One of the drawbacks to living on an idyllic island is maintaining communication with friends and family. We are 11 time zones away from our home town of Aloha, Oregon for instance. We couldn't survive without e-mail that is for sure.

In the past we used MSN Messenger on occassion but it had several drawbacks and limitations. Now we are trying Skype which can be used to telephone people who don't spend time on line, such as my elderly mother.

So I am now learning about the new world of VoIP and the like -- Trying to keep up with the latest and greatest. Skype is in the process of adding video conferencing which is great when both ends have high speed broadband.



My next step will be to earn enough money on the internet to afford a broadband phone. Then I could spend more time on the beach instead of my computer room.

You can help by downloading & using Skype by clicking on this banner. Thank You!





VoIP, video conferencing, Skype

broadband phone, making money on the internet

All Greece is having unusually cold weather. Not too bad here with typical wind and rain and lows of about 40F (4 C). We just hole-up - except Karin had committed to feed a friends cat so has to drive her moped about a mile. You can see she always dresses the part at all times of the year.






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We woke up today to a cloudless sky and satin smooth sea - and a forecast of rain storms on their way. So later we packed a picnic lunch and rode off to the other side of the island for an ouzo.

We stopped at a hard to reach beach that I had never been to before yet always looked idyllic from up on the main road. Very pleasant--Karin couldn't resist going into the water. She claims she would have gone skinny-dipping if she had a towel. I offered my handkerchief.

The public footpath to this beach.

The ouzo was nice as well; just sitting in the afternoon sun overlooking the Pizo Livadi beach where young children were playing. It was getting chilly for the ride home, however. High today was about 56 F (13 C); I would guess the water temp was higher but I could not find the figures.

Today's flowers. I am still amazed that there is always something in bloom in the same fields. Each flower takes it's turn through out the year.

I am going back through old newsletters looking for material. I apologize to those who have already read this.

By Karin:
Another notable happening was keeping a close eye on a couple of almond trees. Being a city girl most of my life, I was under the assumption that almonds only came in packages or roasted in pretty gift cans! This year, I actually got to eat green ones right off a REAL tree in my own garden (as shown me by a Greek friend). The soft, small and unshelled bud tasted "green" and was not, in my opinion, very tasty. I secretly worried they were having a joke with me, but found out that Greek woman actually make a marmalade at that stage. YUK.

By mid August the tree was ready for picking. The husk opens in the sun while still on the tree, exposing the almond shell inside. We picked them off, took the almond out and let it dry for a day or two in the sun. They were ready then to be cracked. I did not think to put my handy-dandy nutcracker into my suitcase last spring, but we found that a pair of pliers from the tool box worked just as well! So many guests have sat around the patio table cracking nuts and sipping the drink of their choice while holding a huge pair of bright red pliers in one hand! Yassis!

Since we are on the topic of almonds, I also learned that the Greeks pick them directly off the tree, and serve them over ice with a little bit of salt. I just could never seem to coordinate that, so we served them our way: dried. I have heard we might not get them into the United States due to environmental laws so now we are pushing them onto friends here. I had hoped to put a few small bags into Christmas stockings!

Photo modeling by Yolanda, Ric and Tim from Amsterdam.

More adventures chronicled in our Newsletter Archive . . .

We are in the midst of winter here. Every day is partly cloudy with a little rain and a little sun; aways wind and cold--highs in the mid 50's (14 C), lows in the mid 40's (8 C).

So I thought I would brighten things up with photos of flowers that Karin took one April.

We call this one River of Gold

Come to Paros to get yours!

WWW.ParosParadise.com

I am somewhat surprised at myself; that I am more superstitious than I thought. I have been worrying about making fun of disaster. Just as I touch wood whenever discussing my good fortune I do not want to tempt fate by minimizing misfortune.

But here it goes anyway. This is a photo of our laundry rack on the balcony a few hours after the earthquake. This was the result of a wind gust, however.

I wanted to post this mainly because we have shown so many different beautiful scenes taken from our balcony/veranda that I feel obligated to show the underside of life here on a Greek island.

We were all quite surprised at the high rating for yesterday's tremor since it seemed so mild. The explanation is in the depth out at sea. There were only minor damages to nearby islands.

For those who want more details I lifted this article:

http://www.ekathimerini.com/

Greece gets shaken up
‘Very lucky’ to escape serious damage from 6.9 Richter quake.

An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, one of the most powerful ever to strike Greece, was felt yesterday at lunchtime all around the country and as far afield as Israel, causing damage on the islands of Kythera and Crete but, remarkably, no serious injuries or deaths.
The quake struck at 1.34 p.m. as most Greeks were settling down to Sunday lunch. The tremor’s epicenter was about 200 kilometers south of Athens, in the seabed east of Kythera. It lasted some seven seconds and prompted hundreds of people in cities around Greece to leave their apartment blocks because of fears of damaging aftershocks.
“The earthquake happened at a great depth,” said Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos in a hastily arranged press conference. “There has been only limited damage in the area of Kythera.”
The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake occurred 70 kilometers below the sea, some 30 kilometers east of Kythera.
“We were very lucky this quake happened underwater,” said the head of the institute Giorgos Stavrakakis. “If it had happened on land it would be a mess. The fact that it was deep in the sea saved us.” There were several aftershocks, which did not cause any problems.
The quake was felt in southern Italy, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus and parts of the Balkans.
Greece is one of the most seismically active countries in the world and the last major quake to hit the country was in 1999, when a 5.9 Richter tremor struck Athens killing 143 people and leaving thousands homeless.
Seismologists said yesterday’s earthquake could lead to other tremors but added there was no reason to be alarmed by its magnitude or fearful of bigger quakes to come.

