Together Again

Mother went on a little journey yesterday for her final reunion. Contrary to expectations, it was a fine day so those present enjoyed warm or even hot weather: in total contrast to the rain and mud back in January. Mo is now settled alongside Jim in his woodland retreat. There was a short ceremony prepared and presented by Eleanor with musical accompaniment by members of the Austin Band.

Our day began with the Early Walk by moonlight. The moon is overhead so I don’t even need my torch to see where I’m going as I crossed the field. There was little life about except for Kostas who’d come to collect salt and who passed us as we were leaving and returning. Otherwise, the walk was uneventful.

We returned to the van where I Elevated my brain before setting off for a windy ride over Panorama and up to the top of the mountain. The wind had changed direction a little so was actually pushing me up one part of the climb. The corner near the top was still tricky where the wind funnels through a more enclosed space where the road curves.

There was a curious object in the sea:

I continued my route past EKO, the ferry had left and the ‘puppies’ were being fed so I thought one visitor would be enough. I stopped at Petrakis for some groceries mostly fruit and vegetables. On my last visit, Nikos, probably not his real name as he’s Albanian, was celebrating his birthday or name day, so was handing out goodies to his favourites. He opened a sizeable box containing individually wrapped cakes from the local bakery. I tried to choose something I hoped would be slightly less loaded with sugar but inevitably failed. I rode hard on the way back to Grammeno in an attempt to burn up some of the sugar.

This visit was cake-free but I loaded up with grapes and some attractive looking plums and some bananas. I’ve not seen apricots recently and figs are around 10E each and not that great to eat. The ones picked straight from the tree are freer and a lot nicer.

I went back to Grammeno as I felt it was too windy for swimming as the sea from Alonaki had loads of lumps in it. The dogs were pleased I returned earlier so would get fed sooner.

A phone call from Maria asking me to come to reception interrupted my morning repose. A woman needed to have a video conference with the Netherlands so I set up her laptop to use the faster Internet connection. I spent the next hour or so hanging around at the reception. Maria was complaining about neck ache which was unsurprising as her neck was more like a lump of stone than anything associated with a human being. She scuttled off to take Georgia’s mother to the supermarket leaving Michael to hold the fort. Things are much quieter now so it’s not too demanding. Bona had me add her photo to her Viber profile so now we can gaze upon her loveliness. I finally extracted myself after an hour or so to return to the dogs.

The wind had now dropped so I gave swimming from Alonaki serious consideration before finally heading off to bob around in the sea for a while. There was still some wind from the northeast so the sea was a little lumpy. This had not put off many swimmers as there were loads of people enjoying the water. The dogs remained quiet until I returned to get a shower and dry off.

Shortly after, I received an message to say that Ingo, Sylvia and Calliope had arrived and set up their tent by the beach. I quickly put on some doggy rice then went down to welcome them and have a chat. Other than a brief visit to quieten the dogs and administer a couple of collars, I stayed with them until sunset. They went for something to eat and I fed the dogs.

By this time, it was getting dark so I quickly prepared something for myself to eat.