Tuesday 29 November 2022

Pictures of a Greek Life




These bright yellow wild flowers have appeared, here and there amongst the dried grasses and rocks, alongside the pink crocus. I don't know what they are but the splash of yellow is a burst of much appreciated brightness .



Cats lined up along a wall. There were other cats around and a line of feeding bowls.



On our last taverna visit
About a dozen cats wandering around the tables hoping for a handout.
They weren't annoying, just persistent. 
The taverna closed down for winter the next day. I think someone comes everyday and brings them food




A very clean and shiny old VW van parked outside one of the tavernas





A bottle of thick green fresh oil on the left and the lighter, year old oil on the right.
Both are local and full of taste



Cleaning last year's soot from the wall behind the wood stove


The wall will have to be painted next summer. Most of the black soot  was scrubbed off but the wall has changed colour.

We have started having fires most nights now. The fire and chimney have all been cleaned so hopefully it won't smoke as much. So far so good


19 comments:

  1. That's a good looking wood burner you have there. I miss a real fire in the winter.

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    1. It's sending out a lot of heat right now. I'm sitting a metre away, in short sleeves. It's great

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  2. The stove looks like it can burn big logs in it. Do you cook on it sometimes?

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    1. The logs are a decent size. They give off a lot of heat. We often cook on it but have to be careful with the heat. The oven gets very hot.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. What kind of wood do you burn in Greece? Here, we burn maple, ash, oak… and whatever comes down in big wind storms. -Jenn

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    1. Here it's mainly olive. That's what we've got around us. If you've got an open fire pine is terrific but the resin blocks the flues of our wood burner.

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  5. Those are some very lucky cats, to be so well looked after. Strays here are treated like vermin.

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    1. There's a society here which looks after strays but the actual daily feeding is usually done by someone in the neighbourhood. They strays group arranges sterilisation but they still seem to mutiply

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  6. I haven’t even done the big clean after winter this year because we just haven’t stopped using the fire. Hubby did clean the flue so at least it draws well again.

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    1. Ours is drawing well too but still does let out a bit of smoke sometimes when we open the door. Wind direction ? I don't know.
      It's almost December, cross fingers it gets warmer for you

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  7. it's so nice to see the odd burst of colour when nature is in the process of going to sleep, I wonder if it's some sort of wildflower.

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    1. Nature seems to wake up in the winter here. It's much greener and later on we will get a lot more colour from wild flowers. Summer is dry and brown

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  8. Can you please show photos of people falling over on ice-covered roads, of wasp infestations in your kitchen, or rivers of red-hot lava flowing towards your house. You're making my life seem very boring.

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    1. Well, how about rain coming down the walls, no damn internet and hordes of annoying flies . The best I can do but I bet the rest of the islanders can conjure up a few disasters .
      At least the olives have been picked and the grapes fermented

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  9. Sternbergia,This is the scientific name of the flower.

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  10. I love wood fires, burners, open fires of any sort……in other people’s homes. It was always my job to clear the grate and reset the fire and I loathed it and swore blind once we had another form of heating we’d never have one again.
    Yours looks nice and toasty

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    1. That's my job, clearing and resetting. It only takes a few minutes but it's still a drag. Long live central heating!

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