Awake

Lamb's Quarters (Wild Spinach)

I'm the sort of person who is always coming up with new resolutions... ideas of things that I ought to be doing that will improve everything (health, state of mind, posture, what have you.)   But like most people, I guess, I tend to be better at inventing resolutions than at sticking to them. 

The other day, I came up with a really great idea for a resolution that I probably won't follow but maybe someone else would like to?  The idea is that every time I shop for produce I should make myself try something new.  That should be no problem, as there are so many things I see at the market that I never buy because it's not something I'm in the habit of making or using.  For example, tomatillos - I look at them with fascination all the time because of their papery exterior, but I've never bought one. 

The reason I thought this was a great idea is that eating a variety of produce is supposed to be good for health, and this way I'd be forced to learn how to prepare new things.  So in one resolution I'd actually be improving two areas of my life.

So with this idea in mind, on Saturday I bought a bunch of lamb's quarters, which were described as being like spinach and could be prepared as such.  Also, a big bunch was only $2 and it was rather pretty with all of its little dark leaves.

Suddenly, Summer

 

It seems like a lot changed at the market during the two weekends I missed... my first weekend back and suddenly melons, peppers, eggplants... exciting!

 

 

enchanted forest

 

I took this picture a couple of days ago.  I couldn't believe how green everything had become in this humidity, and these tall trees seemed so alive they really made me think of an enchanted forest.  I wouldn't have been very surprised if they had started speaking.  (Well, maybe a little bit surprised...)

But really, it was just another summer afternoon in the Central Park Mall...

 

water in the cyclades...

I'm almost done writing about my trip to Santorini, but there is one last topic that I wanted to touch on that I couldn't in good conscience not mention... the water situation there.

I was really surprised when I arrived in Santorini to hear that it is not safe to drink the tap water, in the Cyclades generally.  You can use the water to shower and brush your teeth, but not to drink because there are too many "minerals" in it (lime, apparently).  Also, there is only one desalination plant in Santorini, to the North of the island, and it is very expensive to operate and can not produce enough clean water to supply drinking water to the entire island.  Consequently, everyone on the island relies exclusively on bottled water, which is relatively cheap there.  A six-pack of 1.5 litre bottles was about 3 euros, if I remember right. 

Coffee in Greece

When my husband and I left for Santorini, I didn't think much about what the coffee there would be like.  I assumed that there would, of course, be Greek coffee - that thick brew of coffee grinds prepared in water in those little pots with the long wooden handles (apparently called a briki).  Apart from that, I thought they would serve mostly espresso-based drinks and some filter coffee, as they do in Europe.

What I couldn't have predicted, however, was the fact that most Greeks primary choice for their daily (or many-times-daily) coffee fix is Nescafe instant coffee.  This caused some confusion at first when we went to restaurants and cafes.  There was espresso, espresso freddo, cappucino, etc., and then nescafe and something called a Nescafe Frappe.  Nescafe, the brand, would be typically written out as such, even in Greek letters.  What was a Nescafe Frappe?  vs. a Cappucino Freddo or a Freddocino, also often on the menus?

A few more pretty pictures...

 

a few buildings

*

Santorini is known for its many white, curving buildings perched on steep hills above the water... just what people think of when they imagine Greek islands.  My husband began to call this "bento box architecture" because of the curving lines... bento box and otherwise, it's very lovely.  Much of Santorini's architecture was destroyed by a violent earthquake in the 50s, so almost all of these buildings have been put up since then, in "traditional" style...

a white, winding street in a 'castello'

 

inside the cultural center, which is a renovated villa...

 

In Thira...

 

Crowds watching the sunset in Oia

* this is a typical Greek church steeple, taken in a tiny town in Southern Santorini - bells are always in threes, to represent the Holy Trinity

Fauna

How could I not include a "fauna" post after writing about flora?  Most of the fauna I noticed though were lizards, bumble bees, and pets.  Oh, and donkeys too: they are apparently the symbol of Santorini due to their use in getting up and down the steep hills from the ports (and now you can pay five euros for a donkey ride, which I did not do!).  I was told that the donkeys are considered to have very beautiful eyes, so in Greece it's very flattering to compare a woman's eyes to a donkey's.  I don't think I'll try that... just in case...

One of these lovely creatures, having a snack...

And the pets that are EVERYWHERE.  Seemed like every restaurant had cats or dogs on the terrace (note the plural), and sometimes we just saw them hanging out on their own... 

here's one waiting for service...

 

enjoying some shade...

 

having a nap...

people-watching...

Flora...

As I just intimated in my last post, Santorini is a place to visit to admire natural beauty and see some fascinating remnants of the Minoan civilization... but the biggest source of revenue for the island is tourism, so very few people actually live there year round.  I think most of the few people who do are farmers: wine, cherry tomatoes, capers, white eggplants.  But the climate is difficult for farming: mountainous, VERY arid, harsh winds in the summer.  I learned some interesting tid-bits about farming there, for instance the great presence of pumice (because this is a volcanic island) helps keep the soil hydrated. They also favor very low plants because of the winds.  All the trees - fig, pistachio, eucaliptus - were introduced to the island by enterprising vistors - it would otherwise look more like a desert.  Anyway, here are a bunch of plant pictures I took - for a New Yorker used to an urban rainforest (how it feels right now) I found these plants to be quite delightful...

(The picture above is of a caper plant, this is how they grow!  Who knew?  I also didn't know that a caper is actually a bud, similar in concept to a fig...)

 

 

And last but not least...

Figs!  yum!

Back!

Hello!

I am back in New York, as of late last night, and in the business of unpacking and laundry and errands.  I'm exhausted... I had a long lay-over in London on the way back yesterday, which meant time for a nice lunch in town in one of my favorite cities, but it meant that when we got into our door at 11:30 PM I realized that we'd been traveling for over 24 hours.  On the bright side, I read Sons and Lovers from cover to cover in one day, which is a book that's been on my "ought to read" list for probably 15 years.  I vary between hating D.H. Lawrence and simply not liking him, so I have a sense of homework done.  But I didn't not enjoy the novel, which is more than I can say for the others that I've read, and I've caught myself thinking about it a lot since (though obviously not much time has passed since I finished it!).  On the way over, as an aside, I read Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, which I somehow had never gotten around to reading.  I loved it.

OK - big tangent to say that I am going to post more pics instead of writing and write more later!!  But I am so out of it today that I started spooning ground coffee into my coffee cup instead of the coffee press... and a dozen other silly mishaps.  Feel like my brain is on a different planet from my body.  anyway hope you enjoy these!  Speaking of coffee, I want to tell you about the Nescafe Frappe.  This is the only thing I've learned about Greek Culture on an island full of international tourists and the people who cater to them