CHATS ET CHIENS, GHATES KAI SKILA

How can you make “it's raining cats and dogs” sound much, much more interesting than it really is?

Some of the villagers are thinking that it is about time that we all start building an Ark! The waterfall in the back yard has started up again which keeps us awake and our gum boots are earning their keep. The up side to this is that the temperature is not too cold – if it was, we would be under several feet of snow.

In spite of all this, we had an interesting diversion this week on the arrival of our French friends from Marseilles who we met last Easter. At the time, they were organising for their plot of land to be blessed by the village Papa prior to laying the foundations for their new house. We were able to supply cold water and cups of English tea from time to time after they had worn themselves out pruning their olive trees and getting the necessary permits and documents to start work. Since that time, we passed the shell of their new house most days on the road out of the village and were wondering why we had not seen them again for the next stage of the work. On Monday, Kimon had a dream about them and was telling me about it, saying how strange it was because he was dreaming in French, which was odd, but we pressed on with Monday jobs and had forgot about it by the evening. You can guess how surprised we were to open the door and find them back in the village again when the weather was cold, wet, miserable and we had been huddled in front of the log burner keeping toasty warm. We hauled them in out of the cold as it was definitely not building weather and welcomed them back after such a long time away!

Jean-Luc and France had booked an apartment in the village and planned to see the Architect, organise tiles, windows and doors and spend a week catching up with all the backlog which had accumulated because France had broken her ankle in the summer and they had not been able to get back to Crete all last year. After a bit of a late night where we toasted the New Year, the success of their building project and many other things, I was still abed when they turned up first thing the next morning. Their rented apartment had no heating, no hot water, a faulty loo and a fridge which did not work so they asked if they could come and stay with us! HELP! I hastily leapt upstairs to clear away towels, plastic sheeting and so on which had been arranged under the leaky bits of roof and looked for clean bedding, towels and hot water bottles. All the while I was manically chasing about, I was praying that the rain would stop and the roof would stay watertight for however long their stay lasted.

AND … magically, in spite of days and days of rain, our peculiar old roof did just that. They left after several days of intensive discussions about the European economy, the Armenian Church, their re-evaluation of what they would need to make their house cosy and warm in a Cretan winter, discussions about books, metaphysical ideas, intrinsic good of certain foodstuffs and an amused observation on our part about how long it takes two people to hog a bathroom in the morning!!! However, they left us with an enormous round cheese from the local dairy and we were able to procure 10 k of lemons which they wanted to take back to France with them along with a couple of bottles of raki and local wine which is good stuff and not at all expensive. I don't think that K and I will ever make a living as hoteliers but it did do a lot for 'entente cordiale'. They drove off in a heavy downpour which lasted all night and the roof only began to leak again the following morning when they were safely on the ferry – so we are hoping for some strong wind and sunshine to dry us out again before the arrival of our next winter visitor! Prayer works!

We were able to commiserate over learning Greek which is not at all easy. It had been good to laugh at our collective observation that the Greek alphabet is most unfairly NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, missing out the letter B (beta = V, whilst B is made up of a combination of M+P [written as pi]) and the letter C does not exist but (using kappa, K) is listed somewhere further on. Z comes after E and the alphabet incorporates a nasty collection of epsilons, upsilons, mi, ni, xi, fi, chi, psi – surely surplus to requirements along with big O's and little o's (omega and omicron)... can't resist lapsing into the four candles sketch… got any 0's ? Jean-Luc kindly left a French Tutorial book entitled 'le grec sans peine' which inexplicably made the whole brain cudgelling issue a bit less like hitting our heads against a brick wall. So now we seem to be learning Greek and French at the same time and have our work cut out! We just hope J.-L. and F. don't give us a test when they return to Crete in March. 

  

GYMNASTIKI

No, we're not training for the Olympics; gymnastiki is the word for exercise in Greek and we have been in sore need of stretching our legs and getting out and about in an unusually wet Cretan winter.

