Events have certainly been a little hum drum of late interspersed with trips to the Dentist and visits to the beach on very hot days.
We took a photo of our first jasmine flower last week. This was one of the first of the pots we planted and we have been searching for new growth each morning anticipating the green cover it will give us at the front of the house and also the lovely scent as the sun goes down.
A short drive brought us to the beach at Georgeopolis last weekend and the weather was stunning enough for me to sit on the beach in the shade of the palm leaf coverings and do a water colour of the landscape. I was trying to get down on paper the lovely promontory into the sea with a small white chapel nearly at the end of it. Sadly the photo does not do it justice.
A large lump on the side of my gum which I checked with my own UK dentist before I left and which was airily dismissed as a minor low-grade infection had not gone away and was beginning to worry me so I booked up an appointment with Anna's dentist in Rethymnon. Check out the lovely view from the Dentist's balcony!
I had been trying to deal with an abscess all this time and now needed root canal surgery which thankfully was not a painful process except for my wallet. Since the work began to drain the infection two more fillings have dropped out and I am confined to mashed banana and baby food for a few days before we can get all the work done to fix me up! My suspicion that the UK NHS dentist was just taking regular money for doing next to nothing for the past four years was rather confirmed. The Greek dentist was horrified to see all the ugly amalgum used over the years and is doing a good job in patching me up!
We had been looking for trellis to put on the upstairs terrace for some time and now that some of the plants are establishing themselves, the quest had become more urgent. We eventually found a DIY store not too far away and managed to buy three trellises and some wood preservative which was so strong smelling we had to paint them outside the house and drove off all the neighbours in the process who had been sitting on their doorsteps in the evening shadows. Thank goodness the wood treatment had gone off by the morning and we were nice to know again the next day!
On Wednesday, as the evening drew on and it got cooler, K and I decided to go for a short stroll and headed towards the village square. As we turned the corner we were surprised to see fair ground lights and lots of activity outside the primary school. There were balloons on sale, bags of popcorn, a barbecue and loads of parents and children milling about and enjoying themselves. We were ushered into the playground and told that it was the last day of term and there was always a big party and concert to celebrate. It looked so much more fun than any of our school events and I wandered into a classroom to have a look at the children's work realising that I could benefit from some of the infant school writing practice exercises! Sadly, we had missed the concert but we were told that term ends on 15 June every year – so next year there was no excuse to miss the fun!
After lots of questions, I am beginning Greek lessons in a small way with a friend called Kathy who, with her husband, are having a new house built on the edge of the village. She knew of a young Dutch lady with a Greek husband who had lessons herself 3 years ago and still remembers all the pitfalls of learning a new language. So we are having a couple of one-off lessons in the meantime and starting properly in September with a text book, exercise books and a very patient teacher! Kathy and I are currently puzzling through the Greek alphabet and learning to form our letters all over again!
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