Ecofarmer

re-settled in Hungary from Rochdale, Lancs, England, and into a little village, doing a bit of greenish farming hoping for a quiet life... but stuff just happens...

Monday, November 30, 2015

Taigetos


so, the sun came out, and it was a bit of a chilly 10C start after some stormy days, and lots of rain that filled the Kalamata riverbed running like mad into the sea, as we observed with Marta, as we had another sleep-over in there. We celebrated her bday with lots of walks and lots of fishes eaten in nice places as well as the new discovery of spinach-black-eye-pea dish. But today was a spectecular discovery, when we went to our usual sitting out place at the La mare cafe terrace - the Taigatos! We haven't even noticed it was there - on bad days it was joined in colour with the clouds, on good ones it just disappeared in the mist, with all the Mani-side. But today - it was all there with its majestic 2540m - and sparkling snow top!! We couldn't stop looking at it from about 9:30 we were sitting there till about 2pm. Meanwhile it was St Andrew's day here aka Aghios Andreas, a variety of village bĂșcsĂș, though it only involved a few hours of praying with 4 coaches of locals and nearby villages' people, including all the schoolchildren. We quickly got bored and walk down to the cafe, but the very obliging crowd followed us down a bit later lead by the disappointingly plain black robed popa, unlike in Leonidio, where there were golden vestments by the dozen. Still, they walked down to the harbour just next to our cafe, probably blessed the sea or something. Then our terrace suddenly filled up with large and noisy family groups, with the kids running about in the harbour and on the beach, playing football and volleyball while eating snacks bought in the bakery. I wonder if they get e school holiday for all the saints of these tiny villages... Very cheerful affair. I put the photos on tomorrow. We have wifi now in the villa, but only 5giga/month, so keep to the simple things here, do photo and videostuff in the cafe. just one for taster

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Methoni daytrip

so we couldn't figure out local bus to Methoni, only a very long way round, and a local taxi driver wanted too much money, so we decided to go to Koroni and try to get a taxi from there, and a short negotiation got us a round trip for 50 euros, (instead 80!) with 4 hours to look at the magnificent venetian-cum-turkish castle, a nice meal of salad, fried cukkinis and giant prawn souflaki, a meander about the old town, sitting with coffee/tea - no cake this time. We decided to ask nice taxi man to drive us back to A Andreas for an extra 10 evros and got an adventurous shortcut, starting with wading through a river still in Methoni, that just started to grow due to the outbursting storm. Got us home in a surprisingly 30min and without feeling sick in those tiny curvy mountain roads, going through surprised little places. Olive harvest is going on everywhere. The photos show a few from Last visit in Koroni, the rest is Methoni. Another rather pleasurable day. It was nice to be back for the total duration of a thundersome and hail-bothered tempest, in a bit, after home-made cauliflower soup we might venture out to blog and do other all-important interneting.

Friday, November 20, 2015

more discoveries in the Peleponese


so we had Pete and Bouly and now we have Marta, and it is still rather marvellous. We found the sanctuary of Apollo, well hidden behind an everyday farmhouse here in A Andreos. We were in Koroni twice now, and yesterday Rosemarie took 3 of us to Pylos - breath taking place, the views, the colours, the Bizantian castle. I had an overnight stay in Kalamata, we climbed to the more romantic ruins of the castle there and the old town, lots of walks and a fish pikilia (= various bites) included 3 types of kalamari, small fish, prawns, very nice if a bit messy. While Alan and Pete found the best eating place so far, in Logga, which is an easy 2km walk. Managed more swims. Finished my Futurelearn course on Logical and Critical thinking, enjoyed it a lot, had nice arguments and even learned a few things about philosophy and stuff. Still doing Gravity and black holes, and again, I don't understand everything, but some stuff I managed to comprehend that I haven't before. sorry. photos are a mixture of Koroni and Pylos and Kalamata, including the early morning ones taken from the hotel room with merry and noisy swimmers visible.