Mary Irvine’s Blog, Musings from Greece 2, February, 20, 2017
18 Degrees and Rising. Monday, 20th February, 2017
Esther and Christos, my hosts, have gone to Athens for a couple of days. Did think about going with them. Really love Athens but couldn’t cope with the noise, the traffic, the pollution. Aging problems with mobility a factor as well! Think I prefer to remember her as she was when I lived there. Someone asked me yesterday if I’d ever been to a place for the first time and felt I ‘belonged’ -that I`d been there before. Only once – Athens – I knew the streets of the old part, certain I`d walked them before at sometime and I`m a confirmed and practicing cynic!
Enjoying the breakfasts. Fresh bread, (I brought my own corn thins! I can savour the smell tho’) home-made jams and marmalades, creamy cheeses, the juice of freshly squeezed oranges, grapefruit straight from the tree. The coffee smells good too but I prefer tea for breakfast. Am enjoying Turkish black at the moment.
Have just had lunch on the patio but the sun was too hot. Had to come in. Lunch was left-over haggis and mash from Sunday dinner. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Bit strange though, eating it with salad in the absence of neeps. Saw my first lizard. He seemed to nod as he flashed by.
If you read Musings one you’ll have realized by now we didn’t have to spend the night on a mountainside. The breakdown added two hours to my journey time. There was ‘a big damage’ as they say over here and it was an expensive repair. Pleased I didn’t have to pay!
Not doing an awful lot as yet. A few walks on the more gentle slopes of the mountains. Think I’ve mentioned before that most of the village is built into the side of the mountains to deter marauding pirates of yore. The view from the window shows this. There’s also a mulberry tree (leaves for silk worms). Have been told tree requires pruning to rather odd shape to maximize yield. What do I know?
Saturday night was invited out for dinner. Had I known what was for the main course I would never have accepted. Have eaten many strange things in various countries but I draw the line at song birds.
I have edited the first 10,000 words of the ‘magnum opus’ and done some re-writing but the greater part will have to wait until I’m on Spetses and am alone 24/7. Possiblr going there at the weekend.
All for now,
Mary
This section: Mary Irvine: Writer and Philhellene
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