Adieu

Kosta's little fishing boat is sold and gone.  

Goodbye my love goodbye 

The engine purrs, son in law Kyriakos unties the lines, for the last short trip across the strait from Poros to the Greek mainland. 

The boat is now on the island of Chios.  Chios is the 5th largest Greek island, way over to the east, very close to Turkey.  It's a long way from Poros

The new owner is an engineer in the merchant navy, spends most of the year at sea.  He saw the boat advertised on the web, saw the photos and made up his mind immediately that he wanted it.  He sent a deposit and arrived on Poros a few weeks later, paid the rest and he still hadn't seen the boat.  

We took him round the offices, Harbour Police and Accountants, and the deal was sealed and signed before he stepped foot on deck.

K and he conducted many long telephone conversations before the transaction was finalised, established goodwill, trust.    While he was still away on the high seas his wife made transfers, arranged for official papers.  When we all finally met we became good friends

Chios is a long journey which our little boat couldn't make on its own.  A big lorry picked up the boat and loaded it on board.  The truck went to Piraeus where the new owner was waiting and they all sailed on the overnight ferry to Chios.

It was off loaded there at a ship yard for inspection, repainting and cleaning.  The owner didn't get to actually sail it and go fishing before he was off again on another overseas trip.   He will return.  This is his dream he says to retire and spend his days fishing.  Just like K

 Bye Danae

Now renamed Tamara

The boat will not be staying on Chios.  It's final home will be the small island of Oinousses, about an hours sailing from Chios.

Oinousses is described on Wiki as a serene cluster of small islets off the coast of Chios, famed as the 'Island of shipowners'.  It is popular for its quiet beaches and low key holidays.

Visitors!!

 Extended family from the Netherlands arrived for a few days holiday.  Europeans are still travelling, by air or car or train and boat.  The yacht harbour is filling up and groups of pink foreigners roam in shorts and Tshirts, quickly turning red as beets. 

Jesca, and her husband with the difficult dutch name, hired e-bikes and toured the island, 

Going swimming along the way

Jesca was another local alien back in the 80s, married to a cousin of Ks back then

On their bike tour she took a couple of photos which I thought I'd post here. They're much sharper than mine

Looking back towards the main town

The hill on the left, covered with houses, is Poros island.  The bare hills on the right are the mainland 

Teachers island (Daskalio) with the mainland mountains on the far side of the strait

The small church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It's a popular place for weddings

The photos below have just appeared on Facebook, posted by the owner of the water taxi John Nakis. He does trips to the island in the summer and has cleared, strimmed and whitewashed the church and surrounds for the summer season

Water taxi Socrates, and Captain Kyriakos, ferry wedding guests to the island and take visitors out for a swim in the tranquil blue waters.

I remember going with him on one trip when he had a group of English tourists, frequent visitors, who had brought back their father's ashes to scatter in the sea around the island. 

It was all very low key  and the wind was blowing in the right direction LoL 

                                            Baptism on the island   

Hear All About It

It's all Greek to you, but I'll explain

Caution   Cats on Road

There are certain places on Poros where you'll see bowls of water and containers for cat food.  We have a few up here and dozens of cats appear from the forest and fields when they hear the engine noise of the volunteer who comes up every day to leave food and water .

They're a danger, to themselves and to approaching cars and especially motorbikes ridden by a tourist who doesn't know what's just round the corner. 

One of the feeding places is on a sharp corner. I've seen people fall off bikes trying to avoid them and now and again there's a fatality. A feline left in the middle of the road.

Now caution signs are going up. Apparently. I haven't noticed any yet.

Big news

One of the water taxi owners had 5  passengers above his limit and he was cautioned by the Harbour Police.  He made everyone get off his boat  and then took off for heaven knows where to avoid a fine.

Honestly.  This is our crime of the day.  And laugh of the day. The Harbour Police know exactly who he is. The fine will be coming anyway

Let there be light

Our mountain road after many many months has new street lights.  They're really good and the Municipality needs a 'Bravo'

The lights are close together so there's no dark spot between lamp posts and they're bright.

