Greek Island..February

On a sunny winter's day in paradise...

A small fishing boat cuts its way through the bay, heading back to harbour to sell its catch

Poros from the far end of the harbour, looking back to the main town and clock tower

The first floors have balconys for hanging out the clothes, sitting and pondering

However

On street level washing is hung out to dry on a rack on the pavement

On a warm day sitting outside on the sidewalk with a cup of coffee and watching the boats sail through the passage is a simple winter pleasure

Boats are parked side by side with cars along the end of the habour, keeping them safe from winter storms

The house in the sea

It has been built on a small causeway, jutting out into the sea

A lot of rising damp I imagine in the winter

This island guarding one end of Poros harbour has the ruins of a Venetian stronghold.  Sheep graze on its slopes but it is forbidden to step foot on the island,  There are antiquities  which have not yet been excavated

Another Greek Tradition...

Eating meat on  Smoky Thursday.   

No photos of food will be included in this post...
you'll be pleased to know


This is one of the  most pleasurable  days before the strict fasting of Lent.   Lent means no meat, cheese, eggs, fish, dairy for 7 weeks - for those that follow strictly the commandments of the Orthodox church.

Called Tsiknopempti, Smoky or Smelly Thursday.  Smoky and smelly because of the delectable aroma of meat on the barbecue which wafts from every home on the island along the harbour, through the back streets,  tempting the twitching nostrils.  11 days before Clean Monday, Ash Monday to the rest of you.  This is meat week, next week is cheese week then follows the 7 weeks of fasting.

Traditonally we all eat meat on this day.  Grilled meat.  It's another of those get-together days.  Families gather together, eat meat with lashings of tzatziki.  The kids dress up in their carnival costumes and usually it all winds up with dancing and much merriment.

Mind you, it's nothing like the years pre-crisis when the petrol station spit roasted a whole lamb, the taxi boat owners set up a grill on the wharf and every butcher's shop had a BBQ outside their shop.

Local schools set up grills in the playgrounds and provide souvlaki (meat on a skewer), a piece of bread and a drink for the children.  Souvlaki on a stick always comes with a small slice of bread and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Greek children are just as happy to drink water though juice is offered as well.

Our big barbeque is fired up for this occasion

The men grill, test and quench their thirst around the fire

Our family  has gathered

  

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Sun? It aint shining around here anymore.

  The photos below of 'fun' in the sun were taken ten days ago.  

Now we're coming out the back end of another blast from Siberia.  This storm has been named 'Okeania'.

I'm not sure where this name came from.

  Oceania (with a 'c') ... are/is all those islands, Polynesia, Mikronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand-esia down in the South Pacific.

  'Nesia' means 'islands' in greek.

Okean-us... on the other hand is a greek sea deity.

 Okean-ia... is the female version but Wiki-wots-it doesn't mention a female sea deity of that name.

In our world right now it's  wind and snow and ice. Nightly temperatures  got down to a few degrees above freezing.  Northern suburbs of Athens were covered in a layer of snow, harbours were closed for a few days, mainly in the windy Cycladic islands (Myconos, Naxos, Paros etc) and our wood pile is getting seriously low.  

Everyone else in the northern hemisphere seems to be talking about the first signs of spring.  I haven't seen too many signs myself.

The hydrangea has budded. 

I sighted one lone anemone

This photo is lifted from the internet.  It's far too cold to traipse out looking for lonely anemones.  With this weather its probably turned up petals and died away back into a frigid mother earth

Yet ........

a week, or so, ago we ressurected a few summer chairs and set up the table on the balcony for a midday bbq

Sitting in the sunshine with a glass of wine

Cleaning the grill with half a lemon

The lemon cleans, sanitises and sterilises

... so they say

Meat, what else

This time next month it will be octopus and shellfish on the bbq.   I hope, in the Lenten sun

Naughty Boy Day

Tou Asoto   The Day of the Prodigal Son    
2019 Sunday 24 February.  2 weeks before Lent

The prodigal son was the naughty son in the bible who took his early share of the family fortune and wasted  it all on wine, women and song.  Forced to return home when he was destitute he was warmly welcomed by his father who slaughtered the fatted calf for him.  And I'm sure his mother cooked his favourite baclava (sticky sweet), replaced his rags with a coat of many colours and sent him off to the bath house and the barber so she could show him off to the neighbours.  Or she would have if she was Greek.

The return of the prodigal son

When he was younger my greek husband and his friends took great delight in celebrating this day, organising get-togethers where litres of wine were consumed, fatty pig and old boiled goat was eaten and enjoyed (?).    Any excuse for another naughty-boys-bash.  

