The dusty heat of
Summer has passed and the last few weeks have been wonderful. Clear,
bright skies and a cool breeze to lull us into activity as the
tourist activity of Summer closes and Autumn opens its doors to us.
Leaves are dropping from the mulberry tree outside the porch and the
grape vine along the fence. This involves a lot of sweeping day by
day. There have been just a couple of light showers to fool the
garden plants into thinking that it is Spring again and for new green
leaves to shoot up here and there.
Driving back from town,
we are halted every now and then by herds of goats and sheep being
led to winter pastures across the national road and the coolness
helps us to welcome the pauses and to stop and have a good look
around us. The local authorities have also taken the opportunity to
paint white lines along the road and there seem to be far more double
white lines than before. Hopefully, people will be persuaded to
overtake only when safe to do so. Rumour has it that the Police
catching motorists ignoring the road markings have their number
plates ripped off the car and face enormous fines. So, just … not
… worth … it. Until last week, the roads were still full of
hire cars and tourist coaches and it is the first year I have
experienced rush hour traffic in Crete. There was absolutely no
point in overtaking, since the roads were full of lines of traffic
all the way to Rethymno.
This week things are
quieter and we can get into the car parks. Aqua aerobics has
finished for the year as the hotel swimming pool has closed up and
other forms of exercise are in the planning stage. Outside the
shops, the summer fair of inflatable beach toys, sun hats and flip
flops have been taken in and the shops are getting out their winter
stocks of hats, scarves, leather coats and boots! The hardware shops
which displayed hoses, garden pots, watering cans and green netting
now have hauled out tree loppers, rakes, olive and fruit pickers,
roof paint and gum boots. Yes, the seasons move on again. Somehow,
each new season in Crete brings welcome change to look forward to.
The hotels and cafes will close so that people can harvest their
olive trees.
I have had many a pause
in the garden or the roof to sweep up falling leaves and ponder on
the misty views across the Geropotamos valley and at Mount
Psiloritis. My meanderings, however, have been less on the magic of
nature and more on the poor quality of sweeping implements! My
favourite broom went missing after the roof painting weekend and I
was ridiculously miffed because it had taken many forays to far-flung
emporia to find it. I was left with a feeble excuse for a broom as a
swap, which was barely fit for purpose and I now need to start the
whole frustrating broom search all over again. I don't want to
labour the point, but
brooms, buckets, dustpans and all such articles here for which any
Greek housewife will need on a daily basis are pretty useless. Poor
design, plastic which degrades in the heat, broom handles which rust
away within months and packaged sets of brooms which do not fit
together with their 'matching' dustpans. If anyone wanted to start a
new business redesigning all these articles to keep the dirt and dust
at bay and making them of decent quality, they could “clean up”
ha ha ha. Just saying! And don't get me on to the subject of mop
buckets. Three stand in a sad line, all broken or imperfect in one
way or another! I just shudder about all that plastic used to make
things that don't do the job properly and then remain somewhere,
taking up space for evermore. If only we could melt them all down
and make house-ware that is more functional and fit for purpose!
Well I had to have a whinge about something!
Our miniature olive
tree on the roof terrace has a tiny crop of fruit beginning to turn
purple, the roof has been re-coated with waterproof paint and the
pallets are down in the porch, ready for our first delivery of fire
wood. Today, I unfurled the winter rugs (which are cleaned, moth
proofed and rolled up during the summer along with heavy blankets) so
that the floors can be swept and cleaned free of sandy dust which
blows through the house in summer. I've defied personal tradition,
which has escaped me so far in retirement, by making and jarring up
Christmas mincemeat to get nice and mature by the time Christmas gets
here! Preliminary tasting tells me that it needs a little more
brandy, but that can wait until later.
As Mr C was embroiled
in the Rugby World Cup, a quick visit to drink a hot chocolate at
Vinzi's overlooking the harbour in Panormo today was a lovely outing.
Just warm enough not to need a cardy, but cool enough to be
comfortable and watch the fishing boats reflected in the still water
and the last remnants of tourists sunbathing and swimming. We will
all enjoy these last magical days before the winter storms begin in
earnest!
I was determined to
complete a blog without the Br*%!t word and have just about achieved
it. In this respect, I've resorted to prayer now!
Keep warm and dry
wherever you are!
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