Back Again

Back Again

Greece envelopes us again, like a warm bath full of compassion and little kindnesses. We touched down at Athens airport, ten minutes before schedule thanks to British Airways and no double a tail wind. Within an hour we were in our dusty car, left in a Glyfada car park, just edging out onto the road. The sun was shining and the traffic light as we drove through the magnificent scenery of the south-west Attica coast and then on through the Peloponnese. Nobody who experiences this need ask why we love Greece so much.

We stay overnight in Sparta and are overwhelmed with the little kindnesses that are bestowed upon us. First things first and we go to a car wash and then fill up with cheap petrol at 1.82 Euros - it is 2.09 Euros in Kythera - and are given a can of Cocoa Cola for the journey. next stop is the Skoda car dealer where we need two new windscreen wipers. These are immediately fitted with no charge for fitting. Whilst that is being done, the owner of the garage personally comes out to check our oil, water and brake fluid levels; again free of charge and then gives us to cartons of drinks, for the journey. At our customary hotel, The Sparta Inn, we are given free tea and coffee on arrival and then, the next morning are given a massive 1/3rd discount on our bed and breakfast rate. We go to one of our two favourite tavernas in Sparta and are immediately welcomed with free drinks and at the end of our meal given a huge plate of deliciously sweet seedless grapes. In the morning we call into a hardware store where we are remembered from our last visit when we purchased a chain saw sharpener. After searching the shelves and back storage room we find the power-run hedge cutter that Waldo is wanting, in the window! Then Waldo finds a lethal looking chain flail attachment for his strimmer. Now that we are previous customers / old friends / locals likely to repeat business we are given a whacking discount of 70 Euros off our 250 Euro spend, and a copy of their catalogue with instructions just to 'phone to ask for whatever we want and for just 3 Euros they will put it on the ferry for Kythera.

We travel by the side of the Evrota river on our way to Githion. Leda was walking by the side of this river, when Zeus changed himself into a swan in order to get near her. As soon as he was close to her and she had not run away he turned into his mortal maleness and raped her. The outcome of this union was the beautiful Helen who was stolen from Sparta by Paris. After staying the night in Githion they fled to Troy, and the rest is a well known Greek story of continuing viciousness, rape, plunder and war. Whilst the treatment of women in Greece has changed over time, it still has high levels of domestic violence and plunder and war now refer to the corruption and war of words throughout Greek society. Those who do not participate, are nevertheless complicit as they see themselves as helpless victims without access to power 'Ti na kanoume:' 'What can we do?' they say and shrug in a dismissive way.

We stop at a superstore to fill up with all sorts of store cupboard food and drinks. Then we stop at a roadside stall to fill up with fresh local vegetables; a huge sack of potatoes, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber, grapes, beans, onions and leeks and are then given the largest water melon the stall owner can find, just to say thank you for shopping with us.

The ferry wharf at Githion is an extension to Kythera community as we meet and chat with Nikos the best butcher on the island, Pangiotis whose father owns the supermarket in our village, George one of three brothers who runs a builder's merchants, and wave to many others less known but recognised. Paulina, who runs one of our favourite tavernas walks off the arriving ferry; she is off to Athens for a few days. She is followed by a number of Kytherians who wave to us as they rush to catch the bus to Sparta and onwards to Athens.

It seems to take forever to unload our car of luggage and shopping. The house is just as we left it. I open the kitchen curtains and two geckos chirp irritably as the folds of the material open to expose them; they scamper up the wall. I open the patio doors and the back door when Freddy croaks his greeting as soon as he hears me. He really does sound like a lonely frog. Waldo soon comes down and greets Fred who then just can't stop talking. Waldo is thrilled to find that he is using the second plank that he put down, in the corner of the pool in the shade. A green lizard scurries up the lizard ladder and into the oleander hedge. The water in the pool has gone down quite a bit since we left.

The next morning we realise that the animals with whom we share our space have recognised that we are back and adjust their territory accordingly. The pine martins leave their calling cards just outside the doors that we have opened; just to remind us that they were here first. They used to do it every might but now, even though they still do the rounds of the house at dusk every night, they no longer mark their territory each time. The grey cat stands defiantly under the palm trees at the entrance to the Muir Glen. He knows full well not to come near the house; we tolerate him sleeping on the poolside patio or on our bedroom patio when he lazes in the sun. He can even take a short cut from his hunting grounds to his sleeping quarters by walking over the patio that runs alongside out lounge and down steps past the kitchen, but whatever tempting smells might linger from my cooking he knows that the house is out of bounds.

Freddy's original plank has unwanted animal droppings on it and so Waldo sets a trap nearby. In the morning a young Roland is found dying of heat exhaustion. Waldo finishes him off; not a nice task but necessary, and then does his falcon imitation. Sure enough one Eleanora's falcon appears, closely followed by the other. Their beady eyes follow closely as Waldo empties the trap. Within seconds they have swooped down to attack the still warm flesh. Whilst Waldo does this I put tiny bread crumbs out to divert a train of ants who have found their way into a bag of crisps left in the kitchen. I have already sprayed and killed all of the column that are indoors, but want to keep the rest out. I look over the patio wall and to my surprise see Thunderthighs sunning himself just in front of the AcropoLiz doors. I have not seen him for a while but he looks healthy and seems to have grown; head to stubby tail is just over 2 foot.

