Thursday 8th November

This really isn't a record of typical days in Karystos any more, as we start to move out of the house. Days spent going through cupboards, I can't believe I have accumulated so much rubbish in 12 years here. I wish I'd turned the cupboards out before, I didn't realise I had so much storage space.

Wednesday 7th November

Things have been quite busy here, so I have got a bit of catching up to do.
Short list:
Saturday - Went out for a very meal with the 6 other people, 3 couples who all moved here around the same time as us. We don't live really close to each other and only meet up as a group a couple of times a year, but stay in touch and always 'do favours' for each other. In fact it is one of the nice things about Karystos, that there isn't an ex-pat community, all the couples have integrated into their own Greek communities. The nearest thing is an occasional walking group and that is mixed nationalities, French, German, Dutch, American, Korean, Vietnamese as well as British and Greek, (have I forgotten anyone?). On this occasion is was just the 6 of us and we went to our favourite taverna in Karystos, which serves the best traditional food in the whole of Greece, because the man who owns it has a couple of months off in November and December. He and his staff certainly deserve it as they work from early morning until after midnight every day for the rest of the year.
Sunday - Was a very good day, as the very nice Greek couple who came to see the house last weekend came back, made us an offer and after a bit of juggling we all agreed a price. We are so pleased about this, not just that we have a sale, but that we have put our lovely house and garden into good hands, to people who we think will care for it and appreciate it as much as we have for the last 17 years. We all went out to lunch together and had a lovely meal of red mullet, plus of course lots of little extra dishes. John and I came home in the evening a bit exhausted and unable to believe that we were really going to leave, it is going to be so sad. However we need to move on, get into the next phase of our lives.
Monday - We started to think about our relocation, looking around the house, trying to decide what to take with us and what to leave. I have a couple of rugs I really must take, one is very large, I brought it from England where I bought it from an 'ethical' source, it was handwoven on a commune project in North India. The other one has even more sentimental value as it was hand-woven by Koula's mother in a loom in their house when she was a young woman. It is a genuine rag rug, made from old clothes, not like the mass produced ones, 'machine-made in China', which are available everywhere now. It was a house-warming, welcome present for me from Koula when we moved here in 1995. John took them both onto the drive and pressure-hosed them, which gives them a really good wash, then we hung them over the gates to dry.
John went into Karystos to get the legal activities to do with the sale of the house under way. He learnt that we have to go to Halkida, the capital of the island, about 110 kms away, in order to get a certificate to say that we have no outstanding taxes to pay on the house. We need this before we can make a sale. It is not possible to get this certificate from the local office, it cannot be posted, we must go in person!
In the evening the temperature really dropped, I had spent the day in just T-shirt and shorts, but as the sun went down there was a real nip in the air. After a short discussion John said he would get some firewood up in case we needed a fire. We did, as we settled down for the evening we decided to pull the settee up and make a fire in our wonderful big stone fireplace.
Tuesday - what a change, winter arrived today. We woke to strong winds and driving rain. Nobody came to cut the trees down. John went to try and find out if any progress had been made. It seems he has got to get a man with a 'cherry-picker' to take a look at getting the trees down.
We stayed indoors all day and lit the fire early. We started the clearing out of the cupboards. We tried to put things into piles, rubbish stuff we've been hoarding, 'just-in-case', to throw away, stuff somebody else might like,either the people buying the house or other people living here, and stuff we would like to take back to England. It is going to be so difficult, so much of our lives are here, not just the things around us, Koula, Andreas and all their family who have become such an important part of our lives.
Wednesday - Now we are up to date. Today we went to Halkida to get our tax certificate. The entire trip took 6 hours and the actual process of acquiring the certificate took 30 minutes. We remember that several years ago, for something else to do with Greek beaurocracy, John had to go to Athens. When he was there he heard them tell a man (Greek) ahead of him in the queue, who had been required to come from Crete in person in order to pay some tax, that he didn't have the right papers and he must go back to Crete to get them and then come back again. Crete is at least 24 hours away from Athens by boat. The trip is not cheap, the man would loose a week of work in order to do this. How does the country function.
The highlight of the trip was a wonderful experience we had on the road near to Aliveri. We saw a flock, although swarm would more accurately describe it, of birds, thousands and thousands, swooping and diving, breaking and re-forming. There were so many they were a dark cloud in the sky, as they swooped low over the road we had to slow down. When we stopped at a supermarket close to Aliveri on the return trip we saw 2 electricity pylons covered in the same birds, every conceivable space had a bird perched on it. We think they might have been swifts.
Another interesting thing was the cyclamen. As we were driving past the hillsides of Aliveri which were completely burnt out last August I caught a glimpse of something bright pink. At first I thought it was a piece of rubbish, maybe plastic, which had been thrown or blown there. Then when I saw more patches, and more, I looked closely and saw that they were groups of wild cyclamen. Usually these small winter flowers are hidden beneath taller trees and shrubs, but here they stood out, flashes of brilliant colour exposed against the blackened stones and earth. It was surreal, but a reminder that life will return to these devastated areas, it may be slow and take a long time but, here at least, nature is fighting to repair itself.

