March Pruning

 Pruning time.  Our gardener finally found some time to clean up the vines and roses.  Poppi has been doing this job for 4 or 5 years now and she does a damn good job.  Her arms are strong from rowing and she wields the secateurs with confidence.

This year K told her to cut the grapevine right back.  There was a lot of old wood.  Never mind the long vines whipping around in the wind. She sheared it right back almost to the thick main stem, collected all the cuttings and piled them up in the back yard for K to use on his BBQ.

Look at those nasturtiums.  They have taken over my front yard this year.  Some of the leaves are as big as dinner plates.  They would have smothered any other plants in the garden but I hadn't really planted a winter garden this year. All I had was a few cauliflowers and lettuces in pots.  And one stunted kohlrabi.

One reason for severe pruning is to stop the grapevine later from growing out onto next door neighbours driveway.

She cut the roses well down too. They were reaching for the power lines. 

I bet in a couple of months time they'll all have turned into veritable bushes. It's difficult to over-prune grapevines or roses . Or olive trees. 

Nasturtiums, lemons and no rubbish in my front garden

Maybe I should rename this blog. Lately it seems to be...

'The Life of Poppi'

Independence Day

 Greek Independence Day, 25th March. The celebrations mark the beginning of the uprising, in 1821, to throw out the Turks. 

Greece was finally recognised as an Independent state in 1830.

Poros marks the day with a church service, followed by wreath laying, speeches, a parade of school children and finally Greek dancing in traditional costumes.

There was a huge military parade in Athens and the highlight is a flyover of jet airplanes. 

One of the pilots is a local lad and he gave Poros and the surrounding villages their own special air display.

He flew right down over the strait between the island and the mainland and came back even lower saluting us all with a wiggle of the wings.

The noise was tremendous. The airshow spectacular.

We all cheered and clapped . 

Our Poppi once again. Leading the dance wearing the folk costume known as the  Amelia dress.  

Seafood and Sunshine

 Monday, start of Orthodox Lent, was a beautiful sunny day. We started off bundled up but by 3 o'clock the youngsters had stripped down to Tshirts and I took off my top layer too. 

The Octopus was hung out on my washing line to dry a little before it went on the bbq

Feasting took place at my daughter's house. Not ours this year

The tentacles were so big  our chief bbq-er skewered them and made them into octopus souvlaki

There was seafood and more seafood

Mussels in a mustard sauce, octopus, crabs, kalamari, spiky sea urchins (kina in Maori) and prawns  

And lagana, the special flat bread eaten today

Poppi filling up a wine bottle from our 20 litre wine boxes. There's white and rose

Friend Jan and K

And the family dogs

Molly the Old English sheep dog

Boem the cocker spaniel (also called Rusty when I can't remember his proper name)

Junior, an Asian breed, with a name like jujitsou (but it's not)

And me and my girls

Next weekend is another long weekend.

Monday is a National holiday

Octopiii

 Octopii are an important part of the Lenten menu because they have no *blood and can be eaten all through the long fast.  They are also an essential item on the menu when visitors arrive in the summer.

We have started filling up the freezer. 

But this one, what remains of it , caught by grandson Jamie with his trusty trident, will be eaten this Monday. 

It's a long weekend. Monday is Kathara Deftera, Clean Monday.

We will be eating kalamari fried and grilled, mussels, crabs, octopus done 3 ways and taramasalata (fish roe dip). 

Each of the men of the family are cooking octopus in their own special way.

Kyriakos makes stewed octopus with vinegar and olive oil. It's tender and tasty and you can dip your bread in the vinegar and oil. Not me though.  

K prefers grilled octopus.

He dries it first by pegging it out on my washing line. 

 Octopus bbqed this way is too chewy for my taste.

I dont know how Yiannis is cooking his octopus . Maybe with makaroni or with whole onions.  Both are popular. 

We will find out on Monday when we all gather for the family feast at my daughter's house.

Meanwhile the word is out and anyone catching an octopus has K's number.

*Octopii are supposed to have blue blood. 

An octopus has 3 hearts

They are super smart 

Excellent at camouflage. 

Move by jet propulsion. 

They're found in every ocean in the world. 

14 March

 Look at this photo. The colours, the clear water, the fearless bather

Yes, it's Poppi again with Rusty, their cocker spaniel...enjoying a cool winter swim.

It was around 16oC yesterday.  The water? Freezing. I'm sure. 

Her sister went for a 13 kilometre run instead.

She gave us a wave as she passed our cul de sac up in the hills

March Meats

 

A Get Well 

Welcome Home 

Present

Thursday was *Tsiknopempti, the last big meat eating day before Lent. 

K was going to BBQ a pile of meat and I had a bottle of prosecco saved just for an occasion like this.... Good food and the company of a good friend.

Jan has been a member of our family for many many years. 

Her English wit, perception of Greek foibles and sharp rejoinders have brought me a lot of laughter over those years. 

But, that was the day we learnt of our friend's passing. K, our head Chef, was immediately away to arrange papers and help the family. 

K had done all the preparation the night before, marinating mutton chops, preparing the hamburger 'dough', making pork souvlaki and taking **kebabs from the freezer. 

It was easy for me to  ***shape ****burgers and put them in the oven with a few potatoes. We changed ovens recently and I'm still not quite up with it's times and temperatures. They ended up a bit overcooked but were fine with some quickly made gravy, tzatziki, Greek salad and the prosecco.

I cooked them 'foreign style'. No lemon juice and very little olive oil. 

The main course of the day was catching up on recent events in our lives. In the English language. 

It was better K was absent. We don't catch up very often and when we do it's endless chatter in English which K can't keep up with. It drives him mad. 

Thanks Jan for the beautiful flower. I don't know what it's called. Anyone got a name for it? 

She gave me the prosecco too, at Christmas. 

Cheers

*Tsiknopempti - literally smokey Thursday. The smoke is from the meat grilling on the BBQ 

**kebabs are long tubes of spicy minced meat

***To shape dough is to 'plath' - one of my favourite greek words. It means to shape dough, for biscuits, bread, burgers, with your hands

I Plath.. platho 

You Plath.. platheis

We all plath.. plathoume 

****Burgers in Greek are bifteki

Marching On

 Life ebbs and flows. Yesterday we were at a funeral of a close friend.

After the church and interment everyone gathers at the cafeteria next to the graveyard, beside the sea, for a small Greek coffee, mastiha liqueur and a sweet biscuit. 

I didn't wait around to witness the burial. Arm in arm with my daughter I retreated to the café, out of the cold. 

It's a chance for everyone, as they leave the Cafe, to pay their respects to the mourning family and wish the deceased a peaceful ever-after, 

or a long life to the family that remains that they may keep his/her memory alive.

Those that linger on, close family and friends usually, stay for soup and wine.

Sometimes it's meat soup.  This time it was fish soup, served with platters of the boiled fish and vegetables. With plenty of wine.

It was delicious but I put too much pepper in the soup and had to wash each spoonful down with some wine. I drank just a little more than I intended. But I'm not on a restricted diet . Just a restricted lifestyle.

The church was freezing and the constant stand-up-sit-down tired me out. Everytime it's stand-up time: for the appearance of the priest from his sanctuary, for the sending of clouds of  incense from the big swinging burner, or for a prayer, K nudges me in case I'm inattentive. In the end I decided I was a recovering patient and stayed seated. 

RIP Petros