A Time to Reflect

A new week begins and it is bright and breezy to start off - my arm is no worse which is a bonus and I wanted to go out to the garden centre at Agia Marina so that I could find something special to give to Di.  Tomorrow will mark one year since her dad sadly passed away - it has been the most bizarre and heartbreaking of years for anyone who has lost a loved one - there has been nothing remotely normal about the way people have been allowed to deal with death and grief and funerals which I have found deeply upsetting because I found great comfort in the love and support we felt when Dad died and I continue to find comfort in being able to go and 'visit' him up in our little village cemetery.  I also wanted to get something to take on Sunday when we celebrate Lilian's birthday.  

I asked Sonia if there was anything she needed, mindful that her garden is her passion and sometimes she is limited by what she can manage to carry and we decided that we would go together as she was on the hunt for 'something' although she did not know quite what but would when she came across it.

I found a jolly and colourful hanging basket of cheerful little violas for Lilian and I found a rose for Di.  I know she is lucky in her garden with roses and has some absolutely beautiful ones in spectacular colours but this one was white with a faint green tinge around the edges of the petals.  It was, if a plant can be, serene and calm and I thought appropriate, I had it gift wrapped (this is never at any extra cost) and spritzed to look at its best and John and I dropped it round - we shall be thinking of her and Rob tomorrow and sending love and hugs, virtually if not physically.

This afternoon John and I walked down at Neo Chorio.  We were determined to see whether the off-piste route we had tackled last week could be completed as we had to adjust our route because of an unexpected fence which cordoned off part of the track which we were following.  We decided to approach it in reverse because if we got to the fence that way and couldn't go any further there was an alternative new path we could investigate.

John has decided that this is possibly his most favourite walk.  Within a very short distance from a messy scrap yard you are in the most impossibly beautiful and wild countryside with goats for company.  To our left was a massive ravine with birds of prey circling overhead and behind the glorious sparkling blue sea.  We made our way up up up and across and eventually came to the top end of the fence where there was an open gate.  We wanted to see if we could circumnavigate the fence on the outside rather on the inside in case the gates were shut next time we walked.

We made it but not without some cuts and scrapes and clinging on to fences but it can be done and we made a mental note to pack a pair of secateurs the next time to make it a bit easier on our legs.  The downhill stretch to the partially washed away bridge looked steeper than I remembered it when we had scaled up it last week and I can't believe I did so without moaning!!!  Traversing the broken bridge was a bit of a faff but we made it without getting our feet wet.  We had anticipated the water to be flowing more freely after the recent rains but it wasn't.

We were on the homeward stretch although it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere we were in fact only about 10 minutes from the road on which we had parked the car.  We were pretty hot and sticky by this point but had enjoyed our ramble.  On returning to the car John got me to check how far we had travelled and we were stunned that this had only been 5km - there had to have been some mistake surely as it felt a lot longer than that - John is now on a mission to find another loop to make this a walk that he and Liselotte could tackle.