SCARECROZIERS!

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!