Tis The Season

 

Not a good season for grapes. 

Those on our vine that didn't turn into raisins were sweet but there weren't many decent bunches. 

The vineyards down in the fertile plain near us had mixed crops. Those that were well looked after, de-leafed, fertilised, watered and kept weed free had an average harvest. So they say. Everyone's an expert here and everyone knows their neighbours business better than their own. 

Making wine is hard work if you want a few hundred kilos of your own vintage to drink with friends over the winter. 

We finally stopped at the top of our road and collected half a dozen figs from the branches hanging over our neighbour's fence.  They were small and sweet.  We should have picked them earlier. There were a dozen at least squashed on the tarmac

Vaso and her son were collecting carobs from their tree one morning.

Vaso once collected carobs from all the neighborhood trees for her goats. She gathered them all, often bent double, not wanting to leave even one languishing on the ground or hanging from the tree. She then hauled the heavy sacks up the incline to her house, without breaking a sweat. 

Now it's her son who's in command. They gathered a small bag for the chickens and left the rest to rot. 

Another neighbourhood tree. 

The pomegranates are still small and unripe. I'm hoping for a bag of these in a few weeks. 

The white bougainvillia is starting to blossom .  The white flowers should bloom into November. 

Our 'new' water feature. 

On A Poppi Roll

 Here we go again. I should change the name of this blog to Poppi-Poros-Star. 

I do have 4 other grandkids.   George, Nels, Jamie and Luli. Plus the others we've adopted. Martha and Dimitri and Evita. Stars Every One of Them! 

You've heard of The Tall Poppy syndrome?  This ones the tallest of them all. 

She's up there waving in the wind and woe betide anyone who tries to cut this Poppy down. 

OK. Here we go.  As soon as she turned 16 she got her motorbike licence. A year later she passed her car licence. Her sister Nels also got both licences as soon as she could. This one's another dare devil. Nels didn't get a licence for a 120cc motorbike. Oh no. She passed her licence on one of those huge 400cc monsters which rush past you with a vrooooom vroooom...leaving you to eat their dust. My daughter Elli and my granddaughter Nels are both speed heads.

And just a note. My 2 grandsons who are both mechanics and learnt their trade on Harley Davidsons have not bothered to get their licences.

Jamie is  the same age as Poppi, George is 23.  Talk about 'eat their dust'!  The girls have left you a million miles behind.

Wake up boys. 

Poppi is always looking for a new challenge. As are her sister and cousin, Nels and Luli. Strong women, with the best of kiwi and greek blood

A few weeks ago she got her speed boat licence.  Yup, she's now Captain Poppi.

Next month she will be picking up her lifeguard diploma.

Oh what a Diva 

The first thing she did was rent a boat and take her cousins for a spin around Poros bays

Heaven knows what else she's got in mind for the future

Collective spit everyone

Ftoo ftoo ftoo

11th of the 9th

Schools around the country open today.  Not for lessons.  Today local Priests do the rounds of schools and kindergartens blessing the children and their teachers. It's a photo op for the Mayor and a few important persons who make speeches and bore the britches off the kids. 

A large bunch of basil is dipped in Holy Water and the children and their teachers and anyone close by are splashed and blessed. 

I've been to many of these blessings over the years, first for my own children and in later years to admire and photo the grandchildren.

We only have one granddaughter left at High School and this is her last year.   

Have your best year ever Luli. We know you'll top your class! 

 We will see the blessings on the news over and over again. Tv cameras show lines of school children at the big Athens schools and the tiny island schools where there may be only 2 pupils and a teacher. And a priest. That goes without saying. 

Poppi is coming up to do some work for us.  A few end of summer jobs that need to be done before she disappears off into Athens for another year at the Athletic Academy.

K is busy frying meatballs and potatoes so she doesn't go home hungry. 

I've printed a list of jobs. 

Outside jobs included storing away the big summer umbrella and hauling the heavy concrete base to its winter position under the outdoor table. Moving big ceramic pots to their sunny winter spots. Everything I deemed heavy she lifted as though it was feather weight. It would have taken me 3 days to do what she did in an hour. Oh to be a strong young rower. 

A major indoor task

Clearing, cleaning the shelves above the desk computer. There was 10 years of dust and rubbish. Even K got into the spirit of it all. We filled up a big bag of old boxes, papers, all sorts of wires, headphones that were falling to pieces. I was overjoyed to see those shelves cleared.  So much junk we had harbored for so many years. 

Gone. Gone. By golly gosh, All Gone

Decanting that huge jar of NZ peanut butter into smaller jars so the whole family can enjoy it. 

Changing over from flimsy summer curtains to heavy winter drapes. 

She stowed away some of the fans. It's still hot but comfortable now. 

She trimmed the white, late blooming, bougainvillia. 

She stowed away a few summer chairs. 

Good grief. It sounds as though we are ready for winter. No way. 

Next week we go away on summer holidays, knowing on our return we are ready for autumn winds and maybe the first rainfall. 

Thanks Poppi 

 

 

Hair Time

Our hairdresser is opening her own salon but these things take time here. Meantime it's al fresco.

Danae gets a bright red refresh

And we learn all the goss

I got my usual summer short back and sides

This selfie is slightly better than the usual ones I take

But oh boy

Those hooded eyes

They're a family trait from my father's side of the family

Several in the family have, what I call, Chinese eyes

None of the Greeks inherited them.  

Boem looks on, very excited by all the action and new arrivals

Mr Google must have been listening in. After writing the first half of this post he immediately sent some photos from 5 years ago. 

Haircuts back in the days of  the pandemic

Danae gives K a short all over style.  

