IN THE GARDEN

Front porch deserted as we set off for the Olive Garden!

K and I woke up with stiff backs this morning. The trees in the olive garden needed severely cutting back and our friend Rick and his son Ryan turned up on Saturday morning early with all the equipment needed to get started on creating a proper garden.

So, Easter Saturday saw us in a quiet olive garden, and I had more than a few moments reflecting on the Easter story as I staggered about sorting leafy branches from larger pieces of wood as Rick started up his chain saw and cut the trees right back to manageable proportions. As the morning wore on, we began to feel the sun's heat as all the shade from the trees began to disappear and the garden became lighter and brighter. In the background, among the bleating of sheep and goats, there were happy children's voices coming from the church next door as the village kids were racing about with large sheets of orange paper and seemed to be doing a treasure hunt round the village. It won't be Orthodox Easter in Greece for another few weeks, so our thoughts have not really emerged from Lent here yet and the weather, though warmer than the UK is not reliably into summer.

Soon there were piles of clippings everywhere we looked

Half way through the morning, I went back to the house for supplies of cold drinks and returned with a basket of freshly picked oranges, tiny Cretan bananas, slices of bread and cheese from the local shop and we sat down on the yellow clovery carpet for a breather. Yiannis, drove up in his large 4 x 4 truck to park outside noticed all our olive branch clippings and asked if he could have some for his sheep – so we started loading the leafiest ones we could find over the wire fence to the next garden where he said that he would graze his flock. By the end of the morning, we had so many enormous piles of clippings stacked around the garden that K decided to advertise free animal food at the cafeneon and to ask people if they needed branches for their “zoa”. It would be great if lots could be eaten and none goes to waste!

The orange blossom smells wonderful!

Rick set off for another job at 2.30 p.m. but K & I collapsed in a heap of aching limbs and sore backs, thanking God that Ryan still had all his fingers and toes after a morning with Dad's sharp tree saw lopping at twigs and branches. Just before loading the truck, Rick had taken his rotivator and cleared a proper patch for growing things, so we had to make a list of plants and supplies needed next time we venture into town.

Back garden of the Old Olive Mill

Prising our aching joints into some kind of hideous movement on Monday, we drove to Rethymnon for the CIC coffee morning followed by frenzied shopping at the Purple Palace – the nearest our area of Crete has to B & Q for gardening supplies. All we needed was a garden fork and a wheelbarrow, but other than pitchforks and broomsticks with poor quality tops, we couldn't really find anything we needed in the vegetable patch department and in the middle of all this, our mobile phone rang with the news that our fence had blown down in England and would take a few hundred pounds to put right. Big bother!

The postman delivered two letters on Tuesday from the French Government. My pleas to my European MP and the British Pension Agency had obviously borne fruit because one contained a “complimentary” summary of the payments owed.  The second envelope contained – wait for it – another blank Attestation d'Existence form for completion at my local town hall or the British Consulate. I did not have time for another bus trip to Heraklion, so we dropped in at the local authority building in Perama and wondered why we had never ventured there before. All the ladies were so kind and helpful and told us that these forms had to be signed by all the Greek pensioners each year also. I showed them my passport, waited 5 minutes – lots of signing followed by energetic stamping - no problem! The Post Office photocopied the form for me, free of charge, and it was posted back to France by recorded delivery the same day with a covering letter via Google Translate (while I kept my fingers crossed and hoped that it wasn't nonsense!).

View from the village

So I can set off back to the UK on Thursday, having completed lots of paperwork, bought plants for the veggie garden, unearthed thermal underwear and packed some cans of Cretan Olive Oil for treats. Sadly, the blog will be on hold for another natural break, but I will be spending some precious last moments with my dear Mum, for whom this blog was originally started, so it may be a little while before I can get blogging and photographing again and my heart is heavy at the thought of a difficult journey back to England.

