a good friend

She is one of my best friend on the island. Her name is Margarita, she lives with the Ghikas' family who runs the grocery store. She is maybe eight or nine years old and she loves it when I hold her. She can sit like that for hours, her paws baking bread and she is purring like a small machine. She is not after food like most cats, she just want to be with me. There must be something special with me.

portokalli & loulaki porta

The tree is now full of ripe oranges, and this is the right time to harvest. We picked a large plastic bag full with fruit and gave to some friends but the tree hardly noticed it.
I wrote this tanaka to celebrate the harvest.

GARDEN TANAKA

The orange tree is full of fruit
Zhanetta gave water over the summer
and in the winter we had a lot of rain
At Easter Yannis cut the branches
I am the perfect gardener

raining

It was raining all day yesterday, a good day for reading and staying inside. When I opened the door a small black/orange cat came in to the house... My wife is allergic to cats so we don't let cats in but Marie is not here now and the cat was soaking wet and I dried her somewhat and soon she was on the bed purring...hard to throw her out in the rain again...

 

dinner down in Kamini

My friend Michael invited me for dinner last night so I walked in the rain, the 200 slippery stone steps down closer to the Kamini port. I had a great meal and when I went back the rain had stopped.
Here's our dinner table.














And here is Michael describing in detail how he prepared the wonderful chicken he had picked up from the butcher in the morning.

Tanaka #1

The poet Glenn Cooper said he would tell me the principles and rules of the Tanka poem. I'm sure there are some rules I should stick to. I'm still waiting for Glenn to tell me. Seems to take a long time. I can't wait and therefore I call my five-liners Tanaka instead. I just wrote this. There could be some incredible grammatical errors in this small poem, I am waiting for the verdict.

Tanaka #1

The hens and their loud chatter
are gone. There’s no sound
at four in the morning
from the garden next door.
I miss the unsynchronized rooster.

Taverna Annita

Annita once had the Barba Dimas taverna and later also the one that Matina is now running, now she has opened up again at the place were Remetzo used to be. Remetzo closed maybe three years ago and was OK but never spectacular. It seemed like Annita had just opened and the food was maybe not like her food used to be but we'll give her a new try when she have settled. It was a nice athmosphere even with the two different nuances of green that they had put on the walls and the ceiling. The old blind man was there with his accordion, together with two guys on guitar and bozouki - it sounded just great. The accordionist's voice is really great. Here's a quick sketch of him from my moleskin notebook

New Year

Wednesday December 31st 2008

Another fine day and we take a walk in the afternoon, passing the old Taverna Kristina that is now closed again, even the restaurant that opened after Taverna Kristina closed has now stopped, only after one year. It's hard to get a taverna working on this side of the island.

We met Tom and Annie at Matina's Taverna at nine o'clock, not too many people and some great food, veal chops, lamb chops, beef stew wonderful salads, tsatziki, everything really fresh and like home cooked. The meat is probably from the island, the veal chops looked fantastic. We went back to Tom and Annie's place and had some New Year's sponge cake that Annie had made, really dry with almonds. We had a glass of champagne before we walked the stairs back to our house, longing for to go to bed. As usual we met some dressed up young people heading down to the port after having spent the evening with their families. The smell of perfume and after shave was rich in the narrow streets and everyone we met looked really happy and we all greeted each other with the Kali Kronia or Kronia Polla.

Thursday January 1st 2009

Breakfast outside in the wonderful strong sun.

We then took a walk down to the sea and walked pass the quiet Kamini harbor where many boats were up on land for the winter. A few other people out walking but it's extremely quiet.


When we get to the small Kamini beach we see that the rumors are right and they are actually building just up from the beach. The old Castello is renovated and they are turning it into a beautiful three story house, they are keeping the iron in from of the windows to keep the look of the old prison. They are building new walls around the gardens, everything done the old fashioned way with stones. It does indeed look beautiful; the view from the house is great, the sea and the small island with the old white church just outside. Not too far from the main port, just a nice walk. We are just worried about the small beach in front, the place where we and all the locals go in the afternoon to swim. And were the old Greek women go in the morning to take their bath. It still looks intact but it’s a small beach and we don’t want to see it touched by umbrellas or chairs from a pension or hotel above. Hopefully everything will be fine. If we are lucky it will be a nice taverna even if we suspect it will be too up-market for our tastes, that’s probably the only way to make this venture break even. The rumor has it it’s someone really wealthy who owns it; maybe he has a good taste and also likes a traditional taverna.