Apologies - I know it's been a while since I posted anything but its been a busy few months since the last post in December. Our son got married in January so we travelled back to our home city of Newcastle Upon Tyne for the event. Unfortunately at this time of year, there are no direct flights back to the UK, so this was the itinerary:
Our house - Kefalonia🏡
↓🚗
Kefalonia Airport
↓✈
Athens Airport
↓✈
Edinburgh Airport
↓🚕
Waverley Railway Station (Edinburgh - Scotland)
↓🚆
Newcastle Upon Tyne Railway Station (England)
↓🚕
Son's house🏡
From the time we got up on the morning of departure to the time we arrived took 16 hours and involved four modes of transport - a car, two planes, two taxis, and a train.
I only mention the travelling because this is one of the few things about living here in paradise on the Greek island of Kefalonia that is a big disadvantage. Not so bad in the summer as there are direct flights to Newcastle upon Tyne, but out of season there's only one word for it, a NIGHTMARE! Especially when the plane is coming in to land at Edinburgh airport and you realise that it's circling instead of landing. The captain of the plane then comes over the tannoy system and says we will be delayed as the airport runway has been damaged but not to worry as they're fixing it with fast drying cement! I have to admit I was a little nervous at this point and looked around at the other passengers. You could tell they were all a bit stunned. Did we just hear that?
Still, it had to be done and we had a great time at the wedding, seeing our family and friends.
Me, our son Tom, his wife Lauren and Mark (My dress is purple not black!)
While it was lovely to see family and friends, it was great to be back to warmer weather. January and February were fantastic weather wise. Warm dry sunny days with blue skies. March is here now and there's been a little rain but it's getting even warmer. Bring it on!
On the 1st February, it was a lovely day so Mark and I spent the day cleaning out the gourds which we'd grown the previous summer. They'd been drying out for about six months. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with them as I'd bought large bottle gourd seeds and they seemed a bit on the small side. Having said that, it was my first time growing them and I grew them in pots rather than in the ground. I grew them to make birdhouses for the swallows to nest in so we had to cut entrance, ventilation and hanging holes in them. Each one had lots of seeds inside so I'll use these this year to grow more bottle gourds. We'll hang them up in April and hopefully the swallows and other birds will use them.
February 1st - Gourds and their seeds
Gourds for different birds
I like to see shapes in objects so when Im out with my camera/phone I'm always on the look out for something different. See if you can spot what I see.
February 18th - Looking towards Sami and the alligator
February 29th - Antisamos - the Scottie dog and the elephant
March 15th - Ithaca - the man and the woman side by side
The Greek lessons are coming along nicely. We are reading, writing and speaking Greek. It's hard but very enjoyable. Lots of mistakes but hey - that's how you learn. We are soon to be reading a book - Little Miss Hardworking (in Greek obviously). Not bad for nearly five months of lessons. We were also given a homework task of writing a paragraph or two about anything we wanted using verbs, adjectives and nouns that we had learned, so this was mine below. Titled 'A Grand Day Out' there's a bit of a homage to Buddy Holly in there too. The red crossings out are the mistakes I made!
For all those people who don't read Greek, you'll just never know what it's all about. 😂
For all those people who don't read Greek, you'll just never know what it's all about. 😂
Homework
Μια μεγάλη μέρα έξω
Η φίλη μου λέγεται Ανν. Είναι Αγγλικά Αγγλίδα αλλά αγαπάει την Κεφαλονιά, και θέλει να ζει εδώ.
Σήμερα,κοιτάζουμε ένα σπίτι ´Πωλειταί. Η Ανν έχει ένα ραντεβού με έναv πωλητή.
Φεύγουμε στα από τα Γριζ στις οκτώ το πρωί. Οδηγώ το κίτρινο τροχόσπιτο και φτάνουμε στην στα Δρακο στις εννιά παρά τέταρτο το πρωί.
Το μικρό ροζ σπίτι είναι παλιό και βρώμικο. Είναι εξήντα χρόνων. Έχει ένα μεγάλο κήπο με μωβ λουλούδια, πράσινο γρασίδι, πορτοκαλιές, λεμονιές και ελαιόδεντρα. Είναι πολύ ωραίο.
