Cruising the Med

 We finally managed to make a date with Jan, to cruise on the good ship Socrates and meet at Fotini's taverna beside the sea on the opposite shore. Captain, and son-in-law, Kyriakos and the Socrates do this trip 5 times a day all during August.   But, some trips were cancelled because of high winds and rough seas, then the Socrates was out of action for a couple of days because of mechanical trouble.  Then there was the heat.  Cruising and dining, just moving, during a heatwave is not pleasant. 

I hadn't seen Jan for a month or so.  First because of a couple of  heatwaves and 2nd because she's awfully busy looking after stray animals and humans.  

This cruise and meeting at Fotini's taverna has become a summer tradition

Kyriakos jumping for joy at seeing his inlaws

Readying the water taxi for his mother-in-law

He pulled that boat right into the dock and kept it absolutely steady till I managed to clamber up through the entrance way,  and step safely down.  He wouldn't have dared otherwise!! 

Sailing along the waterfront

 I really enjoy this mini cruise every year

Out of the harbour and into open water

Thank goodness the sea is smooth

Those are the ruins of a Venetian castle on the island.  Underneath are far more ancient ruins. No-one is allowed to land because the older ruins have yet to be excavated

Called a submarine this strange little open vessel, the Nemo, is actually a glass bottom boat

It carries about 10 people on a trip around the coast staring at the sea bottom 

First stop Plaka beach

Cheek to jowl today

Jan and I

First thing we do, after the air kisses, is a goodies swap.  Jan had books for me and some bedding for Danae.  In return she got more books from me, some cheese pies and a jar of chutney and jam.  

We both go home happy

Jan and K

Last year. I didn't take many photos there this year

There it is, the picturesque blue and white taverna beside the sea

It's a very basic  seaside taverna. Small wooden tables, hard rush bottom chairs and a paper tablecloth. You'll find cold beer and wine, bread, Greek salad, fried potatoes, cheese and if you ask they'll fry you some kalamari (squid) and small fish.  Which is what we ordered. 

Kyriakos got us safely back to Poros 

Till next year

Grug....Our Aussie Friend

Anyone else met Grug?   He's an Aussie hero

The delightful Grug books were given to us by my brother and sis in law in Perth in the 80's.  We have other children's books too from Australia.  Jackie Kookaburra and stories about Quokkas and other Aussie animals.  

Dear old Grug was the favourite

The Grug series was started in 1979.  Written and illustrated by Ted Prior. He wrote 35 Grug classics. 

Grug is a loveable character made from the top of a burrawang tree.  I'm learning this now, 40 years later.  No Mr Google back then.

  

He was always having charmingly simple adventures which delighted my young girls. 

Grug learnt to cook, discovered a rainbow, went fishing, tasted his first big red apple. 

Every page has a bright colourful picture of Grug with a few large words. Easy reading for my young girls . 

 English was their first language. Until they started Greek school. 

I learned Greek by helping them with their homework.

They learned to read and write English with the help of these simple stories.

It was great  to learn that Grug is still a  favourite with young downunder children. His tales were reprinted in 2022.

Spain and Greece

Good reading... 

Chris Stewart.. 

Once the drummer for the band Genesis

Fired from the band in the 70's (for poor technique says Google) he moved to a farm in Spain and began writing books and farming sheep.

'Driving Over Lemons' was published in 1999, describing his life on the small Andalusian farm.

It's a really good read and became a best seller.

It seems he's still on the farm in Spain and has written a lot more books, including the one above.

My niece Katy read the yachting book, Three Ways to Capsize a Boat,  and recommended it to me. 

Haven't read it yet. 

But I will

 

I wish I still had Driving Over Lemons to re-read.  Years ago I devoured books like this, starting with Peter Mayle and 'A Year in Provence'.  I bought books written by expats buying and doing up old houses in Italy, Spain and France.  Second hand books were cheap to buy 

 online back then and I could choose what I wanted to read.

I have a shelf of books written by expats living in Greece.  Some are excruciatingly patronising, badly written. So many think, after a year here, they know  the culture and traditions of the country and get it terribly wrong. However there are others that are a delight to read, especially when they have a little history and interaction with Greeks and not just other beer quaffing expats.

If you ever come across Chris Stewart, give him a read.  

The Greek classics are by Patrick Lee Fermor, Eric Newby, Gerald and Lawrence Durrell, Collin Thubron, Peter Levi, Eleni Gage.

Welsh broadcaster John Humphreys wrote a book about building a house on the mainland, not far from us.  His son was married to a Greek.  Still he got a lot of things wrong and over dramatised it all.  I read it a long time ago and then gave the book away.  

 

 

Time to Read

 Last summer's reading..... 

