Rudi

     

Meet Rudi

 A gentle soul with a long term medical issue.

A couple of times a year Cecile (from Belgium) opens the Greek Sail's offices and helps to spread out an array of preloved treasures, books, clothes, doggy bits and pieces and lots of 'white elephants'.  The bazaar is to raise money for Rudi's medecine

These girls, Jan and Cecile (England and Belgium) put it all together and happily search out bargains for all of us

It's a fun couple of days, for me, long hours for them, especially as they're both working.  Greek Sails has started it's summer charters and Jan is working with a team of Danish vets who are sterilising a hundred or more cats and dogs from all around the area

Isis, our Belgium Goddess and Mother to Rudi

You can see how much Rudi loves his Mum

 

A genuine white elephant discovered in a previous bazaar

Now in my garden keeping company with gnomes and frogs, Jemima Puddleduck and Don Quixote riding on Rocinante

A rustic sign for a rustic loo 

I found some clothes and kitchen ware and a toolkit for K (thanks Jan) and  bargains for my girls.......lovely

We had visitors and local aliens from Sweden, one Danish couple on a yacht but recently residing in Tauranga (near my home town of Te Puke, New Zealand), Belgium

England, France, Holland, Australia, and even some from Greece 

Ancient Ruins Today

The Temple to Sea God Poseidon

or more correctly, the Sparse Remains thereof

Some of the area has been strimmed.    Long grass is a fire hazard and can also hide snakes

There's still work to do

Fortunately they'd cleared a few paths through the long grass.  The Council has a lot of work at this time of the year clearing roadsides and public land.  

Soon a Swedish Archeological team will arrive to work on the ruins. They spend a couple of weeks here every summer very slowly uncovering it's secrets. 

There's not much of interest. No columns, theatres or imposing statues, just a few stones, the remains of a wall, some marble steps, where around 520BC there was an impressive Temple, Healing Centre and Market Place

There weren't many wildflowers in the enclosure itself but across the road there were stretches of chamomile.  A lovely aromatic scent wafted up as I walked through it. 

There have been years when I've gathered bunches of it to dry and use to make chamomile tea.  None of us are crazy about it and it tends to languish in jars for a couple of years before I throw it out. K likes to drink chamomile tea when he's feeling ill. I buy tea bags

These Days

 We were startled this morning by 3 rifle shots nearby.  Sometimes our neighbours take pot shots at the wild goats, usually because they've managed to invade someone's vegetable patch. 

K phoned around, as he does, to see who the culprit was. And... It was an irresponsible neighbour showing off to his niece.  He's over 50 and she's not a child. They both should have known better. There were no goats involved. He was showing her how his shotgun worked. 

WTF

The May Day bouquet on the front gate is looking bedraggled. It's supposed to stay there till June 21 and then be burnt on a midsummer bonfire.  I don't think it will last that long.  And anyway midsummer bonfires are definitely not allowed.  It'll be going on the compost very soon.  It did the job, I followed tradition, kept my head high.  Enough

No more fires, inside or outside

The fire ban is on till November

The weather has been iffy with wind and rain but the sun is out now and temperatures are rising. 

We moved the remains of our winter wood pile to the back of the house.  There's no Poppi around to haul wood so we managed ourselves, log by log. Took us 3 days to move the pile but we did it. Those logs were heavy. 

The front entrance is clean and clear ready for the big umbrella, summer chairs and table

Small Things

 Small things in our life

I left K at the café for 5 minutes to cross the road and buy the daily bread. When I returned my chair was taken. 

A passerby left 3 bottles of rosé on my chair.  3 plastic one and a half litre water bottles. Very local rosé, from grapes grown and trodden a few hundred metres from our house.  

Our koumbaros (father of a godson) had promised us some of this year's vintage, saw K, and rushed off to deliver it 

A home breathalyser test 

The traffic police are getting stricter on the island. Breathalyser tests are few and far between but the fine has doubled and licenses are suspended 

We tried it out at home. One small glass of raki and you're right at the limit.  

The breathalyser is in the glove box of the car. It hasn't been used yet.  The boy has decided to drink non alcohol beer when we're out, or let me drive. 

'Times they are a changing' 

The last 2025 Christmas card? 

This one, posted in November from England, arrived on 29 April

The year of the Daddy-Long-Legs

No, they are Not giant mosquitoes

Those daddylonglegs are everywhere. They fly around the windows every evening, get inside and expire on the windowsill. We've never seen so many

                                        

After our last heavy rainfall this fountain started flowing. It has been Completely dry for the last few years
It's not just flowing, but gushing

Essentially Greek.....

 Greek cooking essentials.....

Essentials

The wooden pestle and mortar belonged to my mother in law 

I think the brass one came from her too

The brass one we still use to pound nuts or spices, nutmeg, cloves, mastiha, mahlepi

The large one is for pounding garlic and potatoes for skorthalia, or was, before the day of the food mixer. 

And

A large bottle of red wine. Agioritiko is  the most popular red grape variety in our area. It has notes of spicy plum, so they say. A good cheap red, I say. 

3 bottles of local olive oil which stay on our bench

One bottle is from last year's harvest, used in cooking

The glass bottle has the fresh oil for salads 

And a spray bottle 

Fresh fish from our Saronic Gulf

A typical size for fish around here

The fishmonger scales and guts them

K fries them

The cat gets the leftovers

The fish are called lithrinia in greek. Red or Grey sea bream says Google translate. 

As usual here they're fried whole. Good eating but so many bones and greasy fingers.  I'd love fillets but they don't often fillet fish here. They'd lose all their taste, they say, without the head and backbone

Lemons from our 2 trees

This photo was taken on a misty Winter's morning

A fresh baked loaf.  It rose slowly all night in the fridge. Bread making this way is convenient and always makes a excellent loaf. 

I mix the flour, water and yeast the night before. I don't Knead it much at all. The bowl is covered and left in the fridge. Early the next morning it has doubled in size. I take out the bowl, leave it an hour to warm up a bit. Punch it down and out it into the baking tin. Leave for half an hour to rise a little and bake. 

This one was for grandson Jamie who was going back to Athens after the Easter break to finish off the year's studies

Thyme and basil

And there's oregano, rosemary, parsley and sage in the garden too

May Day

 1st May

Another holiday. Another celebration. 

A traditional day for the flying of kites and picnics out in the fields amongst the wild flowers and olive trees 

A worker's holiday. Shops and offices closed.  Waiters, cooks and coffee makers though are working overtime.

The island is full. Anyone that can escape Athens by car has fled for 3 days in the countryside.  Boats, trains, trams and the metro will be on strike.  No Hydrofoils will be ferrying holiday makers from the port of Piraeus

The Communist party and Workers Unions hold protests in Athens centre, usually ending in rioting and Molotov cocktails.  

Here we make wreaths and bouquets with wild flowers or what we have in the garden. Or can nick from gardens nearby

I used to make a wreath. They're beyond me now so it's a bouquet to hang on the front gate.  Roses from our anniversary dinner and a burst of colour from the pots in the garden

The island is full once again.  Though the weather is due to change with a drastic drop in temperature, rain and wind.  

More a day for tavernas than picnics

We woke up to a light but steady rain.  Excellent for the new plants in the garden. Dismal for kite flyers

Have a happy May

Samhain blessings for those in the South

Happy Beltane for those in the North.  

May your paths be blessed with abundance, laughter and magic

47th!

No, not him

It's our wedding anniversary no. 47

Who'd have thought

1979

2025

Celebration and jubilation