Friday 2nd November

We had a very early start this morning, so I think it is time to tell the story of the pine trees. When we bought our land the northern border was marked by a row of very tall, very thin pine trees, probably about 8 in number, which were all dead or dying. Once upon a time they were probably used as a barrier to the north wind, but as they had lost all their lower branches and been allowed to grow so tall and thin they were totally ineffective. We planted a new row of tight cypressus trees in front of them to do this job. We have kept them low and taken out the tops every year so that they have spread sideways to form a thick hedge, see blog of 26th October.
John cut down 4 of the trees as they became very dry and brittle, 3 very well, 1 not quite so well, which is another story. Two years ago we came back in March to find that 2 more had come crashing down as a result of very heavy falls of snow and strong northerly winds. Fortunately they did not damage the house, they scraped down the back wall, just bending a water pipe a little. They did take out a couple of lemon trees and almost completely fill the back garden until John could get the wood cut and stacked away.
So that leaves 2. They are in a position that if they fall they will certainly come crashing into the house. One is very dead and the top looks dry and brittle, and if it falls it will probably snap off. The other one is more robust, and about 25 metres high, looking at the most likely angle it could easily go right through the outdoor kitchen. Every time the wind blows strongly and I am hanging out the washing I keep glancing upwards to see if I ought to make a dash for it. For the last 2 years John has been trying to get these trees cut down. The problem is not just their height, they are also very close to to the electricity cables. They are also at the back of our land, and the only vehicular access is the old lane leading up to the church, which is several metres away and several metres lower, so a 'cherry-picker' isn't an option. Finally after months of to-ing and fro-ing, consulting all the agencies he knew of, and several he hadn't previously known about, he has been given a permit form the Forestry Department to get 1 tree cut down. The next thing he had to do was find someone who was prepared to cut it down and coordinate this with the Electricity Company, who would come and disconnect the cables. A week ago today he was told that they would come Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Nobody came. Yesterday, when he went to ask the woodcutter if he knew when they would come, he met the man from the Electricity Company he had been speaking to. He came home with the glad tidings that they would be here at 07.00 to cut the tree down. So we set an alarm and John got up at 06.30. I was not so optimistic and stayed in bed until 07.45. Nobody came.
John went down to the Electricity Offices yet again. The new day is Tuesday. We will see.
With the early start it felt like lunchtime by 11.00 o'clock. It was a beautiful day again, it is so warm and sunny. I did a bit more pruning, cutting the grape vine out of the fence, and went down to see Koula. Effie, our Karystos Estate Agent brought a group of French/Greek people to look at the house. It was like a whirlwind, they rushed through and didn't really look at anything very well, so it wasn't a very satisfactory experience. I expect they have other properties to look at in the area, maybe we will learn later if they are interested.
After they had gone we decided to treat ourselves and go out to lunch at the port again. November 2nd and it was too hot to sit in the sun, although there was a brief 10 drops of rain. I had my same plate of small fish and John had squid.
We went mushrooming yet again, but this time brought them home to clean as it became increasingly more overcast. There were lots, obviously the season has really begun now. There was a light shower, but it is still very warm.

