Friday 25 May 2012

"First of May.........."

......"When I was small and Christmas trees were tall
We used to love while others used to play
Don't ask me why, but time has passed us by
Someone else moved in from far away....."


Here we are in Corfu in May and the old adage  ‘dont cast a clout until May is out’ couldn't be more true! May in Corfu, brings a mixture of rough winds, rain showers, but also hot days with blue skies full of brilliant white fluffy clouds. 

Flowers are blooming in abundance and we are starting to smell the intoxicating smell of honeysuckle and jasmine.  

And the swallows are back and have spent the first 2 weeks of May building their nest above our door (noisy little blighters !)  

We can also hear the noise of the frogs and toads, doing whatever frogs and toads do, in the local stream, creating a very loud chorus that can be heard every evening across the whole of San Stefanos.

The evenings are still quite chilly; although Liz is now wearing only one pair of socks in bed instead of the usual 3 which must mean the temperature is on the way up!  One of the beauty’s of the May evenings is the fireflies which light up early every evening, particularly in the undergrowth alongside the paths and in overgrown areas of gardens and orchards, this dazzling display will last till early June then disappear as the summer nights get hotter.

The fruit trees are full of fruit and the roadside sellers have strawberries, cherries, oranges and melons for sale.

We have bought a string of garlic from the gypsy sellers who travel around the villages selling from the back of a truck.  It is something which has become an annual event for us; listening out for the sellers and haggling for the best price, I’m sure we could buy it cheaper in the supermarkets, but to have a string of garlic hung up outside on the balcony next to the tub containing fresh basil is esthetically very pleasing.


We are gently easing ourselves into our Greek lifesyle. We have planted our veg in the garden, which our lovely neighbour and friend Keith Stanton had already rotavated for us, ready for our return.

It is not yet summer but gradually we are starting to see the evidence of the charter flights bringing much needed tourists here.  We have had our first tentative dip in the cold sea! The sun is shining and the temperature is gradually getting higher – and everyone is ready to start work again after the winter. Everything is freshly painted, the taverna chairs and tables are out, new awnings and umbrellas up, and beaches cleared of winter debris.

The 21st of May was a Public holiday here, it is an important date in the calendar of Corfu as it is the date the Ionian Islands were reunited with the rest of Greece. After the Napoleonic Wars Corfu became the property of the United Kingdom until 1864 when the island reunited with Greece. Corfu celebrates in style with huge banquets and lots of singing and dancing. Or it used to do, in recent times the celebrations are more for a day off from work rather than being happy to be part of mainland Greece and all its financial troubles!

The 21st May was also the name day for all Konstantinos, Kostas, Konstantina, and Eleni.  Name Days, not birthdays, are celebrated in Corfu. Great significance is attached to the name given a child, and the process of choosing a name follows fairly rigid conventions. The idea of a baby being given a name just because the parents like the sound of it is unknown in Greece.  So there are no Kylies or Britneys!

The eldest son in a family is often called after his paternal grandfather and the oldest daughter after her paternal grandmother. Names are usually of religious origin, and they often don’t name their baby for several months. Each island or area in Greece has a patron saint, and people living in that area often name a child after its patron saint. St Spiridon in Corfu, hence the number of Spiros you are likely to meet here. 

Each saint has a special feast day. A person's name day is the feast day of the saint after which they were named. On someone's name day, open house is held and a feast is laid on for the friends and neighbours who call. They will give a small gift to the person whose names day it is.

Also on 21st May we collected our next visitors from the airport, Pepsi & Shirley, so we have an excuse to behave like tourists for another week!

 Yamas!!
".....Now we are tall and Christmas trees are small
And you don't ask the time of day
But you and I, our love will never die
But guess we'll cry come first of May......"

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Lily the Pink.....

"……..Here's a story, a little bit gory,
A little bit happy, a little bit sad,
Of Lily the Pink and her medicinal compound,
And how it slowly drove her to the bad……"


We have had our 1st visitors of the season here, Lizzy’s daughters Pippa & Carmel came to San Stefanos and amidst all the sunshine and partying and with the smell of perfume and hairspray…. they managed to turn the place pink!

Living (in our house)

Swimming (pool side)

Synchronising (in the pool)

Matching (Pippa with roses)

Surfing (Windy day in the sea)

Walking (Afianos village)

Biking (New Avliotes by-pass road)

Eating (3 BrothersTaverna – Afianos)

Drinking (Sunset Bar- Akrotiri)

Cocktailing (Athens Bar)

Baking (Carmel's Banana Bread)

Laughing (Afianos village)

Exploring (Avliotes walk)

Beauty parlour…..ing (Sidari)

Fruit picking (Lemon Grove)

Gardening (at home)

Viewing (Pink lighting of the Sunset from our balcony)

Chilling (Arillas walk)
And a bit more chilling.....(Waves Taverna)
........Age old little old lady spotting

"……We'll drink a drink a drink
To Lily the pink the pink the pink

The saviour of the human race.
She invented medicinal compound.
Most efficacious in every case….."
Thank you for a fab week my gorgeous girls!!!

Monday 7 May 2012

'Pilgrims Progress.....'