Accordingly, we jumped into the car at the weekend to meet up for a CIC 'short walk' and met up with some Dutch friends en route. (We have never quite trusted this description since the 14k 'short' flower walk which took place last Easter! Some of the organised walks in Crete are for mountaineers only!) Together we drove to the South of the Island where the sun seemed to be shining – always about a mile or two in front of us. However, we reached the mustering point at Asomatos where we planned to visit a small museum and then plot a downhill path towards Plakias and the seaside where we could see the sun shining brightly over a calm sea. We kept checking the sky which promised everything – dark cloud, rain showers, odd patches of blue sky, sunshine and Scotch mist - and wondered what would be the best plan for the day. In the near distance, as we waited for everyone else to arrive, K and I were entranced to see a little girl (resembling our daughter Kate aged 9 or 10) sprinting along a small track with her hair flowing out behind her as she tried to catch up with a run-away baby lamb and then watched as a second baby lamb chased her – silent movie style - down the path. At the head of the track, a flock of sheep were being moved to new grazing and there were obviously a couple of escapees! We were concerned that she seemed to catch up with one lamb but miss the other, but – no a few minutes later she reappeared after a count up (definitely an Olympic sprinter in the making) chasing back along the path at top speed and returning with a wriggly baby lamb in her arms to join the flock.

The museum was fascinating. It had been the collection of a Greek Orthodox Priest and was now presented and organised by his son as an eclectic mix of – well – everything denoting social history for the last few centuries. The garden entrance held dozens of crystal candelabras – all now being liberally showered with raindrops – and the house was marvellous with a sort of large courtyard where lots of rooms opened into it at ground level and to terraces upstairs. One room was full of WWII memorabilia, medals, cigarette packets, shoes, toys, ecclesiastical furniture and robes, another room full of farming implements, another stacked with kitchen utensils, an office full of old desk sets, clocks, typewriters and walls full of pictures and certificates. I kept looking at things that I remembered using myself in the distant and not so distant past – typewriters, telephones, games, shoe styles, getting a real feeling of 'tempus fugit' – not happy to welcome the reminder that I am too a bit of a museum piece these days. There were also several items of kitchen equipment which I would have loved for my own Minoan kitchen as well as large log baskets and a plate rack! I had to satisfy myself with taking photos and noting the designs of all the home crafted things. There was a real danger of a few more croziered items around the house over the next few months!

Then, as the rain was by now tipping down, we drove down to Lefcogia passing the aforementioned flock of sheep who were now happily grazing in a field around the base of an enormous solar energy photovoltaic installation, and trooped into the village cafeneon where the villagers hospitably shuffled chairs and tables into the centre so that we could all be accommodated. We were all glad to get some hot coffee inside us and to have been so decisively relieved of the country walk. However, when we emerged from the coffee shop, the sun had come out and we drove the short distance to Plakias and walked along the shore line in the tentative sun shine and around the back streets to see as much as we could (and to get as much exercise as was possible). We found a great place for lunch and caught up with everyone's news. Discussion ranged on learning Greek, roofing compounds and theory, European economy, our Dutch friends' upcoming trip to South America, a form of central heating which runs on fuel made from olive stones (must find out more about that one) and lots of silly jokes which had an international flavour. It was so lovely to get out and about – but we missed out on the exercise!

On Wednesday, we tried a second attempt at getting much needed exercise and went out while the sun shone down to Panormo to do a bit of beach combing. We were not surprised to find that not a piece of driftwood remained on the beach – unlike last year when it was all left until March and when we collected nearly all of it. Times are obviously much harder for Greeks, as finances are beginning to bite badly this year, and it is clear that energy conservation and sustainability are uppermost in everybody's minds.

A few CIC members met in Rethymnon on Thursday for a guided archaeological walk around the Old Town. Ioanna (Joanna), our guide had studied Archaeology at the University of Crete and took us around the familiar alleyways to take a closer look at places we had passed by 100 times without taking in the finer details. It was a wonderful history lesson; we discussed and found evidence of the legacy left by the invasion of Saracens, Venetians and their mercenaries employed from old Russia and Viking stock, two empires of Ottomans, a weird form of bureaucratic 'ethnic relocation' in 1922 after Greek independence when thousands of Muslims were sent to Syria and Egypt whilst Christian Greek peoples were forcibly repatriated to Crete and had to settle there as refugees. All these centuries of history had resulted in a fascinating evolution of building use as Roman churches were converted into Mosques, only to be changed into Greek Orthodox churches much later somehow absorbing Muslim followers within their congregations. Our last port of call was a small bookshop which we have passed on every visit to the town and 25 of us trooped through to a back room to find that one wall was a line of fountains, beautifully carved, in the midst of counters, shelves and bookstands. Out of the door (UPVC double glazed) into the back yard revealed a small Mosque and minaret, which we had seen from a distance but never managed to place before.