K & I feel for many of our friends are going through sad times this year and the long, long UK winter has not helped. I want to take this moment to send love, joy and peace to you from Crete along with get well again - get whole again - greetings. Rest assured that you are all in our prayers.

MIGRATIONS

Eh, but its great to be back home – even though it is still much warmer outside the house than inside. Fortunately, the weather is dry and so it is good to get outside for as much of the day as we can.

Our migrations took us a little off course this winter, and after a shorter than planned stay in New Zealand and a lengthy stay in the UK, I arrived back in the village three weeks after K, just in time to join him in the clear up and painting operation which begins every Spring in Crete. All the outside areas were liberally covered with a thick layer of sand and dust, the house needed some air through it the temperature was much too warm for the layers of winter woollies I had worn for the journey from England. K had bravely painted a few walls to keep himself warm and busy and we unleashed and disposed of the remains of a small tarpaulin which had been keeping the wood pile dry but had completely disintegrated after the winter winds and rain.

What we left behind .....

... what we found here 

The friendly Cretan village folk were glad to see us back, although our vociferous elderly neighbour was bewailing the lack of swallows this year and began to think that it would be an unlucky year if they did not return before long. What with one thing and another, we had wondered about having a “let's start this year all over again event” brought about because we lost out on New Year's Eve and seeing in the New Year entirely on our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. In spite of happy times with family and grandchildren, the year seemed to get off to a poor start for us, and many people we know.

A welcome home present!

Having left the French Government and my fruitless efforts to get anywhere with my pension application behind me in the UK, our first bureaucratic port of call, once home, was the IKA office in Perama to renew our IKA books (although we hear they are called something else now). The books are issued to people reaching old age pension age and entitle the holder to free medical care. It took a lot of effort to get them in October and they expired at the end of February! So we set off for the office feeling slightly disorientated after the passage of time, driving on the other side of the road again and wondering exactly where to park the car. Opting for one car park and enjoying the warmth of taking a little walk, asking for directions and arriving at the porch of the office took a little while, but it was obvious that although there was the sound of voices from inside the building, the metal grill was down and the door closed sporting a handwritten notice saying “Σε απεργία” On strike! Oh well, we'll have to come back another day. A quick trip to the Post Office for stamps took a long time and I wrote an entire letter to my Dad to let him know of our safe arrival while K stood in the queue. After this we needed a cool drink at “Bucket Chair Alley” (there are so many cafeneons in the town that we have to distinguish them somehow) and by this time the sun was out with a vengeance and my warm winter cardy needed inside the house, was definitely not needed outside the house. Should I devise a new garment called a DISCARDY and invent a pattern for such a thing which is only needed indoors?

Miss/Mrs Next Door, was still having a voluble moan to nobody in particular about the lack of swallows when we got back, but we sat up on the terrace for a spell in the afternoon until the sun had passed over, watching a band of mist/fog/dusty cloud approaching from the south. All of a sudden, there was a hoop from our neighbour as one or two swallows appeared, chattering noisily and swooping with joy around the roof tops and under the wires. Looking up into a clear patch of sky, we saw another half dozen on their way to another destination and are relieved that in Crete at least, another summer is on its way.

As the evening drew on we were puzzled by the view over the horizon. Little by little, visibility got worse and worse until the mountain disappeared, the nearer hills disappeared, the end of the street disappeared and we decided to close up the house before it was filled with the dust from the strong winds approaching – and being inside the house, needed to light the fire!

Topsy-turvy it may be, but it's great to be back home!

APOLOGIES

View from Riverhead Inn, New Zealand

Normal blogs will be resumed as soon as possible and as I have access to my own laptop for one evening only, I have posted a few photos from our short time in NZ and more lately.  Sorry if they do not really relate to any of the happenings.

Emmy, Hayden, Cameron - Jan 2013 NZ

Lachlan - Jan 2013

 
Life has been a bit too complicated to keep up the normal service back here in the UK with a computer which will not talk to my Ipod, so the pickings are very thin here in Blighty.