The advanced sailing class was out to support the blessing of the water on 6 January. I am amazed how precisely they can control these craft. For instance they can turn around in the length of the boat. This summer I was watching a novice class. There was one little guy who always going off in the wrong direction. That reminded me of my first time sailing. I could only go one direction so I had fun going from one end of the lake to the other. Then I had to wait for someone to come pull me back.

As I write this we had a brief earth tremor. It will be interesting to know what size. It just shook the wobbly book case and chandeliers a little. Made me dizzy as I was staring at the screen.



Fracturing English is always fun. Though as I tell the Greeks who apologize for their English--it is better than my Greek.

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Another holiday today.

Karin and I thought we could take in the festivities and run some errands in Parikia. Wrong: the shops were all closed.

So we just relaxed and had our own day off.

Below is a recent exchange between Karin and a neighbour:
First, Karin wrote:

I had a cheery little greeting this morning....I was on the internet and heard my clothes rack fall over - BANG - or is it CRASH? Anyway, I said, "Oh hell, there goes the clothes rack", and went to pick it up.
Well, if God had not pushed the rack over, I would have NEVER known a HUGE cockroach was sunning himself on the garden wall. He was definitely a BIGGIE. I called "himself" (Irish for the man in your life) to come and look, and my protector offered to go chase it with a broom! Can you imagine, all my life (or so it seems) I have been WAITING for my knight in shining armor....and what do I go and say? "God, I don't want you to chase it, KILL it!"
And I went into the kitchen, snatched my green bottle of poison spray...charged past my knight in shining armor (well, he really was blurry eyed and wearing a flannel plaid bathrobe and scratching)...but never mind...I charged past, left him in my dust, and confronted the huge dragon and killed him MYSELF! He seemed sort of slow, but once the spray hit him (like a barrage of bullets), he made an attempt to fall off the wall and bury himself in the mulch! But I knew he was dying, because I heard him gasping for air as he fell out of sight!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my knight was wondering if it was something he said, or what? He was still standing there yawning, when I strove past, chest high in self pride, snide smile, and said, "There, no chasing, just kill 'em" as I put my six shooter back in my cupboard!

What is the moral of this story? Not sure, but did want to let you know that the COCKROACHES are out there, so be prepared!

Byeeeeeeeeeeee, Karin

Then the neighbour responded:

Let us tell you as story.
Once upon a time there was a handsome (Greek) prince who was about to be turned into a frog by his wicked stepmother who dabbled in sorcery. As she only dabbled in sorcery and because the location was Greece where they don't have many frogs she accidentally turned him into a cockroach.
The handsome prince knew that the only way to break the spell was to be kissed by a beautiful princess but owing to the fact that the Greeks had by now done away with the monarchy there was a definite shortage of princesses of any kind.
Then one day he heard of the ravishing Swamp woman who was indeed a princess and named Queen of the internet. This fair lady was imprisoned in a SMOKEY dungeon by the black prince who she mistakenly thought was her knight in shining armor. (Inside jokes: Our house sits above low-lying ground; Karin Googles everything for everyone; and on New Year’s Day our fireplace would not draw due to lack of wind.)
The moral of this story is not to take things at face value. You should have shot the prince and kissed the cockroach!
LOL
The Wizards of Alyki

Editor’s comment: It is a good thing that I have a thick skin.

Thanks to a gift certificate from our son we just sent off a massive order to Amazon U.K. for videos, books and a cribbage board to get us through the winter. It was great fun browsing the January sale offers and then less fun paring it down to affordable size. Free shipping does not apply to Greece but over-all cost is still good value.

Normally we patronize the used book stores and amateur book-exchanges on Paros and Antiparos. If you have diverse tastes, the selection is plentiful and works out about 4 Euro per book after returning it for 33% credit. We also maintain a library for the hotel and guests do exchanges from it. So that is free reading for me, if they are in English, of course. The Danish and Norwegian books are our slowest movers.

My only complaint is that I like to read fantasy and science fiction trilogies, but I rarely find more than one book in a series. I keep looking though, but then I can’t remember which I have read. This year I actually read a detective story that I read a few years ago. Somehow it wasn’t as good the second time.

Chronia Poli -- Happy New Year

Another fine holiday on Paros: Party New Year's Eve with one group (No photo's, please!)
Barbecue in the sun with another group on New Years Day. (Karin's taking the photos, so she is not in them.)



Who needs summer?