Years ago I used to grind up here on my quad bike and the lights were few and far between. I felt I was in the middle of a dark forest on alert for bears and wolves

The Mayor has arranged for residents of Poros to get a 50% reduction on the High Speed Catamarans which sail from Piraeus (port of Athens) to Poros and return.  The ticket is usually 36 euros which means 72 euro return. That would be over 140 for K and I to go into Athens and back.  It's only a 1 hour trip.  The discount makes a huge difference

Free x-rays for residents at the Poros Navy Base medical centre, from 2-5 June

Two fires in 24 hours 

Both quickly put out but not a good start to the season

And not a coincidence 

We have an island fire brigade and 2 engines and everyone rushes to the scene to help.  Firefighting planes can be sent in from Athens and also fire engines from villages on the mainland.

The first to arrive at the scene of the fire yesterday were my 2 sons-in-law Kyriakos and Yiannis.

I've seen a video of the fire, it was a roaring inferno and spreading quickly.   Our house is only a few kilometres away up the mountain.

Thanks boys for helping to save our lives and property

29th May

Nana Edith 

29th May 1889

My maternal Grandmother, Edith Marie Perry, née Baucke was born in the goldfields in a tiny settlement called Merryjigs in the South Island of New Zealand.  

She lived close to us, first in Hamilton and then later in Te Puke, and was a big influence in my life.  She took my younger brother Tony and I on rambles in the countryside, probably blackberrying.  She took me to the library every Friday where I searched out books like the Bobbsey Twins, Famous Five, and Just William.  

She herself read travel books, saying she knew she wouldn't travel to foreign lands in person but visited  them through her library books. 

I travelled with her when Pop Perry died, visiting her siblings all over the country. 

She baked her own bread, made her own wine and ate millet porridge with butter and ground sunflower seeds for her breakfast. 

Her garden was legend, her peaches big and juicy. We didn't dare pick them, she knew how many were on the tree.  Her pansies were glorious. Everytime I see a pansy here it reminds me of Nana Perry. I've tried growing them but they don't last long in our heat. 

She loved being out in her garden and wore big sun hats she made herself. 

Often on a Sunday she cooked a traditional roast dinner and rang a heavy brass elephant bell to call us to the table.  She made plum puddings and we were allowed a small glass of her wine. Peas and potatoes were from her garden. 

Edith Marie 

Around 18 I think

Later in life on our terrace in Te Puke

She's dressed up for going out, with her hair net over her lightly lilac tinted hair and the umbrella she carried to protect her from the sun

Ernest Osbourne Perry

Pop Perry 

He sailed out to NZ as crew on the sailing ship Pinmore around the turn of the century

Gone but never forgotten

Green and Brown

 

The island earth hasn't dried out completely.  There's still a touch of colour along road sides, clumps of late red poppies, fading daisies in the midst of dry grasses and dusty patches of brown.  Our garden is a bit of both.

It's fire season now and by June 15th everyone should have strimmed their long tall grass and bundled it up to be taken away.  That means piles of big black rubbish bags all around the big Municipal bins.  It's the only way to get rid of garden rubbish now.  If you've got a large property like some of our neighbours the trimmed grass is just left to lie and dry.  I suppose at least it keeps any fires lower to the ground.

No more fires till November.  We took out fire insurance last summer on the house.  The wild fires around Athens were catastrophic. It was so upsetting seeing all those people who had lost homes and livelihoods.  The government provides a small sum for the basics of life but it's hardly a drop in the bucket if you've lost your home.

 

Pots of herbs in the front garden.  Here is my mint in lovely ceramic 'containers'.  They'll need constant watering by midsummer.  Around them are pots of summer herbs.  Thyme, oregano, lavender and rosemary.  Thank goodness for my herbs.  They live and thrive whatever I do to them

The amaryllis this year is incredible.  It's another flower which thrives and flowers year after year whatever I do to it.

