Early 2019 in Pics

A peek into January ... so far

Crocheting in front of the television

From chilling out to drinking up

I found some 2018 Beaujolais

Last year the beaujolais available in the supermarket was over a year old.  When beaujolais ages, which it apparently doesn't, they send it to greece where they'll drink anything with a french label.

Actually that last statement is totally wrong in this neck of the woods.  Locals will only drink local.  They know where it has been grown, who looked after the vines and how and what was added, or not added, to the barrel afterwards.

I'm sure Athens is a different kettle of fish.   A more 'sophisticated' society

The whisky is a good  Scottish single malt brought to us by our english neighbours who arrived for Christmas in the middle of our 'north pole' winter.   A couple of times over these last few weeks I have noticed that London has higher temperatures than us.

They also brought whisky and some good english cheddar for Vaso.  She told us about the whisky, with the enthusiasm of a connaisseur, that it was the one of the best.  

The master of the house (daughter's house) crosses and then cuts the New Year loaf.  

First piece for the Virgin Mary, 2nd for the house and then the family members from oldest to youngest.  The one who gets the coin has a lucky year.  We have so far cut two family loaves, 2 New Year cakes and yesterday the last which was a 'tourta' (cake with cream and filling).

K says the coin should be used to buy incense to burn under the family icons.  Yeh, right.  That was what his mother did.  The coin in the bread now would hardly buy chewing gum and certainly not incense.

New Years lunch.  Or part of it.  The tradition here is to cook pork with greens and thicken it with an egg and lemon sauce.  This is lamb.  Thanks to daughter and son-in-law we also had a very tasty roast duck and  pumpkin soup.  These three dishes have become a tradition for our New Years day dinner

Snow clouds come down low over Galatas and the mountains opposite

Enjoy yourself as you intend to continue for the rest of the year. 

On New Years day my mother-in-law told me you should not wash your hair, nor sew nor knit because you'll be condemned to keep on doing it for the whole year!  Yeh!~

The men party as they mean to carry on...........

Crime Wave!

Vaso has been robbed.  She has been very apprehensive these last few months after watching endless news stories of the elderly in Athens being beaten for a few euros and attacked in their own homes,  She puts a padlock on her gate when she's inside the house, not that it would keep out any serious robber.   And she watches very carefully who goes up and down our dead-end road, who they are and whether they check out the house as they whizz by.

We always reassure her that Poros is not Athens and she is safe living up here in the wop-wops all by herself, as she has for the last twenty years.  

But  robbers came in the middle of the night and took away 4 hens, a rooster and a big (female) turkey.  Naturally she was very upset and wanted to tell us all about her troubles, analyse this heinous crime and lay out her suspects for us to chew on.

She's sure there were two them with a big sack. It wasn't a dog  or wild animal because there was no trail of feathers and carnage.

But she came on the wrong day to get all our attention.  We had been 'robbed' too!  K had just been up to check our land and olive trees at the top of the island.  'Someone' had been up there with a truck, fixed up the road, 'pruned' the olive trees and hauled away the wood.  

'Someone' went to a lot of work.  Wood is an expensive commodity at this time of the year.  It wasn't long of course, in this small community, before he found out who was behind it all.

Vaso and K sat there with steam coming out of their ears, voices getting louder and more vehement with each stabbing accusation.

Vaso doesn't know the identity of her chicken thief but she has a few offenders in mind.  She can't prove anything but K hopes he can.  He has confronted the head of the gang, the wood cutter and the truck driver and been to police to file a complaint.  The wood has gone, squirreled away or already sold but he's pushing for them to clean up the land and plant new trees.  The old ones unfortunately have been 'pruned' almost down to the ground and an old spreading carob tree has been left looking like a xmas tree on the day it is chucked in the rubbish,  Such a pity. 

He could sue them for destruction of property and loss of income from the trees but it would probably take five years for the case to come to court.  
Easier for them to compensate by doing some work on the land. 
Except for the 'mastermind',  This smart arse  owned land up there once upon a time.  He sold it 20 years ago but knows that it is an isolated area.  He blames the wood cutter who cut the wrong trees but they are all the 'wrong' trees.  None are his to cut.  They must have made almost a thousand euros out of the wood.  Around here olive wood is considered the best for  firewood.

Vaso is ill and snuggling up in her bed in this freezing weather.  It was her name day on New Years day and we called her but are waiting for her to recover to go up and have a few glasses of raki with her and discuss this terrible business once again.

We are in the grips of storm Raphael.  Snow is covering the hills around Athens and we heard it was snowing on the next island of Aegina.  I keep peeking out the window hoping to see a snowflake here.   It is very early in the year for such bad weather.  Climate change!

Actually I see this is a second storm named Sofia. She'll be hanging around for a few days. We've got enough firewood, olive wood but not our own.  Hope the raki holds out!

The Eve

New Years Eve 
Here we go again, but at least not in our house.  The cooking and eating will be happening in my daughter's house, and they'll be doing the washing up.  Thanks Elli and Kyriakos.
And they'll be doing New Years day lunch.

