Picking up our lovely Lena from
Panormo, we spent a couple of days doing quite a long diversion –
just to avoid that small section of road. However, hanging rock is
there no more. The police arrived on Wednesday and closed the road,
all the heavy equipment got into action with lorries, chains, a
tanker lorry full of water which was pumped to the top of the
escarpment and flushed down under the base of the monster to give
some leverage. After some hours, broken chains, workmen shouting and
bulldozers reversing for their lives, the huge thing broke in two and
did a majestic slide, breaking into smaller pieces on the way to the
road side. Then the bulldozer set to and started to clear up the
debris which is now gathered and piled up at several spots along the
side of the road (and has blocked off the access to and from the bus
stop). However, honour is satisfied and no one has been injured in
the process. Bravo to all those good souls!
Lena the Cleaner, a very sweet young
lady, brought a small plastic bag of fruit from her garden on
Wednesday. Beautiful mandarins freshly picked (what a glorious
smell) and some PRICKLY PEARS! I tried to arrange my face as Lena
proceeded to peel them - trying not to look horrified since the last
adventure with prickly pears left their microscopic splinters all
round the kitchen sink and we couldn't escape without throwing all
the washing up brushes, sponges, gloves and stuff away. This time it
was WORSE! Lena had peeled one of the pears and left it on a plate
to taste saying how good it was for you. After this and oblivious to
the spines herself, she took all the brushes and dusters round the
house and left the little splinters EVERYWHERE. So for the next few
days, having found and got rid of one, I almost immediately picked up
another from somewhere else. They were on the sofa cushions and in
my knitting. I have been squinting with my specs, magnifying glass,
tweezers, selotape and nailclippers to try and get rid of them. Then
I had to don two pairs of rubber gloves and clean all the surfaces of
the house again! The flavour of the fruit is … OK … but nothing
makes it worth tackling the tiny hairlike spines that are impossible
to see and equally impossible to get rid of! Of course, it is the
thought that counts, but my experience compels me to advise curious
people to avoid prickly pears like the plague as there are much
tastier fruits … and they are just not worth it! And they are full
of hard pips!
After a week or so of dark, cloudy
wintry weather, the sun came out this week and it was almost like a
second Spring. All the plants started to bud and bloom and the
garden is coming to life again. Kimon took himself off to Panormo at
the crack of dawn to try some fishing. He has been planning this for
more than a year, so his increased mobility on the 'mobility scooter
with attitude' is giving him a real new lease of life and
independence. It is very good to see.
I spoke too soon. The telephone has
just rung and it was the would-be fisherman on the other end. The
quad bike is stuck in some sand on the beach and K needs rescuing. I
have just gone to the car and realised that the roadway outside the
kafeneon has been dug up by the Water Board and is now impassable
leaving our car stranded on the wrong side of it so that I am also
marooned! Fortunately, Stuart answered his phone and has gone to the
rescue. We have settled for interdependence!
Afternote: A Friday evening out at a
lovely traditional kafeneon in Achlade, a nearby village, gave us the
opportunity to see all the youngsters of the village hard at work.
Demetra, one of the three daughters of the family, took me to a
small hall next door where lots of long tables were covered in fir
cones, almonds, acorns, glass holders and candles. They were
assembling table centres incorporating a calendar to sell at
Christmas and raise funds for their village youth centre. Having
bought one for 5 euros, congratulated all the people at work, the
older sister stopped mid-flight for a brief chat. Victoria was rushing off to meet with
the Hellenic Red Cross volunteers who are off to Mytilini in Lesvos,
where hundreds of refugees are arriving by rubber rafts. She said
that many more small children than reported were drowned on these
desperate voyages and it was very difficult work for them. I said
that we sent our prayers with them and she said “Oh yes we are
going with lots of prayers from old people” (this made me gulp a
bit). She wondered why I was wincing at a pain in the pad of my
thumb, I mentioned that I had still a few splinters from prickly
pears … “Ah, this is easy”, she said. “You need to cover
your hands with oil and a spoonful of sugar to give them a sugar
scrub”. I tried it. It works.
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