2020 THE YEAR THE WORLD STOPPED and the Planet came back to life ….

Well a few swallows are back! The weather here has been cold and miserable for a lot of the time and we heard that many migrating swallows came to grief in one big storm and very strong winds which have beset us. A large proportion of the poor little things did not get back to Crete to build their nests and raise a new family. There are a few pairs, but not many. However, Spring is sprunging with the hibiscus flowering, geraniums looking healthy, my little olive tree in a pot looking well and few little pots of seeds hopefully being watered every day “to see what will happen”.

We have been under lockdown for five weeks now, just venturing out for shopping, pharmacy or doctors visits. We are faring well, eating a bit too much but Mrs C has been experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen to tempt Mr C's small appetite. Meanwhile, on line all sorts of things have been happening and we are grateful for a good internet connection which has kept us informed, amused, en-rapt and infuriated in equal measures.

As there are a number of singles among our local friends, we set up a virtual friends group and try to catch up with each other weekly and make sure everyone was getting on OK. The idea for a virtual weekly coffee morning is good, but communication is a bit tricky with 6-8 people and it takes a proper MC to keep control of the airwaves and focus on one person talking at a time. The audio is also quite muffley. But we see each other, check that people are OK and send each other silly jokes, quizzes and must try recipes, just to keep our brains ticking over.

Greece locked down fast and contact--traced all arrivals in Greece with the dreaded virus, so have managed to flatten the curve and keep the hospitals from getting totally overwhelmed. It is certainly reassuring to have a decisive government, intelligent medical experts and a community who takes their good health seriously. Most young Greek people are close to their parents and grandparents and were totally motivated to protect them by keeping out of the way of the silent beastie. Easter was kept completely locked down and the roads blocked by police patrols to stop the movement of people on long journeys to celebrate in large groups wherever in Greece ancestral homes were. The tolling bell of Good Friday did not happen, the processions were missing, but there was a joyful bell on Easter morning and loud gun fire with fireworks at midnight, but this was in response to TV services rather than anything happening in the many churches around the country. For the biggest festival of the year, our Greek hosts were motivated to keep to the rules and stay safe at home for Easter this year. I guess one or two barbecues were lit quietly in back yards, but no significant holiday traffic happened at all. For Cretans, this is all the more remarkable because they are known to think that laws were made to be broken, but this has been something different. By the end of the Easter holidays, Crete had had no new reported cases for seven days, and the people began to sigh with relief. K had to go for a blood test at the lab in Perama on Friday and the shops, streets and supermarkets looked almost as usual with loads of people about. I am still carrying latex gloves, hand gel and home made masks, just in case, but for another week or two, we are feeling reasonably optimistic. Children are out in the village again and can be forgiven for being loud and noisy when they have been cooped up in little houses for so long.

 In the meantime, we have made lots of observations whilst overdosing on British TV. Most interviews are broadcast via on line platforms and we have intriguing glimpses into many people's homes. As they talk to us by computer Mr C and I are always having a good nose at the myriad of bookcases which appear in the background and there are some bookcovers which we can easily identify! Children or pets appearing in the distance just make life even more interesting!

Our family also set a few challenges to keep us on the ball with a first week idea to recreate famous works of art, famous album covers etc. This was fun. Recreating Monet's waterlilies with sheets, plants, flowers and saucers kept me busy. The Kiwi families recreated album covers by Queen and the one for Trainspotting. I managed Dark Side of the Moon with a triangle (prism) of cheese graters, white handled paint brushes and a rainbow selection of coloured crayons. Then Leo and Harri in England recreated the Friends poster by taking an armchair and standard lamp into the garden and fashioning some arrangement with a garden hose to look like a fountain. Whew!

The second week wasn't nearly so easy: we had to present a TV Cook type item (which if you are recording and cooking is much more difficult than it looks and impossible without a good cameraperson!) My Kiwi grandsons took to it like ducks to water and made great looking Anzac biscuits and Gingerbread. Amazing TV cooks in the making! Leo made sourdough bread with a drawn on moustache, a chef's hat and a fake Italian accent, which turned out really well. I made Creamy Lemon Chicken with my Ipad precariously balanced on a metal stand (Vrassi's Olympic torch holder) and had to keep turning the camera round to focus on the food prep. Note for the future … focus the camera on the food not the cook!

