Clean Monday, Fine (-ish) Art and Phonology

 Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday (shrove apparently meaning ‘to confess’) and Clean Monday are gone and done so we’ve eaten the special foods that lead us gently into the period of Lent.  We were invited to sit at our neighbours’ generous table of beans, potato salad, octopus, pease-pudding, stuffed vine-leaves, cuttle-fish, taramas, cabbage salad, pickled tomatoes,  to name only some – all absolutely delicious but ultimately not so gentle on the digestive system when, like me, you insist on sampling everything. 

Art classes continue and I continue to enjoy them. The strange thing is that I feel less confident about it than I did this time last year.  Then I was just beginning with oils, and didn’t feel capable of doing much at all. So any kind of vague facsimile produced was well-nigh joy-causing. Also what we drew and painted was wisely selected by our teacher who was well aware of our capabilities …. and limitations. 

 Now we choose our own subject matter, blithely unaware of the difficulties it may entail. In addition, every now and then I take on a project in the medium of water-colour which I’m finding a wee bit hard to handle but I’m determined to improve on. So I don’t get that sense of progress that I had last year and have more of a sense of frustration: knowing where I want to go but being aware of how remote these goals still are.

However, just to keep you posted with my process – rather than progress! – here are some of my latest endeavours.

My water-colour rose looked very washed-out so I tentatively tried a little splash of red which brightened things up and then  I decided that a general red wash would bring the flower more to life. I like the dew drops! 

 

                                                                                           

Next, in water-mixable oils, is my little, Shetland puffin – or something mildly resembling one. I’ve just discovered that these strange birds actually nest in crevices in the rocks or in little burrows which they hollow out themselves. 

                                                              

In one of our conversations in class, someone mentioned the French Post-Impressionist painter, famous for his Polynesian subjects but she couldn’t remember his name. There ensued a silence of brain-racking until, “Gaugin’ said I, exultant that the grey matter could still retrieve. I pronounced the final syllable as in ‘gratin’ only to be ‘corrected’ as my classmates wanted it rendered ‘go-gen’ both hard gs and with final syllable stress. Some have difficulty in producing this nasal sound: even Satcho in “La Vie En Rose’ pronounces ‘en’ as in ‘pen’.  

There can be an intrusive yod – a ‘y’ sound – brought into English words where they don’t exist: in Greece the name Andrew is often pronounced ‘Andriew’ as in ‘view’.

 The omission of the yod can also be problematic: a Slovenian friend was enthusing about a film she’d seen: ‘Two Doors’ as I took it to be. In this case, the omission of the necessary yod in the first syllable together with erroneous final stress had rendered Tudors unrecognisable for me.

 A borrowed phrase that eluded me thanks to that ubiquitous and erroneous final-syllable stress placement was ‘Sthroo’, a consonant cluster  repeated with speaker-surprise that I didn’t recognize it. Asking for an alternative expression, I was given the Greek word ‘diaphanous’  - ah! What they were saying was ‘see through’!

The short /I/ vowel as in bin, is often heard and pronounced as the longer /i/ as in bean. Add to this the fact that /S/ as in she is often heard and rendered as /s/, its closest equivalent as in see, and we have complications. 

Those pictures below indicate some of those: the seaside scene with a very young Neve, my brother and his wife’s lovely doggie, Jessie, and the tasty, sweet vegetable would all be pronounced as /bits/, confusing beach, bitch and beets……and we may as well throw in  bits, beats and beech as well !!

 

                                                          

In Greek the written consonant combination /gk/ usually produces the oral ‘g’ as in go, while the written /gg/ combination produces  ‘ng’ as in ring, depending on word position and sound environment, the sound ‘nk’ can also be produced. 

That is why the dear and recently-departed Demis Roussos, in one of his many, beautiful recordings, exhorts his audience to ‘Sink alonk with me’  and the actress, Trudie Styler, is said to be married to that famous singer/song-writer …..Stink!

What Riles Me, Sartorial Style, Smelly Thursday and Staying Warm.

Someone who riles me is the TV news presenter on Sky channel, Konstantinos Bogdanos. His style of presentation is over-ebullient : he constantly buzzes and hops about on-screen, waving sheaves of paper, interrupting his own colleagues, his exuberance detracting from the topic under discussion. He just has to put in his pennyworth – so much for objective reportage – as if we, the audience, are incapable of arriving at our own positions under our own steam. Clearly no one wants members of the press to be vulnerable to violence, but when I heard he had been attacked in the street, I kind of understood what may partly have led to negative emotions running that high.

