This is not strictly speaking a ship’s log, but it will tell you when and where Al, Jenny and SNORK MAIDEN are currently sailing, and what’s happening aboard – within reason and occasionally unreason.
Oh, a bit melancholy today! Maybe a come down from upbeat birthday mood. Quit a lot of time spent in in front of computers, upstairs, downstairs…. Lots of exercise in a 3 floor house, 4, counting the basement.
On the plus side, the gulls that nest on the roof of the industrial units at the back of the house have again managed to hatch chicks! So far we have only seen these two. In previous years they have had three, which must have meant a lot of heavy lifting for the parents. So below is the view from my eyrie at the top of the house.
Also Clifton Wood.
Looking the other way – here is my de-cluttered notice board. Those of you who have seen my room will know just what a departure this is. Usually several layers deep.
Yesterday also held a couple of Zooms. A fairly predictable conversation with our very lovely financial advisor. She’s sort of down to earth, very English, in a way I can’t really describe, except to say she looks as though she would be happy in green wellies, walking a Labrador or a red setter. We discover she has a robust attitude to over-cooked holiday lets with inflated prices, preferring trailer parks in quietly beautiful coastal areas. We find this re-assuring. For the rest, it’s the usual lecture on risk, terms and the appallingly low interest rates on savings accounts. I suppose the last time I did this ‘sell up and go’ thing, I happily stuffed the proceeds of the sale in the bank, eschewed pension funds and financial instruments and enjoyed the double figure interest rates, and the feeling of freedom that came with it. (The story of Kiwistar and Barcelona, but that’s not for here.)
Of course this blog is not really about quarantine, it’s about the tectonic plates of our lives shifting as we make the transition from Bristol to Crete. Quarantine tends to focus the mind, without the option of being able to run away to the library or a coffee shop.
So here we are in Bristol instead of Crete in our house that feels a bit like an AirBNB! Not a really manic Monday, I expect them to get more manic over the next 4 weeks as we try to triage 20 years worth of assorted belongings, never mind the books and tapes!
Another Waitrose delivery, so we got out the exercise bike from the basement. 10 minutes at setting number 4 felt like enough for Day 2. Let’s see where I get to on Day 10.
Day 2 test. Nerve wracking instruction sheet. Take the stopper off the tube and balance it on its tiny tail. I’ll go first…. Oh was that my kit or was that yours? Can they tell? Yes, they will look at our chromosomes. It’s a Bank Holiday. What about the post? Like Sunday? But what’s Sunday like? Is that an antibacterial wipe…. Oh no, it’s the padding in the pack. Never mind, I’ll just put it back – they won’t know will they?
Then we find that Day 8 is on a Sunday, but we can’t post at the weekend, according to test pack, even though there’s supposed to be a collection. So what do we do?
The Day 5 quick release test looks expensive and too complicated to bother about. Plus which how come trips to the postbox are allowed?
Pass the remote. Have we seen that Werner Herzog film? Ok, then Star Trek Series 2 it is then.
Also on the plus side, birthday visit from all 4 Randle Landers who actually sang Happy Birthday in the street! Sorry, no video.
And the garden looks nice.
Tomorrow – Day Three, no Waitrose delivery, no birthday…..
So day zero was travel from Crete to Heathrow with BA – the only airline that seems to be reliably serving the UK from Chania. The trip was pretty smooth, with a near empty airport.
Just as well, since we had a struggle at the check in desk to produce e versions of our ticket, Test Results, Passenger Locator form. My phone is no more, Al’s refused to download the documents so we resorted to my laptop. The check in person was patient, and there was no queue . We checked in the baggage, and went to picnic outside on home made cheese pies (thank you Despoina), a bakery spanakopita (not quite so good) and some of Despoina’s sweet cakes. Also Al ate an apple, in case you are worried about our 5 fruit and veg! BA kept up the good work with a small bottle of water and a bag of crisps. Virus-wise things pretty OK. Around the airpot Departures most wore their masks properly. Outside Arrivals a few all-male groups clustered, drinking coffee and chatting with no masks.
Uneventful flight at 3 hours 40 minutes.
First encounter with UK BORDER. We both failed the e passport machines. Told by a security gorilla that we had probably failed to complete our Passenger Locator Forms correctly. Actually if that was the case, we wouldn’t have been on the flight at all. A nice Asian immigration bloke checked our passports and let us into a now non-European UK. Well, maybe only-just-U K.
National Express to Bristol with overweight Simon, cheerful chap from South Wales. Asked him why he wasn’t wearing a mask. He said he had post-Covid breathing difficulties. Mostly mask-wearing on coach except for an old chap who looked like he wasn’t quite with the programme. Good spacing and A/C.
Walking through Bristol with suitcase wheels rumbling away was quite a trip. Hardly and masks around and young Bristol was out on the streets, in the pubs, drinking on the dockside. First warm dry evening for a while, and there’s a bit of a VE Day feeling about things. It really feels like a lull before the next storm, since there’s nothing that reassures us that the B617-2 variant isn’t going to ramp up into another lockdown situation.
For a clear view of the science and the Government’s actions – or lack of them, try Independent SAGE.
Which brings us to Day One after a very short night. Amazing how much jet lag a 2 hour time difference can make! The house, de-cluttered looking like an AirBNB sort of familiar, but sort of not! Of course our task now is to start sorting out in preparation for the move out. 8am Waitrose delivery. Aaaargh I forgot to order tea, the most important thing. Al started the day with a large cafe au lait, toast and marmalade. I did a yoga class with Stephanie Quirk, from Australia, courtesy of Vimeo. About Stillness, important in these days of uncertainty and change. Supper courtesy of Riverford, Crispy marinated tofu, with Pak Choi and Broccoli. Delicious. Tomorrow I managed to wangle another delivery so the tea situation will be remedied, together with more ice cream and strawberries. Well, I don’t need to remind you that it’s my birthday. And before you ask, we are having a dry quarantine, to make up for a moist 15 months in Greece, so no bubbly this year.
Today sunny and warm in Bristol, so door to garden open all day – a flavour of our temporary home in Marediana.
I really should have a dawn pic, since we see plenty of them! Al tends to early waking, especially when he has work going on, or he feels worried. At the moment, it’s both. Dawn here can be wild with wind, soft light to the North, deep orange glow over the Eastern Sparti Peninsular. Add in the twittering of the swallows this month, and you might have a taste of it. There is something about this song, that reminds me of the fragile, slightly nauseous feeling that comes with not having had quite enough sleep.
For any of you who haven’t already read this sad tale. (Skip this bit if you have…)
16 May 2021
It was a windy afternoon, so a small outdoor social event was cancelled, leaving me a bit stir crazy. So I said ‘Shall we go out – just for a change of scene.’ We drove to the harbour. Maybe restrictions have eased a bit here, so we went to a place we hadn’t been for a while. Quiet, just the taverna open for a few men sitting around a table. We parked and walked to the end of the ferry quay, where we often see fish. Al hopped up on a handy concrete block and onto the harbour wall. I paused for thought, then followed him. I might have put the car key in my back pocket. More of a scramble for me, being smaller, so I summited the wall on hands and knees. There was a long pause, so it seemed, followed by the sound of something heavy and solid hitting the water. There it lay, in perfect peace, framed by rocks, gently reflective water above its shiny face. My iPhone. Side pocket of my backpack, not as tight a fit as I would have liked it to be, since you ask.
And generally:
It’s a bit of a stressful time here, like approaching the points on a speeding train and not knowing whether it will successfully negotiate either route on just come tumbling off the rails! Probably like many other countries (Sweden apparently excepted), nothing is straightforward about buying land and building. So selling the Bristol house seems like a bit of a jump onto that train, possibly without having really read the destination board in enough detail. A Magical Mystery Tour, then.
Corona Virus where we are
I put this at the end, because not everyone wants to think about the pandemic. The fact remains that although Greece seems to be on the downward slope of infections, and the vaccine programme has done OK, there is still a significant proportion of the younger population still unprotected, and the ‘it’s all over’ feeling engendered by the effort to open up to tourists probably isn’t helpful. Supermarkets still enforcing strict mask rules but gas stations, taxi drivers, even pharmacists have abandoned mask wearing, at least, where we are. If you like graphs etc, more here.
When I first came to Greece, my memories, probably like yours, are of thick dark coffee in very small white china cups. There was a mouthful, maybe two or three of slightly granular and strong coffee. You might have drunk it sweet, like the Greeks, or ‘metrios’ (is that even a word?) which seemed to be understood as ‘just a little sugar to take the bitter edge of the coffee’. This coffee was made in small long handled saucepan, we have a modern version.
The coffee was made over a flame. Then there was the frappe version. Here’s a recipe I found, with a pic (not mine).Basically a cold, frothy Nescafe that, like ouzo, just doesn’t work more than 10K from a Greek beach.
Unfortunately, both types of coffee have lost out to the ubiquitous cappucino or latte in the one-time throwaway cup. Everytime I drive in to Kissamos, there is a cluster of traffic hazards at the bottom of the hill, around the small coffe shop (Κατι Αλλο = Anything Else?). There are flatbed trucks at peculiart angles, vehicles squeezing past or waiting to join the National Road, delivery mopeds with unfeasable loads… Even during lockdown the takeaway coffee stops have been thriving. Deliveries go to homes, shops, offices, and of course, olive groves.