Gareth Malone's Great British Chorus has kept me exercised (5.30 pm each afternoon on YouTube) and what with that and a free on line Greek Class (half an hour every day) and trying to squeeze in some sort of exercise in the form of yoga, keep fit or Tai Chi, I am a bit too busy at the moment and want to retire again! A heart warming Facebook page called “The View from my Window” has been the most surprising success where people from literally all round the world post the view from their house whilst in lockdown. Some are from our first line workers and they always get a resounding vote of thanks in the comments. Others are from people with fabulous gardens or landscapes and still more from blocks of flats or high rise city views. So while we are confined, we can vicariously take a little trip round the world with a few blessings, prayers and good wishes. A simple idea which has been a run away success.

Nobody quite knows how the future will pan out this year. I imagine things will not be the same again for yet awhile, travel may be much more limited and expensive, and we may have to agree to much more testing and controls before this is over. I just hope that the good will, the offers of help, the response to the emergency by strangers and those overseas will be remembered with gratitude for a long time to come. In many ways, I hope that things do not go back to just the way they were before because it would mean that we had all learned absolutely nothing about how our planet with its inter-dependency of people, plants, animals, solids, liquids and gases needs much more care and attention. The skies have been bluer and the air so much clearer since everything stopped.

Take care and every Easter blessing to you and your family!

BARRIER NURSING -or prevention thereof

The current lockdown in Greece began on 13 March and resonated with the memory of life under the military junta during the 1960|70s.  However, Greeks were, for once, aware of the emergency and the village has been very, very quiet with the school and cafes closed.  It all started with an ear splitting siren noise from our Greek mobile phones sending us an emergency message.  Never having had one before, it scared us half to death!  Duly notified, we kept indoors.  The weather has been changeable but I’ve got lots of deep cleaning, tai chi and on line contacts made.

So today was shopping day.  The internet went wild over the weekend with various versions of the document you need to fill in and sign and the SMS message you have to send to give information about where and for how long you are away from home.  I put together a plan a bit like a military operation.  Hubby would never survive another stay in Intensive Care as he was lucky to come out alive 7 years ago, so we have been self isolating to an extreme level and welcome such restrictions if they can keep us in good health!

Feeling more than a bit ridiculous, I designated the Apothiki (shed)  a ‘dirty’ area (not far from the truth) and set a change of clothes, bucket of Dettol washing stuff and a bowl of soap, hand towel and water inside and shut the door.

Outside the apothiki, I donned an ankle length raincoat and gum boots.  I had visions of my lovely Granny dealing with war emergencies and must have looked a real sight!  Checked I had disposable latex gloves (check), hand gel (check), pocket hankies (check) and all the docs needed (check).  Passport, ID and a special sms notification on my mobile phone.  Don’t leave home without that as it could provoke a 150 euro fine from any policeman who cared to check!  Just remembered my purse and shopping list!  Synchronised watch with specified time on declaration and I was ready to roll.

I put spare latex gloves, kitchen roll and bin bag in the car beside me and set off to the shops.  I had never driven in wellies before.  The roads were absolutely deserted and I was glad that the weather was so awful that not many people would want to go out.

Went to my local supermarket for groceries and there was plenty to be had.  Not many tinned tomatoes, but there were packs of chopped ones, I bought some chicken pieces, bread, cheese, bottle of wine, toothpaste ... everything I needed.  I checked with Kostas at the counter about phoning in an order and he said “yes, we can bring it to you”.  Good.  Not much in the way of fresh veg, so called in the other shop on the way back and they had plenty of lovely fruit and veg.  Good.  Everything on my list, even light bulbs.

All done.  Nobody stopped me or checked my papers.

Drove home in driving rain and arrived back home.  Before I left, I had asked Mr C to put the hot water on and not greet me at the door because I wanted to keep any hint of virus out of the house.  Put the fridge goods by the door along with handbag.  Cleaned the car inside and out and took off gloves.  Then crept into the shed and stripped off Mac and clothes stuffing them in the bucket of water.  Washed face and hands and cleaned wellies.  Used kitchen towels and disinfectant on hands and boots.   

