Life without Stef

THURSDAY 8^th JANUARY

It was a beautiful day and so we decided to take a picnic and drive down towards Ag. Galini.  Coming along the Frati to Mixarouma road we encountered an old man sitting on a wooden chair by the side of the narrow road.  Waving to us as we approached we stopped and as I got out of the car to see if he wanted a lift he almost fell off his chair landing on the car door.  I asked if he wanted Spilli but he said “Ochi” ( NO) and pointed in the opposite direction to the way we were going.  There was no alternative but to help him in the front seat, as he had great difficulty in walking, and take him to his destination.  We didn’t have far to go as we wanted to be at the kantina, which we had of  course passed, so had to turn around.  Arriving outside the tented area and assisting the old man out of the car  he began calling for Kostas. A young man appeared very quickly and thanked us.  I said I was concerned his family would think we had hijacked him and would be worried, but he assured me it was okay and thanked us once again.

We continued on our way to park by the Church Stef and I had visited the other day.  Leaving the car we walked down into the valley below, once again passing the field full of daisies.  As we began our descent the banks were full of anemones and of course the oxalis. 

We arrived at the bridge over the fast flowing river and followed it until we found a suitable stop for our lunch.  It was so warm we didn’t need to wear our woollies but they came in very handy when it came to sitting on the rocks by the river.  In the distance we could hear the noise of a generator and when we continued our walk came across a family collecting their olives using several machines instead of waiting for the olives to fall naturally.  Most people seem to be using this method nowadays, including Theo this year.  

We had hoped this would be a circular walk but arriving at an area with a derelict building and a bit futher on a field with some derelict greenhouses we found this was the end of the trail so had to retrace our steps.

 

As the whole area was a mass of anemones I collected a few flowers for Maria; naughty I know but there were so many the few I picked would not be missed. 

Returning home via Mixarouma we saw the old man’s chair was missing!Back on our balcony at 'Creta Spirit'  the fishing boats were out in the bay and one was still at sea when we went to bed.   There will be fresh fish in the shop tomorrow!