Friday 27 July 2012

And so .... to 'The Day'..

We were pleased (really) to hear that the UK has finally had some more summery weather than of late, and temperatures in the high 20s C (at least for those in the south of the country, I don't think Scotland and Wales fared so well!).

Sunset over the mountains
One of the great sights out here, as far as nature is concerned is the sunset and last Friday we went up to a taverna called Pixidia (of the seafood salad of early posts), with Laurance, Jackie, Jim & Susie to have supper whilst we watched the sun set over the mountains - very beautiful, although as is the case out here, if you are high up and take photos you will always get telephone wires in the shot!

Talking of good views, here is one from when we went to Plaka back at the end of June and sat looking out over the water to Spinalonga island and generally having a very relaxing and restful time.
It's a tough life


So, back to the present and the main 'event' of the last week was our 1st Anniversary celebration in Kokylia's taverna on Sunday.  The day before we had gone over to the island with Jackie & Laurance for another trek up to the hillfort and over to the tombs before having our photo taken back at the church on the island, almost a year to the day from our wedding. 
22nd July 2011
21st July 2012 - 1 year on


who's Spartacus then !
Of course, Dud & Laurance couldn't resist clambering up to the top of the hill fort and posing (well almost) for a photo - what is it with boys and 'castles' ?

Since we're reminiscing about last year (well, we are anyway), we thought we'd remind ourselves (again) what a fantastic wedding day we had when our friend Nick brought us back from the wedding ceremony to Mochlos on his boat.
setting off for Mochlos on 'our' boat last year
So, Sunday we had a fairly quiet day, although we did pop down to Mochlos Mare to collect a cake that Sterie had made for us and some flowers from their garden. 
Cheers
Then, in the evening it was back to the 'scene of the crime' from last year for our celebratory anniversary supper. As always Giorgo and his team looked after us really well and we couldn't have asked for a more delicious menu of food, wine and raki. 


it's a scapula!



The main meat of the meal was lamb, and of course Dud & I couldn't resist pointing out to the rest of the table exactly which part of the animal they were eating - in this case (picture to the right) the scapula (shoulder) !




somebody made us laugh





 As well as some friends from the UK, we also had our Greek contingent from Mochlos Mare plus Willie who had been 'crew' on the boat last year.

Although we don't speak much Greek and Sterei, her brother Giorgo and his wife Demeter don't speak much English, we all managed to understand each other and even crack a few jokes.

After wine & raki we can understand each other perfectly!
As one example of how confusing the language can be, the Greek word for dog, skilos sounds (well to me anyway) very similar to what I thought Giorgis was saying when he calls his dog - however the dog's name is not 'dog' but Stelios !

view of table
All in all a great celebration - who's coming next year then !
raki
drinking raki
After all that excitment on Sunday, we've had a rather restful week, Laurance and Jackie returned to the UK on Monday morning (yes, that's only a few hours after we had finished the party, they had to leave for the airport - actually they did take their leave a little early than everyone else!). 









Then on Tuesday we took Jim & Susie to visit Gournia (probably our favourite Minoan site at the moment), stopping off for a snack on the way back at the Panorama taverna (opposite Pixidia) where we were treated to an aerial display from some birds of prey, including what I think was a short-toed eagle (at least that's the closest I could find on the internet - see what you think).


my attempt to capture the eagle on photo


 It was certainly a magnificent bird, looked quite a lot larger than the falcons we are used to seeing, but was amazingly graceful as it flew - although as it was circled by two falcons, it was possibly after something they were guarding, perhaps their young.



is this it - from Wikipedia

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