Learning a bit more captured our imagination and it was good that our knowledgeable guide had brought all these dusty old stones and carvings to life.  We all wanted to go home and get on with our homework!

HEAVEN'S OVERTURE

Before the rain storms .......

Not much sleep to be had tonight. Well, it had to happen – didn't it? The lovely sunny break of last week has been overtaken by a new weather system bringing heavy rain for days on end. And it is now a bit like living in a cave. Our mended, sea-worthy roof has proved not to be mended or sea-worthy at all and I have been awake most of the night listening to rain pouring from the water spout outside and other dripping noises all suspiciously closer to home which required investigation. A trip upstairs with whatever buckets and bowls I could find, a shift of furniture … and a nice hot cup of tea have woken me up completely. Now, I am listening to an orchestra of sound as drips fall from various heights into glass and plastic containers (Dunk, plonk, dunk, dunk pling) and the waterfall into the concrete yard at the back of the house produce a soundtrack which is hardly conducive to a good night's sleep. (And, several hours later it is still raining!)

Fortunately, the first night of rain turned out to be the worst. We have had quite a number of showers and downfalls since then but on those occasions, the roof did not leak and in any case, the bowls and buckets did not collect very much at all. The ancient roof is mystifying but we have heard of some magic roofing compound which seems to have worked on many of our friends' ancient roofs so that will be the next thing to try! We need a spell of fine weather first before we can get access! For five days the range of high mountains has disappeared completely into grey gloom and, if you did not know the landscape well, you would not know of their existence. There were also a number of problems with the trip-switch to our electricity supply but more about that later.

The view committed to memory for next watercolour landscape

We did manage to get a decent walk in last weekend. However, the first unexpectedly strenuous task was managing to get our wellies on. (I am sure it was never so troublesome when we were younger – what happened?) Then we waddled self-consciously in our obviously so-new gumboots down the alley way, across the stream and walked up the path which we can see from our house. Someone has a lovely smallholding there with healthy looking goats, chickens and geese and we paused to take note of how well cared for they seemed to be. We were barked at by several troupes of ferocious dogs and, as we climbed higher, we were confronted by a horrible looking canine tied up next to some pig houses. Discretion being the better part of valour – we promptly decided to retrace our steps and jumped in every puddle we could to dirty our boots a bit on the way down the path. Then we walked around the base of the escarpment to the other side where there is a steep track past a slate cliff up to an old football pitch, across an olive grove to the old dry stone base of a deserted windmill. From here is a really good view of the village from the far side of the valley. The sun that day was good enough to take some photos and commit the view to memory. The air was clear, the view of the mountain was unfettered by clouds and we both said almost simultaneously … “Wouldn't this be a great place for a picnic …?” (Cretans would think we were crazy to have a meal in such an out of the way place!)

The old windmill

So, you've guessed it – there is not a lot going on; we have a CIC country walk planned down in the south of the island finishing in Plakias on Sunday (and I am mentally sorting out foul weather gear) which will be good for us. Kimon is grumbling about 'organised fun' but we need to escape for at least a day to combat accumulated cabin fever this week. Our old stone house is very cosy when the log burner is going but we realise that our log pile has taken a bit of a beating; we probably will have to order another stack of logs to keep the house warm into February and there is no point in stinting on this. We have been trying to get as many inside jobs done as possible, but these are mostly chores and I have spent a lot of time knitting jumpers or sorting out landscapes from my old sketchbooks which might be worked up into a few greetings cards while K has been chopping wood and trying to keep everything under cover.

Christmas came at last - in spite of the weather!

And … at last, the Cretan post came good and delivered the longed-for parcel from Australia this week with a full photo album marking the first 5 months of our latest grandson as an Aussie but now having adopted Kiwi citizenship in preparation for their return to Auckland. Yippee! We were so glad that the pictures reached us safely.

