1 am Fears and Thoughts

 1am plus 8 minutes. I had to get up to have a pee. I lie down. The window above the bed is wide open with only  mosquito netting. Dammit  I can smell smoke. 

I had a look out but no flames, no glow in the sky. It's sort of a stale ash smell so I hope it's only smoke drifting over from wild fires on the mainland . Or my 1am imagination .

Now I have to try and get back to sleep.   I can't of course.

Maybe it's just a wet earth smell. That was strong this afternoon. Dry brown earth dampened down after a short sharp shower.

Elsewhere there was bad flooding. Most unusual for July. Our climates have been tossed and tumbled. West of us Europe has been having heatwaves. Here we are still happily surviving afternoon heat with a fan or a seat in the shade and a bit of a breeze . 

No ants this year. How odd. They used to come out in force before rain was due, invading the bread bin, the closed honey jar and any food left on the bench for half a minute. Don't know how many times I've had to wash a plate of fish or meat to get rid of ants before sealing the dish in the fridge, the only place they can't raid. 

Of course I check my phone. Some messages from NZ where, thanks to an app on my phone, I know it's 10.08 am.

Two messages from yesterday. One glad, one sad. A new addition to our family and a departure.

Do you have clusters of family dates? New borns, a new generation coming in on birthdates of other members of the family?  We have quite a few. For a start my oldest grandson was born on my birth date.

And then there's the number 26. It pops up many times in the family calendar. And now numbers 8 and 3.

3 am . Getting chilly. Time to cover up with a sheet. And turn off YouTube where I've been listening to a video/vlog on glitches in the matrix. Entertaining bosh. 

K is happily snorting in the next room. He couldn't sleep and moved out earlier so as not to disturb me. I'm awake anyway. 

Maybe I should listen to a sleep meditation but the voices grate and annoy.

Roll over and sleep girl!!  So I did. Until 6am when I was woken by thunder and heavy rain. Had to get up and close windows . 

Mediterranean Lunch

 Fresh and healthy with an overload of olive oil.

It doesn't bear thinking about the calories. So I don't. I'll be going swimming this afternoon. A little exercise will balance em out. Weather permitting. The north wind blows rubbish straight on to our local beach.  I don't like swimming amongst bits of plastic and I don't like being slapped in the face by a sudden surge of seawater.

Aubergines, bought at the market on Friday morning.  Fried and topped with a tomato sauce, made by me, with a fresh tomato, garlic and parsley.  I still amaze myself at the amount of olive oil I use to fry these things.  Aubergines really do soak up oil like a sponge but that's the way m-in-law and her mother did it so that's what I do.  

If I was cooking the aubergine for some dish in the oven, like moussaka,  I would bake them with a lick of oil but to fry them to a nice crispy-ness you do need plenty of oil.

Fish fresh from the boat, also fried in oil.  Delicious.  

Greens and big watery zucchini, called pitsouni, boiled and served with oil and garlic and vinegar.  Most greens are doused in lemon juice but this particular variety needs vinegar apparently.  Called vlita in Greek.  

Here I can avoid the oil.  Everyone adds their own according to taste.

K drank a glass of local wine and I had a few slugs of water. I haven't had any alcohol for over a month. 

We didn't go swimming.  There was a very sudden and unexpected shower of rain.  By the time I had rushed out to bring in the washing and roll up the car windows it was almost over.  If I was a child I would have been charging down to the beach to swim in the rain.  Not any longer. Been there, done that.  

I loaded all our rubbish onto the quad boat and took it to the big bins at the top of the road instead.

Getting it Off My Chest

First our dear neighbour Turkey or Türkiye as it now calls itself. The difference? None. 

I listen to the news and recognise their leader's voice. Time to change channels.   

Greek news says that he's  unpopular in his own country, (Türkiye), and their economy is going to crash. But their news tells another story.

 Their news, so we are told, paints Greece as the aggressor, the grabber of Türkiyesh homeland. They demand all the islands near their coast, and there are quite a few of those, some within spitting distance.  

Their economic crisis, the leader says, is the fault of foreign powers.  Blah blah blah

Why do I even bother writing all this. I usually don't . 

 Blogger Rachel is so spot on when she says her day is far more enjoyable without listening to news broadcasts.

Last year there was a string of wife killings which filled our news bulletins for weeks on end. Now it's sons killing their mothers. And wives are still being dispatched as well. 

Meantime I watched a programme on the island of Crete. A French woman presents it. How bloody one sided she is. She met shepherds and milked a sheep, boring, yawn. She visited the mountain village of Anoyia and K and I laughed out loud. She presented it as the music capital of Greece, full of friendly, happy peasants. It certainly is the birthplace of some great Cretan musicians but it's notoriety, not fame, is for being the centre of family feuds, shoot-outs and vendettas. Oh and don't forget the police blockades and drug running. It's certainly a village well known all over Greece.

