Valentino is Greek

 Happy Valentines.......which all began on the slopes of Mount Lykaia (Wolf Mountain) here in Arcadia many eons ago.  The celebration took place at night and Pan joined in with his nymphs, dancing and 'frolicking' to the music of his magic flute  

Ancient Greek colonists brought the festival to the banks of the Tiber where it turned into a wild fertility festival. 

Later Christians tidied it up and turned it into a celebration of sweetness and love. 

One of the Catholic Popes decided the feast of St Valentine would be celebrated on 14th February. And then, who knows...........

The Orthodox church celebrates St Valentine in July.  He has nothing to do with love and romance or chocolate bonbons.

The mythical Greek gods and goddesses of love are Eros (Cupid) who shoots his deadly darts straight to the heart and Aphrodite, Goddess of love and beauty 

We all know what Valentines Day is today. Nothing to do with saints and everything to do with chocolates, red roses and romantic dinners.

 We shall eat leftover meat and salad. I shall buy him some galaktobouriko (cream pie in syrup) and we shall drink wine from a plastic bottle.

Saturday of  Souls

This year  the Saturday of  Souls in the Orthodox church also falls on February 14th

K has lit a candle for the repose of his dear departed and our friendly ghost Barba Lazaros. 

 

Others may be preparing koliva, funeral wheat, to be blessed or having a priest perform a memorial prayer over the family graves.  The koliva is handed out after today's church service.  It is made of boiled wheat, raisins, sugar, pomegranate seeds and nuts and is delicious. 

Happy Meat Eating Day

 Today is another big celebration all over Greece. Everywhere you go there are simple BBQs set up, clouds of heavenly smoke and the aroma of grilling lamb chops, chicken pieces, pork and sausages.  

You'll find small groups gathered round grills outside the petrol station, on the harbourside, in small alley ways, on balconies and in our back courtyard. 

Even the schools set up a bbq and hand out skewers of pork and chicken to the children. It's the middle of carnival now so all the kids will be in masquerade, throwing confetti and streamers and dashing or dancing to the carnival songs

All  that's necessary is good company, a glass of wine, a piece of meat on the end of a skewer and if you're a traditional Greek some music to sing along and do a few dance steps.   K loves to abandon the bbq and kick up his heels with an 'ooopa' and a wave of his oily rag

The boy has it all under control

Last night he made a bowl of tzatziki with enough garlic and vinegar to wrinkle your little cotton socks and put hairs on your chest

It's one of the last meat eating days before Lent.  

Cheers Bigears

We enjoyed a bottle of excellent prosecco, flavoured with lychee.  Something a little different and very pleasant

Now I'm stinking of garlic and sitting in my armchair beside the fire trying to digest the feast of meat with a glass of plain local plonk.  

Wheeere's Poppi.....and the other Grandchildren

Family Post............

My Mokapuna s

 Heeeere's Poppi

What's she up to? 

She's studying in Athens

She's a bit sad that she hasn't starred on my blog for quite some time. I promised I would let her fans know she is still rowing but she's studying hard at the esteemed Athens Gymnastic Academy 

Her syllabus includes actual hands-on athletics, everything from her rowing, soccer to dance choreography.  She also has lectures to attend and studies sport regulations, history, health, physiotherapy and a lot of complicated sport science. 

This is the way a true athlete studies. 

There's no time-out

Coffee time is study time too

The café here she says is actually a flower shop, and study hang-out

Poppi is not my only granddaughter

Though I can't say I blame you for thinking so

Oooooof the suitcase is finally packed AND closed

Luli is finishing high school and will be in Athens for higher studies next year

In their final year at Lykeio (High School) the kids go on a 5 day 'educational' trip

Her class went up to Thessaloniki, the northern capitol of Greece

It's an all day bus trip up North.

That didn't tire them of course

They all went bowling later

The class visits museums and historical sites during the day and enjoy a 'lively' nightlife 

 

These school trips can be wild

Ask the grandsons George and Jamie

I don't think they slept for the whole 5 days

Partying continued all night in their hotel rooms

George went to Crete for his 5-dayer

and 

Jamie also went to Thessaloniki

Poppi went to Yiannina, a city near the Albanian border. It's beside Lake  Pamvotida where she's often gone for rowing competitions

Poor Nels missed out altogether because her graduation was during the first covid lockdown

My girls, Elli and Danae,  went to Rhodes and Crete

There are hotels which give the schools special packages 

The kids spend months organising transport and hotels and raise money by selling raffle tickets, organising parties and luncheons and soliciting donations from the islands businesses and municipality 

There are usually a couple of  schools at each hotel.  Must be bedlam for the staff

The aftermath 

Luli caught the flu, along with a dozen of the other kids that were on the bus

 That nasty one called Influenza A

She didn't/ couldn't eat anything but Nana's brownies

Then her mother caught the bug and then her father

So I made another batch of brownies

And left them on the steps

I didn't dare get any closer

They wanted Weetabix too but I searched and there are none on the island

The brownies recipe is one I used to make with Luli many years ago when I babysitted her. They often came out too cakey.

