Old Saint Nik

6th December

Fiesta of Saint Nikolas, patron saint of the Greek Navy, merchant and otherwise.  In fact patron saint of all those sailing on the seas, from fishermen in their traditional caiques to the coast guard who goes out in a storm to rescue a sinking raft overloaded with refugees.

Name day of Nik, Nikolas and Niki, Nikoletta and all niks therein.
Niks and Niki's  should have been offering around small sticky cakes and chocolate bonbons to clients, fellow workers, friends and acquaintances.

Family would have turned up on the doorstep for the traditional drinks and platters of meat, salads and specialities of the lady of the house.

Sailors ex and present filled the church on this morning at the Navy School, a church dedicated naturally enough to St. Nikolas.

After the service Navy personnel and church goers were treated to festive cakes, coffee, wine and snacks.

Those whose name day it was brought boxes of cakes, loaves of sweet bread and oil based goodies for those on the religious fast.

St. Nik does not bring presents to the good children, or the bad. Gifts are given out by St. Basil here in Greece.

If you're lucky and come from a cross cultural family you could try for a double visit. Didn't happen in our house.  St. Nik brought our girls presents, coming through the window of our Piraeus flat or the rickety shutters of our old house on Crete.  He always left a few crumbs of his Christmas melomakarouna but managed to drink all of his whiskey.

Another day, another feast.

What's your tradition?

O Christmas Tree

Watching, organising and directing the decorating of the Christmans tree is thirsty work.  The men had their lethal raki, the kids a bottle of even more lethal sugary pop and the girls had their special 'own-brand' sangria, only lethal when you stand up.

One cup of vodka

a few cups of   drinkable wine, red or white

topped up with fruit juice, preferably not fresh.  There is nothing healthy about this recipe!

The first jug had a rather odd taste.  We decided it was the wine which is why I emphasise the use of a 'good' wine.  We added some more vodka, some of that sugary pop and the more we drank the better it got.  The second jug was fruity perfection, and the job got done to the satisfaction of even the fussiest of over-lookers

The 'star' goes on the top of the tree.  Our tradition is a big red poinsettia flower

Doesn't that look gorgeous reflected in the windows

Tall people tack up my crochet Christmas bunting

Up go the Christmas balls, hanging from the rafters

And the mistletoe is put in place

My knitted Christmas hat got its first wearing

And Santa (St Nick to you, St Basil to us)

popped in with a 'ho,ho,ho'

Xmas Is Coming

St. Nikolas is galloping over these ancient paths and cobblestones, soaring over the deep blue seas.   St Nik will arrive on December 6th in Greece but he won't be lugging a sack of presents.  St Basil (Vassilis) takes care of the presents here on January 1st

Kala Hristouyenna from Greece

Greetings from Arty-farty, Stinky-winky, Piggly-wiggly and Wonky-tonky, the four exotika of Christmas

Pictorial Poros Under Cloudy Skies

Teeming with tourists in the summer this old jetty is usually framed by never ending blue skies and sea churned by boats and humans.

Now the waters are people free, wonderful to walk and contemplate in an easy silence, dressed warmly in shoes and jacket, no blistering sun

The narrow canal linking the two small islands, Spheria and Kalavria which make up Poros

The canal at its narrowest, just big enough for a small fishing boat to pass through

Small church dedicated to the Virgin Mary at the end of Askeli Bay

We have held family church services and baptisms here and attended weddings.  The church is so small that only the priest, chanter and a few bods fit inside.  The services and ceremonies take place in the yard outside the church under the gum trees, beside the sea

Another view of the church

Unused in the winter, except for a rare family service

The way to the two most visited sites on Poros, the ancient temple, not much left to see, and the monastery, with one very strict monk who remains there.  Woe betide if  women should enter in trousers or bare shoulders

Down on the waterfront, one of the few tavernas still open and then only on weekends in the winter

Harbour View

My view from the cafeteria. End of month payments done and time for a monthly wine and meze

One of the priests from the Monastery on the mainland hurries for the taxi boat to cross the strait.  He has probably picked up his pension from the bank and paid a few bills too.  