Her cameraMan 'shot' all the men out in the main square in the evening playing music and drinking. One big happy family she said. Belly laugh.

And not once in the whole bloody programme did she ask where the darn women were or why in that square at night with the men eating and drinking she was the only woman present.

Makes me wonder about all the other island programmes I've seen her present. When you don't know you just believe her balderdash, don't question. 

She's off my list!

I'll stick to Hercule Poirot. He's on every evening for 2 hours of happy viewing. I've seen all the episodes, some three or four times. The Greeks must like old Agatha because the show has been going on for a couple of months. I like the englishness of it. K doesn't watch but it's at a time he's busy with other things and I'm left alone.

Gotta be thankful for that

There's more I could write but I've just had a big Mediterranean lunch and it's siesta time.

Pease Pudding Cold

 Split pea purée, fava in Greece, is indeed very similar to the English please pudding. It can be eaten hot but is preferred cold. Around here it's mixed with oodles of olive oil and eaten with raw sliced onion.

I have made a small batch. Ours will be accompanied by a Greek salad and a few fried fish which K picked up from the kaïki on the waterfront this morning.

The split peas are washed before boiling. In years gone by I had to go through them carefully and remove sticks and stones. Now they seem to have perfected their pre-packaging cleaning system 

I boiled them slowly for around 40 minutes with a chopped onion. Then I whizzed them with the stick blender. A little salt and they are ready.

Well, 'almost' ready. First I had to stir in about half a wine glass of olive oil, only the best and freshest, and chop some onion.

In other areas they cooked with or accompanied by capers, caramelised onions, garlic, thyme or lemon juice.  I came across a Morrocan recipe which added paprika and cumin.  Both would go perfectly.  But not in this household.

Fiestas...no church involved

Summer is the time for lots of celebrating.  But then so is winter, spring and autumn here.

The Nemean Games took place over 24-26 June this year.  If you want to take part in an ancient athletic competition then make a note  for 2024.  The runners are grouped by age and gender and run, or walk, a 90 metre course. Competitors come from all over the world and anyone from 8 years to 'whatever' can enter.  There are no medals, just a fun day knowing you have run, barefoot, 'on the same earth where ancient feet ran some 2,300 years ago'.

For more info look up   neameangames.org 

Meanwhile on the little island down in the Cyclades called Schinousa the split pea festival was taking place.  Split peas in greek are called 'fava'.  The island is famous in Greece for its yellow split peas.  My traditional person loves them and they are an important part of our summer menu.  His mother used to make fava puree on days when she was making the weeks bread.  Slices of her bread, hot from the communal oven, dipped in the families fresh olive oil and smothered in fava was the order of the baking day.  And you needed it after carrying great heavy pans of bread to and from from the local bakery.  The sourdough had been rising since the previous evening and she got up well before dawn to knead the loaves.  When they had been formed and then left to rise it was the job of all the women to and children to haul them off to be baked and make sure they went into the big oven before they had over proofed.

Visitors to the  festival on Schinousa can sample the split peas of course along with wine.  This year everyone was encouraged to bring their own glass so no plastic glasses would pollute the environment. As at any greek festival there was music and dancing for anyone to join in.

You didn't think you'd get away without any religion did you?  July and August are just one religious festival after another especially on the islands.

June 24 - St John of the Fires (mid summer elsewhere)

June 28 - Agioi (Saints) Anargyroi

June 29 - Petros and Pavlos (Peter and Paul)

July 1 - Kosmas and Damianos

July 1 - One of our local churches dedicated to the Holy Belt has a small celebration

July 7 - Saint Kyriaki.  There's a fiesta on the nearby island of Angistri

July 17 - Saint Marina

July 20 - Profit Elijah.  Another small church near us has its fiesta

July 23 - Saint Pelargia

July 25 - One of the fiesta days of Saint Anne

July 26 - Saint Paraskevi.  Another small church near us.

And there are more fiestas to be sure.  Every island, town, village has its own Saint and its special fiesta.

Family

Just carrying on a little from yesterday.  I'm lucky to be part of a close family even if we all live thousands of miles apart.  I know they have my back and our greek family will always be welcomed by their Kiwi and Australian relatives, and vice-versa.

My greek daughters get on just as well with their downunder cousins as they do with their greek cousins.  Amazing really.

We haven't seen any of the downunder family for the last few years and at last this year we will be having visitors.  Poros will be invaded  in September.  Now we just have to survive this summer heat.

We will be slaughtering vowels all over the island, laughing loudly and drinking lots of icy g and ts.

