December is upon us and if this is what the weather is normally like - it's fantastic - some lovely blue sky days, although cool. We've been to a couple of Christmas fayres.
The first fayre was on the 3rd December in aid of KAT (Kefalonia Animal Trust). Their main aim is in sterilising as many owned and stray animals in order to stop the numbers of cats and dogs on the island from increasing through indiscriminate breeding.
The second fayre on the 11th December was in aid of ARK (Animal Rescue Kefalonia). They rescue, provide care and shelter, rehabilitate and rehome Kefalonia's stray animal population.
Both good causes so we just had to eat the xmas cakes, mince pies, chocolate cakes, quiches and drink the mulled wine which I have to say was excellent.
We've been busy cutting wood for next year's supply for the wood burner. It's now seasoning in the wood store. I know my olive wood from my eucalyptus, walnut and fig. I don't like fig trees though. They are a NO NO! Fig trees ooze a white latex sap from pruning cuts, which contains an irritant called ficin. On skin this can lead to chemical burns. Mark and I were completely unaware of this, and cut out the fig tree that we used to have in the garden, during the summer. We had chemical burns on our arms and legs, and Mark even had burns on his back. The skin blistered really badly and it took forever for the burns to heal.
December seems to be the month to cut trees and burn the foliage as there have been numerous fires around. The smell of burning olive and eucalyptus is lovely as we walk along the beach in the morning and afternoon.
We are still working on the garden. Flowers are out in abundance, even in December. Check out this pink rose!
The weather has been lovely and so we explored a new dog walk which took us up into the mountains and along to Sami bay. It's so quiet. There are great views of the valley from up here. We've done this walk three times now. The first time Rocky and Bobby were fine.
Rocky enjoying his freedom - short lived it was to be though!
Bobby (seen in the distance) isn't too keen - Are you for real? It's all up hill from here! I'm nearly 10 years old you know!
The valley
The view of Sami bay
The second time - we heard a gunshot. It's the shooting season now, so to be expected really. Rocky being the chicken he is, immediately shot off himself and ran all the way back to the camper van and was lying shaking uncontrollably.
The third time - we thought we'd better keep Rocky on the lead. Unfortunately I let Rocky out of the camper van without his lead on and he ran off straight away down the road. I ran after him with Bobby on the lead and Mark went after him in the camper van, but Rocky is fast considering he's 12 years old, and he was soon out of sight. Nightmare! Bearing in mind that there are always shepherds herding their sheep about near roads in unenclosed areas, and especially as there are lambs about at the moment, they won't think twice about shooting to kill a dog if they think the dog poses a risk to their sheep.
So.... I'm running down the road with Bobby on the lead, his little legs going ten to the dozen when he suddenly stops. He decides to have a poo right in the middle of the road! Could he think of a worse time? Is he doing this on purpose? Rocky and Bobby have a bit of a love/hate relationship and Rocky has been known to try and drown Bobby a number of times. Is Bobby deliberately using delaying tactics? Does he want Rocky to get lost?
Anyway - Mark reappears in the camper van. Rocky hasn't run home. I don't think he quite knows the layout of where we live just yet, so where on earth is he?
I jump in the camper van and we travel in the opposite direction to home. Mark spots Rocky in a field sitting under an olive tree. We do an emergency stop and Mark is out of the van, running across the field, and guess what...... there are sheep just beside Rocky and the shepherd is there too yielding a stick. Now Rocky is scared of sheep... yes a sheep dog scared of sheep - who would have thought? However the shepherd isn't to know this and he's quite within his rights to shoot to kill if he thinks Rocky will attack his sheep. He starts shouting at Mark but obviously it's all in Greek! Mark grabs Rocky and runs back to the camper van and bundles him into it. Phew!!!
Rocky survives to try and drown Bobby another day!
We've also been out for a stroll in the valley which is just behind our house. We found two orange trees and a lemon tree full of fruit just waiting to be picked. It's such a shame that a lot of fruit seems to go to waste as fruit just drops to the ground and is left to rot. Just think of all the orange juice and lemonade that you could make. I made proper fresh lemonade in the summer - mmmmm...
Some orange trees produce oranges that are only suitable for marmalade as they are bitter but the oranges from these trees were lovely.
These oranges were so juicy!
This orange tree proved hard to reach but we managed to get a few!
Lemon tree
View of the valley
If you continue into the valley there's an old stone bridge over a river. It's a bit odd because the bridge doesn't actually go anywhere (see photo below). It used to be the old Sami to Argostoli road.
The river is full at the moment. Crystal clear water that is quite deep in places that you could swim in it. I must admit I really fancied it but it was quite cold. These photos were taken on 22nd December. Beautiful day and nobody around. You could spend all day here and see no-one. Even in the summer there are only a few peeps and they are usually on horses, or leading donkeys.
The river is full at the moment. Crystal clear water that is quite deep in places that you could swim in it. I must admit I really fancied it but it was quite cold. These photos were taken on 22nd December. Beautiful day and nobody around. You could spend all day here and see no-one. Even in the summer there are only a few peeps and they are usually on horses, or leading donkeys.
When we first arrived in May, there wasn't so much water, but it was full of tadpoles.
Bridge to nowhere
Deep water here - perfect for skinny dipping!
View downstream
Getting back to Christmas, we've noticed quite a few Christmas decorations in the villages and in Sami itself. It's looking quite festive. There is a Christmas tree lit up at night in front of the local church.
Church in Grizata
There is also a more traditional Christmas decoration, a decorative sailing ship, lit up at the harbour in Sami. These decorations are seen more on the Greek islands than the mainland. The story behind this is that a long time ago, women of the Greek islands, during the dark winter months of ferocious, stormy and dangerous seas, spent their days fretting over fathers, husbands and sons, battling with the waves, praying for their safe return. On spotting the ships returning to harbour, the women would joyfully rush home to celebrate, by decorating small wooden boats, as a welcome to the weary seafarers.
In front of the local church is a very artistically painted STOP sign! Ha ha! It's the random things which we love. There used to be a sign for Poros here too, but that seems to have disappeared, probably along with the tourists who were looking for Poros!
Christmas Day morning was lovely and sunny and we did the usual dog walk along the sea front.
Christmas morning at Sami beach
Christmas morning at the harbour at Karavomylos
We were invited to Christmas dinner by some friends who live about 10 minutes down the road. On the way we passed Colin the Sami donkey who is at least 30 years old and resides in a field opposite a hotel. Apparently he's famous as he appeared in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. During the summer season he gets lots of treats off the tourists from the hotel opposite. Believe it or not he's actually fat! You can't see it in the video below but on his left side there is a roll of fat hanging from his neck. The neck is where donkeys store fat.
Now all the tourists have gone, he makes do with food in the field. Don't worry though - I have been very reliably informed by someone who knows a lot about donkeys that there is plenty of food in the field to sustain him.
So we stopped off to give him his Christmas dinner (carrots) and also a brush.
Someone has given him his own Facebook page too!
Facebook page for Colin the Sami donkey
Colin on Christmas Day
So........what is New Year like on Kefalonia and what lies in store for 2017?
We'll soon find out.