Thursday 1st November

It's been one of those days which we sometimes take for granted, but as I've had to think about it in order to write this blog I realise how lucky we are to be here. John cycled into Karystos this morning to pick up a new wheel for the trailer and while he was gone I sat outside in warm sunshine eating my breakfast. I was suddenly aware of the sound of the birds, chattering and chirping all around me. I suppose it's a bit like we don't hear the cicadas in the summer any more, they are just there. Once I heard the birds the noise became almost deafening, a whole world of activity going on all around me. It seems as if in the last few days all the migratory winter birds have arrived, finches and tits of all sizes and hues. There are also lots of butterflies.
When John came back we lit the bonfire down at Koula's and between us carried all the prunings and garden rubbish from the lane. It was a really good blaze and we got rid of it all by one o'clock. Still thinking about background noise, I noticed the constant buzz of the bees, hundreds of them swarming all over the ivy hanging over the trees in the lane. The ivy flowers are inconsequential, a pale yellowy green colour, and their smell is quite distinctive, not so much perfumed as aromatic, a fresh sharp smell.
It was hot, the thermometer read 24C in the shade, and the sky was almost completely blue, so we decided to go to the beach. We looked for wild mushrooms on the stretch of land behind the town beach, and they have started to come properly, we got a good bag. We sorted and peeled them sitting on the beach and then I washed them all in the sea and laid them out to dry in the sun. We stayed on the main town beach rather than go on to one of the bays and it was deserted, we had over a kilometre of beach all to ourselves. We sat in the sun, reading, for a while and had a swim before coming home, the sea was not cold.
Back home we fried up our mushrooms with eggs and baked beans and the potatoes I had baked in the bonfire yesterday. A real gourmet meal which we ate outside on the patio at a quarter to six, it was still warm.
The nights are getting cooler though, we have both started wearing socks in the evening.

Wednesday 31st October

Had a fantastic bonfire today and got rid of all my honeysuckle and rose prunings. The honeysuckle is so difficult to do anything with, the long tendrils wind round everything and are difficult to break. I burnt it all in the old oil drum we use as an incinerator. Lots of people around us have been having fires for a couple of weeks, but officially we aren't suppose to start until tomorrow, 1st November. Open fires are forbidden from April to November. Everywhere is still damp after the rain 10 days ago, and the humid southerly winds, but there could still be a risk.
John started moving the massive pile of prunings from when we cut back the right hand side of the front garden, ready for a fire tomorrow. He had stacked it all up against Andreas' wall. Koula inquired to see if the Council would collect it for us, but they were going to charge €60, so we agreed to move it all down onto their land, by the river, and burn it there. We will get rid of a lot of their rubbish at the same time.
It has been overcast all day today, but warm and completely windless. We could really do with some more rain, it's 10 days since it rained. While the nice weather is holding we decided to go down to the port for lunch. It really is wonderful sitting there, outside one of the ouzeries, watching the fishing boats come and go, the world passing by, Karystos just carrying on with its life. It has to be one of the things which make Karystos so unique, such a lovely place to be, a million miles away from the Greece that most of the tourists see. John had a plate of mussels in a mustard and lemon sauce. It's the first time he has had it, he liked the mussels but said it was a bit heavy on the lemon for him. I had a plate of the fish they call 'little cod' here, but whatever they are, they aren't cod. They are small white fish, about 16 cms long, and very sweet.
This afternoon we took a walk around the land above us, through the lanes of Palaia Khora, collecting a few walnuts on the way. It was interesting to see how things have changed over the summer. The lanes are even more overgrown than before, in many places we needed to duck down through the ivy and the brambles. It is all so quiet and protected here, we were walking round for over an hour and saw no-one. The bad news is that unless something is done to manage the area it will become even more overgrown, dry stone walls will collapse, trees will fall. We took a look at a piece of land which Effie told us has been sold to some Athenians who intend to develop it speculatively, houses to rent or sell. It's a lovely piece of land, with good sea views, but we think they must be crazy. The ground was scattered with shards of Roman pottery, and close to it are some really old looking walls and building remains. Considering that the archaeologists have been excavating a piece of land someone bought in Palaia Khora for about 3 years now and still haven't given permission to build, I think they may have to wait a very long time, and then may be refused if anything of particular interest is found.