Ακούμε τα πουλιά και να βλέπουμε τα βουνά.
Κάνουμε φωτογραφίες.
Έχουμε Κάνουμε μια ένα πικνίκ στις μιάμιση το μεσημέρι στον κήπο.
Πίνω μια ένα ποτήρι κόκκινο κρασί και τρώω τζατζίκι με ψωμί.
Η Ανν πίνει μόνο άσπρο κρασί και τρώει σουβλάκι.
Ο πωλητής έρχεται και να λέει ´θέλετε να αγοράζετε το σπίτι;´
Η Ανν ρωτάει ´πόσο κοστίζει?´
Αυτός λέει ´Το σπίτι κοστίζει είκοσι πέντε χιλιάδες ευρώ´
Η Ανν λέει ´Ποπό, είναι πολύ φτηνό!
Εγώ λέω ´Συμφωνώ’.
Η Ανν λέει ´θα ήθελα να το σκέφτομαι σκέφτω.
Στις τρεισ το μεσημέρι, ο ήλιος είναι πολύ ζεστό ζεστός και φεύγουμε να πάμε στην παραλία. Κολυμπάω στην μπλε θάλασσα και η Ανν διαβάζει το καινούργιο βιβλίο τησ.
Στις πέντε το απόγευμα, είναι ώρα να φεύγει την φευγουμε απο παραλία. Θέλουμε ένα ποτήρι κρυά λεμονάδα έτσι να πάμε την ταβέρνα ´Μyrtillo’, αλλά είναι κλειστο κλειστη!
‘Ωρα να πάω σπίτι!
Ο ήλιος είναι έξω, ο ουρανός είναι μπλε
Δεν υπάρχει σύννεφο για να χαλάσει την θέα
Αλλά βρέχει, βρέχει στην καρδιά μου.
Δυστυχώς, Η Ann δεν μπορεί να είναι εδώ 🙁 Η πτήση τις τησ στην Κεφαλονιά είναι τον Απρίλιο. ‘Κορωνοϊος’
Ίσως το καλοκαιρι;
When we arrived inside the dentists, I spoke in Greek to say Mark had an appointment at 1.00pm. She actually understood me and I was a bit taken aback I have to say. So much so that when she replied I missed completely what she said! Never mind. Small steps....
March 19th - Argostoli as seen from the De Bosset bridge
The De Bosset bridge linking Argostoli on the left with Drapano on the right.
The loggerhead turtle at Koutavos lagoon - Argostoli
The loggerhead turtle at Koutavos lagoon - Argostoli
Caretta Caretta
Arriving back home - taken from the Argostoli road to Sami
On March 11th, at night, we were both sitting watching the TV when our mobile phones went berserk. We'd never heard this ring before and it was quite frightening. It was an Emergency Alert. This was to be one of many, the latest on March 22nd to indicate lockdown in Greece because of the coronavirus pandemic.
March 22nd - Emergency Alert
I don't want to go too much into it as everyone is aware of the position, but it's times like these when your freedom is taken away from you that you realise your family and friends are far away and you can't be with them. Life on paradise has taken a turn for the worse.
The island has been free of the virus up until 27th March but as I write this blog we have been informed that a Greek man who recently came to Kefalonia from the mainland, but who didn't self isolate, has COVID-19. Madness!
I took Bobby for his morning walk along the sea front. It's always very quiet here and better than walking around the village for social distancing reasons. It's typical that we've had lovely blue sky weather recently as you can see from the photos above, but this morning after we had received the text alert last night, it was drizzly, overcast, cloudy, dull and all round gloomy. It was as if the island knew what was happening.
I took Bobby for his morning walk along the sea front. It's always very quiet here and better than walking around the village for social distancing reasons. It's typical that we've had lovely blue sky weather recently as you can see from the photos above, but this morning after we had received the text alert last night, it was drizzly, overcast, cloudy, dull and all round gloomy. It was as if the island knew what was happening.
March 23rd 08.30 - Lockdown - Sami in the distance.