Liking and Loving the Greeks
I know that some of you will think that to attribute national characteristics to the very wide palette of human nature is futile. But I think that they can be useful in the same way that horoscopes are useful, to help us talk, think and probably make judgements about each other. In modern Greek there doesn’t really seem to be a word for ‘like’ – as in I like ice cream, or I like most of my friends. The way to express this is effectively ‘ice cream pleases me’. But there is also αγαπώ. Literally – I love. And it can be used in contexts that I am still exploring. Μου αρέσι is probably safest. (Put these into Google translate to hear them and see the anglicised versions). When it comes to shopping, you don’t tell the person behind the counter that you would like some feta, you tell them that you would politely want some cheese. So I don’t think you can like the Greeks, I think you have to love them!
What Happened to March?
What has been keeping me away from the blog for a while? Well, we are in the process of buying a plot with plans to build. As you might imagine, it is not a frictionless process, like popping into the corner shop for bottle of Diet Coke and a pack of orange Rizlas.
We are at the same time have been getting our Bristol house ready for sale, aware that every thousand will bring our future plans a bit nearer. So I made a website, to boost the estate agent’s efforts, and spent a lot of time phoning, WhatsApping, bargaining, pleading, cajoling a variety of friends, friends of friends, tradespeople until at last the house was de-cluttered, excess stuff in storage, windows cleaned, garden smartened up, photographs taken (I haven’t seen these yet, but they will be on the estate agent’s website next week.). At the same time Al has been uploading the next slice of earthMusic albums. Most of them up there now, with more great artwork from Bristol printmaker Anna Marrow. Here’s a taste:
The image links to the whole library so far, if you’d like to listen.
Lockdown
We have had a lockdown since December, I think, feels like forever since our routine doesn’t change much in any case. Some easing up at the moment – we can go a little further afield at weekends, supposedly for exercise, and ‘non-essential’ shops opening up. Makes you wonder why we did all that shopping, bought all that stuff, that we apparently didn’t need. I think I haver a lifetimes supply of fountain pens, ink, drawing and painting materials, waiting for the day…. Also possible T shirts.
Vaccination
I have had first Pfizer with 48 hours of feeling tired, not sleeping very well and my guts feeling as though I have eaten too much vindaloo and drunk too much Guiness. Better now. Al has first one on Wednesday. Greek website efficient and local heath centre running on time, friendly and coping well. Days later – Al now vaxed with forst dose Really pleasant young staff, no queue to speak of. Situated between Roman ruins, suburban style housing and a few empty spaces with wildflowers and the odd shippoing container.
Spring – has been in evidence since about October! Some warm days, often cool and windy but rarely really cold. Heating with an enclosed fireplace and not much else. Light duvet and a cotton blanket have been enough in a mostly unheated bedroom. You get the idea. Many flowers – well, this is Crete.
First swim since February, a mix of strictly observed lockdown and quite a lot of cool and windy days. A real sense of time accelerating. It’s as though 2020 passed in a kind of pleasant dream, now passing through the metaphorical Airport into the land of ‘real life’. More about that soon.
Our House
Today’s Blog is a bit different because I am trying to keep to just one subject.
This is actually the house next door, but the two houses are like peas in a pod – not identical but recognisably siblings, actually sisters, Aretousa and Pasiphae.
This is Pasiphae, and it is where we have been living since March 2020. Today is actually a kind of anniversary. We came out for 2 months on this day (26 February) 2018. We first found it through AirBnb and it was really a shot in the dark. When I looked at the location on the !:140,000 Michelin map of Crete, I thought it would be in a kind of suburban area of Kissamos. So it was a real surprise that it was up a winding road, with a view over the bay, even the ferry port in the distance. I can still remember the drive, maybe in the dusk, the small hire car steadily climbing, following the directions and wondering where on earth we were going and if it could possibly be right. But it was. Tina was there to welcome us and I an almost certain that there was a bottle of wine, bread and a warm dish of stuffed peppers on the table. One of the best meals we ever have.
At the time we were looking for a house to rent for Spring 2019, and after viewing several others we decided to go for Pasiphae. At the time, we had no idea what a good decision this was.
The house is built of stone, so most of the interior walls are unfinished stone. We have come to really appreciate the soft sound that this gives in the rooms. Acoustically, the house feels rather like a single space, and that has made us exercise a lot of consideration for each other in terms of the noise we make – whether it’s Zoom yoga, washing up or Al beating out time in his makeshift bedroom studio. Having said that, the house has proved itself capable of handling guests – we have had people to stay overnight, easy with a comfortable sofa bed downstairs and bathrooms on both floors.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I am hoping that this year or next, some of you will come over to see us here in Western Crete, and until we have our own place where you can stay, these houses are a perfect solution. At the moment we don’t know exactly where we will be when, or when where, but we know that you will love staying here as much as we do, so you might want to make plans to come anyway!
The website tells you everything you need to know – the houses are comfortable, have pools, 2 bathrooms each, one with a bath and one with a shower and a washing machine. Solar water heating means there is almost always plenty of hot water,(bearing in mind that economical use of water is good in such a water hungry region). There’s an outdoor shower, fabulous in the summer. Swimming pool is small by Oympic standards but good for a splash about when it’s hot. Just floating about on an airbed takes a lot of beating. Still working out how to read whilst doing this.
The houses are around 15 minutes from our favourite local beach at Viglia.
And there are many more to choose from. Many of you will have read the blog, on and off, and will know that we have many walks from the house in nearby olive groves. Further afield there are the Cretan gorges, famous and not-so-famous. There’s a Minoan / Roman settlement (Polyrinia) on a hill that we can see from the bedroom window. Fantastic spring flowers.
I haven’t talked about the food – there are plenty of restaurants in the area, mainly simple beach tavernas, but some ‘hidden gems’ as well. There is a plan afoot to provide a new, exciting dining experience almost right next-door. But I am not going to give that game away.
We have made friends here, with our hosts, with our neighbours. In spite of the lock-down we have managed some minimal outdoor socialising, a birthday party, and a home delivered Christmas dinner. Here are our hosts and friends, Tine and Eleni.
Smells: so important! When we walked into the house it smelled right. No heavily scented cleaners or ‘air fresheners’ just a comfortable clean smell, with maybe a little polish. Outside there is a scented hedge, jasmine, and a lemon tree, all of which contribute to a heady summer mix. And just yesterday, the anniversary of our arrival in 2018, the air smelled like spring in some way I can’t define. A mix of daisies and new foliage maybe. That and the sun angle seem to raise a felt memory of our first taste of Cretan Spring.
What else to say? We will be here at least until the end of May, after which we probaby need to attend to a few things back in Bristol! This has been a strange year for everyone, but it’s hard to think of a better place to be ‘locked in’. If you are interested in coming out to visit, get in touch with me , and I can pass you on to our friend Tina, or there’s a booking form on the website.
So – we hope to see you in Crete, sooner or later!
Γεαι σας!
Spring, Summer, Autumn… and Spring again.
Τι καιρό; What’s the weather like?
According to my Greek textbook, there is a Greek saying:
Από Αύγουστο χειμώνα
Κι από Μάρτη καλοκαίρι
Loosely translated as :
Winter begins in August; Summer begins in March.
Maybe because of climate change, or maybe because of our attachment to the notion of 4 seasons, it hasn’t quite been like that. When we arrived in march last year, Spring was definitely springing up everywhere, with many flowers already out, and just after we got here a day that caused our neighbour to ask us why we were wearing winter clothes! As it turned out, we needed those clothes on many days right through into May, and we were certainly lighting the fire in the evening until the wood ran out, maybe early May. But in between there were days when we went to the beach and swam.
I think in July we began to make regular use of the pool for cool-down dips, and I sometimes used the AC for yoga practice.
Of course it was an odd summer, with a background of mask wearing in the supermarket, and a voluntary limit on trips, neither of us wishing to stay in a hotel. Some of you will remember our ‘holiday’ in Papadiana in August when our house hosted other guests. The Airbnb business was clearly a difficult season to manage between restriction, prudence and cancellation.
Autumn was defined by some crisp mornings, beginning maybe at the end of October, when we returned to the log fire. There have been a few days when we have lit the fire before 5pm, and on a few mornings I have used the air heat exchanger to warm the living room-kitchen for yoga practice.
In November, I think, the bare earth of the olive groves turned bright green, and by November, they were carpeted with small yellow flowers with lush foliage, high enough to make my ankles and almost knees wet after rain. In January the anemones began, sometimes just one or two and sometimes a whole bank, often mixed in with daisies. This year, after a heavy crop, the olive trees have been mercilessly pruned, with whole branches lopped off, sometimes revealing views that we didn’t know were there. It is a viscous process, with the sound of chain saws and pale open wounds mark the absence of amputated limbs. The product of this carnage is next year’s firewood, but the smaller leafy branches are quickly dried Ian drifts next to tracks, before being burnt in very neat bonfires that leave near-perfect circles of ash. Sometimes there are left over charred bits, good for kindling as the heat of the fire has dried them out.
So you see, our year has only had 3 seasons, the bite of winter has passed us by. Of course we have had stormy days when wind and rain have kept us indoors, but not so many of them, and generally, people say it has been a dry year. The snow on the White Mountains being Chania is less than it was when we arrived last year. The weather has 3 weeks to make up the difference and at the moment it looks unlikely.
The last few weeks have also brought more bird activity. There are many small birds, blackbirds, doves around, as well as the usual hooded crows and hawks of various sorts.
And maybe Winter
After all that, we are due a cold snap of 5C but feeling like -5C!! A new load of logs this morning, so maybe a few days of earlier fires.
Monday: we have got the cooler, rainy weather and now I have just lit the fire. The logs are neatly piled up – or as neat as I can make it, given that they are pretty weird shapes and sizes. My neat-freak side wants them to be tidier but so long as they can stay dry, that’s the main thing. We were promised high winds and Tina and Eleni collected up our chairs and tied down the tables. I guess that’s what’s meant by a high wind in Western Crete.