Tuesday 30th October

Well, I finally finished pruning the rambling rose today, and cutting the honeysuckle out of it. John gave me a hand this afternoon so that it didn't spread over into another day. The garden looks so much larger now that the honeysuckle has been cut back. I'll be interested to see how it all looks tomorrow, as I have cut off lots of the vine bits so I guess the tops will die back. That should make them easier to remove.
John repaired the old trailer we brought from England many years ago. The wood in the sides at the bottom had rotted, so he used bits from our old wooden shutters to fill them in. Another big achievement today was getting rid of the fibreglass shell of the boat which has been sitting at the side of the garden for several years, and the inflatable and the seagull engine. John took them round to Roger's house as he said he would like to try and get one or both of them on the sea. We found the fibreglass shell cast up on the beach at Aetos several years ago, after a strong southerly gale. John said it looked as if it had been under water for quite a long time, everything had gone, there was just the shell left. We were walking along the beach with Aliki, our dog, and found it cast up on the high tide mark. We dragged it clear of the waves and left it for a while to make sure no-one claimed it, although John was sure that it had been lost many years before, and who knows where. After a couple of weeks, when it remained untouched, Roger helped John to put it on top of the car and we brought it home. It was going to be a project John did, one day, one year, sometime in the future, but he never got round to it. Maybe Roger will.
We only acquired the inflatable last year, when SEEP moved their home to a new house. It had been in the bottom of the house for years and no-one wanted it. John mended it and got the little outboard working, and last summer we took it down to the beach and after several attempts got everything working. We had a lovely trip around the bay, nearly out as far as the island of Pelagia. However getting in and out was very awkward, and John thinks it was this which precipitated the dislocation of his hip joint. So maybe we won't repeat it. I hope Roger gets it up and running.

Monday 29th October

I can't believe how cheap olive oil is, when you consider how much hard work goes into harvesting the olives. Yesterday John and I worked non-stop for 8 hours and we got about 10 litres of oil from our 18 trees. However we know that most of our olives are the type grown for eating rather than oil production, and they have a lower yield. All our trees didn't produce this year, as they were cut back severely 2 years ago. They were easier to harvest than previous years though, as all the branches are low now. Previously John had to actually climb up into the trees. We used the traditional division of labour, John, the man, removed the olives from the tree, and I, the woman, sat on the ground and sorted them, taking out leaves and twigs. The method used is to place large mats on the ground underneath the trees and then the branches are 'combed' with implements rather like plastic rakes and the olives taken off. We had a good day for it this year, the weather is still very mild, in fact I was really pleased yesterday that the sun was a bit hazy as I was not in the shade for most of the time and I was really warm in T-shirt and shorts. We filled 4 sacks and John took the olives to a local press. At the moment the oil looks rather like a thick dark green pea soup. As it settles the 'sludge', pureed olives, will sink to the bottom. I use this in stews and soups, so delicious. It is nice to know that our oil is so fresh and pure, nothing added or taken away, AND straight from our garden. One of our trees has very large Kalamata type olives and I picked these a week ago as soon as they turned black, to cure and preserve. These need to be hand picked so that they are not damaged or bruised. Just think how labour intensive that is!
The early morning haze soon burnt off today and it was warm and sunny again. As I was continuing with the pruning, in shorts, T-shirt and flipflops it occurred to me that when we are back in England I will miss not being able to wear them for 9 months of the year. We decided to make the most of this lovely weather and take a walk down by the sea. I wanted to do some beach-combing to collect treasures for Bella and Archie for school projects, things that maybe they wouldn't find by the sea-shore in England. We got a big bag, lots and lots of sea-urchins, pieces of sponge and pumice as well as shells of all sizes and colours. We also collected some wild mushrooms which we fried up as an extra dish for our evening meal. They are a bit early, we don't usually get them until November, but now we know they have started we will certainly be looking for some more.