On Acquiring Greek Nationality !

September 15th, 9am, two embryonic Greeks sit outside the local government /administrative offices where we are to swear an oath of allegiance to the Hellenic State – the final step in the entire naturalization process.

And here are the successful candidates from Albania, Armenia, China, Serbia and …. 2 Scots! We had the choice of taking a religious or civil oath. Opting for the latter, I was intrigued to see the main difference was the omission of the verb I swear, which was clearly seen to have spiritual connotations.

Three copies to sign: one for the government offices, one for the council files and one for me, which brought the ceremony to a close.

We pose with the exceedingly civil, civil servant who cheerily led us through the whole event. The human element: my friend was keen to show the lady her tot shots! Rosemary became a first-time grandmother on the day her invitation to the swearing-in ceremony arrived. These two events will be inextricably linked for her!

The neonate Greeks. This shot differs mainly from the embryonic in that there are wide-behind-the-mask beams and official documentation verifying our new status.

We always said we’d go for a posh lunch after the event but so early on your choices are limited. We plumped for coffee and spinach pies at the famous Terkenlee patisserie. And very good they were too! I also bought some of their scrumptious macaroons as a treat for our neighbours.

When family members or members of the Caledonian clan come to visit, I fly the Scottish saltire in their honour. Many’s the time I’ve raised the Greek flag on our flagstaff but this was a first – to mark a new Greek being in the house!!

The Greeks call a special day mia aspri mera – a white day. This was really an azure and white day – a clear blue sky, the flag, specially selected colour-coded outfits, even to the very masks. However, this day had an extra bonus: along with having Greek nationality conferred on me, I was automatically reinstated into the European fold – a status wrenched from me by Brexit ………

……. Zito Hellas!

Driving The Duchess to Drama.

 It was time to take The Duchess out for a trip longer than the usual supermarket run. We were heading up towards Drama in the north-east, inland from Kavalla. Instead of the Egnatia Road, we took the old road by the Volvi lakes and along the coast – a lovely route.                          

 And it was as if the local gendarmerie appreciated her status for, on two occasions, two separate squad cars appeared to provide us with an ’escort’ – VIPs, indeed!   

  The reason for our outing was a reunion of Z’s fellow-students, graduates of the Academy at Alexandroupolis.  There were thirteen of them, the proverbial baker’s dozen, with two of us as hangers-on! Most had travelled from nearby places in the northern region.

Our venue was a lovely green oasis by a stream, a restaurant called ‘The Plane Tree’ in the village of Kephalara. We were a little late in arriving and I was concerned that we might have missed Mimi’s repertoire of the day – he’s the stand-up of the group. But we were in good time to catch his comic contribution! Mind you, I have a problem following him as his delivery is rapid-fire and he chuckles mid-joke, especially mid-punch-line! :o

The pescetarians in the group enjoyed fresh river trout – a special local treat. Z had his usual souvlaki and I went for my fave feta-stuffed bifteki.

We were staying at the lovely Kouros Hotel, a little south of Drama so we didn’t actually go into the town. Its beautiful neo-classical features were even more impressive when floodlit.  

The word kouros comes from the Ancient Greek word for ‘a young man’, hence the statue at the front entrance. A tricky shot to take as Z was bent on doing silly things with his mask. :(

There was also a pool – one reason for selection – and we had a pleasant swim in the afternoon. Later, with the entire poolside area to ourselves, we enjoyed a bite to eat and a glass of wine in that very relaxing setting.

 Breakfast was a buffet comprising of the usual eggs, bacon, savoury and sweet pastries but I was delighted to find Scots pancakes there in the spread - and very tasty they were too.

Time to leave. The Duchess and my driver (!) pose outside the hotel, ready to head home.

Pushkin, Our Precious Pussycat.

 Our summer sadness was to say goodbye to our precious Pushkin, the Big Daddy of our feline family. It’s very hard to find words to express how much he meant to us.

From the very beginning, he had enormous, expressive eyes and an adventurous spirit.   