  It's difficult achieving that gooey brownie-ness.  I googled and followed the tips. 

The eggs need a really good beating  

Don't over mix

Don't over cook

A packet of chocolate drops or 

A few spoons of nutella lifts them up to another level 

But

Back to Poppi

She's the Brownie Queen 

Her recipe takes 2 days to make and it's worth waiting for. However I don't have her recipe. If I'm going to make Brownies, I want to eat them today. Right Now

Luli's back at school now.  She has extra lessons on key subjects and will be swatting hard till her University Entrance exams in June

Nels, Luli, Poppi

My three girls

My 2 boys

George and Jamie

Winter By the Sea

 

Evening rowers at

Sunset 

The little stone chapel dedicated to St Sophia

Guarding Love Bay

This is a very small bay and in mid summer it's very popular.  There are lines of cars parked along the road above turning it into a one-way track.

Down on the beach there are 2 or 3 rows of sunbeds and half a dozen yachts anchored just off shore

There's one small canteen which does a roaring trade 

I've only ever been down there once.  The seabed is quaggy, squishy underfoot

    But the little bay and beach live up to it's name.

It's a very romantic little bay with St Sophia and her chapel keeping guard and the pine trees almost down to the water providing shade

St Sophia has her fiesta on 17 September.  The service here is always popular and in latter years the 'Women of Poros' have made sure there are piles of sweet Holy bread and other delights to be handed around after the liturgy

Wintery Days

 Fields full of colour .  The  green vegetation scattered with daisies, mauve anemones and tiny flowers, deep purple, and red

A peaceful world.  Very few quad bikes with noisy tourists break the peace at this time of the year.  The locals are friendly and always give you a smile and a 'yiasou ti kaneis ' (g'day  how are you) 

Blue skies.  Without the heat.  Greece enjoys over 250 days of sunshine, so they say.

Time to talk with the animals.  Cats and sheep, chooks, turkeys and the herd of goats.  I always chat with the 2 dogs who live in our road, tell them off for barking at me.  I'm not exactly a stranger around here

Deserted winter beaches full of fascinating flotsam 

At the Temple site the wild greens are thriving

This local couple are filling a bag with a variety of greens to take home and cook

The bay below us with it's winter rubbish. 

 Not as much as I thought there would be.  Lots of bamboo. Not so many old shoes and plastic bottles this year. 

I couldn't go down and poke around . The rain has made deep channels along the bank which are treacherous for me

Wild flowers amongst the ruins

This cat looks well fed
He gets fed I think by the owner of the sheep next door along with a dozen other moggies
He just sat there in the late afternoon sun watching me 

This small flock had escaped from their pen.  They just stood there, undisturbed,  turning their heads to watch me as I walked past

Neglected grapevines 

The elderly owner has let Mother Nature take over

The flooded harbour 

This happens every few years.  After days of rain the sea levels rise and pour in all along the waterfront.  A salty lake 

A few days later it had all dried up

My Winter Garden

 Winter garden on a Greek island

The garden tap

The smashed pomegranate is still there...... bringing good luck

A pot of rosemary on the left

The usual winter greenery

Nasturtiums, oxalis and other weeds

A tranquil sea of green 

The sun will always shine

Even though it's lost a few rays

Rose geranium, oregano and sage

Herbs are the only crop that thrives summer and winter

A tomato plant

It came up from a composted salad and is still surviving through wind and rain and  icy sleet

At the moment it has a flower too

I'm not expecting tomatoes but it's a small miracle in my winter garden

My money plant. Also known as a jade plant

I trim it down to almost a stump and it grows and prospers again and again

Ks backyard

As usual a sea of weeds which will be cleared for Easter

Grow Darn You

  I've been reading a lot recently about growing sweet potatoes 

 I don't want a crop of them. 

 They are supposed to grow, like an avocado pip, in a glass of water and turn into a house plant 

This is what it's supposed to look like after only a couple of weeks

The reality... 

After a month.... 

Growth? 

Zilch, diddly squat, nothingness 

I've googled.  

'Choose a sweet potato with multiple eyes 

All you need is warm water, a glass jar and sunlight' 

They say

'Suspend your sweet potato in a glass of water by poking it with toothpicks' 

They say

'Make sure it's submerged. 

Put it in a sunny window

Refresh the water every few days

Watch as it grows over the next 2 to 3 weeks' 

They say

I did all that. Plenty of sunlight.  I waited. I changed the water

My daughter Elli has done the same

Zilch there as well

Any ideas? 

I suppose I should buy another sweet potato

We get red and white varities

I'll try a white one