Talking of interrupting, someone else who irked me was the BBC interviewer, Emily Maitlis. When interacting – could we call it interviewing? – with Yianis Varoufakis, she clearly showed she belonged to the Jeremy Paxman stable of aggressive, intimidating and condescending behaviour. Is that supposed to be seen as ‘good television’?  But he was up to dealing with her – YES!!

Incidentally, Varoufakis seemed to cause quite a sensation with his outfit at Number 10. Okay, perhaps he was a little laid back, given the circumstances, but as our niece, Jenny, said – she’s our Sheffield correspondent -  instead of hearing all about his demeanour, how about hearing more about what he actually had to say? That is much more of moment. Certainly it may come as some consolation when Yianis inevitably does the Oliver Twist and has to take his hands out of his pockets…….. to ask for more !

 Two things I would like to see are:

Tsipras wearing a tie – as that will mean if not a haircut to our debts, that there has been a wee trim  

 and Schaeuble smile – they’re not going to happen at the same time, are they? 

Greek/German positions have become entrenched and their current intransigence makes a successfully negotiated outcome ever more remote. Here all we can do is watch and wait with bated breath. Whatever happens, we are the ones who need to blink, given our parlous circumstances – and if we don’t? – OMG – what then? 

On to more positive topics.  The National Geographic program Eat : The Story of Food is fascinating – a topic close to my heart , as is, of course, language. This week the focus was on grains and bread-making. What I loved was that they said traditionally the base of the loaf was charred and didn’t taste so nice so that was reserved for those consumers of less importance; while the golden top of the loaf was reserved for those of higher status; that is, this part actually was and was given to ….the upper crust. Oh, I do love language! Of course, another dining metaphor is derived from where one of the most valuable commodities – the salt – was placed on the table. Those deemed of social significance were said to be those seated above the salt.

Continuing the topic of food, tonight in Greece we celebrate ‘Smelly Thursday’ when traditionally people go out in fancy dress to enjoy the smells – and flavours- of roasted meat as we are now in the run up to Lent when, strictly speaking, people of the faith are expected to fast for 40 days. The Apokreas, or Carnival, is a marvellous, crazy time for young people. We oldies  tend to avoid going out to restaurants on such a night as it entails lots of noise, and poor quality food at higher prices. So we have made some salads and oven baked chips, got ourselves sausages and souvlakia – to ensure the smelly part of the evening! -and the nice thing is that our neighbours are coming to be silly along with us …but quietly.

Below are the pork souvlakia, nestling in a marinade of oil, mustard, honey, garlic, onion, oregano and beer – H’s recipe  – and we will top that off with this  chocolate orange tart, served  hot with vanilla ice-cream. Kali orexi!

 

                                          

We have been having a very cold spell and although this picture will be risibly pathetic for those of you in Northern Europe and North America, to say nothing of Russia and even Athens, this is evidence our recent snow fall – if you look really closely you can see the snow-flakes.

   

And the snowfall got me thinking of a little poem we learned as kids that I’d like to share with you:

The North Wind doth blow and we shall have snow

And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?

He’ll sit in a barn and keep himself warm,

And hide his head under his wing, poor thing.

 

    

Now we think it is possibly not a robin, but for the last few years in winter this little birdie has come to roost in the rafters of our balcony upstairs.   The interesting thing is he used to fly in around sundown until we fitted transparent roller blinds there as a wind-break.  Our resourceful little chappie found a space between the pieces of roofing and walks through that little corridor. You can hear his approach quite distinctly. Above you can see him having just arrived on his perch. In a few moments he will become a little grey ball as he really does hide his head under his wing. Initially if we had guests upstairs, he would fly off, startled by the noise and lights. Now he has become a little more courageous. He stays when we have company – he seems to know we mean him no harm, bless!

That north wind is still blowing but at least there is a little sunshine. So if you slip into a large plant pot, you can get shelter from the wind and catch the sun at the same time.  Never mind the basil plant, Mr Mao is very comfortable, indeed, thank you….. and thankfully he remains unaware of our night-time visitor upstairs!