AUTUMN BLESSINGS

September is here at last! A few clouds have appeared in the mountains and foothills and the nights are cooler. All of us who have endured a very hot summer are beginning to come alive again after keeping out of the baking sun for many weeks. K and I are so glad to be back home and resting after the hospital regime and he really is looking very well now. A normal diet will resume as soon as possible! I am also reading up on reflexology, because quite by accident, I realised how much it helped us both over the past few months to wallow in herbal footbaths and give massage for the bad leg but even more for the good leg which now does twice as much work.  It seemed to promote a sense of well-being and relaxation;  I think I will study a bit further.

We are beginning to get back into the swing of things and although I had three trips to the Dentist this week, the car developed an electrical fault and needed to go into the garage and my polarised driving prescription glasses had been lost over the period of hospital journeys. All these costs on top of everything else were very unwelcome, but all is done and dusted now. Costa Costa our musical optician made up my specs from my English prescription in 24 hours, the garage obtained the teeny tiny switchy thing required by the diagnostic computer and plugged it back in to make the car run more smoothly and stop cutting out when hot, and the dentist completed his excavations on Friday. I even managed to get to the CIC coffee morning and Art Class this week, so I have done quite well really and K will venture further when his tum settles down a bit. If you would like to see some of the art work we are doing in Kastellos, there is a website entitled Cretan Visual Arts where our teachers post up our work from time to time.

I will be back in the UK for a short spell to catch up with family there, so it may be a while before I can post the blog which is almost impossible by Kindle! However, K thought that it was about time that he said a few words or two … so ….

OK – lighten up guys. This me talking.

I have rarely been short of words, as many may tell you. They are indeed food to the soul and the stuff of dreams. I can understand M's deep fears that our new life in Crete could be cut short, and that she may have had to face a “volte face” (poor grammatical construction) and miss out on the freedom and peace that we came here to find four years ago. By now you have probably gathered that there is no such thing as a quiet village life in Crete. The talk is constantly of grapes, melons, lemons and goats. The volume is up to “police” (11) level in the Kafeneon down the lane. Everybody has their own opinion of how much water, when to harvest /prune and “how much per kilo will “YOU” get for your produce?

I was surprised to be engaged in conversation in the village square cafe regarding the Scottish threat to disembark from the English ship. The Elgin Marbles are also a perennial topic, as well as, of course, the EU and their treatment of the Greeks – Angela Merkel is regarded locally as akin to Mrs. Borgia. A village of farmers? Certainly; but every Cretan is a politician and substantially better educated and well read than the majority of folk encountered in England. (They are just more talkative than Brits ../m)

Meanwhile, the weather grows kinder. The temperature has dropped by 10 degrees Celsius today – so it is now around 28 degrees with a touch of cloud cover. Good fishing weather is closer. To make the most of this period - for three months - the canoe will be going in the water. Maybe I cannot drive, but I can paddle since my arms and shoulders are strong after a year on crutches. The downside is, I can probably only swim in circles and I will need help getting the canoe on top of the car. I have not been blessed to get my body wet yet ( … song coming on). It is a year since I immersed myself in the blessed ocean and closed my mind to the dry unforgiving light. Swimming in a dark and moonless sea is perhaps the most healing of all sleeps.

The weddings and Baptisms continue across the valley. Last night it continued until 6.00 a.m. and although the music was soft, the gunfire was LOUD! This spooked next door's dog again and the poor creature barked until sun up.

We had earthquake a few mornings ago. It was weird. The house grumbled as if with indigestion (or it could have been mine or M's). It shifted fore and aft for some 7/8 seconds only and M thought something was moving about in the wardrobe! What I remember from another earth tremor years ago is that before the ground, my bed and my gin and tonic moved, the birds and cicada stopped and there was a eerie silence. There was no word from them until the earth stood still again. These things make you feel rather small and insignificant. I think that this is important for us to remember.

I was told a story a few days ago by a lady in the village. An uncle of hers was always complaining about the fact that he could not afford shoes and that he had none. In the churchyard one day he met a squatting man who had lost his legs in the war and thus had no need of shoes. The uncle was never heard to complain again and walked happily barefoot thereafter.

So – Look, Smell and Feel the Warmth around You.

Life is Good.

X \ K.