And it snowed!

Well it does happen sometimes, and boy did it yesterday.....we had thunder and lightning, and then the heavens opened...with hail stones.....the sun came out.....then more thunder and lightning and BLIZZARD....lots and lots of snow.....force 10 winds........Oh Dear! Luckily the tavernas were open and we could get some Raki to keep us warm :-) And in the morning, what did this intelligent (!), organised and sometimes sensible woman do???? She locked herself out of the house for 2 hours in nothing but her dressing gown! Cold or what???? Its a good job I have friends who are good at breaking and entering and who will remain nameless...Alan....Ooops. I will leave you with just a few pictures so that you know I havent made it up.

Olive picking

Its Olive harvest time here and everyone is working really hard to collect them in. It is a very heavy manual process still and so they are all very tired at the end of the day. The photographs show the Kritsotakis family collecting their olives.



All sorted and ready to start...









If only the generator would fire up......













At last...













Where did Manolis go? Oh...he's in the tree now! (look hard!)

















Now there's a surprise, the woman has to do the tidying up....





The happy family, left to right - Manolis, Yiannis and Elleni.





The trees being harvested are some of the oldest in the village and the big one behind the family portrait estimated to be at least 400 years old. Yiannis tells me he has around 400 trees some of which he has had for about 25 years since his father gave him them. The average yield per tree is 30 to 40 kilos of olives, but in a good year could be as much as 100 kilos. 10 kilos of olives makes 1 kilo of olive oil.

Thanks to the family for their help.

Keep watching for the report from the olive oil factory.

And on the way home......

On the way home from the Raki factory I bumped into two of my neighbours cooking the potato for their dinner on the little fire at the side of the road. It is normal for Maria - the lady on the right to cook here - usually with Katina who I think may be her mother (she wasn't there last night)

Its Raki time....

This is my first experience of the Raki making, yes, I know I drink quite a bit of it, but that is very different to watching it being made! It was fascinating. They bring the leftovers from the winemaking and put them in a big vat with a dome shaped lid. The fire is lit and the Raki then comes out of the bottom of the still through a little spout. Everyone sits around eating raw green beans and jacket potatos cooked on the top of the fire box whilst tasting the Raki fresh from the still. I must admit the stuff they made was some of the nicest I have tasted. (for any interested brewers the specific gravity was 22) I wobbled home around 5.30 to try and cook my dinner.....

Ready for the Winter

There we are then, ready for the cold weather to arrive. My Somba (wood burning stove) is cleaned and the wood has arrived and is stacked in the Yard. Lots of cosy nights in now.....

What is it?

Did you get it right?
Its a tomato........a friend from Vrahassi Greek class brought some plants in and they were not tagged so she wasn't sure what kind they were....I have never seen a tomato like this before, they are only around one to one and a half inches long, but they taste delicious and are very sweet.

Cool for Cats.....

You can tell how hot its getting here when the cat jumps in the fridge the minute its open!
p.s. no your eyes are not going funny, the picture is blurry.