Celebrations...................

Look at these 2 in the snow in south west France today outside Matt's parent's house.
Why are they grinning, why do they look SO happy?? Because Matt proposed last night!!!
We are so happy for them and will definately be celebrating when they arrive here on Sunday.

Bethan and Matt, congratulations!

Christmas Day Picnic

We don't go in for traditional Christmas, we enjoy getting away from everything and experiencing something completely different. Last year we spent the day on a desolate beach. We've had a seafood fest on our boat in Spain. This year we decided to head for the mountains.

When our friend Sandy asked if she could join us with her husband Chris, we said ok, but we're not going to be 'doing' Christmas. They said that's fine and they'd bring some unchristmas food. Sure enough, when we stopped to stretch our legs high up in the mountains, Sandy brought out 4 still warm Cornish Pasties!!! Food from heaven according to my dear husband, being a Cornish man... It made the day for him. We had warm mulled wine, coffee and some delicious filo pastry sweets filled with a creamy custard.

We were up on the Thripti range (approx. 1100 m) looking over at the Dikti range (approx.2150m).As you can see from the first photo, Dikti was covered in snow. It was very crisp and cold where we were but, thankfully, no snow.
As we descended we were facing the Lybian Sea and were able to capture this magnificent sky and sunset over the dramatic black sea.

The Harvest is In!!!!!

We help our friend Julie pick her olives every year. It's hard work but fun, my tree-hugging husband wouldn't miss it! Julie has been buying up small amounts of olive trees for a few years now and has approx. 80 - 90. That's not a lot in the whole scheme of things but it's enough for us to harvest.

We have the equipment - nets, generator,electric flailers, sacks and a riddler.

The flail not only shakes the olives from the trees, they also take off the leaves, so, everything is tipped into the riddler and shaken vigorously. The drupes fall through the mesh into sacks, leaving twigs and leaves on top.

We've always been very lucky with the weather and it's so wonderful to be able to sit in the grove and have a picnic consisting of fresh bread, feta, tomatoes and beer, we jolly well earn it!

This is Julie and behind her is a dog she has adopted, Baby Dog, which suffers from epileptic fits when not on medication.

Every drupe counts!!

The olive oil press yard is filling up with sacks and sacks tied up and waiting for their turn...

The press is computerised so Julie's sacks of olives are weighed as they are tipped onto the conveyor belt.

They get a jolly good wash and the leaves are blown off before

they arrive at the macerator where they are mashed and heated for about an hour.

Then, the pulp travels to a seperator where hot water is added and this seperates the olive oil from the pulp as oil floats on water. The pulp is removed to other factories where further pressings produce lower grades of oil and soap.

After the seperator the liquid is run through a centrifuge type device which seperates the oil from the water, then, look at this... the golden oil starts pouring into a huge vat.

A smiling Julie with Vangelis, the press owner. Last night's pressing was a great success. From 787kgs of drupes, 188kgs of olive oil was extracted. This was from only 20 of her trees. The press takes 10% of oil as payment. If Julie sold the oil to the press they would give her 2.10 euros per kilo. It's a very low price this year.

Greece reputedly, has the best oil in Europe, but they only market 5% of their exported oil as their own. The rest is sold to mainly Italy where it is mixed with their inferior oils.Don't ask me why!

If you would like to know any more look here
This is a brilliant blog full of true Cretan cookery and life.

Hoorah...

The days are getting longer....

Quilting with a View.

This week we went to Sandy's house for our quilting morning.

Sandy and her husband have a stunning view from their house and on a morning like this it was hard to concentrate on quilting.
We had mince pies and a wee tot of sherry and admired the books and magazines Chris brought back from England.

I also took some knitting yarn to show them that I bought in Aghios Nikolaos, top right corner, if anyone has any idea what size needles I should use to make a simple scarf I would appreciate it. I want a loose, lacy look.

That was our last get together until the New Year.

p.s. If you're interested, look at this to see more of Sandy's views and apartments.

Last Morning Walk around Limnes

We have finally moved to our own house in Houmeriakos. But before we left I remembered to take my camera with me when I took Jose for his early morning walk.

I enjoy photographing doors, especially the ones around the villages.

Most of the properties are derelect and deserted.

But I would love to find out about some of the histories of the houses behind these sad and dejected buildings.

The colours are fading as most houses are only used in the month of August when the Athenians spend their holidays here, catching up on family and friends.

The morning light is dappled and soft against the old crumbling walls.

But, we can find flowers still blooming in warm, sunny corners.

Gardening Club Christmas Meeting

We drove to Panagia in Exo Lakonio for the Christmas Meeting. It's a lovely drive and the weather was warm.

The meeting is held in this taverna which is well known for the huge bouganvillea that grows across the front.

Margaret is the happy chairperson who tries to keep us in check. She also teaches flower arranging and takes in injured animals.

We exchanged presents and drank and ate lots of lovely food.

Look, it's arrived!!

My parcel from Janet arrived yesterday. It was beautifully wrapped in cup-cake wrapping paper, a signature of Janet's. Check out her blog to see why.

The fabrics are lovely and I'm planning something for them already, it will fit in our new home, very summery.

Also included was a postcard of a Welsh wool frame quilt from the late 19th century. I am Welsh and am really interested in the history of Welsh quilts. (maybe a project for the New Year)

Thank you very much Janet.

It Works....

Can't stop... but had to share this moment. Our little wood-burner works!

Don't Ask..........

Hmmm, don't know what happened there, but this is what I was doing this morning.
Can't tell you what I'm knitting in case someone in Saudi is looking....................
The cards in the background are the Christmas cards I've made from a photo I took in Feb. when we had snow.
Frantic week-end ahead, we are MOVING into our house, at last! I'll try to take some photos.
We've also got the Gardening Club alternative Christmas Meal on Sunday so busy busy busy!!