Tuesday 13 September 2016

Aliens and other beliefs

-  Aliens?

A few days ago the skies over Cyprus were lit up by a strange glowing blue light which raced across the sky.  Locals felt a peculiar vibration and then a mystifying rumbling sound. Others say there was a 'blitz of bright lights' a 'thunderous bang', a 'heavenly boom' which made the ground shake.

 Officials say that 'maybe', 'they strongly believe' it was a piece of meteorite entering the earth's atmosphere.  

Imaginably, even conceivably, it could have been, an alien spacecraft blowing up and sinking into the sea. Just a news item of interest which caught my eye.  Weird or what? 

Whatever it was no trace of any fragments have been found.

- Tuesday the 13th

Elsewhere in the world whenever the 13th of the month falls on a Friday it is a day to beware .  Here it is Tuesday the 13th.  On Tuesday the 13th 1204 Konstantinople (Istanbul) fell to the fourth Crusade and eventually the Ottomans took over the city.  Greece suffered under the rule of Ottoman Empire (the Turks) for 400 years.

It seems Tuesday 13th is also unlucky in Spanish speaking countries, Spain and Mexico for a start.  It is not a day to start a journey or even leave your house.




-  Wednesday the 14th is the feast of the Holy Cross.  It is a celebration of the true cross  and  the day it was found by St Helen.   It is also a name day for those named Stavros or Stavroula and a fasting day although salt cod and garlic sauce are allowed at the name day feasts.

All the women bring bunches of basil to the church.  The basil is taken home after the service and used to make the new sourdough starter for the year to come.  The belief is that this blessed basil has mystical powers, especially the power to make bread rise.

My mother-in-law and all the aunts made sourdough starter this way every year.  They soaked the basil, blessed by the priest, in water overnight and next morning added flour to the water and mixed it to make into the starter sponge.







4 comments:

  1. I really must start making sourdough bread. I have been reasonably successful with 'ordinary' bread. My problem is that our local bakers are simply excellent.

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  2. The smell of those freshly baked loaves in the local bakery is just divine. How can you resist!

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  3. I have been so wanting to start a sourdough starter. But now the kids are gone and it's only hubby and me. It just doesn't seem worth it. I don't eat a lot of bread. High carbs! But I love my bread. So if I made it. I'd eat it
    I wonder what all that blue sky stuff was all about. If you you tube strange sounds in the sky you will hear lots of recordings from around the world. I've even hear it hear.
    As the song says
    Strange days indeed, most peculiar mama

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    1. Starter is just flour and water and you feed it more flour and water till it bubbles but my startes from scratch have never gone well. The best starter I made and the only one which bubbled and rose was made from grape juice given to me at the grape harvest and flour. That took off and I had it for ages. We have a bread machine as well which I use now and again.

      No updates on the lights in the sky. I love youtube with all its mysteries and strange events. Sometimes quite scary!!!

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