Orchids and Asparagus

To my lovely friend Joani - hugs and kisses because I know you are reading this!!!

I was walking with Rachel this morning - and I was pretty excited because we were doing the Akourdaleia walk which takes us down to the church Agia Paraskevi and this is always a route which will afford you spectacular views, beautiful flowers and wild asparagus this time of year.

We haven't done this walk for probably a year and it starts with a lot of downhill, flattens off and then finishes with a rather steep uphill section which was a bit of a challenge today.  The beginning of the walk was bitter, the wind was biting and the temperature was around 5 degrees.  Fortunately the sun did come out as we walked on and made it more comfortable.

I was not disappointed by the variety of orchids which were on view.  I love these flowers which are so delicate and seem to be able to push their way up to the light through ground which is like concrete.  I get so enthusiastic about them but admitted to Rachel that my photograph taking is sometimes just to allow me time to catch my breath!!!

We took the little detour down to the church so that we could sit outside and have some water and Rachel had her 'treat' of some carrot batons and almonds.  She is trying to be very good because she has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which can be hugely improved with diet.  It is not so easy for her with the restaurant and bar and ferrying Athos to school and classes but Nicky and I have said that we are here to support her so I am more than happy to be walking with her to give her some exercise even if it is only a few kilometers whenever she can grab the time.

It was so peaceful at the church and the views were amazing.  It is difficult to rationalise this peace and quiet with everything that is going on in the world at the moment but it was lovely to get away from everything and just take in the fresh air even if it had been freezing to start out with!

We had two choices of route home once we got to the road at Sto Museo in Kato Akourdaleia and Rachel decided she would push herself and take the longer one back which meant that we had the sharp hill to negotiate but we just took it slowly and stopped to take in the views just so we could get our breathing back to something more normal!

Everything is exceptionally green at the moment before too long, hopefully, we will be complaining that everything has turned brown and it is too hot - just at the moment that seems a long way away.  We have been issued a warning that it will be very cold again tonight.

There was loads of asparagus en route.  I didn't pick too much but got enough for us to have with our supper this evening.  It was super fresh and even better free - I think they are charging around €4-5 for a bunch in the shops and you can only use about half of it when you have snapped off the top bit which is nice to eat and discarded the woody stem!

I will simply wash this and then soak it in some boiling water, strain and crack some salt over it and we will have it with our slow cooked pork neck steaks which were bubbling away ready for our evening meal.  I also had lamb shanks cooking in the second slow cooker which we are having on Sunday when Mum comes up.  

I remember Mum used to cook pork neck steaks - I was never a lover of pork in the UK but I did used to like these steaks - I think because they are marbled they aren't dry like pork can be.  These were a bargain from Shuks the other week - two massive steaks for just over €3.00!  They are warning that the price of pork is going to increase sharply soon so I am going to stock up with some more from Naz next week and pop them in the freezer.  Rachel was saying that just about everything they use in the restaurant is soaring in price not least because things like cornflour they used to get in bulk from the Ukraine.  I would never had thought about that.

There was some pretty welcome sunshine in the afternoon and John was watching the MB's who were one of the early matches so I set about re chalk-painting the two old village chairs that are out the front - believe it or not they were blue when I painted them originally three years ago.  I want to keep them going a bit longer and I want to replant the blue pots with something a bit more interesting.  That gave me an idea to take Mum to the garden centre before we eat tomorrow which will fill an hour or so.

Can you believe I caught the sun whilst I was painting - it wasn't the heat in the sun it was because it was such a clear sky!