Notice the small-ish bald patch there in the middle

I got too enthusiastic.  That was the last time I was allowed to give him a haircut.

 Danae wielded the scissors with a more gentle hand

The granddaughters are skilled hair stylers.  They've all got very long hair .  They braid each others hair and the hair of their Mamas. French braids, classic braids, braids with flowers and beads.  

An athletic braid

My 3 girls

Poppi Nels and Luli

NZ Artiste

 Traditional maori weaving.

This summer my brother and sis-in-law brought some of our favourite kiwi treats and necklaces made with seaglass and shells. The spirit of home.   

 They also brought with them these beautiful woven bags

They are woven by Bay of Plenty weaver Rawina Gray.  She has been weaving for the past 20 years, taught by her grandmother

A kete

I love these woven bags but sadly never knew the Maori name for them

Thanks to Rawinia's story I now know their correct name and history

'They are woven from natural NZ fibres, leaves of flax, harakeke, pingao from the sand dunes and kiekie, a plant from the bush' 

Aren't the colours stunning!

This bag has been created using a special flax dye

and has been 'hijacked' by my granddaughters who are sharing it between them.  

Rawinia writes

'To me these kete represent the land, the sea and the air.  Flax is abundant here (in New Zealand), feathers representing wildlife (our Maori cloaks are adorned with feathers) and the paua shell*, a seafood found in the waters of Tauranga/Te Puke area in the beautiful country we live in,  The handle of the kete is fibre extracted from the flax leaf, called muka.'

*paua  - abalone

A kete I have since my days at Te Puke High School

The mother of my best friend Gwen was Maori.  A lovely lady.  She made the most delicious fried bread, Paraoa Parai, and she wove this bag for me.  It's over 60 years old now and has followed me around the world.  The bag has begun to fray and I need to find a way to preserve it for another 60 years.  Maybe put it in a glass case

Thanks kiddos and thanks Rawinia.  These kete are now cherished by kiwis living on a Greek island.

All in A week

This week and a bit of last week

One morning we were startled by 3 gunshots very close at hand.  All morning there had been sounds of a goat bleating so we knew what had happened.  A goat had encroached on our neighbour's land and paid with its life for the invasion of private property.  

This guy has warned us that he'd shoot at anything that entered his territory.  Unfortunately there's no way of warning the goats.  The property is fenced in but they just butt it down.

He's been brought up on the land so the goat was hung up, skinned and butchered and left to 'ripen'.  That's country life.  Illegal, but who's going to know.  The goats are wild and fairplay.

We were given a leg of goat a few days later.  I hope it's not tough and smelly.  It was a big billy goat so probably needs a bit of boiling.

The closest fire this year.  

Away on the mainland, very near one of the villages and across the road from the house of a family friend.  Fortunately it was put out in good time and the wind carried the smoke away from the village.

The last of our monthly meetings with grandchildren, and their Mums at the Navy beach.  The canteen/taverna closes down in a few days.

Papous has been very happy this summer to be able to gather all the kids together.  It hasn't been easy.  They are all either working or doing summer school.

They'll all be here till the end of September.  Then summer jobs finish, universities open and there is work to be found in the big city.  

Kiwi friends sailed in on a yacht for a few days of Poros life.

That looked like a stable concrete quay.  It wasn't!  A passing hydrofoil caused enough waves to move the whole darn structure.  I thought I was having a dizzy attack and scuttled for terra firma after the photo.

And just look what they had in their suitcases.

A kilo of the best NZ peanut butter and real NZ marmite made by the Sanitarium Company since 1919.  And that wasn't all

I had just finished a jar of vegemite .  It was the first time I could tell the difference in taste.  There is a huge difference.   I was loving the vegemite but after a few days I was firmly back on the Marmite wagon.

Thank you so much Jenny, Roger and Lynley.  

Jenny for knowing what we need (also Raro drink powder and a New World shopping bag!)

Lynley and Roger for hauling it all across to the other side of the world.

These two are seasoned sailors.  They hoist the sails and, hopefully,  run before the wind .

Blue skies and fair winds to you and your crew as you sail around the Greek isles, on your annual Greek Odyssey. 

Life on a small greek island was not just coffee drinking and people watching this week

Wild Life

 

The insect invasion this year is from these jumpy things

They come in various sizes and colours

One of them landed on my back the other day, a long legged grasshopper, and it was so big I felt that someone had clapped me on my back

On the other hand there are very few wasps, flies and mosquitoes

Cicadas are still in full chorus but are no longer deafening

These last few days the weather has cooled down.  No need for fans and aircon.  The cicadas can feel autumn in the air

The ants are on a feeding frenzy.  Not a even a shadow of a crumb is left un-gathered.  I thought a dish left in the oven would be safe from them. No, they got in there in their hundreds.  I left a chicken out on the bench to defrost, in a big bowl.  They'll even eat it frozen. The bowl has to be full of water but even then a few hundred will sacrifice themselves trying to swim across to the chicken.

We were given a jar of NZ peanut butter.  Lovely stuff, made from real peanuts and nothing else.  I opened it and screwed the lid on again, tightly.  No problem at all for the ants.  They got in through a tightly closed lid.  That went into the fridge, as did absolutely everything else in the food range, from the sugar jar to bread, biscuits and a container of rice.

So why are the ants gathering supplies in such a frenzied manner.  Does this mean a long hard winter?  They know something that we don't.  

Our first wood supply is coming mid-September although hopefully we won't need to light a fire till November.

The cats are having their own feeding frenzy.  Lately they've been invading the compost pile.  They chew on watermelon rind, tomato skins and rotten grapes.  They are fed by our new neighbours everyday so they're not starving.