Another Garden

Some photos from my daughter's garden area

An artichoke plant.  Too far gone to be eaten

The 'flower' up close.  When the sun was out this artichoke was open showing the pink fuzz around the heart inside but as the clouds came across it closed up

Their walnut tree.  Full of walnuts which I still haven't gathered for pickling.  It may be too late

This is a very good shade tree in the summer, so green and leafy

The hammock under the citrus trees

This used to be the chook pen

Now its the perfect place for a hammock.  A breeze comes down from the hills behind in the summer afternoon.  Cool and quiet for a summer siesta

BBQs and beyond

 BBQs and beyond.

The last family birthday party  was not held at our place, for once.   I arrived at my daughter's house all dressed up in my best going-out-to-a-family-bbq clothes, greeted everyone, air kissed, took photos and sat down.  The birthday son-in-law poured me a glass of wine and I simply soicalised and observed.  Those words in italics should actually be in capitals!  Woohoo.  

Son-in-law's family home

The BBQ with its clean white marble finish which inspired K to remodel ours

A week we held another birthday party, this time at our house, but a little more relaxed than usual  And that's the birthdays over till the end of August.

This is a funnel to help the coals light up 

It apparently goes over the lit coals and channels air somehow

I suggest that if you want to learn about it then you should google as K has been doing ever since lockdown began.  He has been quoting undeniable facts and 'cutting edge' ideas at me for the last 3 months.  Oh isn't it amazing what a load of irrefutable information you can fill your head with from the internet.

The octopus hanging out on the fence

I googled 'drying out octopus' but didn't come up with much.     It's a common sight on greek islands in the summer.  The perfect photo opportunity.

K says they only dry it out before it goes on a bbq so it has a crisp (tough) outer coating and is nice and chewy.  Lots of italics today.

We once took a sun dried octopus with us to NZ.  I declared it of course going into NZ.  If you don't declare any food or animal products you'll get caught and have to pay huge fines.  I was surprised, amazed, that they let us take it into the country.  I wasn't surprised or amazed when we came to bbq it and it was tougher than shoe leather. 

The three wine barrels

Only one actually contains wine

One of them is full of really good homemade wine vinegar and the other is empty.

In days of yore they would have two barrels of white and one of red.  We used to have three barrels of wine in our shed too.  Now we have none.  It's actually hard work making wine in the initial stages.  Barrels and the room where they are kept have to be scrubbed clean and without chemicals or anything which might leave a hint of some unwanted smell which might taint the wine.  The room has to be dry and cool and preferably  in the line of the north wind.  The juice has to be tested and stirred and you have to know the right moment to seal it once the bubbling has stopped..  During this process the juice is poured out into other containers.  The dregs at the bottom of the barrel have to be removed and the barrel cleaned before the juice goes back in again.  And then the waiting till it matures can be downright tormenting.  

But then you are a pro and can discuss your wine and your neighbours' for hours on end and have endless refills for your parties.  What bliss for traditional people.

The Good Times

A family birthday 

Another celebration in the summer of corona-virus

We are  free to come and go but with social distancing, lots of handwashing and commonsense.  However, already we have new clusters around the country of fresh corona cases as family members fly back from the USof A, Germany, greet other family members in the usual mediterranean  cheek-kissing-hugging fashion and then circulate in cafeterias and tavernas greeting long lost friends the same way.  Never mind the  beach parties down on the island of Mykonos where the dancers and revellers are jam packed like sunburnt sardines.

And in a weeks time the country opens up for foreign tourists.  The english, the Italians, the Germans and the Spanish will be welcomed but hopefully only at five paces and with bottles of handwash

In the meantime our family life is back, more or less to normal.

Birthdays and name days are together times

This time it was a birthday.  

Setting the long table

The boys doing what boys do best.........

Filling bottles with wine from the family barrels

A 3 1/2 kilo octopus hanging out to dry before it goes on the coals

Of course there was dancing

And birthday cake

Cheesecake, homemade by the girls

The boys turn to fill the bottles

BBQing is thirsty work

And in the middle of all these noisy celebrations there was a zing as my phone received a whatsap message from downunder.

We had another family birthday to celebrate, a beautiful baby boy had just been delivered  to bring even greater joy and lots of 'sniff-sniffs' on my part.

We have lots of clusters of birthdays in our family. June has a small cluster, October has another and November-December is a huge cluster of birthdays .

And 26 is a number which pops up throughout the year.

Family!

Oh wowsers..... a rock in the road

A  rather large boulder in the middle of our back road.

There was a rather large tree root as well

This road is rarely used at this time of the year but it was dusk and someone coming down that dark road at night would have got a nasty surprise.  K rang all the people he knows in the Municipality and made sure they moved it quickly.  He is excellent at giving orders, even over the telephone.  He has the voice that says 'jump and run, or else'

It might look as though the one handed grandson was the hero but it was actually his younger sister posing behind him.

Poppi got rid of the tree and the debris.