We allow ourselves a day to lie late in bed and generally soak up the peace and warmth. We catch up on the gossip of the island, the challenges and joys of our friends, illnesses and new born grandchildren. I now have a waiting list for knitted items; thankfully the weather is cooler and so I shall be able to get on with this. Shopping is our next priority, stocking up in time for our visitors to arrive.

Waldo's son is arriving with his partner, partner's sister and sister's husband. We have just four days to prepare. Waldo makes his list of strimming, cleaning up the pine needles from the front drive, sorting our some of the sad looking plants that are in desperate need of water, hedge cutting, pruning the palm trees and a myriad of outdoor necessities. In turn I make shopping lists of items to buy in order to make food and make a note of all the indoor places that need clearing and cleaning as well as noting that the guest bedrooms need to be made up.

It never fails to amaze us how guests behave. We always beg guests to tell us if anything is wrong with their rooms, if any equipment is faulty, to tell us ways in which things might be improved or indeed accidents that might have happened. We do not use the guest bedrooms (perhaps we should stay in each one for a week each year!) and so can only rely on what we are told. John and Meg are our best informants and tell us straight what needs doing and adjusting. However we are missing them now as they have not been for 18 months or so. Thus when we come to sort out the rooms we find shower heads that need adjusting, screws that have come loose, bathroom glasses that have been chipped and a variety of additional bits of work that need doing. It also never fails to amaze me how various people horde to many little things they are attracted to as they holiday and then leave them all for us to clear out. This time I find the dressing table in one room covered with pine cones - all of which are cleared into the grate. Previously I have found numerous pretty stones, pebbles, ground glass, drift wood and a host of beach combing paraphernalia once thought to be taken home but forsaken when suitcases are full. We are always left with innumerable half finished bottles of shampoo, soap, sun cream, mosquito repellent and all manner of pills and potions that are either left behind by mistake or left to make room in their suitcases for gifts that they have bought or been given. I keep telling people not to bring things like that as they are already here, but still they keep coming like as if we are the world's repository for half finished plastic containers!

My kitchen store of marmalades and jams is almost empty and so I set to with replenishing the shelves. Over two days I make 10lbs of thick cut orange marmalade,  4 lbs lemon and lime shred, 3lbs lemon curd, 2lbs melon and ginger jam and 2lbs plum jam. Then over the next two days I make 18 Madeira cupcakes into which I mix some of the remains of previously made plum jam; these are delicious and I have to hide them to ensure they keep until our visitors arrive. I also make 18 more cupcakes made with All Bran and beautiful flame raisins soaked in milk and agave nectar; these healthy cakes which contain no eggs, butter or sugar have a wonderful malty, spicy flavour and puddingy texture. I then make my modification of one of Delia's old recipes for a sticky date cake which again contains no eggs or sugar and is a great make-ahead-cake because it actually improves with keeping.

Liz's adaptation of Delia's Sticky Date Cake

335 gm chopped stoned dates
285 gm large raisins (I use Fair Trade Peruvian Flame Raisins)
275 gm butter
275 ml skimmed milk
1 large-sized tin condensed milk
300 gm self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon vanilla powder
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 heaped teaspoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon chunky marmalade (optional)

Line and grease a 20 cm round cake tin.

Put the dates, raisins, milk and condensed milk in a saucepan. Stirring all the time, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes.
Transfer to a mixing bowl and leave to cool (about 15 - 20 minutes - I usually weigh out the rest of the ingredients into another bowl and by the time I have finished this, the mixture is cool enough)
Gradually mix in the flour mixture into the milky mixture making sure there are no lumps.
Spoon into the prepared tin.
Cover the top with tin-foil.
Bake in a 170'C oven (150'C if a fan oven. Gas mark 3 or an old oven 325'F) for about 2 - 2.5 hours).
Don't check it until about 1.5 hours of cooking - if you want a nice brown top, then you can take the foil off.
Keep in an airtight tin.

Waldo makes less progress than I. He is hampered by poor Internet connections which divert his attention, ink running out on the printer, problems with delivery of the said ink, and a myriad of other little distractions which take up hours of his time. Eventually time runs out on us both.

On the final morning I make up a sign 'The Edwards' Express' which is fitted to one side of our trailer. We hitch it up to the car and set off for the airport. Our four visitors arrive. Their luggage is stacked in the trailer. I will now drive everywhere, the largest man will sit in the passenger seat. The two women will sit in the back with the other man and Waldo will spend the next few days propped up on cushions in the boot; someone has to remember to 'let him out' every time we stop. So we set off for our mini-break with visitors.