No, you never see it comin', always wind up wonderin' where it went
Only time will tell if it was time well spent
It's another revelation, celebrating what I should have done
With these souvenirs of my trip around the sun
Only time will tell if it was time well spent
It's another revelation, celebrating what I should have done
With these souvenirs of my trip around the sun
-- Jimmy Buffett, lyrics, Trip Around the Sun
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| Our village, Agios Nikolaos |
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| The Stone House on the Hill |
(For regulars here, I promise more tales of our Arabian nights will be forthcoming as I am feeling a bit like Sheherazade with more from our Arabian and Indian travels than I’ll ever be able to tell you. But as the year comes to a close it seems a time to reflect on this trip around the sun of ours and life’s souvenirs we’ve gathered along the way.)
Winter “Wonder” land
Honestly, I’m not sure if I’d have bet money we’d make it as full-time ex pats at this time last year. |
| Stormy seas, stormy skies, stormy day in Agios Nikolaos |
We moved into full-time ex pat life just weeks before the winter storms arrived and what a winter it was! Weekly, it seemed during the month of December, the wind whipped down the gorges of the Taygetos Mountains, howling and shrieking; a wind strong enough to knock over potted plants while rain came down in the proverbial buckets.
At the time, if we were honest, we’d have to say we wondered what had sounded so appealing about this ‘living differently in Greece’ idea. . .
For a day, sometimes two or three we’d hunker down to avoid the nasty weather in our Stone House on the Hill even though it was dark and cold thanks to power outages caused by blown transformers or downed power lines.Even with a roaring fire in the fireplace and candles scattered about, let me tell you, you can start going stir crazy in cold, dark houses.
‘It isn’t a normal winter,’ the locals would say.
‘Haven’t had power outages like this for a decade,’ long-time ex pats would say.
‘This is driving us nuts!’ we would say.
In January – as you regulars here know – we set off for our Hawaiian timeshare life and had I not had my cats awaiting my return I might not have come back and doubt if The Scout would have resisted.
Springtime Came Early
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| Kalderimi near our home in the Peloponnese |
By mid-February though we were reminded that most of the time our area – best known for the groves of Kalamata olives that carpet the countryside here – is downright breath-taking in the spring and luckily spring comes early!
The countryside was covered in blooms and you may recall I wrote about taking outings on the ancient kalderimi, cobble-stoned roads that were built decades ago for hooved animals that linked the villages. (They lace the countryside here and are most popular with hikers and outdoor enthusiasts., If you are considering a visit, you might want to time it to see the springtime blooms and experience these roads less traveled. )
Spring was also the time we began in earnest planting flowers and vegetables in our garden. I had visions of the harvests I would have. . .The sunflowers towered over me. I built bamboo frames (as they do here) for the promising tomato plants. Strawberries were going to be plentiful.
I would make jam.
I’d probably have to freeze some of the tomatoes.
I’d give away potatoes.
Yes, the promise of spring. . .
And then Came Summer
And with it the realities of that Mediterranean sun. . .these photos taken in July tell the garden story. No amount of watering (morning and night) nor the addition of shade (using beach umbrellas) could save the garden. My harvest was humbling (it’s okay, you can laugh as even I can laugh now) and is shown in the bottom photo – a few garlic, tomatoes, almonds, and potatoes. |
| Summer realities in the garden |
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| Reality set in back in August |
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| Hot time in the summer in the villages |
Autumn’s Arrival – how quickly it came
By this point in our grand adventure of living differently, we’d given up the idea of being homeless in America. We’d made it for almost a year. We realized that boomer-aged people who have money in financial institutions and medical care providers in the US, and well, who have to deal with the government (Social Security and Medicare) really need a residential address in the U.S. Greek addresses (which we don’t even have) and Greek phone numbers just don’t fit in the forms (we were square pegs trying to fit round holes). |
| Another adventure in living: Manson, Washington State |
Winter Comes Again
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| December 28, 2018 Stone House on the Hill |
Our trip around the sun has been filled with making new friends and creating ‘our world’ here, continuing to learn the nuances of a new culture, struggling to learn a Greek word here and there and planning for ‘next year’.
We will be reapplying for our resident permits in the spring and if granted we can continue on as full-time residents for another three years.
And you know? I think we just may do that!
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| A toast to you on solstice in Abu Dhabi at The Grand Canal |
Hope to see you back here next week and bring some friends along with you!!
Linking this week with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Communal Global
