Whats Up

           Greek household glimpses.

What is this??

It's one of the vegetables whose leaves were shredded by darned caterpillars.

Broccoli? I would say No.

Cauliflower?

Or cabbage which I didn't plant?

A pox on all leaf eating caterpillars.

It doesn't matter, because whatever plant it is/was, it hasn't grown at all in 2 weeks. Do these plants need leaves to thrive and survive?

In high winds last week some of our roof tiles broke. Our roof tiler, a cousin of course,  climbed up there and replaced the tiles in 5 minutes. I'm told they just slot in, one under/over the other. I await the next gale to see what happens.

The tiles themselves have been piled up in the field next door for the last 10 years.

You see, these hoarded 'treasures' do come in handy. Once in a blue moon.

This years  wine and oil has been collected from the family land near Corinth.

Son in law's  mother was born in a tiny mountain village and her olive trees and vines have been handed on down to the children.

A cousin looks after the fields, picks the grapes and olives, makes the wine and gets the olives pressed. He gets a percentage for his hard work and the remainder goes to son in law and his sisters.

In years past we have taken our station wagon up the steep, narrow, winding roads and collected the wine.  We have finished drinking last year's vintage.  Bring on Vintage 2023.

Someone else with a truck picked up this year's harvest. Thank goodness. No way I was going up to that village again. Steep inclines, sharp bends, farm workers picking olives with nets over the road made the last kilometres into an obstacle course. Too much for my nerves. Great views of course, all the way down to the Gulf of Corinth. 

This year, and last, the wine was poured into 20 litre bags with a tap and placed in a cardboard box for easy transport . I'm sure you've all seen boxed wine.

As long as the air in the bags is pressed out before closing the wine lasts for years.  So they say.

It never lasts that long in our house.

The wine has fermented, but it's still young. I'll let you know in a month what it tastes like.  We have both white and rosé, and 5 litres of a red wine . The red wine is the cousins own. It's kept in a wooden barrel and it's about 5 years old. 

I give a litre or 2 to my English friend and she compares it to sherry. To be drunk in small glasses.

It's finally cold enough for a fire. The pot is full of bones. I have been boiling them over three nights and this morning strained off a litre of bone broth. It's really good to use in all sorts of meat dishes or you can drink it to give you strength and health. So they say . 

I collect bones from all our boiled and roasted chicken, pork and beef and store them in the freezer till I have enough to fill a pot.

Winter is knitting time.

I was knitting Xmas stockings but got bored. I frogged those.

Now I'm knitting a sleeveless jersey for myself. So far so good.

Last year I knitted a jersey. I ripped it out (frogged) 3 times. Worth the final result!

Frogged?

Rip..rip..rip

Sounds like.....

Ribit..ribit..ribit

Do your frogs 'say' ribit??

They do here. But I always thought frogs went 'croak croak'.