Disaster averted

Friday Norm

Our farmers' market opened again a few weeks ago when cafes and tavernas re-opened.  Stalls are supposed to be further apart.  Our market has distanced the stallls but it's a tiny operation, ten at the most in mid-summer when they are piled high with watermelon (karpuzi), zucchini, vlita (greens) and of course tomatoes, tomatoes which last year appeared for the first time in a variety of colours and sizes.

This is an inbetween season now.  There are still oranges for sale but not much other fruit

One of the producers is an Indian who along with his wife has the best set out, the cheapest and the most enticing fruit and vegetables.

He had some very early melon.  We bought two, a bit of a gamble at this time of the year.  One of them was full of flavour, the other almost tasteless but still refreshing when chilled

'Tis the oregano season.  Everyone had huge bunches of dried oregano.   These ones came from near the village of Methana just down the road on the mainland.

I had been hearing for years, from my mother-in-law and all the old aunts that the best rigani (oregano) came from Methana.  And it still does.  I asked K's cousin where it was from and he immediately asserted 'Methana'. 

Down one end the honey sellers.

They sell beeswax (edible, not the furniture wax), and small jars of a healing balm made from olive oil and honey

I had forgotten our jar of honey was getting very low.  We will have to buy some next week.  K prefers the thyme honey, 14euros a kilo, I prefer the orange blossom honey, 8 euros a kilo

And the rest of the market

Another Fish Dish

Another fish dish

We are still eating the fish, fresh frozen, that were handed over the gate a few weeks ago 

These were caught in a net down in a bay round the back of the island.  They were wild but possibly escapees from the fish farm nearby.  They were delicious.

K cooks the fish.  I do make fish soup now and again and I am the fryer of salt cod but K is the fish specialist.  He catches them , he cleans them and he cooks them

These are scaled and gutted but still have their heads and tails.

the fish is called tsipoura in greek

the english translation seems to bream

It is a great fish for the bbq or grill, fried and baked

K baked this as you can see with strips of carrot, zucchini and onion, white wine and olive oil.  Sometimes he adds thin slices of potato too

Cafe Koultoura

Kafe koultoura

Or cafe culture in another language.  Every country has this love of coffee (or whatever drink you drink).  France and Italy are the countries which jump out for me.  Here in Greece when my girls go out for coffee it is coffee in inverted commas. Coffee in the morning, 'coffee' till the late hours.  A coffee here means hours of talking, watching humanity passing by and possibly 'sitting on' a small demi tasse of greek coffee costing as little as 1 euro..   What it is Not part of the culture is a plastic cup of coffee in hand while walking down the street.

Where you drink your coffee is very important.  The coffee has to be good but so does the compoany that gathers round you and the friendliness and interaction of the owner and the waiter.  If you're a regular your coffee will be brought out to you without having to wait and order it.  They know who you are and remember what you like.

Here on Poros we frequent two (sometimes 3) cafeterias which are K-approved.  We warn visitors and show them the correct hangouts.  If you sit elsewhere he won't be joining you ....and you'll miss out on that quintessential (k) greek experience.

I just had a look at the top coffee drinking countries.  The Scandanavian countries are up all up there in the top 5, Italy is number 13, Greece 17 and France 18.  I presume that Scandanavians make/get their coffee, drink it and  have another 2 or three or more during the day, unlike the slower paced mediterranean countries where coffee is only one part of the package and is often followed by your favourite tipple.

The Cafenion

This is a smaller and older-fashioned version of the cafeteria where men gather to play cards and backgammon, drink coffee and ouzo, and pass their day away from the wife. There is no loud music and the meze for ouzo will be be a simple plate of olives and cucumber all on a toothpick. Poros hasn't too got a traditional cafenion anymore, not that I can think of anyway.  The elderly men, sometimes with their wives nowadays, gather at certain cafeterias, most of them on the K list.  

This is our view from the down-town cafeteria where we usually drink our coffee

I've posted a similar photo many, many times

With a yacht or maybe a fishing boat in the background, with a foreground of the lines of motorbikes

This was taken on our first day back after lockdown

The same company in the back of the cafe, sitting in their same seats

Everyday at 10am, they appear, an older couple first and they are joined by a changing group of 4 or 5, always talking loudly

The tables are slightly further apart, the waitress wears a mask, sometimes on her face, sometimes around the neck.  Otherwise the scene is unchanged

After coffee came red wine and ouzo

That reliable normality again

People stopped for a chat, moved on

Here is our local priest on his way back from a house visit and a blessing

Our bikes parked opposite

As usual someone parks on the road right behind me so I can't get out even though there is a space 2 metres down

Double parking for cars of course

Even a couple of luxury yachts

Greek owned I suppose and with greek passengers

Social distancing is not the norm

Behind us was the bouzouki player with a wee crowd around his table, drinking and sighing and singing to the passionate love songs

This weekend is a three-dayer

Suzi (her surname), the weather lady, has promised the sun will shine so the island will be full again.  Full of the richer Athenians who weren't affected by three months without income.