CHURCH CRAWL

View to the sea from the first Chapel

The summer heat is here, the tourists are here, cars are cramming into small roadways designed for donkeys and we are trying to stay off grid for the hottest part of the summer season when everything is geared up for holiday makers enjoying their well earned summer break.

On Sundays, all the beaches are really crowded and, avoiding resorts, we tried a newly opened restaurant near the village and had a simple lunch cooked on the outside grill with salad and french fries cooked in olive oil … wonderful. Followed by the sweetest water melon ever – just like eating ice lolly. Very nice and nothing too fancy.

View to the East

On Monday morning two lots of builders arrived to work on houses in the immediate vicinity causing maximum chaos. A large lorry promptly parked on the bad corner spot and delivery vans were slowed in their tracks with megaphones blaring. Then our friend Rik arrived early to mend a side wall to our house which has remained untouched since we bought the house and was looking very dilapidated. Rik dropped off a scaffolding tower, bags of cement and all his tools and decided to park the car elsewhere! Since then he has been sweating in the hot sun as he painstakingly puts the wall back to rights.

A place for healing prayers/memories?  Clothes tied to the tree

By Tuesday, I was ready to escape for a spell, so my pal Caron and I jumped in the car and set off to take a look at one or two little chapels in the vicinity, to walk a bit and get some exercise. The first stop was the little chapel of Agios Phanourios is on the top of a hill overlooking Perama in one direction and a little way outside the village of Achlade. With my heart in my mouth and praying that we didn't meet a big 4x4 truck coming down the hill, we put the car in first gear and climbed up to the top of the track, parking under a large shady tree. The church gate was stiff, but opened and so did the door of the church, which was lovely. There were icons to look at, and all along the front of the carved and painted screen hung small silver metal medallions in the shape of arms, legs, eyes, babies and so on. We think that people may visit this place to pray for healing. Outside in the bright sunshine, we looked round from our vantage point and could see a long way in all directions. Perama in its river valley with the mountains beyond in one direction and the sea between steep headlands in the other. Along the path, in the little walled yard, it looked is if clothes and other fabric items had been tied around an old tree which seemed to be growing amongst even older remains of habitation. To one side, a fenced off area contained huge piles of stones. We wondered whether a previous town or village had been here in ancient times.

Fred Flintstone's picnic table

Today, it was a beautiful deserted spot with only the buzz of insects and the song of birds and may be the hope for a miracle or two. We photographed a stone age picnic table and chairs at the foot of the tree and set off for the next little chapel.

This was O Drapanos. This seemed to be a much more modern building and the door was locked with wrought iron grills over all the windows. However, the gardens were lovely and we admired daisies still blooming (when all their cousins had long since dried and withered out in the open) because of the shady trees of the churchyard. A few hibiscus bushes bloomed prolifically and my foraging companion gathered a handful of past flowers to take home for her tea!

We took a little side road up and around passing a lovely old house and garden, admiring the old well, whilst the road it was on curved around and led us back to where the car was parked. All these morning walks give a great opportunity to talk, to admire the wild life, to forage and to sometimes just stand in awe. We earmarked a lovely plot of fig trees - to return to when the fruit have ripened - as they do not seem to be in anybody's garden. A brief discussion ensued about a recipe for fig rolls, K's favourite biscuit.

Budleia Avenue

The third chapel was Agios Paraskevi, which we have visited before in our perambulations but we approached it by car this time and parked under another lovely shady tree. Churches seem to be well provided for in terms of shade! From here we explored a new track which led us through a dreamlike avenue of budleia bushes and we were processing along accompanied by a brilliant array of butterflies. Small blue ones, magical swallowtails and the air was humming with insect life. We had a beautiful morning; it was glorious!

Post foraging, we unpacked the car: One big bouquet of rosemary, two scrumped pears (not quite ripe yet), a handful of hibiscus flowers, one discarded clothes dryer (for recycling … gate material for straying kittens) and two pairs of very hot, sore feet. It was well worth it!