Weather Report:  Absolutely freezing (particularly in summer holiday clothing)

Nice old posters photographed from the Station Noticeboard UK

Activities:  Cooking, food shopping, and watching daytime 'telly' - mostly football or golf, driving backwards and forwards through the New Forest, handling all the incoming and outgoing phone calls, checking Emails, filling in yet more forms for the French Authorities who now think that I live in New Milton.  I have therefore varied their input of Attestion d'Existence paper collection by getting yet another form verified and signed at the nearest Town Hall.  They won't like it - No change there then but it should give them some indication after 18 months that I am alive still.  I have also busied myself writing letters of bitter complaint to my European Members of Parliament because of this contrived delay and annoyance.  Our local MP had to resign after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice and there will be a By-Election in Eastleigh tomorrow.  We are slightly agog at all the interest Eastleigh is attracting on the national news.  However, we have seen Sainsburys, Domino Pizza and the statue of the Railwayman dozens of times in the background to all the throngs of TV reporters sampling the delights of the town centre.  Next week after the media circus have packed up and gone home, it will be a ghost town with tumbleweed blowing down all the roadways again!

Agapanthus growing wild NZ - hope this isn't a repeat!

K has travelled back from NZ via the UK and stayed for a week, which has cheered things up a bit.

Dad is doing remarkably well and keeping very busy.  I spend a lot of time trying not to step on his toes.  Once K arrived, there were three of us all helpfully trying to do the same thing  in swift succession, which was hilarious, but only if you weren't there.

Mum has improved but not dramatically so and is still stuck in hospital.   We have lots of concerns about the continuity of care in the hospital and whether Mum was actually getting anything to eat or drink in there, and in response to this, my sister-in-law Jan, a trained nurse, has taken to spending a few hours with Mum in the hospital each day to check things out a bit and give hands-on care.  This has at least made Mum much more comfortable and gives her some assurance that there is somebody around who knows what's what!

 

BEST LAID PLANS

Apologies for a bit of a non-blog period.  My husband has my laptop at the moment and this older variety no longer allows me to insert my photos. 

It rather epitomises how grey and miserable the weather is at the moment.  I have lovely photos to post, but the powers that be have fixed it so that old computers are prevented from working as effectively as they once did. The blogger page no longer has a tool bar to insert photos and my even older computer did not accept the text from this computer, but would have inserted my photos!  Why does life has to be such a confounded bother?

Our longed for trip to New Zealand was interrupted by family troubles and this was after we had only just about recovered from the Norovirus and deep cleaned one daughter’s house before meeting up with our new granddaughter in the other house.  Lots of effort and time spent doing boring things and checking whether disinfectants which claim to kill bugs and nasties actually do the job.   On researching this, we discovered that good old fashioned bleach was easily the best agent even if the house did smell like a swimming pool for a day or two.

Anyway, no sooner had we recovered ourselves after this than my dear Mum – who had been in hospital in the UK – took a turn for the worse and I was so upset to have to leave again before I had really arrived properly.  Anyway, I think I have already explained about the minor delay, my short trip into Auckland’s equivalent of A & E and my eventual flight booked and taken back to the UK leaving hubby and everyone else in NZ and my son just about to land for the longed for family reunion.  The first time we had been together for several years except that we weren't.

Arrival in the UK was a little softened by some bright sunshine on the journey from Heathrow and my brother was there early in the morning to meet me, looking a little worn round the edges from a lot of motoring and having looked after my Dad for a few days! 

I have taken up the depressing daily round in cold, dismal wintry weather – trying to get to the shops through flooded roads, driving 30 miles or so to get to Southampton Hospital in nasty aggressive traffic through the New Forest, cooking, washing up and watching TV.  If I grab some time to myself, it is a bit like being a teenager again with my Dad hanging around on the front porch waiting for me to get home if I am a minute later that 5.00 pm!!