MUSIC
Today you have a choice: massive Led Zeppelin live version of Whole Lotta Love
or a much quieter soundtrack from Studio Ghibli’s When Marnie was There which I haven’t seen yet. We have been having a rock music mini-binge. Must be the weather!
FOOD
Chick peas and cabbage – a combination I haven’t used before. There are any number of recipes out there, so I invite you to Google that combination of ingredients.
Fritters have also come onto the menu – courgette quite classic, be sure to salt and wring out the grated courgettes. Another great recipe for chick pea and sweet potato fritters from The Happy Pear.
READING
I think I have had a literary relapse. I couldn’t quite manage LANNY – maybe another time. So have resorted to the classiest crime novels I could find. Oh and The Midnight Library – sort of interesting and sort of irritating. The Life we Bury was an interesting page-turner. No spoilers. I also like the Scandi-Icelandic genres. About to start Ragnar Jónasson’s Winter Kill, and I have The Song of Achilles lined up. It has been lined up for a while; I may have to buy it.
Watching
Did I mention that I have become a ’Trekkie’? We have started with season one of Start Trek. I never watched it the first time around, and I am loving it. There’s something relaxing about the pace of the episodes, and even the old 4×3 TV ratio makes for comfortable viewing. Temporarily giving up with Adam Curtis on the BBC iPlayer. Westerns: News of the World – Netflix film. Good guy finds abandoned white child, abducted during Indian raid. Atmospheric. Watchable. The White Tiger – for a dose of India. Close to the book and very visual. Has the smell of India. We are casting around for a new series, in spite of another 10.6 series of Star Trek.
BTW
This is the year of the Ox. My sign. I feel as though I really am going to have to put on the yoke and do some heavy ploughing if our lovely ideas for a life in Crete are to materialise. Of course my partner in harness is a Horse, so watch out for some interesting team work as the horns and hooves fly. It will not be a straight furrow, but the harvest should be bountiful.
Feeling a little … what’s the word – maybe wistful.
Not sure I have ever written that word before. Let Fairport Convention describe the feeling.
PS I make no apology for repeating myself in the blogs – I don’t check back on what I have written previously, and I don’t expect everyone to read everything in any case!
Coming soon:
Winter Light and Mr Toad
Here’s the inspirational link – since we can’t actually travel much, get aboard Al’s NIGHT TRAIN.
I do have a photo of the winter light, but missed the toad that I found in our woodpile! Now we are well into the second lockdown and I think we are both feeling a little stir crazy and fractious today. Just when I felt I was sort of turning a corner with Greek, I now feel myself to be , if not back at the ground floor, maybe wandering around in the lingerie department looking for the way out. Apologies, that’s a terrible metaphor. Think Father Ted. I was doing ‘small talk’ with my Greek teacher this morning and she chose the topics Christmas, weekend, summer, hobbies and something else I can’t remember. I found myself not just stuck for vocabulary, but stuck for content. Christmas I have tried to avoid for most of my adult life, preferring to spend the holiday on a beach, in a city, even hiding out a t home…. What a Grinch! Hobbies? No knitting, crochet, painting, musical instruments, organised sport…. Help! Reading, watching TV, Facebook & Instagram, yoga, cooking…. None of these feel like hobbies in the traditional sense. Quick somebody, buy me an AirFix kit. Or should I try making the Sagrada Familiar out of matchsticks.
22 December
Well , it’s been a while! I have a ‘new’ Mac – a refurb. Or maybe just overstock. Anyway, not the very latest since it always seems to take a few months for the new operating systems to bed in. I spent quite a lot of the last couple of days on the phone with a very helpful and competent chap called Bruno who helped me through the migration process. Not quite straightforward since 2010 was very miffed and wouldn’t cooperate at all with the new arrival. A bit like trying to introduce a kitten to the old cat. Anyway eventually the old cat settled down, and now here I am playing with the kitten.
British in Greece
Well, we are well on our way. We applied some while ago to be part of the Greek health system – the only way apart from extortionate private insurance. As the UK Gov has been kindly reminding us in the gaps between podcasts, we have left the EU and the transition period runs out in a matter of days. I will draw a veil over the Greek bureaucratic process. Maybe that is for another time! Enough to say that we have our precious ‘health books’ entitling us to treatment in the 9th best health system in the world. And I should shortly be in possession of a Greek driving licence. Al had completely confused the system with dual nationality but no actual civil existence in France. Happy Days!
And I have probably said this before, but the New York Times’ puts out a podcast called THE DAILY. Somehow the Americans seem to be just better at podcasting. I find myself going back there when I need a new one. I do listen to Newscast from time to time, a habit formed when they were Brexitcast and I still cared what was happening in their world. Now I find them a bit too uncritical of the UK Government, and maybe just a little smug. Queen Laura Kuenssberg, it always feels to me as if she has one eye firmly on her dame hood, perhaps followed by DG of the BBC. But maybe that’s just me, as they irritatingly say so often on Brexitcast. New Statesman daily Podcast, mainly because they all sound so YOUNG. Stephen Bush says ‘like’ more times in a minute than I draw breath.
What I Watch
Really this should be What We Watch, since mostly we watch together win the evening, holding one of our laptops whist sitting on the sofa. I am very taken with His Dark Materials and can’t quite make the link between this series and the second Book of Dust. But I will hang in there. I may have to read / listen to the original again. There’s a great BBC audio production of the His Dark Materials, completely faithful to the books. I got a bootlegged copy from Jamie Hunter which I listened to whilst working on Snork Maiden in a distant winter.
We have also started to watch a French series on Netflix CALL MY AGENT. A small French agency in Paris (where else). A new star each week makes a different problem for the agency to solve as well as an insight into Parisian life and loves. And a dog called Jean Gabin. Some gentle and very well done slapstick. Very French.
One series only of GODLESS – a kind of feminist western. I love westerns for the landscape and the horses. This one has an unusual storyline, and plenty gunfire and, of course, horses.
SNORK MAIDEN
No reason why any of you would know this, but I send this Blog out to Friends of Snork Maiden. As some of you know, she has been visited at least once a year, but we haven’t sailed her for an astounding 6 years. I used to wonder how it was that boats didn’t move from the spot, well, now I know. Initially we wanted to just do something different for the summer, so off we went to Sardinia in the all terrain C5. Spectacular trip, mainly camping, with a drive down through France and a lot of ferries. Then Al’s mother died, his Dad was hard put to cope – you can see how that went. All the time we hoped we could sail ‘next year’ and progressively, it didn’t happen. I had such high hopes of this year (2020) that I bought an entire set of running rigging (ropes, to you) and a few other bits and pieces at last year’s Southampton Boat Show. We would usually be in France by the end of May in a ‘normal’ sailing year, but as we all know, this year was not at all normal. We had only just come out of lockdown, were hitting the beach and snorkelling as often as we could, and the Cretan summer seemed like a safer and all round better proposition than travelling back to the UK. Hard to recall now the restrictions that were in place. I think June and July saw restaurants opening for outdoor service, but we pretty much kept ourselves ‘shielded’ apart from a few outdoor meetings with friends. So Snork Maiden was left in her land berth, unvisited and with her hull dry. Somewhere in those 2000 Brexit pages, the status of a UK boat kept in France, may be explained. One last try next year, and if we don’t manage it then, we must sell her and let someone else have a go. There are many charter fleets in the Greek Islands, and bargains come up at either end of the season, so not hanging up my sailing trousers just yet.
25 December 2020
Christmas Day – we have often spent 25 December out of the UK. I don’t like the schlocky aspects, although I do like the ‘feel’ of December. We got married on December 18th and I get a kind of anticipatory sense in the early part of December that I can trace back to 2006. So that Christmas was our Honeymoon in Venice, by train, of course. Then I think I went to India straight after for a month’s yoga in Pune. I can also remember Christmases in Mexico, California (with Stuart and Gayle), the Canaries, Spain, Naples and last year, Athens. This is just a reminder of how much the world has changed in 2020. This year not just exceptional because we were swimming a couple of days before Christmas but also because our friends and neighbours offered to cook us Christmas lunch, bringing it over to us, since we can’t yet all enjoy a meal around the same table. Fish, perfectly cooked in a bed of Mediterranean veg accompanied by a special salad, laced with figs and home sun dried cherry tomatoes. Enjoyed with a bottle of white wine from another of our friends here, and chased with a glass of port (also a gift) and followed by a serious afternoon snooze. Oh yes, then a game of Scrabble with a Greek twist. Είναι Ελλενικα, οχι Αγγλικα. Get the idea? We modified the game to allow copious dictionary consultation and no scoring (although Al claimed that he won). Oh and in the morning we walked on Falasana beach, a short drive away. A good day!
Brexit, Corona Virus
Maybe keep these for another time….
And for you plant lovers, there is a sort of early spring thing going on here in Crete, which has its very own take on the seasons:
Today’s Blog is a bit different because I am trying to keep to just one subject.
This is actually the house next door, but the two houses are like peas in a pod – not identical but recognisably siblings, actually sisters, Aretousa and Pasiphae.
Here is Pasiphae, and it is where we have been living since March 2020. Today is actually a kind of anniversary. We came out for 2 months on this day (26 February) 2018. We first found it through AirBnb in November 2017, and it was really a shot in the dark. When I looked at the location on the !:140,000 Michelin map of Crete, I thought it would be in a kind of suburban area of Kissamos. So it was a real surprise that it was up a winding road, with a view over the bay, even the ferry port in the distance. I can still remember the drive, maybe in the dusk, the small hire car steadily climbing, following the directions and wondering where on earth we were going and if it could possibly be right. But it was. Tina was there to welcome us and I an almost certain that there was a bottle of wine, bread and a warm dish of stuffed peppers on the table. One of the best meals we ever have.
