Rainbows 🌈 Waterfalls

Waterfalls 

 

                               

Rainbow  over  Ikarian  Sea 

   

   June to September we saw rain one time.  December more than makes up for it. Torrential rains occurs, mostly at night time, cloudy & windy during days creating beautiful rainbows, waterfalls on almost every turn in road .

Waterfalls road too Karkinagri

At night, skies become inky,  ominous thunder clouds move in with spectacular displays of  lightning  that zig zag across the sky, illuminating the sea, accompanied by ear deafening claps of thunder that echo louder louder between mountains.

  There has been slow progress with our stone house. Greece is in full lockdown since November due to uptick in covid cases. Athens, Thessaloniki, especially in north of Greece are flooded with cases. All muncipal offices are closed, its as if they have pressed pause button on life.

  Ikaria has been blessed with only one case of Covid, a foreigner from England was on holiday, upon receiving  his diagnosis he was immediately  flown by helicopter to Athens to a covid hospital.

 Ikaria is being studied  for its lack of cases. I know everyone has their own theories, but I personally think that it is  any one thing. I believe it's partly due its remoteness, its small  population of approximately 8000 residents. 

 Ikarians have vegtable gardens & animals for their own consumption,  immune systems that seems to be in tact. 

 

Their drinking water is  filtered through  rocky terrain resulting  in a high mineral content. 

Filtered water

Soil has not been  depleted of its natural nutrients, I can attest to this fact first hand. I have spent lots of money along with back breaking hours gardening in US, only for my  plants & flowers to die. I  always thought I just didn't  have a green thumb. 

Olive tree

On the Island of Ikaria anything I plant seems  too grow, amazingly without assistance of  products like miracle grow. Plant sharing is very much part of culture here. I have been given cuttings , thinking to myself they will never survive , yet they do, not only do they grow they thrive. 

Cutting given to us from neighbor 

Surprisingly we witnessed an influx of tourist during summer months,  mostly from European Union, as ferrys ⛴ loaded unloaded tourists, we held our breath waiting to see if covid would invade our island. 

Ferry departing

Of course there is Ikarians red wines that are loaded with polyphenols (micro nutrients)  packed with anti- oxidants.

 Herbs gathered from mountainsides, then dried stored in glass jars. Later to be drank as tea's throughout cold winter months.

Wild fllowers

 

Honey, collected  from many hives that dot rough terrain along mountainside is added to their tea. Ikarotes believe honey has many  medicinal qualities.

Ikarian Tea & Honey

Ikarians naturally get their daily exercise,  spending time out doors tending to their gardens, goats, vineyards, collecting wild greens & herbs. 

Every month there seems to be a reason to be outside. December is month to collect wild mushrooms & greens from forest, wood for fireplaces.

 

We are lucky enough to have our friend Georgia, who is Biologist, willing to spend time with us in forest finding, identifying, collecting wild mushrooms. Our  first excursion, we collected over 10 lbs & 5 different varieties  of 🍄 mushrooms. Sadly I didn't  find one mushroom, my hubby was on fire, made up for it by collecting most mushrooms. 

Georgia & Teddy

Foraging for Mushrooms 

Even though there are no cases on Ikaria, all of Greece  is in lockdown and their borders are closed.  

To  leave your residence we have to send  a SMS message, saying where you are going,  (only 6 approved reasons that you can use)   in your sms message you must include ,your name, where you live, time you left. Once you enter all your information, you will get a text approving your movement.

  If stopped by police  you must show your phone with approval, your passport, or Greek ID. If you don't have a phone, you must  carry a hand written paper with you.  If you can't produce an SMS, large fines are given, from 500-1500 euro's.

Green is Request& black permission proceed 

 To add insult to injury, Ikaria and her sister Island, Samos experienced devastating  6.7 magnitude earthquake, on October  30th 2020, with damage to buildings, churches, loss of life on Island of  Samos. Locals on Ikaria cannot recall ever experiencing  an earthquake.

Greek Orthodox  Church Samos(courtesy Pappas post)
Gaping hole 

Samos happens to be  where all  of our land papers are awaiting approval, so you can only imagine,having  an antiquated system, chaos of covid lockdown, an earthquake!

Priorities  have shifted  to disaster management, everything is understandably sitting in a pile somewhere waiting for world 🌎  to get back to normal. No one knows when that will be.

   

   To date this is where we stand regarding our  property. Our land has been surveyed, we're awaiting a plan from Architect so we can get quotes  from contractors. Our lawyer Anthi has filed a petition in court to determine if Periklis  is sole owner, that there are no liens against  it.

Kosta our Architect 

 On Ikaria land  is passed on by word of mouth, wills are a rarity,  so a lawyer must determine if this is true, by contacting all parties involved, by petioning court, talking to neighbors, siblings, children, or a spouse.

Our notary, Yiannis (similar to a lawyer ) will receive 1% of purchase price.  We hired him to handle our case back in  September, we were surprised when we stopped by his office, he told us maybe next year he would be able to execute the contract. When we began this  process we were told it would take  only 2-3 months. We left his office feeling a bit discouraged . 

We  then had to remind ourselves we are truly blessed in these difficult  times, this  is what truely matters. 

Teddy & I want to wish our family friends across the seas  

Merry Christmas 🎅  Healthiest  of New Year

May all your wishes dreams you put on hold come true

Happy Hanukkah