Week 6 in Greece

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Less than 10 days before Christmas. The supermarkets have stocked all the Xmas Decorations and Xmas goodies . I put up some Christmas Decorations in the house and also made a Christmas Laurel for the front gate, using some cyprus branches and Christmas baubles. Mama had some friends over for coffee this morning and had bought some biscuits that were suitable for people fasting before Christmas.( no meat, eggs, milk) This household is not undertaking such fasting this year. We visited Michael's friend for his name day last week and he has a steel construction factory and he is finding things difficult economically with reduced orders. We go to the local street markets and buy the fruit and vegetables there, but I guess the supermarket is where the money goes. Dairy products such as milk ( $5 Aust/n for 2 litres of fresh milk) UHT milk is cheaper. However transport seems very reasonable. Michael looked up the train ticket to Florina, the town where he was born and it is 4 Euro for the 3 hour train trip. But I think families must be finding it a bit tough. We visited some friends on Sunday night and their house is very close to the home Stadium of ARIS, one of the local Salonika soccer teams. Their apartment is on the 6th floor so could see all the flares and hear the crowds cheering, although it was also on TV.
Gwen's Greek is improving I think, and we make sure we are ready for our local week night TV soapy.
(I don't feel guilty watching it, as I feel I can justify the one hour episodes)
I haven't taken many photos this week. Alot of the glass doors of the shops have been decorated with Christmas ribbons,etc and look lovely. I have included a simple example in the photo display. There is a photo of the farming land near Perea. We went there today for a big walk and got very muddy shoes from the dirt roads we walked on. A legacy from the down pour we had earlier in the week.

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Photos

Xmas Wreath
I made this for the Front Gate to celebrate the festive season.

Shop Door with Xmas Ribbon
A simple example of the glass shop doors with decorative Xmas ribbbons.

Perea Ship Decorations
Xmas decorations depicting a ship in Perea by the local council.

Perea Valley Panorama
This panorama view of Perea Valley is about a half an hour walk from Mama's house.

Michael working in the garden
Michael replanting some vegetables seedlings

Coloured Gourds
An alternative to the blue coloured gourds I had included in an earlier blog

Comments

[elizabeth jans]

How big is the garden.
Dear Gwen and Mike, I am at Sandra's for tea tonight and we are on the computer looking at your photo's. Thankyou for your letter. I was wondering how big Mama's yard is? It all looks lovely.Love Elizabeth.