Carol singing day again for small children who come knocking on the door trilling this day's song and banging metal triangles.  I don't know how much banging and trilling was done on Poros today.  No-one came a-knocking on our door out in the wilds.  It is pouring with rain and bitterly cold.

The carol (kalanda) today proclaims the arrival of St Basil.  My youngest grandchildren go from door to door and into every shop asking 'can we say it?'  A few people actually say 'no' having heard the same kalanda many times since early morning.  Not nice.  This is an age old tradition.  The housewife used to give the singers a sweet or cake, nowdays they get a coin.  The kids go in groups and can earn quite an impressive sum of money.  Xmas Eve they sing another carol and on the eve of Epiphany, 6th January.

Kosta is making bone soup today to keep out the cold and I'm making a 'vasilopita', the New Years cake with a lucky coin in it.

Tonight we have to descend to sea-level at 10pm to see-in the New Year with some of the family.  Ye gods and little fishes.  My traditional person would not let me miss this such important occasion but i would very happily stay at home, go to bed at 10pm and let the storm rage and the year change without my participation.  The year will change with or without my presence and what will be will be

10 hours later, still raining chair legs and snow falling on the hills around Athens

Happy New Year from sunny Greece

It Came, It Went

Hristouyenna, Christmas
an annual religious and cultural celebration which takes place on December 25th, unless you're a follower of the old calendar.   They'll be celebrating on January 8th


Christmas Day is a holiday here and so is the day after.  It is also the name day for those named Christos, Christina or variations thereof.  

In days gone by it was simply a day off work.  All the family ate together and then ours would walk up the steps with a box of cakes to celebrate the rest of the day with cousin Christina and later at the house next door with cousin Christos.  Presents were only given by St Nik to our own 'foreign' offspring.  

Nowadays it is a time to eat too much,  to spend money and for families to get together whether they like it or not, usually for the sake of small children, just like the rest of the western world

Our day was 'fraught'.  Small underlying tensions remained 'mostly' underlying but everything else that could go wrong, did.

The weather was warm and dry at 7am says my daughter.  I wouldn't know.  By 9 it was pouring with rain and it rained all day

Half of the presents I ordered are mid-Pacific, still haven't turned up.  Looks like I'll be keeping them for summer name days, when they arrive.

There were various pieces of meat.  The roast pork was delicious and the crackling crisp and fatty

The brussels sprouts were enjoyed by brussel sprout enthusiasts

Half were boiled and half were roasted

There were roast spuds, sweet potato (kumara) and squash

A pair of tarantula slippers and a neon flashing keyboard

The Christopsomo (Christ Bread) was a little tinged but just as fresh baked bread should be.  Most food including the bread was baked in the outside wood fired oven

The chicken was cooked in our electric oven along with a nasty smell of burning plastic.  About half way through cooking I discovered the smell was coming from the plastic handle of a bread knife which had been left inside the oven. It had melted all over the bottom of the stove and had to be cleaned up quickly before the chicken started tasting of burnt plastic as well

Fresh mushrooms gathered locally and kindly given to us by a friend.  Unfortunately they were extremely bitter and went on the compost heap instead

Australian chardonnay helped save the day

And shots of Baileys

The banoffee pie was a disaster.  The base didn't set, the caramel burnt and left a smoky taste and the cream wouldn't whip.  The bananas were perfect.  No one ate any, not even the bananas

St Nik arrived on time and spread some cheer

Amen

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve was beautiful, sunny and warm.  Christmas Day has dawned very slowly and the light still has not penetrated into the house.  There is a fine drizzle and the temperature has dropped a few degrees.

We'll all be inside today, all day long.  I've cleared off the treadmill, turned it from a coathanger to a mean fighting machine.  The kids will need it today to burn off all that extra energy, rocket energy from the kilos of sugar they are consuming,  Who gives them all that chocolate anyway?  It's Santa's fault, nothing to do with Mrs Santa!  I tried years ago to fob them off with a walnut and a mandarine in their Christmas stockings but they did not make the grade.

Christmas Eve was spent biting fingernails over the number of presents and the eveness of distribution.  Were there enough in the stocking to satisfy demand?  One 'big' present goes under the Christmas tree and several small things go in the stocking.  A pair of flamingo sox, some Christmas hair ties and a handful of chocolates satisfy the girls but what does Santa put in the boys stocking?  He never asks in this house whether they were naughty or nice.   ALL my grandchildren are nice!



All the grandkids stockings are hand knit.  All very 'individual'.  They love them whatever.  One year I only put presents under the tree and there was a riot when they found empty stockings.  That will never, never happen again



The boys this year have in their stockings xmas boxer shorts, a healthy pomegranite drink for one and a bottle of cider for the other.  Well, he's almost 18 and around here 18 year olds have already been drinking half their life, from a glass of wine at the family table to a bacardi breezer at the bars down town...etc  Who really knows what 18 year old boys have been up to, except them and maybe now and again their mother.