“……..I sat me down to write a simple story, which maybe in the end became a song
In trying to find the words which might begin it? I found these were the thoughts I brought along...”
Today it is Election Day in Greece and tonight there is a 'Supermoon'....
will everything here go crazy?  
(Picture taken from our garden)
As Greece goes through the economic hoops set for it by the EU we expect to find more changes and higher prices this year.  Friends who live here have already told us of exceptionally high fuel prices and strikes affecting public services.
One change that has directly affected us, is the ferry service from Italy to Corfu; for the past 5 years we have travelled by Minoan ferry’s from Venice to Corfu, it’s always one of our highlights sailing out of Venice.  So we were more than a little disappointed and confused to get an email telling us that Minoan have withdrawn the service due to financial constraints and that we would have to sail from Ancona instead, (400km further south), plus they will no longer call in to Corfu, so our ferry would drop us off at the Greek mainland port of Igoumanitsa and we would have to catch the local ferry from there to Corfu!

It would take more than this to put us off and we enjoyed the adventure of seeing new sights on the Italian coast on route to Ancona plus the adventure of disembarking at Igumanitsa (mainland Greece) and catching a local ferry
We left behind the cold, wet, windy UK spring weather (Keith & Paddy had to spend 2 very wet and cold hours packing and re-packing the car, (we never travel light)), and we sailed out of Hull for a stormy nights crossing to Holland.  
When we woke up on Monday morning in Rotterdam it was clear blue skies and the temperature rose by the hour as we headed towards Germany; the car temperature gauge reading got as high as 29 degrees!!
We drove down wonderful empty motorways as we crossed from Holland to Germany, because it was the May Day weekend, which is a European wide bank holiday and as on all bank holidays and weekends, heavy goods are not allowed on the motorways.

 The bank holiday was also a bonus because when we arrived in Heidelberg at Paul’s House......
...... there was the culmination of a weeklong festival.  We went into their village square before dinner to watch Lizzy’s niece, Antonia, sing in a local choir....
followed by several other traditional choirs who entertained the local population in a packed park in the middle of the town. We were also treated to a seasonal meal of local asparagus which is a delicacy at this time of year in this part of Germany.

In the old town of Heidelberg there is a tradition at this time of year to celebrate the spring solstice event known as Walpurgis, which featured in many folklore tales and in an epic tune, ‘Repent Walpurgis’ by prog rock band, Procol Harem. Traditionally in the evening, many young people from the town make their way up the hill to a natural amphitheatre, to camp out, celebrate and get drunk etc. as part of the celebrations that form Walpurgis Night!
See below a potted explanation from local historian and Lizzy’s brother Paul!
Walpurgis was an English nun (she died in about 788 AD) who went as a missionary to Germany and became abbess of Heidenheim; she is celebrated on the first of May, which is coincidentally the date of the rites of an earlier (pagan) festival, one of the Celtic quarter-days, in fact. On the night before May Day, Walpurgisnacht, the witch-world holds its most elaborate revels particularly at The Brocken, high-point of the Harz Mountains, in the presence of the Devil
The following day we set off to travel to Milan via Switzerland through impressive scenery of snow capped mountains, beautiful lakes, long tunnels and the sound of cow bells clanking away in the fields at the side of the motorway!

We received the usual warm welcome from Keith’s sister Deborah and family in Milan; we caught up on the winter's gossip, whilst Eleanora created the most delicious pies, with ricotta, gorgonzola cheese and broccoli. We retired fairly early as we needed a 5am start to beat the rush hour traffic of Milan and Bologna on route to the port of Ancona.  Again all went smoothly, and we arrived at the port around 11am straight onto a brand new ferry.
Ancona is a quaint port in a venetian style with some beautiful old buildings and architecture, the ferry was very quiet in terms of passengers , only a party of French school children, 4 or 5 lorry drivers, half a dozen brits and maybe 20 or so others on a 3000 capacity ferry! We upgraded to an outside cabin for less than £100 and had a great night’s sleep, waking up just off the coast of Corfu at approx. 8am.
We also met fellow English travellers Paul & Gail, who were coming back to their home in Corfu  for the summer and we shared the adventure of the switch to the local ferry from Igumanitsa.  Which in the end turned out to be quite painless and we arrived 2 hours earlier in Corfu than if we had taken the original ferry from Venice!  1 hour later we were home, accompanied by nest building swallows and swifts that had, like us, migrated for the summer.
Once we unpacked and stocked up with food, we caught up with friends and bar and hotel owners and Keith has his first gig booked this Tuesday.  So today we had a wonderful long afternoon on the beach with our friends Sue, Keith, Bob & Bev, with a picnic and wine and beer!
Lizzy’s  eldest daughter, Carmel, has come over from Oz to spend 2 weeks in the northern hemisphere for her friend’s wedding and also to visit us in Corfu. 
The night before we caught our ferry from Hull, we had a great family gathering in Leeds followed by Keith’s final UK gig, which many of the family turned up for, (the bar not realising this, thought Keith’s fame had spread far and wide and he had brought many fans to see him and as a consequence booked him for 2 more gigs when we return to the UK).

We are off now to collect our first visitors, Lizzy’s daughters, from the airport.  Pippa is coming over from Leeds & Carmel is in London, after a friend’s wedding so they will travel together from Gatwick to Corfu for a week’s holiday.
It feels good to be here!

“In starting out I thought to go exploring, and set my foot upon the nearest road
In vain I looked to find the promised turning ……….but only saw how far I was from home…………”