There is an uproar amongst the  elderly heirarchy of white beared Bishops at the moment because the Archbishop of Greece came to a 'historic' agreement with the Prime Minister.  Up till now family priests were/are public servants and get paid by the state.  The PM and the Archbishop have agreed that the 10,000 priests will be paid by the church.  The government will then hire 10,000 public servants from the thousands of unemployed and 'impoverished' greeks.  Sounds like another good election ploy. Will this further step to separate church and state pass parliament?

Will that band of long white bearded Bishops allow this to happen?

We watch and wait.

Not a completely clear photo.  The woman driving the little blue car has one dog hanging onto the steering wheel and another yapping on the seat beside her.  Of course neither she, or the dogs (ha) are wearing seat belts.  But even the police don't bother with seat belts here

The car ferry sounded its siren all the way across the bay and every car on board was tooting their horn as well.  They must have been carrying the groom across to his wedding at the church on Galatas, along with his entourage.   

'Yeah, breaker one-nine............

Mercy sakes alive

Looks like we got us a convoy"

One of my favourite songs

T-Cafe

All we wanted was a glass of red wine and an ouzo but our friend, the owner, brought over a bowl of potatoes and kebabs and another of roast pork and potatoes

Our favourite cafe!

November Activities

November 
 a quote from Santa -
Calm down you little bastards
It's only November

But Santa, it's almost December!!


November has been different this year.  It is usually filled with olives, young wine, and a much slower pace of life.  There are few olives being picked this year.  The olive trees produce every two years and last year was a bumper crop.  Olives on most trees now are small and sparse.  Even elderly neighbour Vaso is not picking this year, except to preserve a few kilos for her table, and ours.



Preserved olives in vinegar and brine

Vaso lives simply.  She doesn't often wear her dentures either.  Fresh food is easy to gather, prepare and to eat.  She often says if she has nothing else then a dry rusk dipped in wine, a handful of olives and an onion will be fine for tea. There are plenty of greens out in the fields, especially now that it has rained heavily. The lemon and orange trees are shedding fruit faster than she can gather them and there's always, olives in the jar.

Some have opened their wine barrels.  Our son-in-law went to pick up his allowance from the family vine yards but it hasn't been tasted yet.  Vaso hasn't even sniffed the pungent aroma from her  barrels.  It won't be long,  though there is a saying that wine should not be tasted till after St Nikolas on December 6th and red should be left for New Year. Most dedicated wine makers and drinkers around here don't take much notice of that old wives' tale.


Tourists were around for much later this season but streets are finally freer of cars and bikes and favourite tables at cafeterias are normally free.  



Apples are really plentiful but not grown much around here.  The best come from further north, the city of Tripoli (greek Tripoli, not the capital of Libya) and the area called Zagori.

We buy our apples and other produce from the back of a truck which comes in once a week from Tripoli.  Apples red, apples green, apples big and small.

I have baked apple cake, apple pudding, apple pie and made apple sauce.   We're just about appled out.  A real treat was the one lonely pear which had fallen into our bag of apples last week.  I think it will be pears from now on.

Autumn

While the sun was still shining we actually got our act together and sorted out the garden, with a push from a friend who dug out the weeds and brought us lettuce, leek and spinach plants.  Thank you universe for friends who love to dig and plant and prune.

Picking up a pile of wood from the olive groves in preparation for winter fires

Yeh, a truck load of 'garden' rubbish gets hauled away

Here's our young Pakistani helper

He gathered a stack of 'treasures' from around the perimeter of the yard and piled it up ready for the truck to take it away

Sob, a clear back yard.  It's the first time in ten years I've seen the wall behind that grapefruit tree

Lettuces planted in neat rows

Anyone want a bag of grapefruit.  We'll try once again in the spring to graft a branch of a mandarine and orange tree onto the grapefruit.  They didn't take last time we tried

Now we've got neat rows of spinach and leeks as well and after two days of rain the lettuces have shot up and soon will be big enough to eat.