Kimon writes: “Consider; we do not have a letter-box, so we found our post left on the back window of the car outside, beneath the wiper blade – this by our friendly lady from the kafeneon (Aggeliki), to where the post is delivered … and …. what a relief that the electrics seem to be OK now. We had seven “trip-outs” on the fuse board the other morning. Then the main meter trip blew – and had to press the red button, “like a nervous man” in a howling gale and lashing rain (K, that is, in now well-muddied gum boots and wet clothes).

It's real life Croziers – but not as you know it!!!

MAGIC IN THE AIR

You know those days near the end of winter, when the bright sunshine and magic in the air fool you into thinking that the dark days are over and Spring is here. Then a few days later, the snow and winds return and you are back in the midst of winter again? Well, we had a couple of those magical days this week when the sun shone, the birds sang and the air shimmered with warmth and promise. We drove to Bali yesterday to take a walk around the four coves there – up and down the rocky headlands and enjoying every view with bright yellow flowers reflecting the sun and lighting up the fields and hedgerows wherever we went.

The water is so clear you can hardly see the message in a bottle

On Wednesday 4 January, we woke to another sunny morning and decided promptly that it was warmer out of the house than in … therefore imperative to go out for a spell. The track to our village cove is not that easy to find and having done a bit of shopping and asking directions we nudged our way through all the variously parked cars in the alleyways to get on the right track for the beach. The road winds up and down (but mainly up hill) over big bumps and puddles until you are at the top of tall cliffs looking down and down a slippery dirt track which hairpins a few times to a tiny cove with a pebbly beach. If you wanted a swim, it would be way too much of a hassle to get there, but we had other plans.

Bearing in mind our adventures at Geropotamos beach a month or so back, we wisely left the car at the top of the incline and Kimon stumped down to the beach with his fishing gear while I set up a comfy chair, paintbox and sketchbook at the top looking out to the blue horizon. It was WONDERFUL in the warm sun, with a very calm sea lapping round the rocks and onto the pebbles. A brilliant way to spend an hour or two and the end results were not works of art – but we just soaked it all up while we had the chance. Just as we were leaving, a small yacht wound round the headland trailing a dinghy behind it making its way to Panormo. It was the only sign of other people around that we had seen all morning.

The slippery path down to the Cove ...

On our return, the Postman had been and we had a lovely parcel to open from our son which had taken quite a long time to get to Crete along with a few Christmas cards. I had often noticed that the Postman carried a large leather briefcase wherever he went and was fascinated to see that several people gave Mikalis the Postie, money to pay their bills and he was able to cash cheques for them. Postmen in Crete are obviously people in a position of absolute trust - and we are confident that our parcels will all get to us eventually. We notice that packets and parcels are put on buses and left at tavernas and cafeneons, picked up by other people and delivered to the next point. No one would dream of interfering with them and they always seem to arrive sooner or later. We have a feeling that these longed for items will be arriving throughout January – which makes New Year all the more interesting and enjoyable.

New Year at the Melody Garden

New Year itself was spent in Rethymnon and it poured with rain all night long. The Mayor had already cancelled having any fireworks in the town square for New Year because of the austerity measures and so it was a relief to find ourselves at a nice warm, dry restaurant called the Melody Garden with a good Greek music group and great food. The part of the taverna where we sat was in the cellars a little away from too much noise and we really enjoyed the meal, watching Greek families celebrating and even a little dancing in the minimal space available. New Year came and went, Kimon put a piece of charcoal over Anna's doorway to signify 'first footing'.

Epiphany is a big day in the Greek calendar when the priests and bishops come down to the water's edge to bless the waters – salt and fresh - all of which play a huge part in the livelihood of Crete. We hear that the Priests throw a Cross into the water and then several boys dive into the water to retrieve it.  As soon as it has been rescued there is the year's blessing upon the water, the lake, river or sea wherever the event takes place. It would be good if this lovely fine weather lasts until then if only for the swimmers' sake! K and I plan to go to Panormo harbour to see it happen this year before we take all our Christmas decorations down and clean the house from top to bottom.

2011 was a bit gloomy in terms of world news; so we hope that 2012 will be much more settled, more peaceful, bringing good health, good times and enough good things to enjoy and share around.

KALI CHRONIA! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The enormous cauliflower was a New Year gift from our neighbour!