But, in spite of no blogs, I have not been idle.  I have researched Cdiff on the computer and tried to make tempting soups and lemon barley for Mum incorporating NZ Manuka Honey, cooked some warming stews and casseroles for Dad, putting the residue in individual containers to enjoy later, and steeled myself to drive Dad’s precious car, praying against all the odds that I don’t so much as make a scratch on it!!!  Every day is taken up with writing notes for my Dad about telephone calls, and trying to communicate about things in general.    We have visited a couple of nursing homes, but this step is in the future and Mum is not well enough to leave hospital yet awhile.  Nothing about the tasks are terribly difficult except coping with the absence of my Mum’s lovely presence and the feelings of sadness this brings up and  I am aware that I am conforming to Dad’s rigid routine to make things as simple as possible.  Meanwhile hubby is wondering when I can come home!

My Mum is in a small room on her own in hospital and I am so glad that she has family to back her up otherwise I would be extremely worried about the haphazard nature of her daily care and getting any sort of agreed communication between caring staff, nursing staff and Doctors who never seem to be very specific about what the current problem is and how they are proposing to tackle it.  We are truly fortunate to have a well qualified nurse in the family who has been doing a little tactful checking of her own and speaking to the nurse in charge as a result. 

A typical visit to the hospital involves the long car journey, a longish walk from the disabled car park along to the lifts then along to the end of another very long corridor to the ward right at the far end.  As you arrive, two care assistants/nurses don aprons and gloves just as you are putting your bag down and go into Mum’s room, close the door and shut the curtains.  So you look for somewhere to sit down.  There is nowhere.  Manageable for me fit and healthy but for my Dad, aged  92, this is a problem.  After an indefinite wait, the door opens and you have to put on yellow plastic aprons and rubber gloves.  Sounds easy but it is not.  There is nowhere to put your coat, scarf, bag or belongings while you are doing this.  Once in this garb, you cannot come out to ask for assistance or speak to anyone because you have to dispose of it all inside the room before emerging.  I have taken to buying disposable cups, straws and anything else I am likely to need whilst I am there to prevent wasting time and resources going in and out of Mum’s room to fetch things and change apron and gloves every time.   Mum was cold, so I bought and took a duvet in for her – but it will probably have to be thrown away when she gets out of hospital.   What a nasty bug Cdiff is!

So, times are a bit difficult right now, but we are hoping for an improvement before too long.  All your thoughts and prayers have been so appreciated by me and the rest of the family. x

BLEACH & GRIPE WATER ...

Lots of beach walks ....

It has been a bit of a chequered experience in NZ this time around – not because the country or the weather have not lived up to our expectations, but a few life experiences have cropped up in the course of our journeying.

Firstly in our flights from Heraklion to Athens, Athens to London, London to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Auckland, K first picked up a nasty bug which wiped him out for 3 days in Athens and I went down with it on arrival in Auckland (we think it was the Norovirus) which then spread through the entire home like wild fire – and with a new baby arrival at the other household just at the same time, we were in purdah for seven days until certified bug free. Not the best start to a family catch up or the way to make friends and influence people! The kitchens and bathrooms sport every possible bottle, surface wipe or spray to combat 99.9 % of household germs, but it must have been the 0.1% which got us! Even liberal use of hand gel throughout the journey did not save our grief.

Emelyn Grace Beatrice - "Emmy"

We became grand-parents for the fourth time on 5^th January when a precious grand-daughter, Emelyn Grace Beatrice Rowe arrived in the world and we waited with baited breath until we were symptom free enough to make her acquaintance.

To help blow the cobwebs away, we had a few bracing walks along nice beaches and K got his fishing rod out and nudged shoulders with lots of Chinese gentlemen who all had the same idea on the pier at Murrays Bay. He actually caught a few titchy Snappers - nothing big enough for the “barby”, but it was more fruitful fishing than Crete has been of late. Talking of “barbies”, look at this!