Eventually, made it into the shower ... marvellous!  

Then dealt with all the fridge goods wiping them down with with weak bleach solution.  Decided to leave the rest of the stuff in the car boot for a bit longer.  

Time for a cup of coffee!

Glad not to be going out for another week .. What a phaff;  exhausting!

Stay home and keep well, my friends!  

THE C WORD

A lot of times in recent years, the C word has been reserved for Mr C's cancer treatment, but we have a new enemy in our midst. On Thursday night a loud noise sounding a bit like a car alarm frightened the life out of most of our friends and neighbours. It was a bit like a Civil Defence SMS message with instructions about the beastly coronavirus bug.

Up until then, it had all been bad jokes and dark humour but after bringing it right into the midst of our homes, we began to feel a bit more panicky. In the kafeneon in the village square, we had been amused when Vaso serving coffees gave the place a deep clean after some foreigners had been having drinks. As soon as they left, she appeared with arms full of cleaning materials and set to work just saying “Strangers!!!!!”   The Rethymnon Carnival, which had been so well planned had to be cancelled.

One of the old boys came in and ordered a raki. Raki is very strong in alcohol and this has been widely regarded as the first line of defence. He drank some, poured some on his hands and gave them a good rub-a-dub-dub and then breathed in the fumes deeply from his cupped hands. All this was amusing a week ago, but world events have escalated so fast and I feel will catch up with us here 'ere long. I'm just hoping to stave off infection until the weather gets warmer and we can spend much more time out of doors. As most of our village are in their eighties, we would try to keep germs well away from us and hope that an effective antidote can be found really soon!

A friend, who had been in a nursing home, died last week and many people just arrived from abroad came to his wake – all shaking hands and saying gleefully that there had been no controls at airports. We were also informed jokingly that if anyone had a fever, they could easily take paracetamol to pass the fever/thermometer test. My Cretan neighbour and I were totally horrified by the insouciance of this attitude and I tried very hard not to jump up immediately and go for a wash and brush up! We were impressed by the Imaste greeting adopted by Royals at the Commonwealth Service which fits the bill and shows respect. With all this, we just hope that everyone stays safe in London and elsewhere, come to that.

While we are trying to clean our way out of this virulent corner, it would be easy to miss that there is blossom beginning to show on the trees, budding hyacinths in the garden and sparrows busy building nests and chattering outside as they work. The weather is still quite chilly, but we are having brighter sunshine and showers which are good for the olives. We all hope that warm weather will slow things down all round. Its going to be a bad year for trade and tourism.

We are well stocked and will be at home a lot for the next week or two - maybe longer. We are taking Vit C and Echinacea fizzy tabs every morning, which helped me so much when I had to look after Mr C in ICU before. The only things we need to go out for are bottles of water, milk, bread and fresh fruit and veg. This means … not very interesting blogs, sadly, but it is a good opportunity to do Greek study on line, Lent Bible study on line and lots of experimental home cooking. In the course of Spring Cleaning and Deep Kitchen Cleaning, I came across a whole stock of old DVDs which will make some good watching. We are well stocked with marmalade and I am considering trying to make home made bagels and/or crumpets out of curiosity to see if the recipe works.  We have cracked the recipe for home-made sandwich spread which Mr C loves!

Take care everyone and say a prayer for all the medical professionals the world over who are working so hard.

HUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL AND SO ON ...

The house was struck by lightning this morning.  I vaguely heard some thunder just before I dipped into slumber, but I turned over in my sleep confident in the fact that we had unplugged the router and computer before going to bed.  On waking up, I couldn’t understand why my bedside light would not work.  Eventually it dawned on me and at 6.30 am, just as dawn was beginning to break and the cocks were crowing, I got myself up to investigate.

To be honest, it is either the water off while workmen work on the supply pipes or drains or electricity or WiFi and it is rare indeed to have all the services working at once!  The house is in a constant state of pickle with buckets here, torches there, dust buckets, fireproof gloves and drying washing all over the place.  This is the down side of living in a Cretan village but the kindly neighbours and safe environment make up for it.  We also thanked our lucky stars that we weren't like many poor folk at home dealing with days of flooding or cooped up on a cruise liner wondering whether or not we had caught the "corona bug" or not.  

Pulling on any warm clothes to hand, I trudged out into the rain and cold to look at the electricity meter outside.  The red button which often pops out if we are trying to use too much power at once was in its proper position, so it was not that.  All the street lights were on, so it was not our block.  I went back in and hauled out the camping gas so we could, at least, have a hot cup of tea while we waited for relief.  While the kettle was boiling, I  rounded up the oil lamps and found a few torches.

Mr C examined the fuse board when he got up and discovered that the trip switch had fired when a particularly bright shaft of lightning struck which must have triggered it (an uncommon event) and we were soon back in business.  We tidied around as we were waiting for our fourth load of wood to be delivered this winter.  We are so grateful to Niko, our neighbour who always has a good supply.  Now that we have light, Kimon is doing his daily chore of sweeping out the ashes and cleaning the stove glass door for tonight’s fire.

Life has been non-stop bureaucracy lately either in getting forms back to the UK confirming that we are alive, queuing at the IKA health insurance office with passports and up to date tax paid forms from the Accountant to get our books renewed, taking prescriptions from one doctor to another office for K’s meds or battling with Greek websites to make sure our bills get paid.  This morning was spent at the phone company paying phone bills in torrential rain.  Just as I finished typing this paragraph, the Urologist’s Secretary phoned to say that approval had been given for the next three months of Mr C’s hideously expensive medication but I realised I needed to collect the prescription and gallop over to another office quickly so that it could be forwarded to Athens and the pills sent over before the current supply runs out. It all keeps me busily running about like a mad thing and trying not to worry.

Sunny days have been a bit few and far between, but come a bit of sunshine, a portion of Spring Cleaning will get underway so that we can shake the dust out of the carpets and see out of the windows!

On the way to Rethymnon yesterday, we were held up in a traffic jam.  Amid a cacophony of car horns with a police car giving escort,  a procession of school children and teachers all wearing weird costumes filed past pushing homemade "floats".  It’s a bit early for Carnival which is the weekend of 1st March, but with Lent fasting on the horizon, the whole of Rethymnon was celebrating Tsiknopempti. (Greek: Τσικνοπέμπτη), literally Smelly Thursday, or even Charred, Smoky, or Barbeque Thursday "because of the smell of the grilled meat in the air", is part of the traditional celebrations for Carnival (in Greek: Αποκριά) season in Greece and Cyprus.  (Lifted straight from Wikipaedia!) The Carnival proper is a week away but statues from previous years have started appearing around Rethymnon. The Thursday costumes worn resembled hobgoblins or kitchen devils in smokey colours in contrast to the bright colours of Carnival proper but the noise was just as raucous!

 February birthdays are being celebrated in style with mezes at a nice Taverna for Mrs Crozier with a few friends and an Indian meal  is planned for Anna at the end of the month.  We are hoping that the weather will improve by Tuesday so that we can enjoy a visit to the Daedalus Exhibition at the Archaeology Museum  in Heraklion.  We have been looking forward to this;  photos to follow later.

Best wishes from Crete!  

BANANA WARS

Hello from Crete. Kali Kronia. Happy New Year! Luckily, we had a wonderful Autumn with warm, bright sunshine most days until close to Christmas when we had at least three huge storms blow themselves overhead for days at a time, without much respite until today. Remembering the severity of last year, we closed the shutters, I searched for my wellies, kept checking the ceilings and floors for leaks and spent many a happy hour switching the router on and off, whenever thunder and lightening were in evidence … which was very frequent. We don't know why our phone line is directed through the router, but of course no one can reach us by phone or internet at these times. Fortunately our woodpile lasted until today and we could keep ourselves reasonably warm even when the electricity went off and the water went off .. often .. and this began to get on my nerves. The most unnerving thing is that I noticed that when the weather was horrible I was very tempted to drive on the wrong side of the road! I can obviously cope with left hand drive in the sunshine but bad weather reminds me of the UK so much! I kept coaching myself with 'right is right' while out and about. The seas have been very rough and pounding over the harbours and car parks in Chania and Rethymnon and the winds have been tossing tables and chairs around so that there are oddly misplaced belongings on other people's roofs and gardens!

We had a lovely Christmas Day with our pal, Mary who cooked a lovely Christmas lunch.  Since then we  have sustained ourselves with a good supply of mince pies, home made Christmas cake, some amazing home made sweets made by a friend, crystallised ginger and hot cups of tea, interlaced with something a bit stronger when available. Life certainly isn't dull, but demands constant vigilance! I have used up dozens and dozens of candles over this holiday season and my candle powered bathroom radiator is doing very well!!

Our Christmas post arrived on 2 January and we were mighty glad to know that everyone hadn't forgotten about us. Mrs C also had a panic before Christmas that K's medication – a horribly expensive but very effective box of horse pills did not materialise at the EOPPYY office in time to last him over the Christmas period. We were told on 23 Dec on our second visit to the office that all the boats had stopped due to poor weather. So for 12 days, K had no pills to take and actually felt much better for it! However, today is brilliant sunshine again, the boats have started operating and I picked up the long awaited package this morning. It's a bit like balancing on a knife edge, but Mr C says, “Stop panicking!!” I don't know why things seem so overpowering when the weather overhead resembles a thick, grey, damp horse blanket! Venturing out today, the sunshine was so blinding and the mountain tops shimmering in sparkling blue and white.. It just lifted the heart.

Thinking that gifts would be a bit thin on the ground this year, Mrs C spied a jigsaw puzzle whilst touring Lidl's and thought that it would make a nice gift to leave around at Christmas for Mr C who is really good at geography. Unpacked, Mr C declared it impossible! In truth, it was a demon which took a full three days to find edge pieces and then a bit of strategy to work out how to proceed. The print was miniscule for place names so we sought out various grades of magnifying glasses, the example on the box had been defaced by advertising matter over the whole of one corner, the light was not very good, the side table was not nearly big enough and the pesky thing has taken up the majority of the dining table for three weeks! Now it has been completed, we have the added worry about what to do with it? Mrs C is very tempted to put it all back in the box and pass it on to some other unsuspecting person but Mr C wants to mount it on the wall!

All suggestions gratefully accepted.

Mrs C has also been worrying about the possibility of having an operation on her arthritic hand and went to visit a couple of very reputable surgeons hereabouts. Crete is not populous for there to be dedicated hand surgeons closer than Athens and it would have been taking a bit of a chance. Having found a recommended man and almost at the point of having the operation, Ma Crozier backed out ... the recovery time required was FOUR MONTHS. It would have been much too difficult to sort things out for such a long time without transport and both of us incapacitated. So Mrs C is relieved at having made the decision, is taking collagen syrup and Omega 3 capsules for the time being and looking forward to nice weather when trying to grip things and get by every day with arthritic hands is not such a problem.

So, what are banana wars all about? Each Friday, Zacharias the Fruit and Veg man arrives close to our front door with his van and all the ladies of the block bound up in warm, black clothes burst out of their houses and swarm around with plastic bags to buy their stocks for the week. It is one of Mr C's tasks to buy some goodies and normally some kind villager brings the bags up the road for him and hangs them on our door handle. But Bananas are always the first things to go and you have to get in fast! Very often Mr C gets sidelined in the crush and misses out so we end up getting them at the supermarket! And then there are the Fridays when Pa Crozier waits for an hour or two and Zacharias doesn't arrive at all!

Now we have a couple of days of dry weather, we can get the washing done and clean the house a bit. Otherwise it's hibernation! We hope you all have a very happy, healthy and plentiful New Year without having to fight for bananas!

ROUMELI HIGHWAY

Saturday is the day of the mop and bucket, but having finished porch cleaning and dropped leaves clearance, we set off along the Roumeli Highway. It has such a romantic sound to it, doesn't it?  When we moved to Crete,  this route was all rough walking tracks amongst the groves where anemones grew in clumps, but a new road opened in the last 5-6 years taking a good 15 minutes off our journey to the municipal centre of Perama. At the opening of the road just south of our village is a signpost with the European flag on it which signifies that it was built with a grant from Europe. These signs crop up quite often round and about here outside new developments or by heritage sites or beaches. As we puttered along, I reflected that we hadn't seen many of those sort of signs in the UK. … and this kind of got me wondering why if grants were available from the EU, why I had not seen any evidence of them round and about in England? Perhaps they were for areas that needed support for development and I had lived in too well-healed places … but this seemed highly unlikely. Any benefits from Europe seemed very remote when we lived in England. Its only when you count them up you begin to realise what you are going to lose out on. It hasn't hit the population of the UK yet, but it will.

With thanks to Madeleina Kay

Anyway, back to Roumeli highway. It's a great smooth road which snakes along between acres and acres of olive trees of the Geropotamos and yes, this year is going to be a bumper one for olives. We passed trucks and tractors parked alongside their trees where families and groups were spreading the nets underneath the trees and preparing to shake, twirl and rake down the olives, sort them and put them in sacks to take to the olive mill. Dimitra, our friend who used to help with Greek conversation is now working 14 hour days at the mill doing all the record keeping and administration. Greek conversation is a No No, but there are new free lessons available in Rethymno and Mrs C is cudgelling her brains once more to try to get a better grasp of Greek. We put the car radio on for a listen to get a bit more practice.

The road is often crossed by small ferrety skinks and snakes as we drive along, so we watch our speed. At one point, the car does a sharp S bend where the road crosses a stream and where the bamboo grows in swathes. We always seem to meet a large 4 x 4 truck speeding in the opposite direction at the narrowest points and others whizz out of side turnings without stopping to check for other traffic. We do often wonder what the driving test must be like in Crete, when the standard and safety consciousness is so lacking, but we press on, driving defensively and on the lookout. Left from the storms of March, debris washed down from the escarpments is still in evidence … a little more swept together but not removed from the roadside and each new rain storm brings more stones and mud down across the road to add to it. We narrowly miss a truck driver at Roumeli itself as he careers out of nowhere and round the corner right in front of us. We zig zag down the chalk escarpment to the main feeder road and bus route to Perama and crick our necks at the awkward junction. A new emporium has opened which seems to sell hardware and has wheelbarrows outside, but as we cannot read the Greek shop sign quickly enough, we need to find out what else is there! We will have to have a nose at a later date. Two new chapels have appeared on this route, beautifully built in dressed stone and we have a new wonder whether there are Pappas (clergy) to officiate at these churches or whether they stand empty most of the year. We are permanently mystified, but make a note take a little visit when we have time.

The children from the village school practising for Oxi Day

Once parked at Perama, I struggle up the incredible slope from the car park and puff over to the ATM to check the bank balance. The value of the pound has meant that we have to keep a much closer watch on our spending these days. Fortunately, we are still solvent and able to get the groceries! I stroll back to town – all down hill this time – and observe a few Christmas windows among all the closed shop businesses, hear the heavy beat of music coming from the gym (who wants to spend time cooped up inside on a fabulous day like this?) and check on the new oranges growing on the trees by the side of the tiny pavement. It is important not to spend too much time looking up in Crete. Narrowly missing falling into the basement of a bakery which has thoughtlessly cut a large section out of the pavement to form a delivery hatch, I cling on to the wall and make it safely back to the Posh Cafe for a welcome bevy. Who would have thought that a trip to the cash machine would be so fraught with danger? The most fabulous hot chocolate arrives, which comes with Viennese fancy type shortbread. Yum! With the demise of so many shops and businesses, the Posh Cafe is the trendy place to be for now! Mr C people-watches while he waits there. The car parking antics outside the Bakery and Supermarket can keep us amused for hours, as customers' cars stop dead in the middle of the road, trucks double and triple park while lorries try to deliver loads of goods in the midst of complete lawless mayhem. It is frequently heart stopping to see all the manoeuvring and near misses.

In this bumper olive year, you will be pleased to know that the Croziers have completed and achieved their olive harvest already. It took all of five minutes from the large potted olive tree on the roof terrace. Mrs C has consulted the oracle and they are soaking in brine for a while. To be honest, they look a little puny and we don't hold out much hope, but time will tell. Thanks to our neighbours and people who really do know what they are doing, we won't be short of oil this year. 

Happy hunting!

SWEPT UNDER THE CARPET

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!