 He learned to face intruding snakes head-on – he was fearless – and an intrepid hunter. Many was the night when he woke us up with his special call, letting Z know there was a gift waiting for him on the doorstep. Thanks to Pushkie our homestead was a mouse-free zone.

He was a very affectionate kitty and our mornings began with one of his leg-brushing greetings. If he couldn’t find me in the kitchen he would come to find me mid-Pilates and brush an outstretched leg!

                                                     

He loved to snuggle up against us, more often than not with an embracing paw, at once demonstrative and protective.

 We Scots have a verb ‘to coorie’ which means to snuggle and to take comfort. At bedtime as kids we’d be told to ‘coorie doon’ and go to sleep. Pushkin took delight in coorying in boxes, crates, suitcases.

                                              

  His favourite thing was to accompany me in my gardening tasks and insinuate himself into my weed bag. Sometimes, I hadn’t noticed his arrival and suddenly finding him in there could be a bit of a shock!

 We spent a lot of time together, but I miss him most in the morning. Together we would share the sunshine and a balcony chair. I can think of no better way to start your day: coffee, a crossword and a cuddly cat.

                                              

 Pushkie, we miss you so very much – happy hunting grounds, precious puss!

Visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.

 Being in Athens recently gave us the opportunity to visit the National Museum of Contemporary Art. This museum is housed in what has been a long-term landmark in central Athens. Previously the Fix Brewery site, the construction was originally built in the late 19^th century. Modernized from 1957-1961 by the architect Zenetis, it was considered pioneering work for its era. The Fix family developed their plant elsewhere and this building had fallen into disrepair by the late 1970s.                                 

Work on the museum began in 2000 and was completed in 2014. From February 2020 it has been fully operational, housing permanent and temporary exhibitions by Greek and international artists.

I loved the entrance, contrasting with the stark exterior, with its womb-like ambience encouraging you inside. 

                

  And as you go in, the proximity of archeological sites demands you consider the ancient with the modern, the very essence of Athenian antithesis.

 It was the building itself that stole the show for me. The vast escalators were the centre point producing a sense of dizzying depth, at one epitomizing progress and descent.

  Here the materials of glass and mirror afforded a lovely play on our reflected image.

                                                               

Again starkness. Here the exhibited workstation represented for me the anodyne, the impersonal nature of many workplaces. I was so delighted to see the – unrelated! - pop of colour contributed by the lemon-scented hand sanitizer!                                                              

There were many installations or exhibits which expressed their creator’s political stand and here are some that spoke to me.                                                         

 This tent published a memorial to the 418 Palestinian villages which suffered destruction at the hands of Israeli forces in 1948. For me it also represented the almost nomadic lifestyle forced on that people, obliged to move from their homeland to provide a better life for their families.

A very moving installation was one entitled The Red Line, showing delineations in specific areas, denoting political forces separating living communities.  One showed the Loyalist and Nationalist murals in Belfast - a complex, catastrophic soup that boiled for years and has threatened reheating as a result of Brexit measures.  Two others that had significance were: the Green Line or United Nations demilitarized Buffer Zone which cuts through Cyprus, separating it from the Turkish occupied areas of Kyrenia and Famagusta

And the other, pictured below, the wall of concrete slabs separating the Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank with the arid Palestinian Authority controlled area.  Palestinian artists had attempted to alleviate the grim aspect of the wall with graffiti which for me represent youth, dreams, hope. 

 These last two held particular personal meaning for me as not only have I visited both, but  I have friends whose homesteads were appropriated by the occupying forces and thus they became displaced persons having to start from scratch to forge a new life in foreign lands.                                   

One of the topics was an exploration into,’ What Is Democracy?’  This was intriguing in that it was being posed in a place not far from The Lyceum, where Plato and Aristotle pondered just such concepts some 2,360 years ago. In fact, it is incredible to think that the original site of the Lyceum was uncovered only in 1996, during excavation to clear space for the possible site of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Isn’t that something? 

The creator had asked this question to young people world-wide and I wanted to spend much longer than time allowed here. However, what struck me was that many responses focused on fighting against established political regimes or systems. They seem to have been answering the question to ‘How is Democracy to be obtained in certain circumstances?’rather than simply discussing the semantics of the concept per se.                                

