I was wandering around inside my old photos file and realised how many photos I have of elsewhere in Greece (and Cyprus). Only a few places, but for a change, here are some Friday photos from elsewhere taken at various times of the year over the last couple of years.
It’s hard to believe we are heading towards the end of October. It’s warm enough to have my tea on the balcony at five in the morning, I haven’t needed to put a hoodie or jumper on in the evenings when outside and the temperatures have been in the high twenties. Apart from a couple of rainy days, October has been very mild so far, and although the number of day boats coming in has lessened of late, the ones that come in are bringing loads of visitors. Not the same numbers as the height of the season, of course, but still…
I took these photos with my proper camera, from a distance while wearing my contact lenses. The trouble with these lenses is, I can’t clearly see what I am photographing, or if the focus is correct, not without putting on my magnifier glasses. Long-distance is fine, as is middle distance, but closer up isn’t wonderful. This could be because I think I am wearing them upside down. I’m sure I was told to have the arrows pointing outwards (they are multi-focal lenses), so the right one has the arrow pointing to the right, the left to the left, trouble is, if I do that, long-distance is blurred, and after having them for a couple of months, remains blurred. So, the other day, I tried them with the arrows pointing inwards and lo! Long and middle-distance are fine, and I can see as close up as about one foot away, the same as my glasses, and only then do things become blurred. Maybe I misheard, and I am wearing them correctly at last. Still, it makes looking through the camera a bit tricky. Thank heavens for auto-focus, I say.
Although summer may be gradually fading and life quietening down, we seem to have suddenly picked up a busy-ish week. I have godson #1 popping in later to discuss when we start piano lessons, Yiannis is arranging transport for four of us to go up to the Ag Dimitris festival in the hills on Saturday, a farewell dinner is planned for next week with some friends, we have Neil’s unofficial birthday coming up, the proof-reader needs my latest book by Monday when Godson is also in the Oxi Day parade, and the cover designer has come up with a cracking cover, so I have to get that book finished. So, there’s plenty going on, and the sun is still shining. (Famous last words?)
We saw this little chap hanging around in front of the house yesterday, just sitting on a pole waiting and watching to see what was going on.
A lot goes on around the front of our house, actually. There is some ‘no man’s land’ where the fig tree used to be, to the left, there is a ruined garden with an orange tree and a pomegranate tree, and the building opposite and below has a spectacular bougainvillaea. There’s also an unkept area right in front of us and a rickety old vine, so lots of wildlife in a small area. As the pomegranates are ripe right now, they have attracted some attention. There were a couple of ladies with a ladder, leaning it up against the ruined wall and climbing up to take what they could reach, and then there are the hornets…
The hornets seem to work a short, midday shift as they are rarely about before 11.00, but between then and around 14.00, the air is buzzing with them, darting about, banging into the walls, feasting on the fruit and then staggering off again. It’s quite a dance just below the balcony at that time of day, and they rarely blunder into the house and bang their heads against the windows. When they do, I try and put them out, or just leave them alone and let them get on with it.
Anyway… The question I posed the other day, what was missing from the photo? Well, I finally have the answer for you. Here’s the original image…
And here’s the one showing what we couldn’t see because of the humidity. Either that or someone moved the entire range and then snuck it back overnight.
I managed a lie in on Monday and didn’t get up until four. This meant I was able to get some things done before going out for a walk as it got light, around seven. As usual, I headed up the road and off to ‘To Vrisi’. The engineering work on the water channel is coming on and is very impressive. They’ve been working there for months, and now a series of rock-filled cages have been set up along the base and sides of the watercourse. There is still more work to do, but it’s fascinating. The only downer is, I won’t be able to see it in action, because, if the rain is coming down so hard it needs this channel, it won’t be safe to be out in it.
Meanwhile, some of the day boats are still coming into the harbour, though not all, and some of the tavernas have closed for the season, but only a few so far. We continue to have visitors to the village, but not as many as a couple of weeks ago, and the weather remains warm enough to sit out in a t-shirt and shorts, but only up to a point. The evenings aren’t cold, but it’s gradually becoming long trousers weather. We’re in a fashion grey area where it’s often shorts beneath and a shirt and hoodie above.
And if you were wondering about yesterday’s photo and the ‘what’s missing?’ question, I’ll take another shot when the missing thing is back and see if you can spot the difference.
One of my winter projects is revision. By this I mean, I’ve decided it’s time to learn more of the Greek language and decided that the way to start doing this was to start again. For me, it’s mainly a question of vocabulary and confidence. I had nearly a year of private lessons before moving to Greece, and my teacher stressed the importance of learning the grammar as well as conversation. Luckily for me, nine years of Latin at school had prepared me for the grammar of language (I can’t remember any Latin though), so when discussing nominative and accusative, definite articles and pronouns, I knew where my Greek teacher was coming from. As an aside, she came from Germany, Greek was her second language and she was studying British law at Brighton University at the age of 24, which kinds of puts my book one of ‘Learn Greek Now’ at the age of 56 into perspective, but there we go, she was an excellent teacher, and fluent in at least three languages.
On Sunday, I took an hour out of my busy day of sofa surfing, and revised chapter one of my book. This did feel like a bit of a cheat, but as my writing skills are pretty rough, I wrote down any word that I couldn’t spell or was new to me. Chapter one is manly about hello and where are you from, which is pretty straightforward, but there were other words and phrases in the instructions, such as ‘put a line through’, which I noted in my ‘list of words I don’t know’, and although outside the remit of the exercises, I tried to learn these too. Chapter one done, I now have the homework book chapter one to complete before moving onto chapter two, which I will do later this week.
And the above photo is vaguely related to this story as I want you to see if you can guess what’s missing from the image. The clue came in a conversation I was having with Yianni on Sunday afternoon when we decided that there high Υγρασία, and the day was Υγρός. Another two words now on my list as, although I know what they mean and I use them (when I remember), I wouldn’t yet be able to spell them competently. Not yet, but then I am still only on chapter one. (The Y, epsilon, is one of several ways of sounding/writing the ‘e’ sound, so until you know which ‘e’ to use, you’re only guessing.)
[Note for the record. I’ve done all of this book before, but not with any great determination or success. Am aiming to change that over the next six months]