I sat on the beach and tried to block out my surroundings by immersing myself in a few good books. Our holidays at the navy resort are at the end of summer. 

Families are home, parents at work, kids at school. We share the resort with pensioners, like us. 

 Although the elderly don't let out high pitched screams like small children, boy can they talk the backside off a horse...or is it the hind leg off a donkey. I had to look that up! 

The men tell tall tales about their days in the navy, the women gossip and all of them spend hours discussing ailments and medication. 

Thank goodness my sis in law, Karen, left me this book.  Ann Cleeves writes a great who-dunnit. You're not likely to guess the culprit

Thanks Karen mou. I've found a couple more of her books down at the book Exchange. 

Now I've found her books on YouTube.  They're audio books, narrated very clearly, not AI. 

I'm on the 3rd one now

Books I'll be reading at the Navy Resort this summer. One month to go!!! 

These 3 are true life stories

Memoirs 

Who-dunnitz

And this little gem with puzzles from the NZ Herald...... No! they are in the Listener. A magazine all kiwis will know, if it's still in publication. Thanks Chris for mentioning that 

I do the crosswords in pencil, leave them for a year or so, erase the answers and do them again

You're given one letter and solve the rest by yourself

This is printed in 2006, the last time I was in NZ. It's almost archaic

15 th August

Summer shutdown time for the big cities. 15th August is the day of the most important religious festival of the year.  A day for solemn worship and a tradition of celebration going back centuries

 This day is the commemoration of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, when she 'went to sleep' and ascended to heaven.  Every village, hamlet, islet, outcrop of rocks has a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, tiny blue and white, huge sprawling cathedral or Monastery.  There are half a dozen on Poros or close on the mainland.

There will be church services on the eve and the morning of the 15th.  Services, which are well attended by locals and visitors.  Then the celebrating begins. Many fiestas will include dancing, food, sometimes cauldrons cooked over a fire and handed out to all those present, abundant wine and traditional music which can go on for days.    Dancing is central to all celebrations and everyone joins in, very old, very young, foreigners, black scarfed women and gnarled old peasants.  This is the high point of the year.  There is much laughter and joy in this yearly socialising, embracing family members who may live and work far away, uniting with friends, connecting with the wider world.  

K has not eaten meat since August 1st.  This is a 15 day fast  which some have kept strictly, eating no dairy, fish, meat or eggs. 

It is also a name day for many people.  Maria, Mary and all the alternate names for the Virgin Mary, Despina, Panayiota and for the men Panayiotis.

Here on Poros the day begins with a church service at the main cathedral, the handing out of sweet cakes, spiced bread and Holy bread. Then morning coffee with friends and family who are celebrating name days.  

It's too hot for midday feasting. Gatherings at homes and tavernas take place in the evening, continuing on till later in the cool of the night

There's no big fiesta here, just private celebrations. Still a lot of food, drink and noise though

K and I usually attend a family name day celebration across on Galatas but it's not taking place this year because of a death in the family.

He has ordered a half kilo of pork and potatoes and some lamb from a taverna. I'm making an authentic greek salad and tzatziki. We've got plenty of wine, white and red.

We will be quite happy to sit quietly midday on the terrace away from the craziness unfolding on the rest of the island.

The meltemi is blowing from the north, causing cancellations for those travelling by ship but bringing us slightly cooler days. 

It also brings road blocks preventing all and sundry from entering the forest area.  These high winds bring an extreme  fire alert.  We've been through the block 3 times. It's OK when K is driving. He knows all the volunteers. Not so easy when I was alone today.  They wrote down the number plate and then asked for my name so they could record it.  I know who they are, they know who I am but they have no idea what my name is. I'm just the foreign wife of K.  This afternoon it was obvious just how much of a foreigner I am even after 50 years. I had to say Linda, pronounced the Greek way, Leeda, about 3 times. Then came the surname. I suppose they were expecting a foreign name, not Ks family name.  They asked me 3 times.  I suppose it's my kiwi accent as well. I almost had to spell it out letter by letter, in greek, before the light bulb switched on. 

Kali Panagia 

Happy 15th August 

For Octopus Lovers

For octopus cooks and eaters in the family, and interested blog readers

But Mostly for dear Rainy, who always watches K cooking and ensures her own Greek cooking back home in NZ is authentic and delicious.

Sons in law Yiannis and Kyriakos are excellent cooks.  Yiannis speciality is octopus and Kyriakos steamed mussels. K cooks shrimps with tomatoes and feta (saganaki)

Brothers-in-law

Yiannis and  Kyriakos

Thanks boys for many, many wonderful seafood feasts

Here is how Yiannis cooks such tender and tasty octopus

Freeze fresh octopus for a week or so. Freezing helps to tenderise

  Then it needs preparation before you can cook it or it will be tough as leather

The octopus is whirled around in its own juices.  This prep is essential.  Yiannis assures me this is a vital part of tenderising the octopus and he describes it this way. 

