At last, even though it has been raining for a few days, we feel as if we are reaching the end of winter. Officially, Cretan summertime is due to begin on 21 March but we can feel that the temperature of the house is beginning to warm up and we have shed one or two layers of thick jumpers! However, 'flu has hit the village with a vengeance and our vociferous neighbour has been coughing and sneezing for a good few days now. We have been making mugs of honey, raki and lemon to treat our snuffly head colds and yesterday, we heard that Angelikki and Kostas from the kafeneon are both in hospital in Iraklion, so we are praying that they make a quick recovery. There is a chair in front of the door of the cafeneon and their chimney pot which usually belches out thick smoke signals each day has stopped messaging. The weather was so nasty yesterday that I went back to bed with a book to keep warm with two duvets and stayed there. Roll on summer!
As we have now been here for one year, it seemed a good idea to do an inventory of things done and still to do, which reads a bit like a School Report. (Marks out of 10)
Our Ancient Flat Roof has been fixed and recovered twice but, frustratingly, is still letting in water in mysterious ways and we have been asking everyone we know about their solutions for leaks. These seem to be par for the course in Greece. The trouble with ancient roofs is usually that the crack or hole outside is nowhere near the drips which happen inside. It's very tempting to turn all the beds into four posters with plastic covers and keep everything wrapped up and dry during the winter; we can't wait for the summer sun to dry everything up for us. 5/10
On fine and not-so-fine days, Kimon was able to paint the pergola on roof terrace with teak oil while I tackled two old outdoor chairs re-weaving them with new fibre and which look well-croziered (= naff) but have been saved from landfill for another year or two. Similarly, a thrown-away bamboo table missing its top was rescued from the tip and a new table top fitted. We have done a bit for the planet and if we could only find a new use for old plastic water bottles and carrier bags, we would be able to have some impact on the ecology of the landscape! I had an idea for opening out water bottles to construct light-weight roofing for the woodpile, but Kimon got fed up with the collection of plastic which was accumulating in the kitchen! 9/10
Inside the house, our fire lighting skills have improved over the winter with daily practice (K did this more than I did!) and we have become adept at starting cooked dishes on the cooker and then transferring them to the top of the wood burner to conserve energy! However, we have needed to use our heaters and air pumps a lot this winter, so we are in fear of the electricity bill when it gets here. 8/10
As for decorating, everything we painted last Spring is now bubbling or flaking again and we will be busy as soon as the warm weather is here – we realise the walls of this house will be a Firth of Forth Bridge project and need to know what the magic compound was that they used to finish the job in Scotland! On the plus side, K's new drain pipe from the terrace is working well and we no longer have a paddling pool in wet weather 6/10
Time and space for Art & Crafts is such a bonus. The opportunity to draw, paint and sculpt this year has been great. Number of jumpers knitted = 4, shoulder bags woven = 2 and a floor rug is in the making. It is a joy to have a big kitchen to spend time with recipe books. Edmunds 'Sure to Rise' Cookbook from NZ has been truly tried and tested and cooking here is not without it's challenges. Adapting to Greek flour which is low in gluten content has resulted in some peculiar looking cakes with the appearance of bread puddings. Our biggest problem has been knowing what to do with gifts of food when in the middle of cooking a large meal and the gifted object will not squeeze into the freeze box. Such abundance means cooking two dinners simultaneously! Developing new dishes with unrecognisable cuts of meat, cooking up orange recipes after the 4th batch of marmalade in six months and learning to cook without standard UK store cupboard staples has been a challenge but is more than made up by the mounds of fresh food and herbs, prolific in the gardens, fields and hedgerows. 7/10
Our ideas about gardening are currently restricted to a tiny patch of earth at the front of the house over which enormous effort has been exercised to keep cats off rather than actually getting plants established. However, we have one lemon tree and a vine planted and scores of pots and window boxes planned (for which we have to find a supply of local earth and sharp souvlaki sticks to deter erstwhile cats). We have managed to find sacks of potting compost but Cretan plants do not thrive in this and yesterday found us with a large bucket and trowel collecting earth (with permission) from a friend's building plot and picking up lots of pieces of broken pallet wood which we could then chop up for kindling. In short, it is not the pretty garden patch we envisaged … yet! 5/10
Driving in Crete is not for the faint-hearted either. Once you have got your head around the different regulations applying to Cretan cars, the driving standards are not at all good and although there are driving tests and strict rules (to be ignored), most young people jump in a car to drive to their own driving test having been driving solo for some time! Kimon is doing very well; Merope is only driving local roads and NEVER in Rethymnon or big towns! Cretan drivers are scary on the road and even worse at parking. At Lidl's this morning, the doorway was blocked by several cars ranged higgledy piggledy on white “do not park” hatchings leading us to believe that if the driver had been able to take the car inside and drive round the aisles, he would have done so! 6/10
My Greek language proficiency has been a bit disappointing although Kimon has always been fluent. However, I am up to Lesson 5 in the Greek Tutorial and things are slowly beginning to fall into place. Complex written things such as bills, instructions on boxes and phone messages are still too hard for both of us. Our Greek mobiles bleep to give us messages frequently - possibly offering free minutes to the initiated - but are totally incomprehensible to us! I imagined that I would have heaps of quiet time for study and reading in retirement and I am not surprised that our Cretan neighbours do not have the time or inclination to read much or to sit still for very long. We have found it much more difficult in winter time to curl up with a book. Too cold and dark to sit still inside - warmer and lighter but too wet to sit outside! The car would be the most comfortable place but our neighbours might think us a bit strange. No change there then! 4/10
We did achieve telephone and broadband in 3 months (which is more of a prize than you would think) and continued over the year telephoning, skyping, Emailing and playing Words with Friends (Scrabble with far-flung children) via the internet. We were only able to do this after the wonderful gift to us of an I-pod before we left the UK, and the tuition given by each of the children on the amazing Apps which have been invaluable ... books, music, maps, messages … This blog would never have been illustrated without the great little camera we always have handy. Sorry we cannot take a photo of it! The discovery of Radio 4 on the internet has been a real life-line for news, entertainment and even offers Lent Talks from afar. 8/10
So … An interesting and positive year where we have enjoyed ourselves and survived (so far) under the current restrictions of the Greek economy. The sun still shines, the rain still rains (and how ...), birds sing and the plants still grow here in the village. We have made lots of new friends and swapped all our goodies with each other – eggs, oranges and oil are in abundance. The raucous tannoy of the fish van announces its arrival most days – so there must still be some fish in the sea!
Adieu and Roll on Summer - we do have lots of time to think about all our family/friends and surround them all with our thoughts and prayer from a distance. In the words of our teachers from way back we are quite sure we "could have done better" but we are still trying!!!!
(Average over the year = 64% calculated via I-pod)
(pai sto kalo) (go to the good)
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