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.

New Doors

At last...my lovely new doors are here and fitted.....complete with window to open when it is too warm inside, and I had the blessing of Papa Manolis who came to have a look at them and declared them "fantastico". He has also ordered some for his house remarkably like them - a result I think!!!!

A wedding in the village

Yesterday was a special day in the village. The first summer wedding. Dimitri and Sofia had the most beautiful of weddings. It took place (unusually) in front of the church and was followed by music from a famous professional band and display dancing by the local Cretan dancing display team (including Dimitris' brother Niko who is not only a good dancer, but a talented musician) The bride naturally looked absolutely stunning, as did all the rest of the wedding party. Rafael (next to Dimitri on the photo) walked to the church with a little girl on each arm...a proper little gentleman! There are also photos of the wedding favours which are traditionally given to all guests. There is an almond macaroon, sugared almonds and honey and nuts (usually spooned in your mouth as you leave the church - this time in little jars with a D and S and a heart hand painted in between) The wedding was followed by fireworks and lots and lots of partying. Needless to say the village was very, very quiet on Sunday. Congratulations to the happy couple!!!

Heatwave and the fire engine.

We have had a heatwave here now for over a week, with temperatures well into the mid 40's but also a wind from the south. Those of you in England will be familiar with a wind chill factor. This is the same in reverse. The temperature is 44 but it feels more like 54!!! This has a number of drawbacks:-
1) Its too hot and sticky to do ANYTHING!
2) The amount of extra electricity to power the air conditioning in the resorts blacks out the whole island as the grid cannot cope.
3) We get fires.....sometimes caused by idiots discarding fag ends without realising the risks at this time of year.....
Yesterday there were a number of local fires, the worst being in Elounda, consuming 700 Stremma (a Stremma is 1000 square metres) of land and houses, and taking two days to put out. Very scary! The photo above is of the local fire engine flying over my house on its way to deal with the fire. There are a number of planes and just the one helicopter, they pick up water from the sea and drop it on fires.
Well done all the men who worked so hard.....

End of Term

Well it is end of term at the local schools and to celebrate they held a competition for art and poetry on the theme of Peace. Prizes were given for the best in each age group at a party in the square. Traditional Cretan music and dancing was provided and went on until around 12 o'clock (very early night here!)

Bored !!!!

Well I just got back after a long day, to and fro from the hospital where my poor mum has ended up while she is here on holiday to find that sweet little Jessica obviously got bored while I was out. She managed to shred an entire toilet roll over the floor and looked really pleased with herself when I opened the door and found her !!!! I wonder if Andrex will pay me for the photo :-)

Back Home

Well Ginger has had the op and is back home safe and well. She has also been re-united with Jessica, her lookalike kitten. At least now she has stopped crying and looking behind all the furniture for the babies!!! The only problem is she appears to have reverted to kitten herself and is leaping around playing as if she is Jessica's sister not her mum.......why can't Mums grow up and act their age eh? ;-)

May Day

Well its May day and we all go picking flowers....Margarita's to be exact and as they have my name, all my neighbours made sure I knew what to do. Bunches appeared on the car, under the pipe from the electric meter and a garland of flower heads sown together has pride of place above the door to give good luck throughout the year. Chronia Polla !!!!!

Empty Nest !!!

Well it is so quiet here, its wierd! The babies have all left home now. Gilly has taken the three coloured one and the tiny one (still waiting for an update on names for these two), Alan and Kath have taken the Pale ginger boy (Ozzie) and the dark grey girl (Jezebella or Bella), they have also taken Jessica (the one who looks like Ginger) for a holiday until Sunday as Ginger has to go into hospital to make sure we dont get babies every three months. Its good to be able to walk without looking what might be under your feet, but to be honest I am really missing them. Ginger is too, she is alternating between crying for them and looking under the kitchen cupboards, behind the wardrobe and bookself etc and tramping it with the guys all night.....good job the Op is on Thursday I think ;-)

Oh Yes what a match !!!!!

The boys did it in style today. The annual grudge match between Mochos FC and Archanes took place and this time it was more critical than ever. If Mochos won they move up a league, lose and its all over for another year.......
In the 1st half Mochos did not play at their best and went in for the break 1 - 0 down.
In the 2nd half Mochos got a penalty in after 15 minutes...now it was 1 - 1 and you could feel and hear the tension. The noise from the football ground could be heard all over the village so no-one was in any doubt what was happening. 10 minutes later Archanes scored an own goal, which it is said would have been the best goal of the match if it had been at the other end! Now it was 2 - 1 to Mochos. At this point Mochos found their normal good form and scored another goal, 3 - 1 to Mochos. The noise was incredible and Manthos knew it was all over so went back to the taverna to get ready for the invasion......
Needless to say, car horns, air horns, goat bells, bangers, bombs, gun fire, chanting........what appeared to be around five hundred cars and pickup trucks full of men through the square....and big, big celebrations......Mochos will now be promoted from "A" local league to "D" National league......we ARE the champions!!!!!!!!!

Babies dinner

The babies had their first taste of dinner today.....they followed mummy and the three coloured one accidentally stood in it. She then tried to lick her paws and promtly fell over.....April entertainment sorted then!!

The whole village breathes again!!

The whole village is breathing again after a nightmare two days. Yesterday at 11am a 9 year old autistic boy, visiting from Heraklion for the Easter celebrations with his family, went missing in the countryside after slipping away from his mother whilst she was on the phone. The whole of the police and red cross resources as well as a massive number of villagers searched all afternoon, night and most of today. At around 1pm the police asked that everyone stayed within the village boundary as they were bringing in the helicopter with thermal camera to try to track him down. Shortly before 6pm it was announced by the church bells ringing that he had been found, cold and I believe slightly injured but otherwise unharmed. For a community which lives for its children as this one does this has been visibly devastating to everyone and I suspect the celebrations will continue for another night to mark the little ones safe return.