At the time we were looking for a house to rent for Spring 2018, and after viewing several others we decided to go for Pasiphae. At the time, we had no idea what a good decision this was.
The house is built of stone, so most of the interior walls are unfinished stone. We have come to really appreciate the soft sound that this gives in the rooms. Acoustically, the house feels rather like a single space, and that has made us exercise a lot of consideration for each other in terms of the noise we make – whether it’s Zoom yoga, washing up or Al beating out time in his makeshift bedroom studio. The bed is comfortable, has great views over the sea, and hills to the West.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I am hoping that this year or next, some of you will come over to see us here in Western Crete, and until we have our own place where you can stay, these houses are a perfect solution. At the moment we don’t know exactly where we will be when, or when where, but we know that you will love staying here as much as we do, so you might want to make plans to come anyway!
The website (click on the rainbow) tells you everything you need to know – the houses are comfortable, have pools, 2 bathrooms each, one with a bath and one with a shower and a washing machine. Solar water heating means there is almost always plenty of hot water,(bearing in mind that economical use of water is good in such a water hungry region). There’s an outdoor shower, fabulous in the summer. Swimming pool is small by Oympic standards but good for a splash about when it’s hot. Just floating about on an airbed takes a lot of beating. Still working out how to read whilst doing this.
The houses are around 15 minutes from our favourite local beach at Viglia. Bigger beaches are also available!
And there are plenty to choose from. Many of you will have read the blog, on and off, and will know that we have many walks from the house in nearby olive groves. Further afield there are the Cretan gorges, famous and not-so-famous. There’s a Minoan / Roman settlement (Polyrinia) on a hill that we can see from the bedroom window. Fantastic spring flowers.
I haven’t talked about the food yet – there are plenty of restaurants in the area, mainly simple beach tavernas, but some ‘hidden gems’ as well. There is a plan afoot to provide a new, exciting dining experience almost right next-door. But I am not going to give that game away.
We have made friends here, with our hosts, with our neighbours. In spite of the lock-down we have managed some minimal outdoor socialising, a birthday party, and a home delivered Christmas dinner. Here are our hosts and friends, Tine and Eleni.
Smells: so important! When we walked into the house it smelled right. No heavily scented cleaners or ‘air fresheners’ just a comfortable clean smell, with maybe a little polish. Outside there is a scented hedge, jasmine, and a lemon tree, all of which contribute to a heady summer mix. And just yesterday, the air smelled like spring in some way I can’t define. A mix of daisies and new foliage maybe. That and the sun angle seem to raise a felt memory of our first taste of Cretan Spring.
What else to say? We will be here at least until the end of May, after which we probaby need to attend to a few things back in Bristol! This has been a strange year for everyone, but it’s hard to think of a better place to be ‘locked in’. If you are interested in coming out to visit, get in touch with me , and I can pass you on to our friend Tina, or there’s a booking form on the website.
So – we hope to see you in Crete, sooner or later!
Τι καιρό; What’s the weather like? According to my Greek textbook, there is a Greek saying: Από Αύγουστο χειμώνα Κι από Μάρτη καλοκαίρι Loosely translated as : Winter begins in August; Summer begins in March.
Maybe because of climate change, or maybe because of our attachment to the notion of 4 seasons, it hasn’t quite been like that. When we arrived in march last year, Spring was definitely springing up everywhere, with many flowers already out, and just after we got here a day that caused our neighbour to ask us why we were wearing winter clothes! As it turned out, we needed those clothes on many days right through into May, and we were certainly lighting the fire in the evening until the wood ran out, maybe early May. But in between there were days when we went to the beach and swam.
Autumn was defined by some crisp mornings, beginning maybe at the end of October, when we returned to the log fire. There have been a few days when we have lit the fire before 5pm, and on a few mornings I have used the air heat exchanger to warm the living room-kitchen for yoga practice. In November, I think, the bare earth of the olive groves turned bright green, and by November, they were carpeted with small yellow flowers with lush foliage, high enough to make my ankles and almost knees wet after rain. In January the anemones began, sometimes just one or two and sometimes a whole bank, often mixed in with daisies.
This year, after a heavy crop, the olive trees have been mercilessly pruned, with whole branches lopped off, sometimes revealing views that we didn’t know were there. It is a vicious process, with the sound of chain saws and pale open wounds.
The product of this carnage is next year’s firewood, but the smaller leafy branches are quickly dried Ian drifts next to tracks, before being burnt in very neat bonfires that leave near-perfect circles of ash. Sometimes there are left over charred bits, good for kindling as the heat of the fire has dried them out.
The snow on the White Mountains behind Chania is less than it was when we arrived last year in early March. The weather has 3 weeks to make up the difference and at the moment it looks unlikely.
The last few weeks have also brought more bird activity. There are many small birds, blackbirds, doves around, as well as the usual hooded crows and hawks of various sorts.
Below is a Video link to a pan from Al’s ‘listening spot’ just below the house. Spring birds, distant chainsaws and a hawk!
Winter Update After all that, we are due a cold snap of 5C but feeling like -5C!! A new load of logs this morning, so maybe a few days of earlier fires. Monday: we have got the cooler, rainy weather and now I have just lit the fire. The logs are neatly piled up – or as neat as I can make it, given that they are pretty weird shapes and sizes. My neat-freak side wants them to be tidier but so long as they can stay dry, that’s the main thing. We were promised high winds and Tina and Eleni collected up our chairs and tied down the tables. I guess that’s what’s meant by a high wind in Western Crete.
MUSIC Today you have a choice: massive Led Zeppelin live version of [Whole Lotta Love] or a much quieter soundtrack from Studio Ghibli’s [When Marnie was There] which I haven’t seen yet. We have been having a rock music mini-binge. Must be the weather!
FOOD Chick peas and cabbage – a combination I haven’t used before. There are any number of recipes out there, so I invite you to Google that combination of ingredients. Here’s one I made: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/turmeric-and-coconut-braised-cabbage-with-chickpeas (Sorry not a link – cut and paste )
Fritters have also come onto the menu – courgette quite classic, be sure to salt and wring out the grated courgettes. Another great recipe for chick pea and sweet potato fritters from The Happy Pear.
READING I think I have had a literary relapse. I couldn’t quite manage LANNY – maybe another time. So have resorted to the classiest crime novels I could find. Oh and The Midnight Library – sort of interesting and sort of irritating. The Life we Bury was an interesting page-turner. No spoilers. I also like the Scandi-Icelandic genres. About to start Ragnar Jónasson’s Winter Kill, and I have The Song of Achilles lined up. It has been lined up for a while; I may have to buy it.
Watching Did I mention that I have become a ’Trekkie’? We have started with season one of Star Trek. I never watched it the first time around, and I am loving it. There’s something relaxing about the pace of the episodes, and even the old 4×3 TV ratio makes for comfortable viewing. Temporarily giving up with Adam Curtis on the BBC iPlayer. Westerns: News of the World – Netflix film. Good guy finds abandoned white child, abducted during Indian raid. Atmospheric. Watchable. The White Tiger – for a dose of India. Close to the book and very visual. Has the smell of India. We are casting around for a new series, in spite of another 10.6 series of Star Trek.
BTW This is the year of the Ox. My sign. I feel as though I really am going to have to put on the yoke and do some heavy ploughing if our lovely ideas for a life in Crete are to materialise. Of course my partner in harness is a Horse, so watch out for some interesting team work as the horns and hooves fly. It will not be a straight furrow, but the harvest should be bountiful.
Feeling a little … what’s the word – maybe wistful. Not sure I have ever written that word before. Let Fairport Convention describe the feeling.
PS I make no apology for repeating myself in the blogs – I don’t check back on what I have written previously, and I don’t expect everyone to read everything in any case!
Inspirational Music. Well I think it has to be Lady Gaga and the American National Anthem. I know it still ain’t a perfect world but at least we can have an optimistic warm glow for a bit.
This blog has gone a bit interior. I think that’s the effect of wintery weather with a slight dose of hibernation. Our main source of heating is the fireplace – glassed in so we can see the flames, but the whole brick surround heats up and keeps the warmth in until the morning. We have A/C that also works as air source heating. Not hugely effective but they can take the chill off a room. We have ample stocks of logs. Al has made himself fire supremo.
More Winter Pix
A quick collection at random – we often walk Max’s dog’s (Maxine Maas, Storm & Bramble). Christmas Day on the beach drawing in the sand, the olive harvest still goes on.
Reading
Fascinating story from WIRED., about a man who walked without a phone and died in a tent in an American National Park. Why would he do this? In what circumstance might any of us choose this?
Book-wise, have finished OVERSTOREY, after a delay through having to return it to Libby (free e-library App) and re-borrow it for the final section. Also “The New Wilderness”- a dystopian future where wandering in nature is forbidden, apart from an experimental tribe. Also about mothers and daughters. Are futures ever not dystopian? Now reading BURNT SUGAR, set in Pune, so interesting in that way. A different kind of mother-daughter story that I am finding a bit claustrophobic. Maybe all mother daughter stories turn out the same way…. I think I am due an escapist thriller anytime now.
Oh and we are reading Brian Eno’s 1995 diary aloud in the evening, just the entry for that day. Interesting for anyone who was living through those heady days of the nascent web, Windows 95 and the possibilities that the Internet offered. Eno has many of the same interests and contemporaries as we do, so all kinds of resonances.
