Greek Signs of Spring ~ Awakening from Winter

Those signs of spring began slowly, slowly. Siga, Siga, as we say in Greece. Those sly indicators that means ‘the season’ is nearly here. ‘The season’ is the catchall term for ‘tourist season/spring/summer/the good times’ here.

Like the proverbial bear, the villages are stretching and yawning; awakening from their winter’s hibernation. The pace of life in The Mani is picking up momentum as it welcomes spring and 'the season'.

Wild poppies are in full bloom

The wildflowers may have been the first signs of winter’s passing – the olive groves and road sides have been carpeted with them since we arrived in our Peloponnese paradise in mid-March. (Pssst -- I whisper this secret --  those tourists who come to Greece during its blistering hot summers and see only barren scorched landscapes have no idea of the lush countryside they are missing by not visiting in the spring.)

Our olive grove mid-March

Maybe we were so focused on those wild wonders that we didn’t pay attention to the budding blooms in our tended gardens that also are signs of the new season. All of a sudden it seems the geraniums have burst forth, the lilacs are a purple profusion, roses are budding rainbow colors. Wisteria, the poster child of Mediterranean gardens, drapes fences and buildings throughout the area.

Wisteria, the Mediterranean poster child

Of course, they all go by Greek names here (which we are trying to learn, siga, siga.)  But as Shakespeare would say, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and bottom line: they all mean winter has headed into the history books!

Signs of spring aren’t limited to the blooms in this part of Greece, there’s been an accompanying frenzy of activity the last couple of weeks as owners prepare their restaurants, tavernas, retail stores and beaches for what is hoped to be an onslaught of tourists.

Grooming Pantazi Beach

The area’s popular Pantazi Beach, – which we refer to as ‘ours’ because it is just below our hillside home - was getting a grooming this week– removing the accumulation of rocks dumped by winter storms so that beach goers will have even a better time here (pssst, another secret: it isn’t bad even with the rocks as locals will attest!).

Restaurant beach cabana in Kalamata readies for the season

Kalamata, (the big city an hour north of us) was sprucing up its long beachfront as well the last couple weeks. Upscale restaurants and coffee shops which line the beach road were already serving customers when we drove past early in the week. The Scout tap danced with our car’s brake pedal to avoid hitting a few of ‘the season’s’ waitstaff who dash back and forth across the two-lane road to serve the sun-and-sand seeking patrons seated on the beach. 

With the new freeway bypass you can avoid Kalamata's beach road completely - but why?

The real tip off to ‘the season’ is the crescendo of activity that comes with Easter Week.  This year the full moon puts all Christendom's Easter celebrations on the same Sunday; this coming Sunday.  Greek Easter, as long time readers here know, is one of the most magical time to be in this country.  It is celebrated over the course of several days beginning in earnest Friday morning, Good Friday, and ending Monday evening, Easter Monday.

Window display at the Shell Service Station - Kalamata

Even non-believers can’t help but be moved by the sound of church bells tolling out the call to worship and the sights of processionals through towns and villages during this holiest of weeks here.

We’ve seen an increase in the commercial side of the holiday this year with Easter baskets, bunnies and candies available to purchase from every type of store imaginable.

Even with bunnies and baskets, the traditional long decorated candles are still prominently displayed – in fact, there were some for sale at the neighboring village’s post office.

Those candles are lit during Saturday’s late night service as the Pappas, the priest announces to the gathered crowd in the squares near churches,“Cristos Anesti!” or Christ is Risen!

For more photos of that celebration, click here for a look at last year’s Easter in the village.

Seasonal Easter kiosks in the pedestrian square of Kalamata sell candles and jewelry

We had a glitch with the internet service in our area this week so I am a bit tardy in getting this seasonal update posted. But Good Friday seems as good a day as any to do so. It has begun with blue sky, sunshine and the promise of a beautiful weekend ahead.

