Week 17 in Greece

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Mama has about 14 chooks and 2 roosters. Michael had a heart to heart chat with the little cockerel- his comb is bashed around where the old rooster chases him. No wonder he seems always on edge. If you get the bamboo cane out, the older rooster behaves himself. Michael was whistling so the young rooster would come to the edge of the chook pen netting. Kind of cute.
On Sunday 8th March George comes around 8.30am and said he would take us and Mama to Halkidiki. So we left around 9.30 and drove to a monastery church which was after Vasiliki. I could not get over the greenness of the countryside. Just beautiful. Also the Greek Government is initiating a national internet grid and you could see that in progress with the cables being laid next to the road. There was a lovely stone bridge that went over the river which flowed over the road (Probably just in winter time). Mama picked a small branch of Wattle in bloom on our trip. Later when I asked the lady at the bakery what her name was, she said Mimosa, which is the Greek name for wattle. We went to Stavros, Stratonia, Olympiada, Asprovolta and took the Egnatia Road home back to Salonika on which is a National Highway which goes from a port opposite Italy to Turkey. It was an ancient silk route built 146-120 BC and named after a Roman General called Egnatius and was built for military use, but later became a commercial road.
We bought some Mussels just before Astrovolta. Gerakina, Aleka’s sister in law had got up at 3.30 am to cook lots of things for her husband Thodora’s Name Day.( which was 7th March) She had cooked pastitsio, stuffed calamari, salad, red pepper salad, lettuce salad, cooked little sardines and prawns, potatoes cooked in the oven and finally a chocolate mouse and biscuit dessert. 14 people in all enjoying the food,drink,dancing and atmosphere.
They live not too far from where the PAOK soccer ground is and PAOK, a Salonika Soccer team, was playing an Athens team and there is usually trouble, as the patrons go on a drinking spree from 3pm till match starts at 7pm and also the referees favour Athens teams. You could hear the roar of the crowds from their balcony. It ended up being a draw.
We go over to the neighbour Kiria Maria in the afternoon for the 6 month remembrance of her husband when he died. I sat next to Ketty, our next door neighbour and Michael said prior to going, to take the lead from Ketty. I had a Greek coffee and they had a plate of pita and koularaki for each person. About 20 people there at their house. Mama was not well enough to go. Later that evening, Aleka gave Mama a massage with oil and alcohol mixed together- on her chest, back and legs. Wed 11th March, George, Michael’s brother drove 3 other truck drivers to a Greek port near Italy on the west cost of Greece to collect 3 new prime movers coming from Germany; they will pull the petrol tankers. I think Michael would have like to have gone too. He asked George why didn’t he drive the boss’ car, but George said it is an expensive 4 wheel drive and he would have been on edge the whole time. So he drove his own car.-took 4.5 hours, whereas in the past, the same trip without the 6 lane highway, would have taken 9 hours.
The blind mice(moles) have devoured some more lettuces in the garden. You can tell where they have been from the mould of dirt they leave on the surface and also the dying plants, as they eat the roots. Michael has been pushing a metal spike down into the soil near where they have left their tell tale mould of dirt. Nothing you can do about them. Nicholas, our son, made us laugh when he said did they have white canes and kidnap the lettuces in the night.

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Photos

Michael and the little rooster
Michael having a few quiet words with the little rooster

Looking down on Stratonia
There was a gold mining venture operating up to four years ago here near the beach at Stratonia

People walking back from church
Megali Panagia had a lovely church and people were walking home as we were driving through the town.

Street Scene
One of the towns we passed through on our little Halkidiki trip

Gwen drinking from a fesh spring
Near the town of Megali Panagia was this lovely fresh water spring.

Stone bridge near Megali Panagia
This was where the river ran over the road and the stone bridge was very picturesque.

Inside the Monastery Church
This was the scene at the Monastery Church at Megali Panagia where we stopped to light some candles

The men having meze
Mama and the men having meze ( little nibbles) prior to the main meal at Thodera's Name Day

Thodera's Relatives
Yirrakena and her sister Georgiou and their children at Thodera's Name Day

Dancing at Name Day
Dancing was the order of the day.

Thodera's Name Day
Celebrating Thodera's Name Day with family and friends

Michael cleaning the mussels
The fresh mussels we bought at Asprovolta took some time to clean, but were delicious with rice.