We needed to be rescued yesterday. The weather was a perfect for a winter's day and we set off for a bit of fresh air and the idea in our minds of getting a bucket of earth (for geranium cuttings) and some stones from the beach (to stop the cats from next door scrabbling in the plant pots). We headed for our nearest deserted beach at Geropotamos and waded about in the sand checking seaweed and pieces of driftwood washed up by the recent stormy seas.
Having collected the one or two items needed, K decided to drive the car into soft sand (which our UK car would have taken in its stride) but our little runabout did not like at all. We tried to dig it out (fortunately having a trowel with us), we tried car mats, palm leaves and bits of plank but could not shift the car from the pit it was steadily digging for itself! What to do with most of our friends now safely back in the UK? After scratching our heads for several minutes and glumly watching the sun go down behind the cliffs, K phoned 'Adonis the Wood' (who had made windows and cupboards for us) and who arrived a little while later in a big 4 x 4 truck driven by his friend. We were so grateful and hope to find some way of saying thank you to them before it is too late. I was just mentally wondering if we would have to spend the whole night there and was looking around for inspiration!
One of the best things about our little stone house is the view from the roof terrace over the mountains. The sun has come up the last two mornings revealing Mount Psiloritis – which has been hiding behind a cloak of thick, dark cloud for weeks now – gleaming in its new winter snow covering. Our first sighting was awesome. It is the highest peak on Crete and we stopped for a real “How Great Thou Art” moment. The subsequent minutes trying to catch the beauty of it on camera were a bit of a let down because of course the colours all merged into one another behind the lens. However, my happy snappy pocket camera did better than Kimon's super-duper digital camera bought at vast expense. To be totally honest, we have still not figured out how to download the photos! Such is life these days – technology is beginning to run too fast for us to keep up.
Sunday was a fantastic day – warm in the sunshine and too good to stay inside, so we found a great place to go for Sunday Lunch at Lappa near Argiroupolis. We walked around the little gap between two mountains where the water pours down in a succession of waterfalls. It was so sheltered and well watered that banana trees, avocados and citrus grew amongst the forest trees. I bravely tried to forage and found nearly edible items to take home along with an armful of kindling to start the fire that night and K found the remains of the old Roman aquaduct. We were relieved to see a table and chairs all set up outside an old mill which had been converted into a lovely warm place to eat. Being British and enjoying the fine weather, K and I promptly sat down at the table outside and the owner politely brought us the menu. After half an hour or so more cars arrived in the car park and several car loads of local families began to arrive well muffled up in fur and leather coats, hats, scarves and gloves eyeing us suspiciously as they passed our table and hurried inside to warm themselves by the roaring fire. The owner was worried about us in the cold outside and invited us in but we stood our ground and ate our meal outside, airily claiming that as Brits we were ready for anything and thoroughly enjoying the unusual menu, but surrendered at the coffee course and scuttled indoors out of the sun (and wind!)
We managed to get back to Art School this morning and it turned out to be a bit of reunion because I had not managed to get there since the beginning of the summer. The big bonus was that K stayed with me and the whole class worked on a still life of different pieces of shiny glass and, as always, it was wonderful to see all the different interpretations from the class members. Some were fanciful, some architectural, some illustrative, some completely zany. It was a lovely morning and we all realise that it is a privilege to be there – even though times are hard and the cost of classes has meant that numbers have fallen in recent months. K kept protesting that he could not draw but actually produced a very fine drawing with a real style of his own. (Hope we can get him to continue.)
We have deduced that our post arrives weekly on Tuesdays – which is a bit unfortunate if one's birthday happens to be on a Wednesday – but we had a bumper bundle today and lots of desk work to get down to while a stew bubbled on the wood stove. We are so grateful for this huge burner which warms the whole house and are hoping that the wood pile lasts us through the winter. The days have been lovely and fine but the temperatures are really dropping at nights and we keep having Crozier (slightly Heath Robinson) ideas about hot water bottles and warming pans! We will also have to have our bathroom dug up and replaced in the next week or two as we have sprung a leak in the floor. To conserve money, we had tried to wait another year before doing the work but a skating rink on the marble floor has brought the vague want to a priority. We look forward having a room which is 'P I N K' no longer and the use of a fully functional washbasin which we can get to without the oddity of first climbing into the shower pan …. Greek plumbing does have dubious results sometimes ... and we hope for much better …. say no more.
No comments:
Post a Comment