The younger generation is not so enamoured of this prodigal-son-day and this year he had only one of the old crowd for company.  He is now the grandfather of prodigal sons.

However, this 'festival'  falls during carnival so groups of party goers will always gather this weekend and every weekend till Lent just to celebrate, life and living.

They dress up, they dance, they eat and drink with passion..  Life is good when you're 'at home', ie on Poros, surrounded by friends and family. 

Prodigals in days gone by

Carnival Begins

The three weeks of carnival started, for the Greek Orthodox Church, last weekend.  Three weeks of dressing up, eating, dancing, singing and taking part in strange local customs. 

Lent begins in 3 weeks time,  on March 11 starting with Clean Monday and 7 weeks later we end the fast with offal soup on midnight of Easter Saturday and  spit roast lamb on Easter Sunday, 28th April here.

Our carnival season started off with a dinner and dance organised by the rowing club.  The party was to award medals to some of the rowers and raise funds so the kids can continue their training and travel to the competitions all over Greece.  All our grandchildren are rowers.

Live bouzouki music

The bouzouki is the instrument held by the guy on the stage

                                           

Lots of dancing.  This is the 'harsapiko' the butcher's dance


                                           

Most popular are the circle dancers.  Anyone can join in, and does 


                                          

At the other end of the room the rowing coach, and dance master, grabbed all the children and got them up to dance

                                          

Then they snake danced around the tables.  A good time is always had by all

Ashtrays on the table, even though you're not supposed to smoke indoors and it was an athletic club gathering

Didn't see anyone smoking though.  Anyone desperate for a fag grabbed their coat and went outside for a quick puff, glass in hand and a few friends in tow for a gossip as well

A litre of wine was provided in the price of the meal, after that you bought your own.  The beer was local 'Saronic Lager Beer'.

Poros Island is situated in the Saronic Gulf

The bottle described it this way

'Saronic, nowhere else can you travel so smoothly and comfortable from the reality into the dream'

A glass of wine with a meal is the norm for all of us, including the athletes who are still at school.  Kids grow up with alcohol.  They  drink a glass of wine or beer as they grow older, at a family meal.

No-one stays in their seat.  Kids run around having fun, leaving parents to enjoy themselves too.  Most will get up to dance, socialise ... or go out for a cigarette

The table gets a bit messy but dancing and talking means you want to have another nibble and refill your glass so everything is left as-is till the end

Funds were raised by selling raffle tickets.  Everyone won something.  For 5 euros you got a card with a number and went up to claim your prize.  There were 329  gift donations to win.

Here's a photo of our loot

2 litres of oil from a local oil press

2 jars of mandarine marmelade

a big box of really juicy lemons

A jar  of jam or kilo of lemons makes us happy but a night of loud music, organised chaos, makes some even happier

Sunny Days, Clear Nights

18.15pm ... dusk and the huge orange full moon is already above the horizon.

Calls from kids down in town. Everyone is watching this brilliant spectacle. It's going to be even more amazing when it's really dark and the moon is hanging over the water.

 We watch it clear the olive groves, rising above the hills

Meanwhile on the other side of the island the sun was going down, rays shining over the water.  Out in the bay my grandson was rowing with the rest of the team in this glorious calm sea.

A strange phenomenon...

Sunset and moonrise concurrently.

For the first time in weeks the temperature was a warm 15oC, the sun was shining and there was no wind

Photos of a calm harbour

Little fishing boats and piles of nets on the wharf

Guess what,

I just heard the long term weather forecast. Weekend temperatures are going down to 5oC with more rain.

This winter is not over yet...

Just Cooking

Sometimes my cooking is succesful, looks good and tastes good.

Sometimes I have failures though rarely disasters

Uusually I blame the fiascos on someone who has given me the evil eye.  

This time I'll have to take the rap.  I had a day of fiascos one after the other

A lemon cake using a whole lemon, softened and turned into pulp, peel and all.  It sank in the middle, heaven knows why.  It was delicious though and the next one came out perfectly

My sourdough loaf came out rather black on top.  I cooked it in a covered dish and after the first half hour I took off the lid and turned down the heat. Only I didn't turn down the heat, it cooked away at 220o.  Far too hot.  Tasty bread though.  I sprinkled the top with water and covered it with a cloth and instead of being hard and brittle the crust was soft and chewy and full of flavour

Traditional lentil soup

The lentils were a little too hard and I put a hot pepper in the pot which made it too spicy for our liking.  But we ate the soup and it was lovely and 'warming' on the cold winter's day

Lentils and dried beans have to be relatively fresh.  The longer they stay in the packet or in the cupbaord, the harder they will be and they'll need more cooking.  These must have been old stock.  Next time I'll buy them by the kilo in a brown bag from our organic shop.