Seafood and Gripes

I really don't feel like writing much these days. My knee has turned every shade of yellow and purple, half the family have the dreaded virus. K is in constant pain from his shoulder but can't make up his mind to have an op.  It's cold, wet, miserable again today. Petrol prices are soaring and our electricity bill will be going up by one third. That is a helluva lot of euros.

And then there's Ukraine 

I should be counting my blessings. My knee is slowly healing, covid patients have mild symptoms, K has a diagnosis, spring is almost here.

Our dear daughter has arranged for us to pay, as she also does, our power bill in installments which don't break the bank.

But there's still Ukraine 

Life here continues as usual.  Last Monday was Clean Monday, a national holiday marking the beginning of Orthodox  Lent.  The sun shone for most of the day and we sat outside to eat. A light breeze was perfect for traditional kite flying.

I got grandaughter Poppi to prune our grapevine

A job well done

Even though we only had 2 of the 5 grandchildren with us they followed the tradition and flew a kite

This kite is in the colours of the Athenian football team AEK

I made 4 laganas, traditional flatbread

We are still ploughing through them

On the menu today was seafood

Shrimps, cuttlefish and octopus

And lots of homemade taramasalata, salted fishroe dip

We are still ploughing through that as well

The octopus hanging out to dry

It has to be sun dried before it goes on the BBQ 

And a sweet

Homemade halvas

Made from semolina, sugar and olive oil

But only half the family were with us

The other half tested positive for you-know-what and are Home Alone

This is Luli's stool. Being the youngest she usually perches on this at one corner of the big table.

Not this time. Instead of 12 we had 7 at the table.  It was a quiet day. We sat outside but by 2pm the clouds had moved in and we relocated inside and lit the fire.

And so life continues and I count my blessings.