There just haven't been
enough hours in the day for all the doings of recent days and weeks.
After leaving the little stone house for two months, there was a lot
of work to do on our return. Severe storms from the Sahara desert had
left red dust in every corner of the house, terrace and garden and
the air has been filled with a dusty mist every morning since, which
only really clears for an hour or two in the middle of the day.
Cretans aren't used to fog! The level of clearing out and sorting
winter and summer clothes was a bit overwhelming. Water is likely to be in short supply also, we hear after such a dry winter.
Our lovely neighbours
were glad to see us back and refused to believe that K had caught
such an enormous fish while out on the boat in the New Zealand. I'm
not sure that they have an accurate idea of where exactly NZ is
because it is a world away from their world as farmers and
smallholders. However, our friends at the kafenion were delighted
with New Zealand chocolate and didn't complain that it wasn't
English! Offerings of oranges, eggs and potatoes were very welcome
on our return. Sparrows had been making merry in our absence by
trying to burrow out holes in our insulated porch roof and I had to
improvise way of blocking their entrance and making a makeshift
Scarecrow to keep them away! All the scraps of polystyrene from the
roof insulation added to the mayhem. What a mess!
Easter was confusing
because Greek Easter was one week after Catholic Easter and all my UK
family were surprised to be wished a happy Easter one week after it
had actually happened. We had a big meal at the Taverna in Achlade,
which was fun. We smashed the red coloured eggs, conker style; had
some lovely appetizers followed by the choice of nicely roasted lamb
or chicken. K and I were still in a time warp from our journey home,
so we did not make Easter services locally. However, I did manage to visit
the Four Martyrs Church in Rethymno to light some prayer candles. In response to the two I lit before our long journey, it
seemed right to light two more for our safe return and lovely
holiday. This weekend, I eventually managed to get to the Anglican Church in
Kefalas and it was good to catch up with the church
family over there after a long break.
Last Monday we had
booked a treat on our walking day. The taverna at Kastellos Armenoi
organises and conducts foraging walks and the early Spring is a
perfect time to learn about green sprouting stuff. We constantly see
Greek ladies (the older ones) out with their plastic bags and little
knives returning home with “horta” - spring greens a bit like
spinach. We wondered whether we could learn what was edible and what
was not by paying to go on a special walk. Arriving up at the
village, which is much higher in altitude and has different trees and plants
from the coast, we had a marvellous day out. We sat down to
breakfast of local yoghurt and fabulous honey, followed by small,
sweet cheese pastries and a Greek coffee. Then came the raki (strong
alcohol) – a bit early for us but … in for a penny, in for a
pound and we felt like WWII resistance fighters or Andartes downing
our rakis before adjusting our backpacks and setting off!
The day was fabulous
with bright blue skies and just a little cloud to prevent it being
too hot. Vassilis' dogs scampered alongside us we ambled along and
visited the little church at the top of the hill. Here we lit candles
first thing before starting off and stopped for a few moments to gaze at
the expanse of countryside stretched out before us. We visited a
marvellous cottage which a craftsman (not at home) was restoring by
hand. Its dear little workshop had a pane of glass inserted in the
roof to make it lighter and two large terracotta urns – one on top
of the other – for a chimney pot. All sorts of scrap pieces had
been upcycled to make garden furniture and ornaments. We wished that
we could have met him because the overall effect was charming. After
this, we crossed a lot of oak woodland and copses until we reached
Vassili's farm and said hello to the chickens, geese, goats and pigs.
At this point we had to intervene to stop the larger of the dogs
worrying a lone goat but Vassilis got her under control and we set
off deeper into the woods. It was a paradise for dogs … well it
was paradise, really. My wood-collecting walking buddy was blown
over by the amount of logs and wood lying about from dead
trees but we were too far from civilisation to go collecting today!
We uncovered an enormous mushroom, though - and an artichoke plus a
handful of oranges. As we walked along Vassilis would dive into the
hedgerows, walls and bushes finding oregano, marjoram, thyme and
rosemary – all growing in abundance and showed us how to identify
the young wild asparagus tips which we found so hard to see, but
became experts quite quickly. Arriving back at the Taverna with
armfuls of greens and herbs, we washed and sorted everything and
Vassilis and his wife set to in making a wonderful meal. Hummus with
chick peas and fresh olive oil, mixed salad with avocado, scrumped artichoke and
herbs, asparagus omelette and pork cooked with fresh herbs and horta.
Followed by more raki, and sliced fresh fruit. All delicious and great
fun. We would like to go again at a different time of year to see
what can be found. Building on our new experience, on our weekly walk
this week, we easily spotted loads of asparagus tips and were surprised
to see that there were so many of the plants in the hedgerows! We
just hadn't noticed them before.
The early part of the
week was taken up with Doctor's appointments and check ups, which
seem to take days at a time and swallow any spare time we have these days. Tomorrow we
have to go to Cosmote, the telephone company to negotiate a better
deal on our telephone and broadband. We hope it won't be too
gruesome as Thursday is market day in Rethymno and always really
busy.
Christos anesti!
Alithos anesti!
