K and I have not really done much in the way of creative writing or poetry for many a long year, but tagged on to all the airport runs that Kimon was doing at the beginning of the week, we had another invitation. I went to my Tuesday Art Class and Kimon had met Anna from Heraklion airport at luchtime – so it was about 4.00 in the afternoon when we drove West towards Nigel and Marya’s house at Kalamitsi where we had been invited to stay the night. We had to turn off the road at Georgopouli which is a nice little resort where a river runs into the sea. A King George (not sure which one) from England visited there at the beginning of the century and suggested that a lot of Eucalyptus trees should be planted as the land was marshy and the locals suffered greatly with mosquitos. So, now the enormous trees are a feature of his namesake town square and there are lovely little shops and tavernas to visit. However, we were not stopping because the road to Kalamitsi runs straight through the town, across the bridge over the river and winds up and up in the mountains until you have an eagle’s eye panorama of the sea. K and I noted all the building work going on everywhere and wondered how long people’s sea views would necessarily exist. Nigel was nervous because he had offered to give a talk at the Arts Society the following day and he was trying not to have second thoughts about it. We had a lovely meal (Cottage Pie made with pork mince = Pigman’s Pie) and lots of laughs and catch up time since we all last met over a year ago.
Nigel was the friend who had helped K make all the basic furniture for our house – refectory table, smaller table and four beds. In their house in Kalamitsi, Nigel had made a completely fitted kitchen, lots of beds and tables, bookshelves, their staircase and had discovered all sorts of carpentry skills that he didn’t know he had before!
The next morning we set off for the Arts Café in Vamos. This is a busy little place where lots of English people have settled but which K and I have never visited before. The title of N’s talk was the Life And Work of Roger McGough (who presents Poetry Please on Radio Four). N did a great talk with lots of humour and examples of Roger’s poetry. There were about 20 in the audience and we all learned a great deal from it and enjoyed the poetry (and a lusty singing of Lily The Pink!) The idea for the talk came about because Roger McGough will be visiting Crete in a month or two and will be running a Poetry Workshop as part of the Vamos Arts Festival. Obviously Nigel has signed up and I paid for Kimon to go as well because he does pen the odd ode and it would be good for him to get some encouragement and input, particularly of a humorous kind. So there are all sorts of good creative things happening. [Sophie, Kate & Leo – we may yet see the publication of The Tale of Vanishing Sidney!]
After the nervous exhaustion of the morning, we all spent a very relaxed lunch by the river at Vrises where the wooden bridges reminded us of Monet’s water lily paintings and Nigel sunk a beer or two in sheer relief that it was over. The sun was hot overhead and we kept moving our chairs to keep in the shade of a large umbrella.
When we eventually got home, I was able to take a look at our new bamboo because Mr Bamboozle had been true to his word and fixed the new canopy together with my free gift – a bright mauve petunia plant. This heavyweight bamboo should last for longer than our previous matting which had been carried away in the winter storms. So, completely exhausted after a busy few days, we sat in style under the new covering and had coffee and metaxa before falling into bed. (photos next blog)
K had done so much driving that we decided not to take the car out for the next 2 or 3 days to give him a chance to unwind and because petrol is so expensive now! We have noticed that there are far fewer cars on the road because of this very steep cost increase of the last month or two. However, we have been “croziering” around the house, inventing ‘pigeon keeper-offers’ (for upstairs window sills) and doing a first coat of paint on the living room walls before we put the book cases in place and unpack all the boxes of books.
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