Great In Greece

Gobble gobble!

We're celebrating Thanksgiving over here in Greece, you betcha!  BUT, not today, avrio.  That means tomorrow and you hear that alot.  So it's so fitting that we are here in Greece and saying that we'll be celebrating the famous Thursday Holiday ....on Friday, here in Methoni.  Hope all you readers out there are having a great time and have a lot be thankful for!  We are thankful for having a healthy family and great friends and all that past has taught us.  The little one added he's thankful for his toys and because I was smiling he added, and to have a very very very very nice mumma.  What a kid. Then I handed him 10 bucks.  Just kidding!

I'll post a picture of tomorrow's events for you all to see. 

We've been having wonderful weather.  What does that mean?  It's fun to watch!  Our house sits on top of a hill and we watch the storms roll in.  First the wind kicks up, then the clouds come, then the sideways rain, maybe some hail, but then while it's raining, we can also see the sun rays fighting through the clouds and sure enough by the end of the day, the sun has won.  After all, this is Greece! 

We woke up this morning to see Methoni under a rainbow!

I still can't get over the fact that we actually own an olive orchard.  I read Carol Drinkwater's book, An Olive Orchard, years ago.  She was living in Cannes.  We weren't too far, but the thought of working an olive orchard was.  Now we're in Greece and we're doing just that. Well it's certainly not our cash cow.  But we'll never have to buy olive oil again for our own consumption.  We had over 173 kilos of pure extra virgin olive oil pressed last night, straight from our olive orchard.  Nothing mixed in.  All the fruit from our trees.  Now here in Greece there is a law, that if you sell your land and it has olives on it, and you owned the land for the most part of the year, the trees are still yours to pick.  Luckily, the guy who sold us the 15 stremma wasn't interested in pressing.  So we picked them ourselves, well, we had them picked, and pressed them, and had a celebration last night at the olive mill.  We had our oil scooped up and drizzled over toast with a squirt of lemon and some fresh herbs.  YUMMMMY!  What a treat!  We took home a huge jug of it and will have the rest bottled.  I am now happy to be taking on the task of designing a label and a catchy name.  Any ideas?

OUCH!!!  I went riding Thursday with my friend Sula.  We stayed in the corral, and her husband Alex, who owns the barn where the little one takes riding lessons, was there.  He ended up giving us a lesson.  Sula was much more advanced.  I had to go back to basics.  It felt funny keeping my feet back and posting.  I hardly ever used a saddle on Cricket, my old horse from when I was young.  We'd ride bareback all day with no problem.  Alex doesn't think riding without a saddle is good for the horse.  My husband retorted when I told him this, then what were all those Indians doing?  I don't think it's bad for the horse to go bareback.  Sure if you flop all over a horse bareback or in a saddle it's bad, but we didn't flop around, we stuck to them.  Anyway,  I wasn't really sure I was going to trot.  I just wanted to get back up on a horse and see if I still loved that feeling.  I do.  But I sure don't think posting is up my alley anymore.  Boy did we trot, and trot and trot.  And now I'm thinking NOT, not and not ever again!  ha ha 

But it was fun!  And I'm glad I did it.  (It's just my legs that hate me now)

They have named their house Paradise.  And it's a fitting name.  And not only is the house paradise, but this vast view and everything in it.  With thier telescope that they left attached to the fence here, we can see all the way down to the beach and even can see the bathing suit colors!!!  Amazing!  It's truly paradise.

During one of our last mornings in Kamaria, I looked out my window over the kitchen sink and saw this, grabbed my camera and low and behold, this is what I got!  No kidding!  What a beauty!

Notice I said little instead of a lot, as the song goes.  The Atlantic grocery store has taken a shelf and cleared it for Christmas goods.  Nothing yet, but it's cleared and ready for them.  AND our son has dug out the christmas videos and has been playing them like crazy since we've moved in here.  So, although I'm sitting here in my shorts and barefeet, and the windows are all open and I'm listening to the birds and the occassional  power saw, cutting down Olive Tree branches, I do feel a bit christmassy.  It certainly helps to know that we have our tickets home for the holidays already!  Whew!!!  Yipeeeeee!!!

Below is a shot I took this morning from our terrace with my zoom lens on. 

That is not the best picture...actually the sky was a bit overcast that day, but it's sunny again today.  The little one didn't go but we met them afterward at the dock and then he and I played frisbee on the beach. 

Now the boat is in our front yard here in Tapia.  It will rest here all winter, although, I think next winter we'll just leave it in.  There are so many nice days here with sun and no wind.  today I'm in shorts and the little one and I were playing tennis all morning in Finikounda. 

He absolutly lives in this costume and I have to literally peel it off him to get it in the wash.  Batman is what he wears when the Power Ranger Blue is in the wash.  His new superman costume is still just a bit too big, but I'm sure when it fits this power ranger suit will be filled with holes.  Hey how funny to say filled with holes, when a hole is actually the opposite of a fill.  has anyone ever thought of how absurd that comment is...filled with holes!  HA.