HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

Mould after the recent flooding.  The water came pouring through the walls in the lounge and came in through the ceiling here.  The lounge wall is sodden, has some sort of white stuff growing out of it.

 Red wine, fish soup and spinach pie
2015 HERE WE COME

 

  We have snow all along the tops of the hills above Galatas. (the village just across the waters on the mainland) And it is COLD.  

 

The day started off with heavy rain and my son-in-law Kyriakos decided not to go to work.(Kyriakos runs a taxi boat from the island to the mainland)  High winds as well.  No flying dolphin or boat today from Athens but the car ferry is still working.  We are going down to Elli for New Years eve.  Kyriakos (Elli's husband) is doing miracles with duck and salmon.  He's cooking tomorrow as well.  His mother lives next door to the cheap german supermarket (LIDLS for those who might have seen it in Europe) so we get cheap duck and salmon.  One up for the germans - but they still owe 'us' millions from wwll.

 

Anyway, no babysitting because Kyriakos has the kids so I don't have to go down the mountain and we have settled in for the day with K's wine from his barrel(red from a cardboard box for me). The wood burning fire which has an oven on top has already cooked a spinach pie and I'm thinking of hot cheese bread as well.  Our neighbour brought in a plate of xmas cookies - she and her sisters are excellent cooks and these honey cakes and almond shortbread (Traditional greek ) are just waiting for me to taste them.  She has decorated the plate with a handful of choccies so all is well.  Can't 'do' cold without chocolate.

 

Kostas has made a big pot of fish soup......and we still have Kyriako's cooking tonight. I'm stuffed just thinking about it all.

 

'Someone' won't be drinking too much tonight.  The road down is officially closed but someone (not us) keeps on pushing the signs out of the way and cutting the tape and we all use the road, because otherwise it's an extra 3 ks.  But after the floods the sides of the road are falling away in places and there are piles of rocks and dirt. This is why Greece will always be the 'problem child' lol.

 ps The 'someone' of course will be me.  But Elli and I only have one bottle of sav blanc from Marlborough.One bottle between two, hardly enough to wet the larynx.

 

 

 

 

 

Up in the Balkans temps are down to -20 ... -10 in northern Greece and snowing in northern suburbs of Athens.  Weather getting better on Saturday and new cold front coming in on Tuesday.  Paul and Karen, you might just see a totally different Greece - though you suffered the 'cold of the bears' that time you came in November. Don't think we'll be visiting the mountain villages or wine tasting.  The motorway in the Nemea (which is where I thought we might go to taste some good greek wine ....oxymoron???) is covered in snow at the moment and the road waiting to be snow plowed.

 

If there are no boats when you arrive we'll have to come round by car.  But anything can happen in the meantime.  The sun may even shine.  We need that sunshine now to dry out the rising damp in our walls.

 

There is a HUGE FEAR CAMPAIGN been launched by Wolfgang Schroider (or whatever his horrible name is), all of Europe and the rest of the world to make us vote 'correctly' in the elections at the end of January.  You can smell the fear (theirs, not ours).  Will Greeks vote in a rebel who will bring Europe to its knees?  And these elections are being held just because this parliament couldn't vote for the new President who is just a figurehead and no-one gives a damn who he is.  We're being taunted again with bankruptcy , an economy worse than some povery stricken African nation, being thrown out of the European union, more pay cuts, no pension payments etc etc  But we've heard it all before, for years now, before every major decision which affects the economy.  Been there, done that.  Who do we vote for??  Haven't got a clue.

 

Hope you're all a little warmer than us and a little drier.  HAPPY NEW YEAR.   HAVE A GREAT 2015....WITH LOTS OF LOVE, HAPPY FAMILIES AND GOOD HEALTH.

 

 

 

PICKLED OLIVES, RED PEPPERS FROM THE GARDEN

MINI XMAS STOCKINGS - 50 MADE, 20 TO GO

NELS AND ME AT A BAPTISM....HELL, I'M GETTING OLDER

KIDS IN THE STOREROM ABOVE THE BATHROOM
FRIEND YIANNIS, LYDIA, JAMIE, NATALI

A GOOD CATCH

GEORGE'S HALLOWEEN

OUR NEW HEATING

memorial

Από: DANAE [mailto:tzdanae@yahoo.gr]
Αποστολή: 27 October 2013 19:59
Προς: LINDA
Θέμα:

This is the wheat - koliva - which we made and handed out at the 40 day memorial for Kosta's brother-in-law (Dina's husband).

It is made of 

boiled wheat, which is dried overnight, spread out on sheets
chopped parsley, also spread out to dry
pomegranate seeds
almonds
walnuts
breadcrumbs
raisins
sesame seeds
and covered in icing sugar and decorated with sugared almonds and other sweets

This is the second memorial.  We made the koliva also for the 9 day memorial.  The first one was with 3/4 kilo of wheat, this one with 4 kilos. We all helped in the preparation, Elli, Dina, me and a few cousins ands friends.  The tray of koliva is taken to the church in the morning before the service and afterwards is mixed by the women, spooned into bags (200 of them this time) and given away with a small piece of sweet bread which has been blessed after the traditional coffee and mastica liqueur .

Used to be that it was always made at home by the grieving family along with wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth.  In our case Thea Dimitro beating her breast and shouting 'why, why did you leave us' .

There were three candles lit, the wheat had to be cleaned three times.  Now the job of making the koliva is usually handed over to a local woman who needs the money or to the undertaker who will provide the bags, plastic spoons and dish it out after the service.

It is an occasion to get the fanily together and I usually knock back a few glasses of the sweet mastiha (from the island of Chio) liqueur and have a good time.  Then we all go out to eat and drink.....but no dancing.  This is a memorial!

Since writing this we have had the 6th month memorial and are coming up for the 9 month, then the one year memorial, after which the new grandson can be baptized and have his hair cut for the first time.

We've had two memorial services at the monastery.  It meant being there at 7.30 am.  Afterwards we made the coffee and doled out the koliva in a cosy low ceiling room next door to the monastery church.