Good Friday, our village church, 2016

Whether you are celebrating Easter, Passover,  the weekend or the arrival of a new season, we hope you are surrounded by the things that make you happy – we certainly are!  Next week I will give you that long promised update on the 'Road to Greek Residency'. I can tell you that our journey has come to a standstill for the most interesting of reasons – and one over which we have no control. We hope it doesn’t bring our journey to an end before we reach our destination. . .but that’s the story for next week. Hope you'll be back then!

The Stone House on the Hill

We thank you for the time you’ve spent with us and wish you and yours happy and safe travels. We are linking this week (internet permitting) with a number of other most interesting bloggers from around the world. Check them out, by clicking on the links below:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday –
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

In Greece ~ The Solitude of the Sea

“My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea..

And the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.

      -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Life is simply about the sea here. 

Sunset in Kardamyli, Greece

We use it to gauge the weather with phrases like ’i thalassa vrazier’ – 'the sea is boiling'. We celebrate festivals spawned from its bounty. It is a constant in everyday life; the comings and goings of fishermen, the wave action, the colors.

Even sunbeams striking the water’s surface or cloud formations dancing across it can cause us to pause our everyday activities for just a moment ~ we take a deep breath as if inhaling a restorative bit of the sea and its solitude.

Sunset on the Messinian Bay

Ships at Sea

We delight in watching freighters off in the distance, traveling to and from Kalamata. We focus on the fishermen in their tiny boats bouncing and bobbing to the wave action as they come and go from nearby harbors. 

Such seafaring has been a focus since, according to Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts, (named for their ship the Argo) sailed off in search of the Golden Fleece.  Some say his ship was the first ship to sail these Greek waters.

Kafenion in Agios Nikolaos overlooks the harbor - the fish scale hangs close by

It was the vistas of the sea that drew us to this area of the Greek Peloponnese where small fishing villages dot the coastlines at regular intervals. Now we are discovering its centuries-old rhythms and routines are providing new wonders to our everyday life.

Kitries boat harbor - Peloponnese

When we hear the early morning chug-a-chug of the small boat engine echo from the sea below our home we pause to watch it heading back to the harbor. Over dinner with friends – those also new to the area – our conversations stop as we pause to watch the fishermen coming or going, depending  on the season, the tides, the catch. It is as if each sighting is our first and certainly not one to be missed.

Fisherman returning to Kardamyli harbor

I still grab the camera wanting to capture a moment to relive again when life has taken us far away from this setting of sea and solitude.

Kardamyli Harbor - Peloponnese

We are, over time, learning the words of the sea. Kimas (key-mahs)  waves – not to be confused with kimas (key-MAS) minced meat (or hamburger).  One of our favorites, is Limeni, the harbor; perhaps because the word rolls off our tongues or because each harbor is so distinctly different, yet stunning.

Harbor in Agios Nikolaos village - The Mani

Although we don’t yet know their names, we are recognizing fishermen, by this our third year in the area. The Captain, as we call him, dressed in dark coveralls rides his bike to the harbor about 6 p.m – a routine so regular you can almost set your watch by it. Another, whose name we also don’t know, always makes us pause in the heat of the mid-day sun just to watch him organize his nets – an art, not just a skill, we've concluded.

Preparing the nets - Agios Nikolaos, Peloponnese

We imagine the weight of those nets that must be tossed into the sea and then retrieved by the lone fisherman, in what we speculate must be a very solitary life. On the other hand, perhaps it is the sea and its solitude that has captured his heart as it has ours.

Kitries harbor, Peloponnese

'Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman,’ he thought.

'But that was the thing that I was born for.'

--- Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and The Sea

The solitude of the sea

That’s life at The Stone House on the Hill this week.  We plan to do some sea gazing while we wait to resume our journey on the 'Road to Greek Residency'.  As soon as we do, we'll tell you where the adventure has taken us on this side of the Atlantic. Hope you are having a great week and that you’ll be back with us next week for another look at life in Greece.

Safe travels to you and yours and as always, thanks so much for the time you spend with us!

Linking this week with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

Greece ~ Where Life Gives You Lemons

In this part of the world, life does give you lemons ~ the good kind, of course! And when you think of  life in the Mediterranean doesn't images of olive and lemon groves come to mind?