They also have a selection of healthy and unhealthy sweets.  The grandchildren are athletes and some very serious about their diet.  A bowl of spinach and a kilo of lentils might be more appreciated by one.  Anyway there is a selection of real sweet gooey chocolate,  sugar-free (but no way calorie free) chocolate, fruit bars , greek sweets made of sesame seeds and honey and chocolate covered rice crackers.  Our kids love rice crackers so these chocolate covered ones should go down very well.

K is making a pastourmadopita.  Ha, get your tongue around that word after a xmas hangover.



In goes the pie - pastourmadopita, a big pie made with cured spiced beef slices, tomato  and cheese

Stop:  that photo is staged!  No pie or pork would go into the oven with a roaring fire.  The fire has to die down and the food is cooked on the embers

The pork and wild pig have been slowly roasting all night long and the meat is falling off the bone.  I think we may be eating before midday.  The 'foreign' side of the family, me and the kids will be eating stuffed chook, brussel sprouts and roast sweet potatoes

Funny really to think that down in NZ and Australia some could be nursing sore heads while we are still drinking our first coffee and preparing for a long day ahead.  NZ is almost half a day ahead of us and Australia 6 hours.

The extended Australian family enjoying their Christmas dinner beside the pool

I will eventually get around to sending you all individual Christmas wishes but in the meantime

Kala Hristouyenna to everyone who reads and comments on my blog.  I really do hope your Christmas day is cheery and bright 

I have sent out no cards this year and not even a Christmas email.  I will be in touch.  I could not be!  

Love to all of you and your families

The Streets are Decked

Poros is in Christmas mode.  All the harbour streets have xmas lights, the houses are lit up with, often wonky, flashing lights and festive trees in their windows.  The same darn wonky lights that annoyed me last year have been put up around the windows of the same house.  I want to get up there on a ladder and push them into place.  They dip and waver and the last bit climbs up the wall on a strange angle, obviously to reach some power point.  FIX THEM damn it.

The main square has this strange snow globe with an empty chair in it.  Will Santa sit there?  

The kids climb in there and throw fake snow at each other.

The fake snow is made up of tiny particles of re-cycled plastic bags.  

There is also a minature train in the middle of the square but it was still being assembled so I didn't take a photo.  The train offers free rides round the square to all the children in the evenings.

A huge blow-up Christmas tree outside the Town Hall

The back alley has a team of Santas climbing up the balcony above the store which sells the Santas

A list of festive activities which of course you can't read because it is in Greek.

A popular singer is coming to give a concert in the square.  There will be a Santa bringing presents and tonight the High School choir gave a concert of carols, greek and otherwise.  My grandchildren were singing

The Crafty shop window in the back alley

  

And first prize goes to the cake shop window.  

Very festively decorated and full of glorious sticky cakes

Xmas Visit to a Friend

Today I visited my dear english friend across the waters, the one that laughs with me when we come head first into a greek stone wall, the friend that laughs at me when I come out with something oddly greek , the friend who speaks english english.   At Christmas and Easter I pass on my  attempts at hot cross buns and mince pies, overcooked jam, chutney or mulled wine. She is always politely pleased

The animal society of Poros is having a Christmas bazaar.  

Someone made Sangria.  6 euros a bottle.  If you keep it more than a couple of days it blows it's top but thank goodness it's still drinkable.  Well, until you get down to the last few inches which we did today.  It was Sangria with real fruit and all the pulp had sunk to the bottom.  Even after straining it the drink was rather cloudy.  Went down just as well!   

J is a dog looker-after.  She fosters strays till they can be re-homed and looks after the health of many of the strays of Poros and Galatas.  This innocent looking fellow is George and just out of the picture is the just as 'guiltess' Taylor.  She left them alone in the house the other day and they 'investigated' the Christmas cards

Not any old Christmas cards, just those that were to be passed on to me.  Judy, I got your card and fortuntately the seeds inside those mangled packets were untouched.  I'll be planting some prized tomatoes and peppers next year.  

Yes, this is a Christmas mince pie.  It doesn't look like one?  Well, it tastes like one anyway.  I had some puff pastry in the fridge and had taken last years left-over mince meat out of the freezer and threw these together for a quick taste of foreign Christmasses.  The perfect accompaniment to cork-blowing Sangria

The view from J's house on Galatas, looking across to Poros.  Going across the waters is a big trip for me.  It feels like unexplored territory.  Silly really but it takes an effort for me to get on the car ferry and visit the friends and relatives we have five minutes across the strait. 

Leno 

This is Leno, another one of the foster dogs.  J has been looking after him for a while now.  He's a gentle soul but rather on the large side.  She calls him the polar bear.

Here you can see them both at the top of her yard.

If you would like to adopt a gentle giant then just leave me a comment.  The last foster dog, Lola, is now living in Canada.

The day was freezing with a cold wind blowing off the mountains above.  I wouldn't be surprised if the peaks had a smattering of snow by tomorrow morning.  I enjoyed my voyage across the sea and the putt-putt-putting of my quad bike as I drove along Galatas harbour.  I must make an effort and do it more often.  Usually when I board the car ferry it is in a car with my appointed chauffeur and we whizz off down the coast for some pressing appointment.