  

Below is one of my favourite shots: Z studying the installation Fix It, constructed from rusty industrial fittings of the old Fix brewery. A metal grid forms a fenced area throughout which buzzing bulbs switch on and off. With the activity in that electronic circuit it seems, if only to a tiny extent, that the spirit of Fix lives on.

                                   

And all too soon it was time for us to leave the capital city - not flying Aegean Airlines as we did to arrive, but cruising in our cool, new acquisition, the new lady in my husband’s life  – a beautiful Daimler/Chrysler Mercedes.  Her previous owner had not travelled far in her and had kept her in pristine condition.   She does not like things encroaching on what she deems her safe territory. Several taxi drivers and bikers incurred the wrath of her alarm bells ringing for coming too darned close.

 A memorable moment was, in the middle of dense, speeding and unpredictable Athenian traffic, hearing Z’s innocent enquiry, ‘I wonder what this button does?’. Hardly confidence-inspiring!

 Nevertheless we had a really comfortable trip home and after the long drive, we both felt as if we’d been reclining on a comfortable settee!                                       

 She is a smooth operator, one cool dame – I’ve dubbed her The Duchess.                                       

 We look forward to many exciting trips with her in future!

First Outing :Trip to Athens.

 So there we were, fully vaccinated and ready to go! Athens was our destination of choice for a variety of reasons, but there was one problem. What did we need to travel? We had our Greek certification of proof of our vaccinations but then Z heard that that in itself was not enough – one had to have a period of two weeks after the last vaccination to be fully covered. Agh! Our flight was on Monday morning, so there was a rush to the village to get self tests! We knew that both were necessary for travel to the islands which entailed strict passenger health monitoring. But what of mainland flights? We spent nearly all of Saturday enlisting the help of travel agents, airline-staff and police officers but no one was sure. We self-tested anyway, and found …. after all that, no one checked us at all. :(

   

As you know we live in the countryside, but having been rustic recluses  for so long during the pandemic, the buzz of metropolitan life was a bit of an assault on the senses.

An old friend, Donald, from our Kuwait days, has lived in Cairo for many years and suggested I meet up with Alison, who had moved from there to Athens about two years ago. The current situation had obliged us to be pen-pals only, so it was great that we managed to meet up for lunch. We were amazed to find we had lots in common: both been to Aberdeen University, both lived in Edinburgh – even in the same area of Stockbridge and, of course, now permanent residents in Greece. We look forward to her visiting us soon!

Next meet-up was with Betta, the Greek friend whom I have known the longest – since 1974.  I consider her a sister rather than a friend, in fact, her delightful dad used to introduce me to his disconcerted friends as his Scottish daughter! They played a major role in my learning to love Greece and Greeks even more and contributed greatly in directing the course of my life. Our continuing friendship means a lot to me.

Next it was Z’s turn to make contact with cousins, originally from the home area of Evros, in Thrace, but long-term residents of the capital. It was also a wonderful chance to celebrate his uncle’s 98^th birthday – now that was special!

Athens is a city of many unique vistas, but this urban underpass scene could have been taken anywhere. To me it showed the vulnerability of man in the stark city constructs he creates. The noise of the traffic from above and below this busy intersection was incredible but the walkway did afford welcome respite from the heat. 

 And now for a contrasting face of the city: the glorious Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. Founded in 1927, it is set in an oasis of green: palm trees, cacti, pleasing pieces of topiary and water features. That’s a fascinating facet of Athens to end on.

Summertime.

 Our summer was a late arrival. Wet weather delayed vegetable planting till mid-May.

 At that time there was a heavy pall, weather-wise and emotionally. Two loved ones sadly passed on, both prey to Alzheimer’s. We almost lost our beloved cat, Pushkin, who gradually lost his appetite and finally refused to eat and drink. Vet tests came up with low blood counts but no diagnosis. We all went through the agonies of Z force-feeding him for about a week. We had prepared ourselves for the big goodbye. Then one day, he inexplicably turned the corner: wanting to eat but frailty and poor coordination impeded the process so the syringe was replaced by the teaspoon. On the day he unsteadily walked up to us and rubbed our legs - his morning greeting of old – we both wept. He was on the way back to us!