Lemons growing at The Stone House on the Hill

Friends who know me well can attest to my daydreams of Mediterranean life and my love affair with olive and lemon trees. Over the years in our American Pacific Northwest life, I’ve purchased and managed to kill off more potted lemons and olives than I want to admit in my quest of having a taste – however small – of  Mediterranean life.

The Lemon Tree Patio - The Stone House on the Hill

Now here I am living in the Mediterranean surrounded by olive groves and have my own enormous lemon tree. It shades and shelters the patio named after it: the Lemon Tree (Wine)Patio. The scent of lemon blossoms are wafting in the garden and lemons are being grown at a pace with which we can’t keep up. . .roasted Greek lemon chicken and potatoes, lemon cake, lemon bread pudding, lemonade and lemon-water are all on the menu.

Lemon harvest - it is spring in Greece

We’ve stunned our local Greek and British friends when we tell them that a single – small – lemon back in the U.S. Northwest was selling for $1 at our local market when we left two weeks ago.  Here, where so many are grown, that we are having a tough time giving them away!

I’ve appreciated the suggestions from many of you on ways to use the lemons. I’ve got a growing file of lemon-flavored dishes and desserts to try. One friend suggested preserving them and taking them back to the States – nice thought but those agriculture-sniffing guard beagles at the airport would likely nail me even if they were in a jar - the smell is too aromatic to stay contained in a jar.

A friend told us the story of a Greek lady going to visit her son living in Florida who packed some fresh lemons in her suitcase for him. Not only was she ‘caught’ by the US authorities and her citrus gift confiscated but she was fined several hundred dollars.

We'll just have to 'preserve' them for use here and one of my favorite ways of doing that is to make Limoncello. . .

LIMONCELLO

The Messinian Bay from The Stone House on the Hill

Limoncello is a luscious liquor that can be consumed alone as either an aperitif or digestivo, or can  be splashed into champagne or served in tonic water, think L and T vs. G and T. Or it appears in recipes for main dish flavoring or as a dessert; it is a great topping on vanilla ice cream!

I’d wanted to tell you about the origins of Limoncello but, as 'frequently happens in these circumstances, the truth is vague and the hypothesis are many and interesting,’ according to one Limoncello source. For example:

This year's crop - lemons anyone?

One story tells that Limoncello was created at the beginning of the 1900’s in a small boarding house on the island of Capri where Maria Antonia Forace cared for a garden of lemon and oranges.  Her nephew, post-war, opened a bar nearby and served old ‘nonna’s’ recipe. Another version says fishermen and farmers used the liquor to keep warm since the Saracen invasion (the first half of the 8th Century).  Others say it was invented by friars inside a monastery to ‘delight themselves between prayers’. Another credits an innkeeper in Capri.

We are probably safe in saying its roots are somewhere in the Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri area of Italy. We know that Massimo Canale registered the trademark “Limoncello” in 1988. And we know it is easy to make at home. . .if you have the patience. . .

Here's the recipe I use:

Making Limoncello

What you will need:
* 15 –20 lemons – clean, unwaxed with the thicker and more unblemished the skin the better. They should give off that ‘lemon’ scent.
* 2 (750-ml) bottles of 80-proof vodka.  Some say that cheaper is better and others say to buy higher quality so it doesn’t freeze when you chill the liquor in the freezer. If you can find Everclear, us it instead of vodka because it is pure liquor and doesn’t have any sugar in it.
* 2 – 3 cups water
*2 – 4 cups sugar (a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water makes a classic simple syrup, but use more sugar if you want yours a little thicker or sweeter.  Less if you want it a bit tart like we prefer it.)
* For this recipe you also need a larger 2 – 3 litre) glass jar with sealed lid. Wash, rinse and sterilize it.  (Old-fashioned sun tea jars work well or olive jars as in our case in Greece).
*  You’ll also need some nice glass bottles in which to put your brew once it it done.

