Epiphany

Still house-sitting on 6th January, I arrived in Preveza to find a procession made up of a brass band, Greek Orthodox priests, altar boys and church dignitaries making its way along the shopping street. I later found out this was the procession of the Greek Festival of Epiphany, or 'The Blessing of the Waters' which is held every year on January 6 throughout all of Greece. I also discovered that I had missed the most interesting part of this special occasion which is when young Greek men brave the chilly waters to dive for a cross after it has been blessed by a priest and thrown into the water. The first man who recovers the cross is said to have good luck throughout the coming year. I have made a note to watch this part of the Festival next year.
My house-sitting duties have now finished; the dog and cats were happy to be back in the tender loving care of their owner and I was happy to move back to my apartment. We have had some torrential rain over the last couple of weeks and temperatures in the low teens although we got up to 16 degrees today. When the sun does shine there is a hint of spring in the air and there are wild dwarf iris growing in the hedgerows and Mombretia growing on walls in Preveza. Despite this hint of spring the woods have an autumnal look as the leaves on the deciduous trees only begin to change colour in December.
This is a quiet time of year when tavernas tend to close for a refurb or simply because there are no visitors to the area. The sales have just started so the shopping streets will be busy for the next few weeks and it is a good time to pick up a bargain.
The forecast is for dry weather over the next week so I’m hoping to spend some time at TheMoonGrove picking up the nets, pruning the olive trees and doing some maintenance on the land. I shall also be looking out for the wild narcissi which will be appearing between the trees very shortly. Watch out for the piccies, the flowers are so pretty and have a beautiful scent. At the moment there are lots of different fungi on TheGrove at the moment although we have yet to find any that are edible.
So here’s to a productive, rustic, next week and hopefully some more of that spring-like sunshine.