During our rainy season, Z had clearly been plotting garden improvements. In the first week we decimated the hedge which was a three-day task.

Then a tree-feller dispatched two demised pine trees and pruned down a deciduous tree.

During the process of the latter, I mused over the origins of the term, ‘lop-sided’..

  Then serious pool-cleaning began.

And after a time of sadness, anxiety and hard graft, we enjoyed moments of joy as well.

 Our Sheffield-based niece, Jenny, learned that her current bump will be a little girl. Her two-year-old brother-to-be wants her to be called Fire Dog Bull – the third is the actual surname which seriously delimits feasible name choices!

As the heat returns, so the crickets chirrup and gladden our days, as do the swallows who wheel around before swooping down to drink at the pool. 

  

With the new run-way in operation, the air-corridor overhead has regular flights coming in, so our tourist economy is on the up. If we can, at the same time, maintain the current pattern of falling Covid-19 figures, then all will be well.

 We are the proud owners of certificates attesting to our being fully Pfizer-ed and of ‘green passports’ which allow us to travel within most European countries.  We have no desire to travel abroad for the time being.  

     

The sun is out, our roses are in bloom and our produce is nicely ripening.

It’s time to savour summer!

The Bees' Knees!

 In my first post on Bees, on 11^th May, I mentioned our neighbour had begun to keep bees. In fact, his daughter has taken over that responsibility and now has about 30 hives! So today, we’re going to look at apiculture from a more personal perspective.

  Below we see our neighbor and his wife opening up the hive to check that all is well. You will notice they are wearing protective suits and gloves in white. When I joined them to take pictures, they advised me not to wear anything black. Bees are said to associate dark colours with predators – bears and badgers – and can go on the defensive. Current thinking indicates it may be smells that are more disturbing than colour – but why take chances!? They are also wearing netting on part of their helmets. Bees are attracted to one’s breath and a sting on the face can be very painful.                         

Ioannis has removed the frame from the hanging container and is inspecting it. The close-up below shows the bees still hard at work, despite the intrusion.     

                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                        

 The orange-colored sealed inner cells contain the larvae, while the darker cells on the outside of the frame contain honey. So the frame serves as both nursery and pantry!   

                    

Above we can see the beekeeper tools of the trade. He has a smoker to lull the bees. The smoke can mask the pheromones released by the guard bees once the hive is breached.  It also encourages the bees to eat, a response to the possibility of their having to leave the hive because of fire. Essentially the smoke reduces the likelihood of the bees attacking.

 He will feed the bees to ensure they survive the winter. He has both pollen patties and syrup which you can see him adding in the picture below.                                               

And now for my final section:

Interesting information on bees

• Soldier bees perform security guard duties all their lives.
• Regular worker bees will change duties according to their age and the needs of the colony. Before undertaking a new duty, their brain chemistry changes!
• After a bee stings, it dies. On stinging, it leaves behind some muscle and nerves and part of its digestive tract. It is this abdominal rupture that kills the bee.
• Bees fly at about 20 miles per hour.
• Bees have five eyes: 2 large side compound eyes with lots of tiny lenses as well as three ocelli which are simple insect eyes with light-sensitive cells.
• They communicate via pheromones as well as by ‘dancing’ to convey the location of food sources.
• Bees are experts at geometry: the honeycomb cell is the most efficient structure in nature as it uses the least amount of wax in its construction.
• Bees are expert mathematicians. On receiving information, say of six separate food locations, they can calculate the shortest possible route to reach all the flowers.      So that’s why we talk of making a bee-line somewhere!

 I think the information that really made me think was the fact that it takes the lifetimes of 12 working bees to make one teaspoon of honey.   That’s an awful lot of effort- so bear that in mind next time you sample some great Greek yoghurt and slather it with delicious honey.

And finally a little sketch of mine in homage to the honeybee - respect!