Rowie's Monster Barbecue

Sophie, Hayden and Cameron -
Balloon modelling minus the sound effects!

We had bought various sorts of kites for the little boys for Christmas, so we made sure of one morning's kite flying so that they could get some fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. Sadly, a serious illness at home in the UK meant that I had to rearrange my flights to return six weeks earlier than planned, but the night before take off, I ended up going to Accident and Emergency with a gall stone blockage and severe pain which made me so ill that it meant stopping to rearrange the flights again. Fortunately Air New Zealand have been so helpful in sorting things out and I am still waiting to find the right date, once things have calmed down a bit and the weather in the UK has settled. It would be good to ensure that the plane does not get delayed or diverted along the way and I can travel on from Heathrow without any further dramas. Meanwhile our son, Leo is just about to arrive in Auckland, so our minds are spinning out of control and unable to plan anything with certainty.

Pocket Kite at Hobsonville Point

Lachlan helping Dad

Because of all these happenings, we have not been travelling far afield, but it has been an ideal catch up time and an opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with three sprouting grand sons and their life on the North Shore. I am amazed to find so many wonderful beaches, open space and play areas for families, runners, cyclists and dog walkers which are all well utilised. A visit to Long Beach on a bank holiday found us in the middle of a Maori and Island people Jamboree with large awnings and gazebo like tents everywhere where people had picnics and barbecues while the children had marvellous assortment of equipment and a zip-wire to play on, as well as music, cricket, footballs and kites. We found the shade of a tree to sit down and enjoy ice creams. Another short morning at Auckland Zoo when the baby was only a few days old was scorching hot and so many other families had the same idea, that it was not easy to find a bench to sit down in the shade. All the children were well slathered in sun block and sported colourful sun hats, which are more or less compulsory.

Cameron at the Seal Tank

All the suburbs hereabout have wonderful Kiwi vegetation – completely unique to NZ and they give a rich background to all the gardens and drives. Palm trees, gum trees, pahutakowa and tree ferns along with massive clumps of agapanthas, give a rhapsody of greenery and colour wherever we go while the fluting birdsong at dawn is mesmerising and quite different from anywhere else in the world. As travelogues go, this is a bit on the thin side because our outings are short in length to accommodate small children, infants and seem to include lots of buckets, spades, footballs, doctors surgeries, laundry and ice-creams, but hopefully more newsworthy happenings will occur in future posts.

View over Rangitoto from Kate's house

CHRISTMAS SNAPSHOTS

Christmas Carol Singing in Rethymnon

 As we are on the move, it may take a few days before we can use the computer again, so here is a quick round-up of photos taken over Christmas.

View over the Mill Garden from our plot

We have our work cut out in the Olive Garden ....

Much more tree-lopping required

What a raffle prize for the person who NEVER wins raffles!

Our Hamper contained all sorts of treasures from home

Christmas Lunch went well ....

Turkey a la Nigellisima

Chronia Polla!

The weather was good ....

Stuart's photo over the White Mountains

We received a Christmas Card from our grandsons!

After rustic rug making for 18 months, we kept tripping over it and found a lovely carpet instead!

We will do a proper blog as soon as possible!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

ATTESTATION D'EXISTENCE BY BUS

Christmas Crib out on the Pavement

I seem to have taken a lot of bus journeys this week which is not altogether a hardship. The timetable between Heraklion and Chania is a good one with a comfortable bus running every hour and they seem to be very reliable. The choice between taking the car or the bus to a big town is not hard to make. Towns are jammed with masses of vehicles, few parking places and are always a bit terrifying for the unwary.

The French Government needed confirmation for the third time that I was still alive (heaven knows why they are writing and talking to me if I am not) , the first Attestation signed by my Family Doctor and the second by Solicitor had not persuaded them, so it seemed that the British Consulate would be the only port of call, although the local Town Hall in Perama would also have done but the Attestation Form had provided a translation for every European language except Greek and I did not think it right to expect our friends at the Town Hall to sign a French form that they did not understand. So, after a year of hassle, I was still battling on and a trip to Heraklion of about 35 miles was called for.

