Going for a walk...

The days have been lighter and brighter and getting longer but the blue skies and sunshine mask a cold wind and exceptionally cold nights of late.  Still we are getting bored with being cooped up indoors and the great outdoors beckons!!!  When I say we I mean John and I as the cats are enjoying the warmth in the conservatory and on occasions have to be encouraged (by way of my big toe) to go outside at least if only for a toilet break.  This did come back to bite me in the bum last night when Minnie was AWOL and surprisingly so as she rarely ventures far and is ALWAYS in at night for her cuddle with John.  We think she may have got shut in somewhere as she did not appear until around 7.00am at a time when someone might have got up and released her.  As a result I did not sleep at all well fretting about her whereabouts and getting up every time I heard the catflap go.  I wish I did not care as much but I do - they are my babies and I love them and they love me and they ask for nothing save a full tummy, a warm bed and some love - how uncomplicated.

A recent trip to Jumbos with Mum saw me buying a load of rugs and throws to make the conservatory warmer - on your feet if nothing else and these will be wrapped up and put away in the summer.  We are actually on the lookout for more rugs like the one under the orange chairs which was our €10 bargain some time ago.  John had seen a photograph of a house with lots of different rugs scattered on the floor and liked the look although I doubt very much those rugs were 2.99 from Jumbo!

I did go for a walk this afternoon - I was on the look out for wild Asparagus as I had seen a friend had been picking some down nearer the coast - clearly it is still too cold for that sought after delicacy here in the hills.  It always reminds me of Elena - she used to do a foraging trip in February and people would search for the fresh new shoots emerging and take them together with the other foraged goodies back to the Orexi kitchen and cook their lunch.  I remember Elena had planned to do one last year but then was not well enough to lead it herself - she really did have a shit time for most of last year when I look back - such a shame for her and her family.  I do miss her such a lot, particularly Saturdays when I would often wander up and see her when John was at football.  We would huddle together in the kitchen complaining about how cold Droushia was and she would make me the best cappuccino ever - I remember her tying hot water bottles round her waist to keep warm!

There are some signs of spring - the celandines are beginning to flower and there are some tiny wild irises appearing - we don't seem to get the wild anemones up in the fields where I was walking but as they are grazed regularly by the goats then probably a lot of things just 'nipped in the bud' as it were.


The goats were out today - you can hear them before you can see them as they wear bells which give a feeling of being in Switzerland at times until you hear the guttural calls of the herders who seem to be middle eastern in the main - last week I saw a Sikh goat herder wearing a very impressive burgundy turban!

I did wonder why I encountered a goat skull in one of the fields - clearly this one didn't keep up with the herd - you wouldn't think that they would just let them die in the fields like that particularly as a lot of the kleftiko here is made of goat meat.  I wonder what happened to this poor one - let's just hope it was time for it to meet its maker or that for some reason the skull just ended up there.

A couple more weeks and Droushia will really be looking at its best with the palour of winter gone and the spring flowers on display - I particularly like it when the poppies are out but before then we will have the orchids and I know that the field opposite is perfect orchid breeding territory and there are three or four different types there.  They are so pretty and delicate but will probably disappear as more and more of the local stone is dug up and harvested for building - it makes a perfect habitat for the orchids.