Where are you going? Well well…

Monday December 12th

I slept in until eight today, quite remarkable. Still catching up on Saturday’s late night maybe. I got up and went and fed the stray cats. On my way I go past some construction work, and there was a lady clearing up, it was a bit messy. She looked at me, I said hello and she said in Greek “where are you going?”. Trouble is I had no answer for that, I could have lifted up the bag of cat food and pointed downwards, I could have mentioned the name of the friend I am doing it for, but all I could manage was “ I am  English” ( in Greek ) I did not even manage to say I spoke a little Greek. That’s my trouble. If you give me some time I could have done better than I did, but…

It’s litter picking day and I walked down the road, gloves on, bag in hand. The clover is really taking off  now, in places it’s nearly twelve centimetres high. Everything else is going green, sprouting and taking advantage of the moisture. I spotted this mushroom which I think is more like its skeleton, but I thought it looked interesting. There were several other intact mushrooms about too.

Half way down, I got a call from the lady who has the dog rescue place, I was going to help in June and September. I was going to look after things then, but the trouble is she needs absolute certainty I will be there and I can’t guarantee that. Everything is great at the moment, but this has been the easy bit of the winter. It’s been mild and until recently there have been lots of English speaking Ex pats about . I might find it unbearable, and decide to leave in the summer and not come back, or get smitten with another island and go there in September. So we agreed I will help if I can on an occasional basis, but she will have to find someone else. I did mention the trustedhousesitters.com people, they might be able to help, you don’t pay them. Further along, this old ruin of a house has been dug out, it looks like they are going to build a new house with parts of the ruin. Given the size and modern design of this house, I imagine they did the same. I do know my landlord bought this house as a ruin.

When I got down to Livadi, I went to Grans, no favourite pie, so I had an alternative, I got some freebies again. I told them the story about the lady and the ‘where are you going” and we got talking about stray cats. I keep using these disposable cups, I asked if I bring my own plastic one in, can they use that, yes. That’s great, I will  buy one tomorrow. I went through my old Greek list, the list of phrases and words I know, but these are in English, so I have to convert them to their Greek equivalent like I want a sandwich, why are you waiting etc. Because I have the next part of the course I am doing, for free I have started on that, but I am going to look at the course my Slovenian friends showed me, as that does the written words too.  

Photo interlude - Pottery shop window 

I walked back towards Hora. Off the road, there is this little gap between two fenced industrial units. It’s got the inevitable rubbish like cardboard, bottles and plastic etc in it . It did not take long to clear it and at the far end was this well, with a small sink in it, with a date. The well had lots of water in it, it would be interesting to see if that is so in the summer. 

I carried on, then going up the track to Hora. There are a few places where orange skins are being left behind, I think the might be the small oranges, maybe they are ready now on the island. Of course I don’t bother to pick them up. When I got home, I had a video call with our other neighbour, they wanted to show that Twyford has had a dusting of snow. Unfortunately our other neighbour had already sent us a photo of the snow and our garden all white. Not enough to make a snowman it appears. It was great having a call with this other neighbour, catching up on their news and plans for the Christmas break with their family.