Thanks to you all for your mercy parcels.  Arnotts crackers, pineapple lumps, marmite and vegemite.  Years ago we got boxes of good wine brought over from Athens at Xmas, a present from Australia, NZ calendars to last us all through the year.  There's one hanging above the computer right now with a picture of NZ waterfalls.  T-shirts, hats, hoodies.  Everyone loves to show off in kiwi clothing.  Grandson George wears a Maori pendant round his neck, has done for about the last ten years.  All welcome presents.

Thanks Susi for your generous  parcels.  Thanks to cousin Jenny for the crossword magazines. 

 And so much help in times of need.  Occh, but you're a fine bunch.  I'll spit on you individually when I see you.

NZ cookery books, books set in Australia and NZ.  NZ Womens Weekly magazines.  On and on.

Just wanted to write another thank you.

 

An Attitude of Gratitude

I made a list.  I love lists.  I have shopping lists for the supermarket, another for online purchases (when the Universe is willing), a list of jobs for my grandchildren.  When grandkids hear that Nana 'has a list' they groan and hide.  

So here is another list.  A list to convince myself that all is well in my little world.  Here in my place, where the cicadas are thumping their tymbals in flights of deafening mating delight ( I thought they made the noise by rubbing their back legs together. Not so. Maybe that's crickets).  Where breezes are blowing and the sea is warming. 

 I can exchange books for free down in the town when I do my shopping and have the odd coffee.  So many books in Scandanvian but a dive into the back of the shelves always reveals some little gem in English.  

A good friend, the last of our little conclave of British expats which has dispersed over the years, provides me with household goods, furniture and lately bundles of excellent curtains which we really needed, from other departing expat residents.   I made our old curtains by hand and one curtain  never quite seemed to be the same level as its neighbour, they were faded and disintegrating.  A thousand thanks J.  And a thousand thanks for being a breath of english logic and humour in my life

Thanks for family on the island who care and help and gather around.  That's my daughters whom we are lucky to have so close, grandchildren, sons in law and the immediate and extended greek family.

A long suffering daughter who does all our taxes and paperwork and doesn't snap and grumble when I have to make sure for the umpteenth time that I really do understand

Thanks to myself for finally losing most of my extra weight and after two years being able to throw 2 huge bags of even huger clothes.  Thanks to my daughters who gave me the kick in the backside which got me walking and exercising. Still got more to lose. It's coming off, leaving bingo wings and wrinkles. Never mind. Don't care. Goes with the grey hair and liver spots.

Thanks to my ancestors, my parents, who handed me down good strong anglo-saxon and german genes.  We're a hardy lot.  

Thanks for free hospitals and subsidised medicine.  I've just been in one of those rural hospitals for a couple of days.  The nurses were so friendly, smiling, helpful.  I spit on them!!  I had a scrape and now I'm waiting for biopsy results but the gyno doc thinks I look peachy inside so I am not worrying.

One of my mottos is 'it's not worth worrying about things that are probably never going to happen'.  And I don't worry.  Though my blood pressure went through the roof when I did my first lot of tests, as it often does when I see those white coats, or in this case a green nurses uniform.  I do just panic a wee bit though I only admit that to myself.

We have a healthy diet full of beans and legumes and fresh fruit and vegetables.  I haven't had a glass of wine in weeks and not even the occasional cigarette.  I don't drink much in the summer.  In this heat alcohol just makes me hotter.

I have a phone for all my needs.  Thanks to the powers on high.  How did I forget to pack a book for the hospital.  How is that even possible.  Usually the book is the first thing that goes in the bag.  Must have been having one of those panic moments and a memory blank.  The kindle is on my phone though and so I'm grateful that I could read anyway though I seem to have spent most of the first day sleeping.  And I did remember my charger and earphones.  That's a sign of the times.  I have my whole life on my phone now.

Our cherry tomato plants, 2 of them, produced 6 excellent cherry tomatoes.  They were sweet and tasty.  One immediately curled up its toes and withered away.  5 tomatoes was just too much for the wee thing.  I'm nursing the other to strength and production.  Yesterday I cracked an egg into the soil and gave it a stir.  Cross fingers, though I may just see if I can buy another 2 or 3 plants.  The capsicums are producing peppers and the aubergine is strong and healthy and has flowers but no fruit yet.

And last, for now, but definitely not least was K's 50 year Navy reunion.  He helped organise it at the Navy school here on Poros where they graduated 50 years ago. K got a lot of praise for his 'brilliant' organisation . Happy man makes happy wife .  He met all his old mates and  they ate, drank, danced and no doubt talked non stop about the good old days in the Navy.  And guess what, I didn't have to attend with him.  Hooray .  I've heard all those stories over and over for 43 years.  So glad he enjoyed himself, so glad I did too, at home.

Thanks