#winteringreece

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Studio Kelaidis Κασσάνδρα Κελαϊδή

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I’m writing this, sitting outside, listening to goats bleat away and the goat master (I’m sure there’s an official word for this) making amusing noises and shouting at them. 

The sun will start to set in about an hour, I’m guessing. I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to spend so much time outdoors. I’ve been warned that December isn’t really winter yet here in Folegandros, that January and February will bring colder temperatures and days in a row of rain. I know I can handle it. For now, I’m enjoying swimming in December. 

Yesterday, Saturday, K.P. and I headed to Agios Georgios on the North side of the island, past Ano Meria. On the way, we stopped by the supermarket and the bakery. We each picked up a mikro (small) loaf of bread and some Christmas cookies to share. I met her and the man she’s staying with, A.L., in Chora outside a café where some people had gathered, semi-respecting social distancing. The sun was glorious. We dropped off A.L. at Agali, and he planned to walk to meet some fellow fishing companions at Agios Nikolaus, 15 minutes or so by foot. Fishing is not permitted at the moment, which is odd to me and I’d imagine most other people. It’s just you and the fish, right? Maybe you’re out there with other people, but are you really rubbing up against each other? Do people who fish like to embrace each other a lot? I have no clue!

When we arrived at Agios Georgios, we saw the two men who were supposed to be fishing with A.L., so K.P. went to pick him up and bring him back, so the fishing trio could unite. I laid in the sun in my bathing suit, listening to the metal playing on a small speaker they brought on the dock. It was glorious. I wrote in my notebook a bit, and then slowly but surely made my way into the water. Having a soundtrack to lazily swim around to was fun. 

K.P. returned with A.L., and K.P. helped one of the other fishermen retrieve one of his lures, borrowing some goggles to get the job done. I took photos of her after she completed the task. She looked incredible. A man she sent the photo to afterward said she looked like a Bond girl, and I wholeheartedly agreed. 

Unfortunately no fish were caught by our friends, but two spearfishers caught some! As K.P. and I played cards on the beach while the sun was still out, she joked that they should give us a fish. On the way home, we stopped to watch the sunset and danced on the roof of an abandoned building, listening to music on our phone speakers. Later, we made a Greek rice dish with carrots, leeks, and dill, I brought a fish from the store that had defrosted in my fridge and needed to be eaten, and K.P. grabbed some vegetables from the garden to make a salad. H.U., a friend of A.L.’s who fished with him earlier stuck around for a bit. The two of them drank vodka and raki (a spirit popular in Greek, Turkey, Albania, the Balkans, etc made of grape) and listened to music as we cooked. Another great meal! 

We had started watching The Rose starring Bette Midler the day before but were rudely interrupted by a power outage, so we finished it after dinner. Midler was nominated for an Oscar for it. I liked it. Apparently, it was loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin. On Friday, before we watched The Rose, K.P. and I went for a walk in Ano Meria to a bay that is named after trees or something. Déntro (δέντρο or maybe it’s the plural δέντρα) I believe it’s called, simply because there’s a couple of trees there. She spotted wild dandelion on the way there, so we picked a bunch on the way back. It made me so happy to be able to pull my own food from the earth. We confirmed it was dandelion for sure thanks to Ireni of Ireni’s Restaurant fame. She said it was poly kala (really good), so definitely edible! We ordered some food from her to take home - meatballs with fried potatoes and bean soup. Delicious and comforting, as per usual. 

Later, Z.X. brought over some souvlaki (no extra patates for me this time), then we watched Keeping up with the Kardashians together. Back to season 1 since we finished season 4 and on the TV’s mysterious Spanish Netflix account, only the first four seasons are available. After joking that Z.X. would fall asleep in 30 minutes, I fell asleep in 30 minutes. 

The week before Friday wasn’t super eventful...Tuesday stands out to me as it’s the day I found out I have shingles... Ha! Last weekend, I had asked Z.X. to scratch my back, and when he looked at it, he was concerned. He took a photo of it and sent it to the doctor. We went to the doctor on Tuesday, and she said it was herpes. I spent an entire day freaking out, but then later figured out it’s Herpes Zosta - which is the same as Chickenpox and NOT the sexually-transmitted kind… The nurse, who I had met earlier this summer and is also a Cancer, put a bandage over it and gave me a small stack of more to take home along with some anti-histamines. I read about what foods to avoid and chocolate is one of them, unfortunately, so since then, I haven’t eaten any chocolate and I’m eating much less sugar than before. Boring, but it’s rarely a bad idea to consume less sugar. Today, Sunday, December 6, I stayed in bed for a while, finishing the latest episode of Love After Lockup and then a documentary called My Psychedelic Love Story. The latter is about Joanna Harcourt-Smith, who had a love affair with Timothy Leary (the LSD guy) in the early to mid 70s, while Leary was on the lam from the U.S. feds in Europe, and then subsequently brought back to the U.S. and sentenced. I really enjoyed it and she’s a fascinating woman that passed away shortly before the documentary debuted at the end of November. After sweeping the floors, I decided to take a walk without my phone to the Panagia, a church up a hill that’s an icon of the island. It’s a zigzag promenade to get to the top, and I stopped at the first zig. I sat on a rock and wrote. The sun was so strong and I was a bit sweaty so I took off my shirt. A copy of The Alchemist was in my backpack, and I finished the last 60 pages or so on the grass below the rock. Watching the clouds move past the sun again and again was wonderful. I definitely felt more connected to God, my destiny, etc. finishing that book in that setting. 

Tonight, I think I’ll make the dandelion for dinner and count every single one of my blessings. The sun is beginning to set now, turning the sky the most magnificent colours.