Zesting the lemons - step one

Step 1: Lemon in Alcohol
1. Wash and dry the lemons. Cut off any skin blemishes, spots, stems, and ends.
2. Remove the peel from the lemons with a knife, peeler or fine grater/zester. Avoid the bitter white pith.  If any white pith remains on the back of a peel scrape it off as it will make the Limoncello bitter.
3. Put the peels in a glass jar and add the vodka and/or Everclear, leaving at least two inches at the top.

My lemon peels

4. Leave the lemons to steep in the jar in a cool, dark place until the peels lose their bright color, at least two weeks.  (I have left mine for 2 – 3 months before adding the simple syrup, some recipes say leave it at this stage for a month and add simple syrup then let the mixture set for another month.) Every couple of weeks swirl the peels around in the jar to mix up the oils in the alcohol.

Step 2: Make the simple syrup and add it
1. Put the sugar and water in a saucepan, stir and slowly heat until it turns clear and all the sugar is dissolved completely. Let the syrup cool.
2. Put the cooled syrup in the jar with the lemons (if you used a small jar you may need to divide the batch into two at this step).
3. Put the jars back in the dark place for at least two weeks (here, is where some say to let it macerate longer).

Key ingredients of Limoncello

Step 3: Strain and bottle
1.  Strain out the lemon peels through a coffee filter or cheesecloth and pour the Limoncello into another contrainer. Squeeze to remove all the vodka and oils that you can from the peels before discarding.
2. Stir the liquid with a clean plastic or wooden spoon.
3. Put the liquor in the clean bottles, seal tightly and let it sit for at least a week before using. For the best flavor when drinking it straight, store it in your freezer. It shouldn’t freeze because of how much alcohol is in it. It is best served ice cold.
. 
That’s it from The Stone House on the Hill this week.  I started my batch of Limoncello the same day that we set out on The Road to Residency here in Greece. We met with our attorney and turned over our document packets (that you read about a few weeks ago) to her on Sunday morning and I started the Limoncello later in the afternoon.  Tick, tock the clock has started officially running for both. . .

Until next week, thanks for being with us and safe travels to you all.

Linking this week with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

The Stone House on the Hill ~ Living in a ‘DIY’ World

 

DIY – abbreviation for ‘Do It Yourself’

            -- Webster’s Dictionary

DIY or Do It Yourself projects are the focus of some of my favorite blogs, television shows, FB posts and publications.  Always inspiring, they provide step-by-step directions to living in a colorful, clever world that you’ve designed, painted, built, sewn, or otherwise created by yourself.

The Scout completes the clothes line

Long before it became the catch-phrase for creativity, Do It Yourself, was a way of life in the rural area of Greece where we make our part-time expat home. And it continues to be the way repairs and projects are completed even now in our part of the Greek Peloponnese.

To be honest, it has tested the skills and abilities of these two city-slickers from suburban America, each of whom are more comfortable and confident at a computer keyboard than brandishing a hammer or screwdriver.

Dozens of parts and directions in Greek

In the States, we have been known to pay a wee bit extra to get items assembled before delivery or to hire a handyman to make repairs or changes. While we still hire help for many of the projects we’ve undertaken in Greece there is a remarkable (for us anyway!) number of things we’ve accomplished by DIY. 

By the way, ‘It’s Greek to me” is favorite phrase we use when directions for the DIY are written in Greek. Thank goodness for illustrations: we’ve often resorted to matching parts and screw sizes to the drawings and then guess at what we are to do with them. 

The Stone House on the Hill - the Mani, Greek Peloponnese

Slowly, slowly, or siga, siga as they say in Greek we’ve strung a clothesline, assembled coat racks, and constructed book and storage shelves. Each completed project bolstered – a wee bit --our DIY self confidence!  Just enough that by last fall we were dreaming up things we could DIY at our Stone House on the Hill:

Chalk painting the chest of drawers - DIY project

Our first project – such a tiny step for most DIY folks but a giant leap for us -- required finding a paint store in Kalamata (our big city an hour north), then explaining we wanted to purchase craft ‘chalk’ paint, wax to finish the project and the tools to apply both.  (Keep in mind neither of us had ever ‘done’ chalk painting but I’d been insistent  we do it – after reading those darn inspirational DIY home decorating blogs. . .) 