Its Beirut !!!!

Well Easter arrived with a bang....or several hundred actually...The church service started around 11pm and as it continued the bells got more and more urgent and soon there was a big queue to get into the church. At midnight everyone came out and the bonfire with the effigy of Judas Iscariot was lit. Someone obviously used a bit of poetic licence when dressing him, as I don't think sunglasses and a glass of beer are the regulation accessories! As the bonfire went up (fed with what looked like whole bushes) the bangers and mortar bombs reached a level where you could no longer hear them, you felt them with your whole body. As a finale Manolis had saved the biggest bomb of the lot and even the locals nearly had heart attacks!!! You can maybe see on the (not very good) photos the smoke surrounding Judas is not from the fire, but from the mortar bombs.
After this the priest brings out a flame which has been passed along from one flown to Greece from Constantinople and everyone lights their candle from it. Some of the candles are plain and some are very ornately decorated, there are even childrens ones with Spongebob squarepants on. The trick now is to walk home, with your candle still lit and make a cross in the smoke above the entrance to your house. This is to bring good fortune for the next year.
I lit my candle, got it home and made a really big, strong cross in smoke over the door, so I am assured a wonderful year now!!!!

An Early Easter miracle !!

Well it had to happen, I went to church last night!! My friend Kath encouraged me to go into the church with her whilst the Big Friday service was going on. It was actually really nice and both the mens and womens choirs were singing. It seemed like there were hundreds of people in there and as more came in some left to make room. I lit a candle and enjoyed the spectacle. The miracle is that the church is still standing! At 10pm everyone left the church to walk the streets of the village and visit all the central churches. The entire evening was accompanied by special sound effects provided by bangers and mortar bombs, which were throw in gardens, empty buildings and drains along the route with seemingly hundreds thrown into the centre of the square when we got back there. After an hour and 45 minutes we arrived back at the church, where they prayed for another 10 minutes before disbanding.
I returned home at 1.30 to find that Ginger had abandoned her kittens in their box and was hiding under the kitchen sink unit in absolute terror. I think I will have to leave the TV on tonight to deaded the noise as it promises to be an even bigger night!!

Oh my poor ears already !!!!

Well Easter started last night.....gone is the quiet calm of Lent.....at around six the locally made "bombs" started...they are like English bangers but around 100 times more powerful, a bit like a mortar bomb.....they throw them in the middle of the square and some were so loud my windows shook.
Then a little bit of a lull overnight until just after 8 this morning....more bombs and the church bells have been ringing constantly for the last two and a half hours. I think they will keep going now all day. I will be going on the walk around the Churches tonight for the first time and will report on that later.

A New Home

The babies finally have a new home. I persuaded Ginger to move them to a box in my bedroom from the drawer under the back bed. Maybe now I can get to my computer equipment and do some work.....

Independence Day

Today was both Annunciation and Independence day here and the whole village turned out in their best clothes. A church service was followed by a parade of locals in Cretan traditional costumes and school children in their Blue and white outfits. The parade stopped at the Cenotaph to lay wreaths and then continued to the village square where it disbanded and everyone sat and drank coffee and wished each other χρονια πολλα (Chronia polla - many years - a traditional greeting used for all celebrations)

A brief background to what its all about!
In 1821, Greeks vigorously rose up against the oppressive Ottoman Empire which had occupied Greece for nearly four hundred years, embarking on the ultimately successful war of independence. Bishop Germanos of Patras boldly raised the Greek flag at the monastery of Agia Lavras, inciting the Peloponnese to rise against the oppressors. While the exact date probably was not March 25th, it did occur in late March and it was gradually associated with the religious feast of the Annunciation.

On this day in the Orthodox calendar, the archangel Gabriel appeared to the maiden Mary and announced the news: she was pregnant with the divine child. Bishop Germanos chose this day to deliver a different but not unrelated message: a new spirit was about to be born in Greece. The churches celebrate the Festival of the Annunciation with pomp, ceremony, and joy.

Instant Family

On a personal note I now have an instant family of five. My Γατακι (little cat) has just had five kittens in my shoe drawer under the back bed......she kindly allowed me to sit with her the whole time. Here is a picture of them when she had just finished giving birth and one when she had cleaned them all up. They all look healthy so its just a matter of finding homes for them now!!!!

Carnival day

Last night was the village carnival and the locals have been fundraising all week to pay for the festivities. The programme started at 3pm with the childrens activities including a bouncy castle with slide, a clown and a magician.At 7pm the Cretan music with professional dancers started and at 9pm it was the main carnival. All the drinks are free and needless to say, most people enjoy one or two (or maybe more!).The sound has to be experienced to be believed because as you may notice on the photograph the whole church front is covered with speakers and the lighting rigging. There are souvlaki (kebabs) stands and a really big bonfire in the middle of the square to keep everyone warm. Most people dress up or if not at least wear silly wigs. There are people working the carnival who go round and black everyones face with burnt cork (all the workers are volunteers and wear an orange uniform). It is estimated that around 5000 people attend the carnival in Mochos as it is the only one still running in the local area. Many only start to arrive around 12 or 1 in the morning. Mochos carnival is actually held the week before the main carnival at the end of Apokries as this is when everyone goes to Rethymnon for the National carnival parade. Here are one or two photos to give you an idea, but as I was partying I didn't manage to get too many good ones once it got started for some strange reason!!!!