The Confectioners' Shop was all decorated

The weather was wet, windy and a bit gloomy that morning and I looked out over the sea from the Panormo bus stop which did not have its normal lovely colour and looked uninviting. Three Albanian lads were also waiting and, true to Cretan form, started up a conversation. Where was I from, did I live in Crete? They were searching for work in the big city. I apologised that my Greek was not very good but we managed to communicate and I could say that I knew the bus left the bus station in Rethymnon at quarter to the hour, so it should be here in a minute or two. We were glad to climb aboard when it did arrive because the cold winds and cloud had lowered even further and the rain began to fall down with vicious precision.

.

As we bowled along the national road, it was good to be high up on the bus where I had a good view over the hills, mountains and beaches. A little ahead, I could see a waterspout out at sea and I noticed that the Greek ladies on either side of me were crossing themselves energetically at each church we passed and at any point in between at which they thought help was needed from above. I joined in, in my own way! I was relieved to get nearly into the hairpin bends which announce the approach to Heraklion when we stopped at a long traffic tail back. The equation of heavy rain + national road normally = accident. So the ladies and I carried on with our devotions until the traffic started to move and everyone except me on the bus stood up to take a good look at the aftermath. Cretans are unashamedly curious about everything around them and very voluble! It must have been a serious accident because everyone had heard about it on the TV news.

Christmas at the Wool Shop in Iraklion

I arrived at the bus station a little late, but thankfully still not too late for my appointment and donned hat and umbrella for the walk to the British Consulate. The hat immediately blew off and the umbrella inside out – so I abandoned all hope of looking respectable and hurried through the backstreets towards the small square where the building houses the British Vice Consul. It was a bit of a reverse culture shock! I stepped into this haven of peace, efficiency, quietude and no crowds of jostling people. The lady at reception took my papers, and with perfect English explained what the process was and disappeared to see the Vice Consul. 3 minutes later, she returned with my form duly completed, now brandishing a large red seal, several stamps and a signature. I do hope that the French Government are impressed with it because I wanted to put it in a frame – and why not – I AM ALIVE, so there!

Anyway, I needed a few comforts and set off to Everest for coffee, lunch and a cloakroom. On the way there, I passed an open portico full of children's voices, calling and playing. Inside was a sale of children's art work to raise funds, so I looked at calendars, decorated pomegranates (which seem to symbolise a fruitful and prosperous New Year) and decorations made from fir cones, nuts and dried fruits. The teachers behind the stalls looked pale, thin and not very happy, so I chose carefully and bought things in preparation for Christmas mentally wishing them all a much better New Year than this has been.

Olive Branch!

Meanwhile, at home, the new olive grove provided us with a lovely bushy branch to decorate for our Christmas tree. The fairy on the top looks a bit precarious, but otherwise, from one viewing point, it looks reasonably festive.

.. or Christmas Tree!

Wellington booted, we spent a very happy hour in the Olive Grove in a gap in the weather at the end of the week sorting out wood piles to prospective log burner fodder for next winter and thinner clippings for a bonfire outside. Magically, the sun came out for a lovely hour or two and it felt like heaven. We had cleared two patches and planted a few rows of seeds which we had had in the cupboard from last year. People wandered past on their way up to the church or on their way back from their fields with loaded wheelbarrows. All were kind, friendly and very curious about who was working in the garden. As I stood up to tidy up, the view over the valley to the hillsides, olive groves and farms in the mid-distance were lovely with the shadows of winter sunshine. We are so lucky to have this patch to work with which means olive oil in the future and a healthy log pile. Such things are currency hereabouts and a great gift in preparation for Christmas!

Tidying up in the Olive Grove