I'll be honest - fortunately, the pandemic hasn't had too much of an impact on our life on this island as such. The supermarkets are open and there is no stockpiling. The banks, butchers, fruit shops, garages, bakers etc are open, but the hardware stores, electrical stores, tavernas and cafes are closed. You have to have a signed handwritten note or send an SMS text message if you're going out to places or to exercise/walk a dog. I think it's more that we can't do something, like fly back to the UK, even if we wanted to. Like I said before - it's the freedom that has been taken away. Necessarily so, in the current world situation.
With lockdown now in operation there's plenty of time to get into the garden. Mark has been busy with the chainsaw, cutting eucalyptus and olive wood for the woodburner as it can still be cold at night when the skies have been clear during the day.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Mark is in charge of the wood cutting and the wood burner and I'm in charge of the wood store, i.e - wood stacking. You have to have responsibilities in life.
The other day I walked into the wood store to find a pile of wood all over the floor! Can't have that - no no no no no. Mark said it must have been an earthquake in the middle of the night. Earthquake? (which is quite plausible) - but my pile of wood is earthquake proof! Every piece of wood strategically positioned to enhance air flow without succumbing to the movements of the tectonic plates in the Ionian sea. Mark just gave me the look and said nothing, but I was being serious.
I have since re-stacked, obviously having researched predictions of future seismic activity.
On a lighter note - the shrubs in the garden are beginning to bloom. Must be all the donkey poo from the ladies at Donkey Trekking Kefalonia. Thank you very much Louise, Grisella, Wiolatta, Dixie and the latest addition - Marigold! The Bird of Paradise is loving it.
From the left, Dixie, Grisella, Louise and Wiolatta.
Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) - A double headed one!
Yellow Jasmine
Gazania
My previous post talked about olive oil containers and how I was collecting them. Well I've found something else to collect now - roof tiles - and only because we were out for our walk and passed a skip containing, amongst other rubbish, large terracotta roof tiles. They weren't broken so I just walked on by and surveyed the situation for that day. How can you throw good roof tiles away? I had no use for them, apart from painting a picture on them, but that didn't matter. There's something about terracotta roof tiles.....I researched 'uses of' that night but didn't find anything appealing.
The next day, the tiles were still there so I took one. Yes..... just one. I'm not greedy. I did feel that I should ask permission but the builders weren't around. Project Terracotta Army is currently in the garden awaiting development.
The penultimate day of March and it's a lovely start to the day. Our dog walk takes us into Sami. It's very quiet. I know it's only 8.30am and it's normally quiet out of season but there's an extra stillness in the air. The colours and light are amazing at this time of the day.
Like I say on the bottom of my blog - my photos are never photoshopped. The only editing is to correct the horizon as I never get it straight, or to crop the photo where needed. A wonky horizon infuriates me and I can spend some time getting it just right. The colours and light are exactly how they have been taken with the phone. So what you see... is how it was, and I have to say the colours are very true to life.
Like I say on the bottom of my blog - my photos are never photoshopped. The only editing is to correct the horizon as I never get it straight, or to crop the photo where needed. A wonky horizon infuriates me and I can spend some time getting it just right. The colours and light are exactly how they have been taken with the phone. So what you see... is how it was, and I have to say the colours are very true to life.
March 30th - Sami
The ferry is going no-where
Looking towards Agia Effimia on the left
A myriad of blues and greens
2nd April - Karavomylos - Bobby saying hello to the ducks
A spot of swimming for Bobby
We've had a very mild and dry winter. January, February and March have been on the whole dry and sunny and quite warm at times. There has been no where near the amount of rain and thunderstorms that we normally get. April has started with rain though - making up for it. April showers... I hope.
5th April - My Monet...ish Karavomylos Lake.
I have just found out this morning that last night my friend's mum died from COVID-19. This post is dedicated to Jean, a lovely woman without whom I wouldn't have my best friend.
The world is in a strange place at the moment and my heart goes out to each and every person that has been affected by the pandemic. With social distancing, everyone gets by in their own way. Mine is to see and feel the the positive out there. You can see from the photos above exactly how I do that..........
Until my next post - Stay safe.