“You know, you create your own hell.”  --Warren 'Dean' Starr 

While we still had the painting bug --  and upon discovering they make a paint for bathroom grout, we tackled our guest bathroom.  A dark-colored gray grout had apparently been popular (because it didn’t show the dirt) when our 10-year-old house was built. From ceiling to floor it was used, making the room look, well. . ., dirty.

Painting the grout white - a DIY of tortuous, tedious measure

If we each painted, we reasoned, we could probably change that room in a day. Once started we couldn’t change our minds either. So with teeny-tiny brushes and cloths to wipe the excess, we set forth. What. A. Joke. Hours and hours, days later, our DIY was done.  Happy with the end result, but vowing never to do that again!  

“Life is trying things to see if they work.”

— Ray Bradbury

 

So how much stone did we order anyway?

Having spent a week of gloriously beautiful fall weather indoors on that tedious project we headed outside for the next.  We had a vision for our garden area, so we set to work.  You might say that we had rocks in our heads, both literally and figuratively, on this one!

First step, hauling the stone down the steps

We ordered brown gravel which we would use to create new garden cover at the front of the house, to the side, and in parts of the upper garden.  Darn, those Pinterest photos of Mediterranean gardens!! First task, hauling the gravel from the bags in our parking area, down the stairs and to the gardens. (If you are wondering, we used plastic pails and made hundreds of trips up and down those stairs – a better workout than going to the gym!)

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge
-- Robert Fulghum

The 'before' garden DIY project photos

We added a new Greek word: kopiastiki, to our vocabulary. It means ‘backbreaking’.  Finally, we accomplished what we had set out to do:

Garden in front of The Stone House on the Hill

From the front of the house down into the grove. . .

Olive grove terrace garden - The Stone House on the Hill 

  To the side garden. . .

Our vegetable garden - The Stone House on the Hill 

And in the upper garden. . .

We added a winding pathway through the upper garden

“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte 

Before we returned this spring we told ourselves  that this stay we’d get out and do some hiking on those wonderful old trails that still link the villages scattered about our hillsides. We’d go to the beach – something we have yet to do. We ordered books that we’ve been wanting to read. But then I saw a cute little strawberry planter on FB that you could make from a laundry basket. . .it just required a few supplies.  Then a video came across for making concrete plant stands and stools which could be so cute . . .

So what will we be up to this spring at our Stone House on the Hill? Not sure yet.  But we do hope you’ll be with us again next week as we settle into life in Greece. And if you are in the neighborhood in real life, stop by. There’s always time for a visit!  As always, thanks for the time you spend with us at TravelnWrite ~ Safe travels to you and yours.

Linking this week with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

Road to Greek Residency: Next stop – Olympia, WA

The last couple of weeks our travels on the U.S. stretch of the Road Trip to Greek Residency have felt a bit like we were contestants on some reality television show. We’ve raced to gather documents and then raced to destinations to have them reviewed. We’ve questioned ourselves – and our sanity – at each milepost along the way.

On the flip side, we’ve learned much. We’ll be armed with cocktail party conversation trivia for years to come. For example, we can now tell you about the 1961 Hague Convention. ‘The what?’ you are probably asking yourselves.

Well, let me tell you. . .

I was eight and The Scout 12, when the convention took place. We’d heard of it during our ensuing 60 years,but had no reason to care about what took place there. That is until this ‘road to residency’ brought us up close and personal with it.

Roadway in the Greek Peloponnese

It was the outcome of that convention that dictated our next stop on our somewhat twisting, turning ‘road to residency’ in Greece.

The Stone House on the Hill - The Mani, Greece

Recap for those just tuning in: We’ve decided that with two years of full-time home ownership and part-time occupancy in the Greek Peloponnese under our belts, we’re ready to apply for residency permits. The permits, similar to the U.S. ‘green cards’ grant residency and eliminates the inflexible 90-day in and 90-day out rule that applies to tourists.