Our English neighbour trimmed her driveway so we have a small fire break from the ........

very dry and extremely overgrown property next door.  It has been inherited by a number of children who live in Athens.  They come  every few years, look at it and drive away back to the city.  They've been trying to sell it for years but are asking far too much.  The land has a dozen or more olive trees which  produce olives every few years.  Their cousins, who live on the island, gather the olives and that's it. The land is left to grow wild

A team of council workers will come and clear the verges and take the cut dry grass away.  They've started trimming now but there is a lot of roadside to clean before they get to us

A Plague of Frogs

 A swarm of tiny frogs

An infestation

An invasion 

However you put it, we've got it

It's impossible to take a decent picture. They're only about the size of an olive, almost the same colour as the tarseal and leap all over the place when I get close enough for a photo. 

The cats don't seem at all interested in them and neither do the seagulls but the swarms in the middle of the road won't live long.  We couldn't avoid driving over them

This is a photo of one taken by our neighbour Georgia

There are thousands and thousands of them hopping all over the roads around us. Another few thousands squashed on the road.

We've never seen anything like it.  

Frogs lay thousands of eggs and 'very heavy rain followed by warm weather speeds up the development of the tadpoles and forces them into a synchronised boom'.  They must have spawned down on the flooded plateau and with this warm weather have suddenly turned from tadpoles to frogs, or toads in their thousands

In some countries it is believed that swarms of frogs are a warning of earthquakes.  However, 'scientific analysis has shown that mass migrations of tiny frogs in spring are not related to earthquakes'.  Lets hope that scientific analysis is correct

Busy Few Days

 Tuesday we were at a funeral.  A beloved maiden aunt passed away at age 92.  All her nieces and nephews gathered on Galatas from one end of Greece to the other to say goodbye.  There were tears in the church, a slow 3k walk behind the hearse to the cemetery, and back, then coffee, liqueur, hugs and laughs at a café and a family meal to end the day. Cousins, friends and extended family in a warm togetherness

Life goes on

20th was Saint Lydia.... Or Poppi day. She and I share our name day.  Lydia is the nearest greek name to Linda. Tradition. She's named after her maternal Grandmother. That's Me

It was a busy day for me.  I made pastitsio (greek lasagna) and stuffed tomatoes for all the family. Delivered the food to them.

Later we had an appointment at a bank to sort out our cards. 

The bank is changing from Visa to Mastercard and we get sent new cards and don't know why. Got that sorted. Very helpful girls.

 Most of our banking is done online nowadays.  We still use cards for shopping, with pin numbers 

I do have the pins written down, somewhere. However,  I went to try a rarely used card in the ATM to see if it still worked, tried it, wrongly, 3 times and of course the machine ate my card

21st     

So early this morning I was down at the bank again.  Got my card back and the pin sorted in a few minutes. Easier when you know the bank employees.

 Daughter Elli is going to put all my cards on my phone. Sounds like a good idea as long as I don't lose my phone. I have it in a case on a long strap and wear it crossbody so I don't leave it anywhere.

Then we ran into the girls drinking a very early morning coffee before they both went off to work.  It is daughter Elli's name day.  Lots of hugs all around and 'Chronia Pollas' (that's Many returns, to you). It is also Ks name day and granddaughter Nels and Ks sister Dina

My Instagram 'cheers' to Nels and Poppi 

My present from the family

Isn't that bloody marvellous!

And so true

My superiority recognised at last

It changes colours at night

K in his happy place, surrounded by grandkids 

Thanks kids for such lovely gifts

Yesterday ended with the pick up of 7 x 20 litre boxes of wine from the vineyards of a vintner in nearby Nemea.  The wine maker put the boxes on the car ferry on Galatas and we picked them up on the Poros side

3 boxes (60 litres) for us of white wine and another 4 x 20 litres of red wine for a friend

Tonight K will hold his name day dinner for friends. You don't invite.  They just turn up.  Most stay for a glass or 2 of wine and a plate of food, then move on to the next celebration. Half of Greece is celebrating today.

K is cooking, boiled lamb and pilafi, rice boiled in the lamb juices . His Greek friends will love it and smother everything in lemon juice

Meantime his phone is ringing every few minutes as friends, acquaintances and absent family call to wish him well

On Sunday we have the family dinner. Roast pork and potatoes 

Χρονιά πολλά... Many years