A YEAR WITH SWOLLEN APPENDICES – BRIAN ENO’S DIARY
Cooking and Eating
Thinking about what I miss. Mostly a few spices. Patak’s aubergine pickle, maple syrup, tamari, tofu, leafy coriander. I have just been browsing the HAPPY PEAR’s recipes. For anyone who hasn’t met them and their Vegan recipes, take a look. They have recipes on the web, also videos if you like that kind of thing. I am tempted to try their sweet potato fritters for a projected picnic. A couple of weeks ago we spent a few hours on the beach. The water was a little cool at 18º. Nothing to real cold water swimmers, but bear in mind, ours is a snorkelled stroll.
Back to food. We have been the lucky recipients of olive oil from friends and neighbours. This year’s crop was plentiful, and tasted good to me, although we heard that maybe it wasn’t generally high quality. I use nothing else for cooking here, although some of the older recipes call for clarified butter. I think I haver seen that in the supermarket but need to properly translate the label to make sure I’m not buying goose fat.
I think I promised a fast moussaka recipe sometime back. The secret, which some find absolutely sacriligious, (TJB, you know who you are) is to chop the veg into small dice. So, I say, forget the idea of multiple layers. Find a large frying pan. Put in enough olive oil to cover the bottom, then fry chopped onion, turn the heat down a bit after initial blast, then add your prepared aubergines. (Slice, salt, press in colander for an hour or more if you can. Wring them out in tea towel. If you have to miss this bit out, don’t worry it will work anyway.) Dice the aubergine slices small – almost like diced carrots. Smaller they are, the faster they cook. Same with the potatoes. Add these to the mix in the frying pan and turn down the heat some more. Leave them alone while you make the sauce (basic béchamel – you know what to do). Assemble the whole lot – potato mix first, can of chopped tomatoes next, sauce on top. Hot oven for around 30 minutes. If you have a deep dish (I don’t) you can layer it up, but for speed, keep it shallow. I have wasted too much of my life waiting for there potato component of moussaka to cook. Oh and you can put parmesan on top about 20 mines in. More cheese optional. Can add it to sauce but IMHO it’s unnecessary.
No apologies if I have mentioned this before, CALL MY AGENT – unmissable. Season 4 and final just releasing on Netflix. Famous French actors play themselves , and other actors play the staff of an Agency. Excellent and very French!
Slightly weird film ENORME from MY FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL. A man tricks his partner into getting pregnant then hijacks the pregnancy. Surprisingly good epidural birth sequence. Avoids slapstick, sentimentally, was kind of educational in an odd way. Free to S. America, the rest of the world has to rent the major movies, shorts are free.
TODAY 22 January
I have to be careful that this blog doesn’t turn into an endless piece of blog knitting that in the end strangles me as I try to get it out the virtual door…. And don’t let it hit you in your virtual ass on the way out. See? Time to let go.
Friday is our cleaning morning, curiously enjoyable since the house is SO easy. Tiled floors downstairs, wooden floors upstairs. We shift all chairs etc outside so we get a clear run. Terrace downstairs, balconies upstairs. Everything outside, doors and windows open to air. AL vacuums all floors, I wash them with my favourite ‘Blue Planet’ eco all-purpose cleaner, a mop and bucket. Lovely. We change the bed, wash the sheets and towels if the weather is good. I clean the bathrooms, bag up the rubbish – one bag per week for eco reasons. Ιn a short time, we’re done and the house looks great. I wish I had discovered this method years ago. I think it means I am on my way to a major life declutter.
Bristol seems very far away, and although I can probably envisage every corner of our house, every thing in it, practically, I can’t say I miss any of it very much. The dishwasher is good. I realise that I spent too much time shopping on the internet for things I didn’t really need. That’s possible here, but somehow less attractive. And less possible now, post Brexit. Radio 4 has also departed my life – even The Archers. I could listen here, but instead I choose podcasts. I read much more here, free of charge thanks to the LIBBY library App (thank you Sally Randle). I buy a few books from Apple / Amazon. We have long ago exhausted our paper versions except for Brian Eno (see above). We have also been much more selective about what we watch. Currently the first series of StarTrek which I have never seen. And now we can get back to CALL MY AGENT.
The Future
I don’t really want to say it, but in many ways Corona virus has been kind to us. Hesitant because it could still disable or kill us, as well as those we know, and the countless souls that I think about every day. Not so much the dead, but the disabled and those left behind in the pain of loss. For us it has given us our year in Crete, and with it enough of a taste of life here that we know that we will make every effort to stay. Part of this intention is that we can offer a taste of this amazing place to you, gentle reader. (I like to think that my friends are uncritical and well-disposed).
It’s worth mentioning that because of these virus times, we have ahead of us a world of exploration. We know our immediate neighbours and count several of them as friends; but we have yet to get to know the Greek people who live around us. In normal times, there would be invitations to come in, to have coffee, biscuits, cakes and stumble around in fragmentary Greek / English. But in Covid times this can’t happen. Our Greek neighbours clearly know us. Practically every car and truck that passes us when we are out walking gives us the short toot, that is mostly all you ever here from Greek vehicles. It means ‘hi’, and it’s an acknowledgement of our existence as humans and neighbours. It’s probably true to say that they know us far better than we know them. The local postman has figured out where we live and now leaves our post at the house, rather than with our neighbours whose house we stay in.
Enough. Time for my floor washing. Oh joy!
COMING SOON: end of Veganuary and dry January. I may be cheesed out and drunk!!
Here’s the inspirational link – since we can’t actually travel much, get aboard Al’s NIGHT TRAIN.
I do have a photo of the winter light, but missed the toad that I found in our woodpile! Now we are well into the second lockdown and I think we are both feeling a little stir crazy and fractious today. Just when I felt I was sort of turning a corner with Greek, I now feel myself to be , if not back at the ground floor, maybe wandering around in the lingerie department looking for the way out. Apologies, that’s a terrible metaphor. Think Father Ted. I was doing ‘small talk’ with my Greek teacher this morning and she chose the topics Christmas, weekend, summer, hobbies and something else I can’t remember. I found myself not just stuck for vocabulary, but stuck for content. Christmas I have tried to avoid for most of my adult life, preferring to spend the holiday on a beach, in a city, even hiding out a t home…. What a Grinch! Hobbies? No knitting, crochet, painting, musical instruments, organised sport…. Help! Reading, watching TV, Facebook & Instagram, yoga, cooking…. None of these feel like hobbies in the traditional sense. Quick somebody, buy me an AirFix kit. Or should I try making the Sagrada Familiar out of matchsticks.
22 December
Well , it’s been a while! I have a ‘new’ Mac – a refurb. Or maybe just overstock. Anyway, not the very latest since it always seems to take a few months for the new operating systems to bed in. I spent quite a lot of the last couple of days on the phone with a very helpful and competent chap called Bruno who helped me through the migration process. Not quite straightforward since 2010 was very miffed and wouldn’t cooperate at all with the new arrival. A bit like trying to introduce a kitten to the old cat. Anyway eventually the old cat settled down, and now here I am playing with the kitten.
British in Greece
Well, we are well on our way. We applied some while ago to be part of the Greek health system – the only way apart from extortionate private insurance. As the UK Gov has been kindly reminding us in the gaps between podcasts, we have left the EU and the transition period runs out in a matter of days. I will draw a veil over the Greek bureaucratic process. Maybe that is for another time! Enough to say that we have our precious ‘health books’ entitling us to treatment in the 9th best health system in the world. And I should shortly be in possession of a Greek driving licence. Al had completely confused the system with dual nationality but no actual civil existence in France. Happy Days!
And I have probably said this before, but the New York Times’ puts out a podcast called THE DAILY. Somehow the Americans seem to be just better at podcasting. I find myself going back there when I need a new one. I do listen to Newscast from time to time, a habit formed when they were Brexitcast and I still cared what was happening in their world. Now I find them a bit too uncritical of the UK Government, and maybe just a little smug. Queen Laura Kuenssberg, it always feels to me as if she has one eye firmly on her dame hood, perhaps followed by DG of the BBC. But maybe that’s just me, as they irritatingly say so often on Brexitcast. New Statesman daily Podcast, mainly because they all sound so YOUNG. Stephen Bush says ‘like’ more times in a minute than I draw breath.
What I Watch
Really this should be What We Watch, since mostly we watch together win the evening, holding one of our laptops whist sitting on the sofa. I am very taken with His Dark Materials and can’t quite make the link between this series and the second Book of Dust. But I will hang in there. I may have to read / listen to the original again. There’s a great BBC audio production of the His Dark Materials, completely faithful to the books. I got a bootlegged copy from Jamie Hunter which I listened to whilst working on Snork Maiden in a distant winter.
We have also started to watch a French series on Netflix CALL MY AGENT. A small French agency in Paris (where else). A new star each week makes a different problem for the agency to solve as well as an insight into Parisian life and loves. And a dog called Jean Gabin. Some gentle and very well done slapstick. Very French.
One series only of GODLESS – a kind of feminist western. I love westerns for the landscape and the horses. This one has an unusual storyline, and plenty gunfire and, of course, horses.
