with a brisk northerly. The sun came out for a while . A little sun and a good wind got a load of washing dry but I brought it in at 3 and hung it on chairs near the fire to get rid of the chill.

My green garden

Lettuces, nasturtiums, lemons and a healthy cover of clover 

Was that Spring?

 The fields have lots of colour

Green first of all. My beloved green. Fresh and bright. The best of winter. The garden is full of clover and nasturtiums and little else. 

These are photos from two weeks ago . Since then the weather has changed a little. I'm not allowed to go on my daily walk, just yet, so I wonder if these flowers are still alive.  When my looker-after lets me out I shall see the difference.

The fields were full of these.

A type of fresia?

The Greeks call them 'freza'

Still clumps of mauve and pink crocus. They're at the end of their season

And the bougainvilleas were still in bloom, though not with their brilliant summer colour

Another Day

We actually got a storm warning yesterday. Heavy rain, fog. Miserable really.

Next day the sun came out again  🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

I do love my filter coffee, preferably vanilla flavoured.

At the end of last winter our coffee machine gave up the ghost (strange saying!)

K couldn't work his magic on it so.... he put it on a shelf. What did you think? He'd throw it away? Never. It's joined his antique treasure trove. 

Anyway ... I bought a small cafetiere . And smashed that.

So he agreed to buy a new coffee machine. After a lot of market research he bought the cheapest. 20 euros. It was made from flimsy plastic and a piece fell off straight away. He stuck that back on and it lasted another month before a valve, or something broke and as you filled it with water from the top it emptied itself out of it's bottom. 

Thank goodness it had a plastic reusable filter so I rigged it up over the glass jug, poured boiling water over the coffee and now I've got a manual coffee maker.

Anyone still got Xmas sweets?

Bet we are the only ones. Our traditional person made enough for half the island and then discovered that everyone was on a diet this year.  He's still eating them. I haven't even tasted one this year. Sometime soon mould is going to start growing on them. Then I suppose he will have to throw them....in the rubbish. Even the cats won't eat them. I wonder if goats eat honey and almond cakes.

 

I was searching for some 'thin' photos and came across this. Must have been taken about 30 years ago

A Day in Winter

 Wordle . Online word game. Sometimes I've been known to get it in 2. Today the first three lines got me 1 letter. There weren't many left for the 4th attempt so I got it. Beefy. Words like that annoy me. The other day is was 'matey'. I mean, is that legit? Ahoy there matey, find a better word for goodness sake. 

Thunder is rumbling around this morning. It's blowing an icy gale and heavy rain is forecast.

A day for K to ....

Make a few loaves of bread

Under my orders 😂

One loaf has already been sent off to elderly neighbour Vaso and her son.

Son is making fassolatha (traditional bean soup) so she can dunk the bread and soften it. Don't think Vaso has too many teeth left

K prepared a pot of fish soup with a whole red hot pepper

He lit the fire

At 10am

Having brought inside a load of wood 

Enjoying a second morning coffee along with a medicinal stiff raki to warm him body and soul

What a pity I couldn't help him. I'm not allowed to lift weights (firewood for a start), put any pressure on my eye (kneading bread), bend down or skip, jump or hop. As if...

I'm not allowed to go outside when it's blowing Saharan dust (most days, though the rain today must have cleared all that) or wash my hair in case I get water in my eye.

I washed my hair after 9 days with the help of my long suffering husband.

9 bloody days!  Boy was I relieved to have a clean, non itchy scalp.