If you're doing the swirling  at home with a supermarket octopus you need a bucket  with a little water in the bottom. 

  How to carry out this important step, called 'paragoulima' .......... 

- Grab the octopus by a tentacle and move it about in the juices and water for a few minutes. Swirl it lovingly , this way and that. 

- Change the water, grab another tentacle and do the same, swirling it around at the bottom of the bucket . 

- Continue doing this, grabbing the next tentacle, swirling, smooshing it around for a few minutes and changing the water till you've done all 8 tentacles and the hood

You'll see fishermen here doing this after catching an octopus, bashing it and then swirling, raising and rolling it in the juices on the rocks or wharf.

K says you should always do this after it has been in the freezer for a while in case it was not prepped properly beforehand. When it's ready the tentacles should start to curl.

Now to cook it.

Yianni's recipe

Put in a pot over a very low heat, don't add any water. Cover the pot and stew slowly .  All the juices in the octopus come out and there should be enough liquid.  I don't know how long it will take, half and hour, an hour.   Poke it with a fork now and again.  When it feels soft then it's ready.

Next make a dressing............ 

Mix olive oil, lemon juice and some thyme in a shaker, a little pepper and crushed garlic to taste.  Taste as you go to see how much lemon juice you need. Don't add salt. 

Put the octopus on a plate, cut into slices and pour over the oil and lemon sauce.

Yianni says, don't let it overcook and get too soft and mushy.

and

In the sauce you make

If you're drinking wine with the meal use lemon juice in the sauce.

If you're drinking ouzo then use vinegar instead

Octopus has no blood so it can eaten all through Orthodox religious fasts.  Along with shellfish, prawns, squid and cuttlefish

On our menu today cuttlefish (cousin to squid) and spinach stewed in tomato, with ouzo and dill

Before BBQing an octopus it has to be hung out in the sun to dry 

On my clothes line

The octopus must be dried before bbqing otherwise when put over the coals it will steam in its juices and become a hard rubbery mass

Snakes of Kefalonia

 This tradition fascinates me, the miracle snakes of the Virgin Mary, which appear around the 15th of August every summer on the island of Kefalonia.  

Kefalonia is one of the Ionion Islands near Corfu and Ithaki, home of Odysseus. 

These snakes have velvety skin they say, not hard and scaly and have a cross on their heads.  They are harmless and unafraid of humans, even friendly.

Photo from the internet 

If they don't appear some catastrophe or tragedy will befall the island and its people.  It has happened twice, they say.  August 1940 just before WW11 and occupation by Italian troops.  Think 'Captain Correlis Mandolin'.  As a side note, one of the most horrific massacres took place on the island in 1943 when Italy broke from Germany and the Axis powers.  The German Wehrmacht invaded, and in a bloody slaughter executed over 5,000 of the Italian troops on the island.

The 2nd time the snakes did not appear was August 1953.  Kefalonia suffered a devastating earthquake on August 12th of that year. 

The snakes appear every August near 2 chapels dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  The snakes crawl around the church and visitors can move among them, touch them, pick them up without harm.

This year on August 8th 3 snakes appeared at one chapel and a few more at the other.  Church bells pealed merrily to announce the arrival.  More will have turned up since then.  They disappear mysteriously after August 15th.

The Orthodox Church does not acknowledge the 'miracle'.  However it's a local tradition which brings thousands to the island, pilgrims and intrigued tourists.

It has all been commercialised of course and has turned into a massive fiesta, they say.  I visited Kefalonia, back in the summer of 1974 on my first trip to Greece, but not during this celebration.

How much is true and how much of the story has been embellished I don't know but it has turned into a colourful cultural tradition.  

**A comment from friend Judy reminded me that although we didn't see the snakes we did visit a Monastery to gawp at the mummified body of St Gerasimos.  Back then I knew nothing about the Orthodox religion and how to behave.  I was staying on Kefalonia with 2 friends and we read about the mummified body of the saint. We took a taxi to the monastery and it was just us and 2 nuns, and the taxi driver, in a huge church with the Saint lying in a glass coffin.  I don't know what we expected but it was creepy, a dried up corpse and a silent church. Most embarrassing.  We had no idea what to do. I don't think we even lit a candle. 

Greek Orthodox visitors would have been crossing themselves, kissing the glass over the dessicated body and saying a prayer  with great reverence.  We just stood there with the nuns looking on.  Heaven knows what they were thinking, watching 3 heathen tourists. 

I hope we were at least decently dressed