SNORK MAIDEN
No reason why any of you would know this, but I send this Blog out to Friends of Snork Maiden. As some of you know, she has been visited at least once a year, but we haven’t sailed her for an astounding 6 years. I used to wonder how it was that boats didn’t move from the spot, well, now I know. Initially we wanted to just do something different for the summer, so off we went to Sardinia in the all terrain C5. Spectacular trip, mainly camping, with a drive down through France and a lot of ferries. Then Al’s mother died, his Dad was hard put to cope – you can see how that went. All the time we hoped we could sail ‘next year’ and progressively, it didn’t happen. I had such high hopes of this year (2020) that I bought an entire set of running rigging (ropes, to you) and a few other bits and pieces at last year’s Southampton Boat Show. We would usually be in France by the end of May in a ‘normal’ sailing year, but as we all know, this year was not at all normal. We had only just come out of lockdown, were hitting the beach and snorkelling as often as we could, and the Cretan summer seemed like a safer and all round better proposition than travelling back to the UK. Hard to recall now the restrictions that were in place. I think June and July saw restaurants opening for outdoor service, but we pretty much kept ourselves ‘shielded’ apart from a few outdoor meetings with friends. So Snork Maiden was left in her land berth, unvisited and with her hull dry. Somewhere in those 2000 Brexit pages, the status of a UK boat kept in France, may be explained. One last try next year, and if we don’t manage it then, we must sell her and let someone else have a go. There are many charter fleets in the Greek Islands, and bargains come up at either end of the season, so not hanging up my sailing trousers just yet.
25 December 2020
Christmas Day – we have often spent 25 December out of the UK. I don’t like the schlocky aspects, although I do like the ‘feel’ of December. We got married on December 18th and I get a kind of anticipatory sense in the early part of December that I can trace back to 2006. So that Christmas was our Honeymoon in Venice, by train, of course. Then I think I went to India straight after for a month’s yoga in Pune. I can also remember Christmases in Mexico, California (with Stuart and Gayle), the Canaries, Spain, Naples and last year, Athens. This is just a reminder of how much the world has changed in 2020. This year not just exceptional because we were swimming a couple of days before Christmas but also because our friends and neighbours offered to cook us Christmas lunch, bringing it over to us, since we can’t yet all enjoy a meal around the same table. Fish, perfectly cooked in a bed of Mediterranean veg accompanied by a special salad, laced with figs and home sun dried cherry tomatoes. Enjoyed with a bottle of white wine from another of our friends here, and chased with a glass of port (also a gift) and followed by a serious afternoon snooze. Oh yes, then a game of Scrabble with a Greek twist. Είναι Ελλενικα, οχι Αγγλικα. Get the idea? We modified the game to allow copious dictionary consultation and no scoring (although Al claimed that he won). Oh and in the morning we walked on Falasana beach, a short drive away. A good day!
Brexit, Corona Virus
Maybe keep these for another time….
And for you plant lovers, there is a sort of early spring thing going on here in Crete, which has its very own take on the seasons:
The blogs seem to have become fewer and further between. Maybe the experience of Crete is losing its novelty. I see you are all nodding in agreement with a silent ‘I told you so! In a way, of course, it is, as life settles into a ‘new normal’ , but the place is no less enchanting for all that.
Just now we are in an ‘Indian Summer’ – whatever that means. The temperature this afternoon is around 28°C • Clouds this morning have given way to aclear blue sky and we will go swimming later this afternoon. The evenings are very noticeably long now, with sunset at 1847 and counting.
October 24th – clocks go back tonight, well technically tomorrow at 0300. Since I started this episode of bloggery, we have had storms and rain, today back to a clear blue sky so we made a day of it and drove to the South coast – Paleochora. Stunning mountains, deep valleys, caves, goats and very twisty roads.
Lunch outdoors followed by a doze in the sun and a long swim in shallow sea over sand. Something about the bay made me not want to swim out to the rocks. Southern Crete can have rips and I get nervous, so we just hung about in water only just out of our depth. As usual we had the masks and snorkels. Only s few small fish and they hung around us as we played around in the water. One small unfamiliar fish with an elegant forked tail. Just sort of fish coloured with a black body spot and I think small spots on that pretty tail. Even now the water is warm enough to stay in for almost an hour.
WORK
For the last week or so we have been launching our earthMusic library aimed to coincide with Bristol’s virtual Wildlife Festival. I produced a launch newsletter and Al has been on networking duty. Here it is FYI
But please don’t feel you have to read it. I won’t be testing you!
COVID-19 news
The Chania district is on level 1 (lowest) of the Greek 4 tier system. There is a comprehensive description of what this means on the Greek.gov website. It is in Greek, and seems to mean we are ‘Ready’. Mask wearing is encouraged if not actually compulsory except in shops. Not much enforced, so far as we can see. We made a rare foray into Chania city for part 2 of a root canal (I won’t speak about the first part), and I thought I would get an eye test for reading glasses, since I often have trouble distinguishing α from σ in Greek texts. Of course, less help from context than in English. Sounds simple? Not at all. After about 45 minutes of ‘which is better, one or two?’ The hipster optician thought that I may have a very early cataract. Am I reaching a high medical maintenance stage of life? Al was so traumatised, he had to buy a cheese pie at what I interpret as the Greek version of Gregs!
News?
At suppertime we tend to watch rolling news from France 24, sometimes Al Jazeera and occasionally BBC. France 24 has a nightly debate on a current topic – usually shades of opinion but not the ‘in the red corner, in the blue corner’ style that the BBC tends to adopt.
Netflix?
We watched DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET. What to say? A good try David? Some emotional moments and a suggestion that the planet can’ t support so many carnivores. Maybe more than a suggestion that people should just stop eating meat. (And adopt an even less enthusiastic attitude to reproduction.) His conclusion? Re-wild the planet. OK. But it is a fight that has to be taken directly into politics and I don’t think he makes that leap. The politics of food, farming, fishing… Usual dodging around the world style, with all the super pix we havbeen used to, but this time an admission that what we see on the screen is a very small slice of the actual environment, whether it is Borneo, Madagasca or the Arctic. A hardly moving shot of an orangutang clinging improbably to what looks like a single tree, the remnant of what was once a rain forest. A polar bear swimming in an ocean devoid of ice floes. Heartbreaking.
THE BUILDING PLOT UP DATE
We heard that the Government has temporarily backed off sake of the plot restrictions, but without enough certainty to allow us to buy. Unless we choose a village plot. This throws up the question- how do we want to live? Splendid architectural isolation or an interestingly designed house actually the village? I think I favour a bit of both. We are broadening the search, if only to remind ourselves that we are probably in the right place.
Of course there is the slight worry that the UK economy will hit the wall, resulting in the GBP turning into a pile of newly minted 50 pence pieces bearing the legend ’Sucks to Europe’. In which case, we will be building a beach hut.
READING? Too many ‘one a year’ thrillers, despite some better suggestions. Sally Rooney’s NORMAL PEOPLE. I am also reading HENRY MILLER’s COLOSSUS OF MAROUSSI. Some highly opinionated (and colourful )characterisations of the Greeks, and some damning descriptions of the English abroad. I think it was Lawrence Durrell who dubbed Britain ‘PUDDING ISLAND’.
I am also dipping into my friend Stuart Harris’s unpublished Memoirs. A reminder that however well we know people, there’s always such interesting stuff that we didn’t know. Stuart’s remind me a bit of reading ‘Lucky Jim’. Oh, just finished HOUSE OF CORRECTION by Nicci French, Recommended.
We get actual paper copies of THE ECONOMIST and the NEW SCIENTIST, although they are a couple of weeks late, and often arrive in pairs like London Buses.
PODCASTS Etc.
Did I already say that I love ‘THE DAILY’ from the N Y Times, ‘THIS JUNGIAN LIFE,’ THE NEW STATESMAN? There is so much great stuff out there. The Statesman podcast I particularly like because the contributors all sound so young and clearly inhabit a totally different world. And I think it is Stephen Bush who says ‘like’ so much that you really feel his mother should have a word with him.
YOGA
As you probably know, I am sustained by ZO0M yoga. I am currently following a short series from STEPHANIE QUIRK in Sydney. I have to use recordings because of the time difference, but Stephanie is a model of clarity and has distilled her knowledge over 2 decades with the Iyengar family in Pune.
And then there’s my teachers, Lynda and Gerry. I feel as though I have never left when I do a class with them. There is often the added benefit of seeing friends and classmates in their bedrooms, living rooms or yoga studios. Even hearing the teacher naming them brings a sense of connection.
Olives
It’s olive harvest and here’s my very own crop from the trees around our house. Next I have to bash them with a rock to split them, then a daily change of water for a week, followed by packing them into a jar with salt and waiting for an unspecified length of time. I’ll get back to you on the success of the project.
And finally – here’s a moody sunset at the end of a stormy day.
In the 6 months or so that we have been here in Crete, we have eaten out a handful of times – always outside or on a terrace and only a few times with friends here in Marediana, outdoors since the Pandemic got serious.
While were still in our mountain hideaway, our friends Mick and Sue were at their house on the Akrotiri peninsula; it’s the other side of Chania, where we stopped to buy a ukulele. As difficult to park as ever. I drove into the same parking structure twice (different entrances) and each time was told I had to have an employee park my car, even though the second time I had put it in a free space. Eventually found a space in a small street, next to a deserted house which of course, set off a whole train of thought. Most people on the street wearing masks. First time in CHANIA since we arrived at the airport at the beginning of March. Strange to be in an actual city.
Arrived at their house after some Google map street exploring, then straight off to the Beach Shack.
The shack is run by a French woman and the food is Greek with flair. Smoked aubergine to make anyone swoon. Lovely afternoon with friends, such a valuable and rare experience in these times. Beautiful evening drive back to our temporary home in the mountains.
This morning I am sitting on the terrace drinking ginger tea.
So what is new? I have been struggling with enjoyment of tea ever since my second pack of Provamel ran out. The local supermarket used to have unsweetened ALPRO soya milk, but now that has disappeared. I have tried the slightly sweet but I couldn’t really get on with that either!