Obtaining the residency permit requires several steps involving strict vetting of documents and interviews both in the United States and again after arriving in Greece. The documents presented must be current, i.e. the most recent bank account statements and such. So that means getting them issued as close to your departure to Greece as possible, while giving yourself time to pass all the required mileposts on the U.S. segment of the road trip.

While I sorted documents, The Scout organized the travel.

With the issuance of an ‘entry visa’ by the Greek Consulate in San Francisco last week, the real time clock started ticking. We’ve got a year in which we can apply for and hopefully be granted residency permit in Greece.

Before setting out for Greece, we had one more required trip in the United States. 

And that brings us back to The Hague Convention. . .

That convention: resulted in the creation of apostilles – not to be mistaken for apostles!



What? Never heard of them? As I said, we hadn’t either. . .

Preparing our packets for vetting - our life spread out before us in other words

’

‘Apostille is the documentary device by which a government department authenticates a document as genuine, thereby legalizing it for use in another member country under the terms laid out in 1961. Once a document has been ‘Apostilled’, thereby providing official government authentication of the signatures and stamps appearing on it, it is automatically deemed legalized for use in another member country.’

-- Greek Consulate web site

Some 82 countries – from Albania to Zambia -- participated in that Convention in 1961, which was called "Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents" and later known as the "Hague Apostille Convention".

Next stop:  Olympia, Washington

Before immigration officials in Greece will review those same documents we presented in San Francisco we needed to get them apostilled. Each document must carry our government’s seal of approval before they will be considered legal documents in that country.

The Secretary of State issues apostilles – and only on documents that first have been notarized. Next stop on the road trip, our state capital, in search of the apostilles.

Interstate 5 - between Seattle and Tacoma - Washington State

This segment of the road trip was undertaken yesterday -  one of the wettest, nastiest days in recorded history in the Pacific Northwest. It was a bleak 120+-mile day trip to our state capital, Olympia, Washington and back.

Olympia, Washington

In fairness though, on a sunny day Olympia is a beautiful city. From it you can see our state’s stunning Olympic Mountain Range. It was that mountain range on the region known as Olympic Peninsula for which the city was named. 

That mountain range got its name back in 1788 when a British mariner is said to have been so struck by them that he claimed they would be a perfect dwelling place for Greek gods. (Guess there is a tie-in to Greece after all.)

Subsequently, the state capital was named for them.

Original Washington State capitol building built 1892

Olympia, a city of 40,000+, swells when our Legislature is in session. However the bad weather kept traffic to a minimum and we were able to get documents notarized and apostilled in a few hours time.

An Apostille is required for documents in the immigration process

As we handed our stack of notarized documents to the staff member at the Secretary of State’s office, explaining they were for a Greek residency permit, she flipped through them and said, “Boy, they want to know everything don’t they?”

Ready for the next segment in Greece

‘Yes, they do!,”  we replied, feeling a bit better at the thought someone else had noticed the quantity of information we’d gathered.

A short while later 18 documents had been apostilled at a cost of $15 per document, plus $50 for in-person service. Notarizing those documents had cost $125.

Our application packets are now official and ready to be presented to Greek authorities. We have the required entry visa pasted in our passports. If this were a reality show, we’d have made it past the first two rounds and are ready to enter the finalist challenge in Greece this spring.

While we are off doing that, you might want to keep Olympia in mind as a summer travel destination.

There are guided tours of the Capital Campus, and other guided tours of the town and campus offered by Oly WAlks; there's the Olympic Flight Museum, the State Capital Museum and the Hands-on Children's Museum. And a stop at their Farmer’s Market is a must!


Thanks much for being with us – you continue to be a great cheer and rally squad. Your words of encouragement have given us confidence. And the welcome messages from our Greek friends have made the effort even more worthwhile.  As always we appreciate the time you spend with us. 

We all need a break from this road trip so next week I'll give you a laugh or two as I tel
l you about these two city slickers and their DIY projects in Greece. Hope you’ll be back with us!
Wishes for safe travels to you and yours ~

Linking up this week with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration