We had some lovely Spring days over last weekend but more rain was forecast and … true to form .. the rains returned today just as we put the washing out.
On Saturday K's sister and our friend who was staying with us all went to a 'Milonga' at the Carob Mill in Panormo. We were not quite sure what to expect but the posters looked impressive and we went along anyway thinking we might see a demonstration of Tango type dancing at the specified start time of 9.00 pm. We went for a meal first to get to the big event on time. The beautifully restored Carob Mill – now a hall/gallery/stage/theatre is a very nice venue and at 9.30 pm. we were nearly the first people there waiting expectantly at the candlelit tables arranged around the edge of the hall. 10.30 came and nothing happened and we even giggled feeling as though we were waiting for a Parish Beetle Drive and had somehow got the wrong night.
11.00 pm. came and a New Year cake was cut and shared with the people who had at last begun to arrive in dribs and drabs – all under 30. At 11.30 a lonely duo of accordion and flute began to play some tango music and still nothing much else happened. After about 20 minutes some young people took to the floor – the ladies wearing cut away tops, short skirts and very high heels and the couples started to tour the dance floor with complicated Latin American flickety dance steps – taking it all very seriously. So that is what a Milonga is! By this time we had taken drinks with our meals, and more refreshments while we were waiting. We realised by nearly midnight that it was not really the entertainment we had been expecting and we needed to get home while one of us was still OK to drive the car … (me!) and wondered why everything seems to start so late in Crete?
After a slow start the next morning and after several cups of strong coffee, three of us went for a lovely country walk in the strong sunshine looking at the spring flowers that were beginning to shoot up along the hedgerows. Arum lilies, wall flowers and anemones were appearing as well as the bright yellow/green flowers of the clover that covers almost everywhere in a bright carpet.
There were lots of things to do on Monday morning in Rethymnon. On returning from the CIC coffee morning on Monday (Kimon came under protest), the car was buffeted by strong cross winds on the national road in several gusts and we arrived to find our chimney pot outside the front gate and our next door neighbours telling us that the chimney stack and pot had landed in their garden which must have given them a nasty shock. Nikos the Wood, another neighbour said in Greek, “Watch out tomorrow, it will be raining chairs!” - the Cretan equivalent, no doubt, to cats and dogs. K had to negotiate getting up to the top roof -with a ladder slightly too short- to do running repairs in a 'hooghly' with a tin lid, sticky tape, polythene and a big stone to keep the rain out and we had to spend one evening without the log fire until he could get to the hardware shop for supplies.
Maddeningly, I had to forego the first Art Class of 2012 because the repairs took precedence. While K was up on the roof assembling the new stove pipe and chimney pot, I was down on the tiled terrace which looked like a paddling pool and needed to be drained urgently. We realised that we will need another trip to the hardware shop in the next day or two to replace the terrace downpipe! Whilst on ladder-steadying duty and roof-watch, I baled out 8 buckets of water with a dustpan and then K had to shimmy down off the roof and unblock the drain pipe which is too small for the task. Who needs to join a Gym? Our daily round keeps us fully exercised – especially at this time of year: woodcutting, sweeping and mopping, moving airers of washing inside and outside according to the weather, keeping the fire cleaned and stoked – on top of the usual day to day run of household chores! Rustic simplicity indeed!
Then after another airport run early this morning, K and I collapsed in a heap and have decided to hibernate for the rest of the week. We realised that we had had an exhausting few weeks and would never make it as proprietors of a B & B!
Roll on Summer - and Nikos had been right – it IS raining chairs again!
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