And of course we have completely run out of English style Τ bags. Eschewing LIPTON’s yellow bags, we have tried just about anything else that’s available in Kissamos and Kolimbari. Dalfour produce an organic variety with an elaborate string device and some sort of plasticisied individual wrap. AL manages with Twinings red tea bags, also individually wrapped and tagged. My salvation has been loose Earl Grey in a tin, also Twinings. And I have resorted to cow milk which the Early Grey hides quite well. Which brings me to this morning’s ginger tea.
I realised that I was missing not only my friend and teacher LYNDA, but also her excellent ginger tea. After a couple of weeks of internal whining, I finally realised that I could make my own. And I don’t mind it with cow milk. It still lacks the right hook to the jaw punch of ‘English’ tea but it works .”
I really thought that this blog would be very easy to write because them is so much to say, but at turns out to be the problem.
MISSING INGREDIENTS
Apart from the tea, coriander, tofu, Quorn (sorry about that), maple syrup, taramasalata (I know, the only good one here from our friend Despoina’s kitchen) – so not much really. Ice cream, kind of, although it’s a weakness. Like many women, I can demolish half a litre in some moods. Worst we do here is a double Magnum (Magic) between two.
My weekly shop usually starts at the greengrocer (μανάβης) but I am a bit anxious because he doesn’t wear a mask. Last week his son was working. He had no problem with wearing a mask and was careful to make sure that it covered his nose. Anyway, there is good supply of fresh veg. and fruit, mostly sourced from Crete, or at least Greece, mainly seasonal, of course, but given the area of plastic tunnels here, tomatoes peppers and aubergines will probably be available through the winter. Watch this space.
There’s one recipe that I found a really unusual combination of chick peas and rice with a secret ingredient:
Greek Chickpeas and Rice with Lemon & Tahini
“This one-pot traditional Greek chickpeas and rice is a delicious comforting meal and the lemon-tahini takes it to another level.”
By Elena Paravantes
1 1⁄2 cup canned or 3⁄4 cup dry chickpeas
1 tablespoon tahini
Juice from 1 1⁄2 lemons plus more for serving 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 garlic clove minced
3⁄4 cup uncooked medium grain rice 1⁄2 teaspoon salt (I used brown rice)
Pepper
1 bay leaf
Parsley
Instructions
If using dry chickpeas: soak overnight, next day simmer for 20-40 minutes until cooked but not mushy, drain set aside and save 2 cups of the cooking water. (I cook dried chick peas in my pressure cooker but your choice!)
In a medium pot heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté onion until soft. Meanwhile in small bowl mix the tahini with the lemon juice and 3-4 tablespoons of water.
Once onion is soft, add garlic and sauté for a minute, then add rice and beans and stir until they are coated in oil.
Add the tahini-lemon mixture, salt, pepper, bay leaf and about 1 1/2 cup of the water leftover from the chickpeas (if cooked from dry, otherwise just regular water) and simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until rice is done, and water has been absorbed. You may add more hot water if needed.
Serve with extra lemon and chopped parsley.
???
Oh and what about the drink?
Hmm. Not doing so well on that front. Cretan white wine is good, especially 2018. Some retsina is kind of drinkable and I have become fond of a very cold Mythos beer now and again or maybe a little more often. So reading between the lines, you will be wondering why it figures in my yogic diet at all. Not at all satvic. I wonder that myself. I have had a couple of ‘white weeks’ but I fear that the evening alcohol is becoming too regular. I plan to stop. It’s a risk factor.
I am sure I could find much more to write on the delights of Mousaka (I have developed a faster method of cooking it), Boureki, several kinds of pies, giant baked beans…..
???
Reading: Normal People by Sally Rooney
(Thanks to Sally Randle for suggesting library app Libby and cheating Apple and Amazon out of their loot).
What’s that all about? I am starting my Greek classes again. χαίρω – see that little mark over the iota? Not a dotted ‘i’ or an accent but a guide to pronouncing the whole word by telling you what syllable to stress. It can completely change the meaning: πόλη means ‘city’ but πολή means ‘very’.
I love writing Greek script. I even bought a new iPad and iPencil to do this. It’s a great addition to Google translate, but the handwriting apps are disappointing.
AUTUMN φθινόπωρο
Almost as soon as we arrived back in Marediana, on the stroke of September 1st, the first suggestion of Autumn whispered in. Today it is more of a roar as the wind kicks up the surface of the swimming pool, bangs the doors and rattles the shutters. Even the wild plants have perked up, ready and willing for the first taste of rain in many months. Here are today’s clouds. Summer seems to have flashed by, and now dusk closes in at supper time, although it is still hot in the sun, and the sea positively warm.
Gripe Alert!!
I understand that you are not reading this to hear me whinging about WordPress. But I do feel as though this tail of an App is definitely wagging the dog of my Blog. What is giving me particular pain, since you ask, is including photos. I take them on iPhone and iPad then go through a version of hell to get them onto the laptop and thence into the blogosphere. Some of you will say, get a bloody PC. It may be that the 10 yer old laptop is groaning under the weight of digital imagery therein. I just had to get that off my bra-less chest.
After a heroic struggle, here’s a shot of a pomegranite, almost the size of my head. Looking forward to overdosing on these in just a few days’ time.
The soundscape of Autumn is also changing. The deafening cicada chorus is running down. The wall of sound is being replaced by individual soundtracks, each one now sounding a bit like a rusty wind-up toy running down, or sometimes like an electric toothbrush that needs a recharge.
Why is it, I wonder, that it was easier to blog away during lock down, when we could do next to nothing, than now, when we have the run of the world, at least in theory? In practice we have given ourselves the freedom of Western Crete.
For those of you who don’t already know, we have temporarily left ‘our’ house in Marediana for a short sojourn (lovely word) in Pappadiana.
I am not sure how to display a Google Earth pic, so if you want to fly over us, just download the App and enter Pappadiana, Crete, and that should get you there.
We are staying a village house on 2 levels, each self- contained and that means
AL can have a separate space for his temporary studio. He can literally go out to work, up the outside staircase. Theres still almost no auditory separation so here I am an my divan island with my technology, and here is AL with his!
This morning we went swimming at the nearest
beach ΣΤΟΜΙΟ. It is a stony beach not far from Elafonisi but a world away with the pink sand and Caribbean appearance where hundreds of people go in the summer. True, there is no real developement at Elafonisi, just a few beach shacks and myriad sun beds that appear out of nowhere. But there is a frightening stream of cars headed out there as we come back home at around 10am this morning. Elafonisi
was our last visit before Lockdown started back in March. Of course, we could be heading back there again,
perhaps with a bit less energy and optimism. Lockdown, not Elafonisi.
For the brave, you can try following this Google earth link to see where the bay is exactly.
https://earth.google.com/web/@35.27146323,23.51090717,7296.48851458a,0d,35y,-0.0218h,30.5200t,-0.0128r?utm_source=earth7&utm_campaign=vine&hl=en
Coronavirus News
Greece is experiencing a spike. Worth noting that 17 % of cases attributable to travellers, 83% to resident population: The owner of our rented property came by this morning with 2 other chaps who he was showing around_ Only one mask between them- They didn’t stay long, and we were
outdoors.
You might be interested in this link:
https://time.com/5883081/covid-19-transmitted-aerosols/
You may not be able to read this without a subscription, but the gist of it is that C-19 is spread very easily by breathing.
Yes, just breathing In a confined space. Of course talking loudly increases the volume of breath and therefore virus. So my conclusion , unpalatable as it is, other people are the greatest threat to my health. The article also suggests that surfaces are possibly less dangerous, unless you are unlucky enough to transfer a chunk of the nasty directly to a mucous membrane. I won’t be touching light switches or door handles anytime soon.
Another more cheerful suggestion is that maybe the bug doesn’t do so well on human skin. So I will resume elbow bumping, as a young-ish doctor did at a Health Centre last week. (Nothing wrong, just an MOT).
The psychology of all this interests me. I am sure that it easier to wipe a few tables than it is to change human
behaviour. And social animals that we are, we’re unwilling to see people as threats.
I am sure you are bored with my Covid report by now so I will probably buy it at The bottom of the blog, after cats.
MOVING TO GREECE
Hah. The cats were just a ruse.
Leaving the UK seems more attractive with every cock up and deliberate manoevre by the so-called UK Government. The country appears to be in the clutches of a Government so for right that if it bends over it will be licking the back of its own left jack boot. I will leave you with that image and give you another one.
It’s not just the Politics, the nature of UK society etc.
I think that I am less rooted than some people. As one of our Greek friends said, people are not trees! So my image at the moment is seeing a boat about to leave the quay. Better to jump on it than put one foot on the vessel and leave the other one on dry land.
All this has been brought about by considering the sheer
administrative task of setting up life in another country. I am mindful of the notion that if I settle in another EU country, I have meaningful access to the other 26, as we have become used to in what feels like all my adult life.
Above – our pomegranites are getting big and showing aslight pink blush. Not long now!
It’s been a slightly confused couple of weeks since the last blog. As we’ve said, we are looking for a building plot, preferably close to where we are living now. We have found one that we like. We have visited it often, at different times of day, in different moods and I would like to say in different weather, but there really hasn’t been any different weather except the last couple of days when we have had some cloud and cooler nights – quite welcome really. So we were just getting around to making an offer. We had solicited several opinions on the price we would put on the table, and had come to a decision when up popped an issue. It seems that there had been a recent court decision that might – or might not – jeopardise building plots of less than 4000 square metres in the ‘perimetric’ zone of a village. Might that affect us? Yes it might. We talked to the estate agent. We talked to the surveyor (engineer), we talked to the lawyer. Conclusion: yes it might. So after a few days mulling this over, we tabled an offer, and at the time of writing, have not yet heard from the seller, rumoured to be here, in the village, this week. Watch this space!
Al went to the dentist. This dentist has a sea view. Downtown Kissamosi (aka Kastelli) looking North.
We have a very big oregano bush in ‘our’ garden. Eleni made me pick a LOT. Here’s the dried result occupying 3 1 litre jars! Like many other people, we have found satidfaction in small things.
This blog has been quite hard to write since many of the changes that I am experiencing are quite subtle internal ones, harder to photograph and charactersise. As you read maybe you will pick up the changing vibe. Or not.
Friday
This, my friends, is the plot that we have been visiting, got excited about, made an offer on and, eventually discovered that it was impossible to buy and build on for 3 counts! (1) Not ‘buildable’ because on a ridge. (2) The Greek Governemnt seems inclined to stop buildings happening outside village zones on plots of less thn 4000 m2, and lastly the owner was unwilling to negotiate his price. Actually, he didn’t know about the first 2 obstacles when he offered the plot for sale and neither did we when we made an offer. We have had an amicable exchange of emails with a good flow of information, so a disappointing but not unpleasant experience all round. The search goes on…
Well, I had a video lined up for you! I can’t actually get it on the blog, so please follow the link:
So in the best Disney tradition:THAT’S ALL FOLKS! Except for the music track… I have chosen this because a) I have just paid our VAT and b) it just seems that it captures the langourous feel of these August days. And we do have a pool, and we can’t sail our yacht! No big ass Mommas though.
After many unsuccessful attempts, blame town lights (especially floodlit kick-about football ground for the youth of Kissamos), our illuminated swimming pool (a safety issue), streetlights, and for several days we blamed the neighbouring house for being in the way. Eventually we spoke to our neighbours, Phil and Shehina, who told us we were looking in entirely the wrong place. We also blamed the Gramvousa Peninsulae. So we proposed an expedition to Falasana to get a dark and unobstructed view. It turned out to be the perfect spot and we got a naked eye view of comet and tail. Also through
binoculars. Quite special, just below the Plough and over the mystery dark of the Western Mediterranean. Of course we are not in Moomin land but Western Crete. But it’s such a nice title and it might inspire some of you to re-visit the Tove Jansson shelf. Ever since we bought SNORK MAIDEN I
have been a fan-So get another thank you to her previous owner who had the good sense to choose a great name and to clear its use with the author herself!
This morning (Sunday) we took an early drive to Falassana beach. It is one of the major attractions of Western Crete but fortunately not many tourists are about at 0900. We found a spot between the rocks and made our little camp. There was a hint of a swell and breaking waves but our tiny beach allowed us to get into the water. We are becoming used to snorkelling in wavy environments and its clear that the fish really enjoy the waves. We explored a whole under-waterscape with caves, canyons, arches.
Just July
We didn’t intend to be here in July, thinking that it would be too hot, too crowded with a burnt out landcape. Now I am so glad we are here to experience this full on summer season. The evening sun through the seed heads of the spring and early summer flowers look incerdible in the evening light, and I especially like this view with Gramvousa shadowy in the background. This view from the roadside, close to a building plot we are weighing up with almost daily visits.
This is a herb growing in our garden here – apparently good for tea. I am not sure what it is or what the tea does! Shehina, Tina, Eleni, Rebecca HELP! it looks great and is a really good ground cover.
‘Our’ pomegranates also doing really well. I will put up another photo when they ripen.
Adventures in fish world continue. I think all that time in the pool has eventually paid off. I am much happier snorkelling than I used to be, so long as we are not too far out in the big blue. Generally the best fish life is near the rocky shelves, so that’s not too much of a problem. I can crawl for speed and scull when we are strolling about in the underwater garden. Plenty of fish life to play with, incluidng miniature groupers. I also saw a crab today – fairly unusual down here, and this one was fairly deep – very different from the rock pool crabs of the Atlantic coast.
Al has been running lots of video since we have been here. We could use an enthusiastic editor now. But if you want to see another hair raising road trip, have a look at Al’s Facebook. and look for the road to Νωπήγια (Nopigia). Be warned, there is a soundtrack!!
I suppose we have all been writing much more since March. Oddly I feel more connected in
some ways than when I have been in Bristol. I have really appreciated that. And I suppose we have all been touching base not just with close friends bat with the outer hinges of people we used to be close with. Sorry, I am rambling.
Missing… Just started to think about what it is that I miss about Bristol, apart from fiends in the flesh. The library? But that is not the same and probably won’t be for some time. I do like the idea of being able to phone a librarian and actually get advice from a human being about what to read next.
Eating out? Well, we didn’t do that much anyway unless we are travelling. The other early evening we saw a trip boat coming in from Bates- the beach at the end of the Western Peninsular-Gram vous a. We got into the car and drove fast down to the harbour to ogle at tourists. Rare animals.
Many wore masks and the coach couriers and drivers were wearing face shields.
The coaches probably come in from Chania and some of the other resorts with a few local tourists. It is a big boat, nowhere near full. The danger for the hospitality industry here is that there are now never enough holidaymakers to actually turn a profit.
Anyway back to missing. I was fairly appalled that what I miss most is online shopping. What do I buy? Clothes, Crocs, notebooks from Muji, ink (yes, I know!), electronic toys from IJT, books from Amazon and its re-sellers…. The odd peculiar purchase from eBay. Now do you see why I am not really keen to get back. Apart from the fiends, of course. (You need to understand that I sometimes handwrite the blog into Nebo, then transfer it into Word or some other WP app. Nebo tries its best but often garbles things. Fiends in the flesh made me smile.)
More Underwater
Now it is getting a bit warmer, we often go snorkelling in the morning. We were in the water at around 0800 and to start with, not a lot of activity as we explored a new underwater landscape near the port. A lot of it quite shallow. A few pretty wrass with electric blue markings around their heads, then Al found another Moray eel. Eventually I saw its head poking out of its hole. Unfortunately we saw a dead one on the beach, just on the beach outside The Cellar bar and restaurant. All the fabulous colours drained away. About 1 m long and quite thick. I’m not sure I want to meet one swimming.
Hospitality
Last week we went for an outdoor supper with our landlord’s family, now our friends, and neighbours from across the road. Despoina, the matriarch, cooks a dream and Eleni (honorary daughter) is no slouch when it comes to food. Ignoring the meat kebabs, there were sardines, caught by Despoina’s sister Stella, hot peppers from the garden, spicy roast potatoes to die for…. Enough, we have not had supper yet! But here comes the digression. Φιλοχενια (Filoxenia) is the Greek word for ‘hospitality’. They really mean it. I am sure you have all had the experience of rolling up at a Greek household, maybe just asking the way, and been offered something to drink, something to eat, even if only water and biscuits. Also, in the country, you will be given something to take away – a bag of oranges, lemons, figs – whatever is in season. Even in these Covid times, you really can’t refuse.
I started to think about how we, in the UK are so poor at generosity to strangers, I’m not talking about charity donations or even giving money to street people or cooking for bereaved friends, I think it is more about the inhibitions that surround both giving and taking. The worst part is that the word ‘hospitality’ has been hijacked by the food, drink and accommodation trades, leaving us with nothing to characterise genuine giving to strangers. The word in Greek is literally ‘friend strangers’. Apparently it was the custom to prepare an extra portion of food, just in case a stranger came to the door. Our neighbours often bring gifts of food, and that’s just what it is, an extra portion of what they are eating themselves. The other side of this coin is that effusive thanks are not expected or given. Apologies are also rare in this culture, a relief from the British habit of constantly apologising. Enough. I want to tell you about our Rodopou trip.
The Road to Rodopou
By now you are probably familiar with the shape of Western Crete, with its double peninsulars. Rodopou is the larger eastern Peninsular and we have wanted to explore this ever since we first came here. In 2018 we were told that it was only suitable for 4-wheel drive cars or the farmers’ pick up trucks. We made the proposition to Phil and Shehina (who own a 4WD) that we could go in convoy along the 20km track to Menies Beach. They agreed and last Thursday we set out, packing beach kit and picnics. Wow, what a trip! Amazing rocky landscapes, gorges, reveals of the sea, goats, ruined sanctuaries and finally the beach. Al took a short video that he put on his FB page, so some of you will have already seen it. It’s worth a look!
https://www.facebook.com/al.lethbridge/posts/10158722075489529
This is Pasiphae, and it is where we have been living since March 2020. Today is actually a kind of anniversary. We came out for 2 months on this day (26 February) 2018. We first found it through AirBnb and it was really a shot in the dark. When I looked at the location on the !:140,000 Michelin map of Crete, I thought it would be in a kind of suburban area of Kissamos. So it was a real surprise that it was up a winding road, with a view over the bay, even the ferry port in the distance. I can still remember the drive, maybe in the dusk, the small hire car steadily climbing, following the directions and wondering where on earth we were going and if it could possibly be right. But it was. Tina was there to welcome us and I an almost certain that there was a bottle of wine, bread and a warm dish of stuffed peppers on the table. One of the best meals we ever have.
Here is Pasiphae, and it is where we have been living since March 2020. Today is actually a kind of anniversary. We came out for 2 months on this day (26 February) 2018. We first found it through AirBnb in November 2017, and it was really a shot in the dark. When I looked at the location on the !:140,000 Michelin map of Crete, I thought it would be in a kind of suburban area of Kissamos. So it was a real surprise that it was up a winding road, with a view over the bay, even the ferry port in the distance. I can still remember the drive, maybe in the dusk, the small hire car steadily climbing, following the directions and wondering where on earth we were going and if it could possibly be right. But it was. Tina was there to welcome us and I an almost certain that there was a bottle of wine, bread and a warm dish of stuffed peppers on the table. One of the best meals we ever have.
