Sunday, June 5, 2011

A Little of This A Lot of That

Please excuse my absence.

This little monkey was on a sleeping strike for several days.

She is, after all, half Greek, and, as "striking" seems to be the favorite national pass-time of Greeks, you really cannot blame her.


It is a good thing she is cute.
 


So, to catch y'all up on what we have been doing....hang on to your hats, it may be a long one.

First of all, if you have been reading this blog since it began, you know all about my laundry situation.  Add a baby into that mix and you have quadruple the fun.  On top of that, I have been fighting some major additional laundry battles.

So, you know that little patch of land behind us where they grow grapes?

Well, I have always had a bit of a problem with them "spraying" that land.  It is an old village lady, or, occasionally her husband that works that land, and I have had a few altercations with them in the past.  My backyard is small.  The distance from my back doors to their land is all of about 10-12 feet maximum.  So, when they spray, especially when the wind is right, we are getting sprayed also..sometimes literally.  One time last spring I was reading/ dozing on a sunbed in my backyard with my back to their land.  I suddenly felt wet and looked to the skies.  They were clear.  I looked behind me and, lo and behold, I was being sprayed by pesticides (or who knows what).  Charming.

I have also, on MANY occasions, smelled something from my bedroom or bathroom (which face the back) only to look out the open windows and see them spraying their grapes, and, therefore, my hanging clean laundry and back rooms.

Now, I realize that it is their land, and they have a right to spray their grapes.  What I cannot handle is that they cannot simply say to me..."we are spraying today, bring  your clothes in and close your windows."  I know they are capable of this because, it has happened that I will be inside my house and hear a persistent yelling.  Upon investigation I have found spraying-village-lady standing at my fence yelling at me.  She calls me out from inside my house to bring her water...because she is thirsty.  Not, I-am-overheated-and-may-pass-out thirsty, just I-think-I fancy-a-drink-of-water-and-I-will-tell-that-girl-who-lives-in-that-house-to-bring-me-one thirsty.  I do.  So, if she can call me out to do that, can she not call me out to salvage my clean clothes?

The thing is, also, that they realize the stuff is hazardous.  When they spray they are fully decked out in gloves and masks.  What the spray is exactly I have no idea.  Things are not as regulated here aa they are in the States, and people are normally totally unaware/ unconcerned with chemicals and toxins as a whole.  Additionally, it is a family farm, so it is not like any government body regulates what they are spraying there.  It could contain anything.  Just the fact that they are wearing protective covering at all means it must be pretty bad.    Anyway, we all know it is not good stuff.

One morning as I took the laundry out to hang, the man was there and I saw spray equipment.  I asked him if he was going to spray that day and when.  He was really smug and vague about it, saying he was to spray, but he did not know when, "sometime today."  I just wanted an idea so I could wait to hang my stuff later or hang it out and bring it back in later.  He would not give me an answer.  The lady from next door (who I love) overheard and intervened on my behalf.  She spoke more harshly to him and demanded that he at least tell us if he would spray in the morning or afternoon as I had a baby and needed to get this laundry done.  He gave us a straight(er) answer and then warned, since there was a baby in the house, we should make sure to close our windows when he sprayed.  Thanks.

The other part about it is that it is not as if they spray once a month or something.  In the winter and spring, there are few sunny days, so those same rare sunny days that I scramble to hang laundry out they are scrambling to spray.  Not good.  Now that it is sunny most all the time, they are spraying every 3-5 days or so.  You would think I could get my laundry done around that, but I have another major issue as well.....

Remember these guys????   They are baaaaaaack!!!!!

Aaaaaagggghhhh!!!!

They are the most stubborn and persistent little buggers on the face of the planet.  That or the dumbest.  Our goal is to never give them a chance to lay their eggs on our porch, because, once they do......well, who can knock down babies...even gross babies????   

On a DAILY BASIS we knock down their nest.  As in, Christos' nightly routine consists of coming home, feeding the dog, and knocking down their nest with a broom.

And their daily routine consists of building it back.

And all our lovely decorations, although oh-so-aesthetically-pleasing, are to no avail. 

Which leaves our porch, the entrance to our house, covered in this.

Nasty.

I actually had a heart-to-heart talk with one of the little flying rodents the other day, mama-to-mama.  I mean I had a conversation with a bird ALOUD in my front yard. 

It went about like this, "Hello bird.  We have to talk.  Really, I think that we are a lot alike.  We both want the best for our babies.  We both want them to have a good home.  For me, part of having a nice home for my baby consists of that home not being surrounded by bird poop.  That is important for me as a mama.  I realize you want the best for your babies as well.  And, apparently, our porch is a choice piece of baby-laying real estate.  But, here is the thing.  You can build your home in thousands upon thousands of places...anywhere on the island.  You have so many choices.  Me, I do not have that luxury.  At the moment, this is the only place we have available to call home.  So, as a mama, please understand, it would be so wonderful if you could have your babies somewhere other than on my front porch."


I am not making that up.

Mama bird was apparently not moved by my pleas.

One good thing about having a baby in your arms is that the neighbors can all assume you are talking to your child, rather than wildlife, when you stand outside and chatter to no apparent adult listener.  Also a good thing in that case that the neighbors all speak Greek rather than English.  Come to think of it, maybe the birds speak Greek also, and they are not as cold and uncaring as I thought.  Rather, they just do not understand me....

Anyway, they have started hanging out in our backyard this year also...where the laundry hangs.  Which means I see from my bedroom nasty bird claws perched upon my clean laundry...or, better yet, this.....

So, I bought a new rack and tried this....

Yes, that took up my entire kitchen.  The good part about that was it made me smile every single time I looked at it.



All those happy baby colors and cute baby clothes.  It really did make me happy every time I caught sight of it.

The bad thing about that was it took 48 hours for the clothes to dry because of this.

That bottom number would be the humidity factor in our house.  See the weather at the top?  Really, it is sunny, but there is always so much moisture in the air our little sensor thinks it is raining.  So, my kitchen was totally incapacitated for two days while I waited on the clothes to damp-air dry.  I am still looking for alternatives.

As the battle with laundry rages on....



On an unrelated note, we took Maria to have her passport picture taken the other night.  Can I please tell you how utterly adorable she was sitting up there on that little stool and posing?  And, the picture????  I laughed all the way home.  It is like a little baby mugshot.

We also took Maria to the village the other night for a "Litaneia" (aka "litany"...as in prayer and procession.)

She enjoyed seeing her Uncle Spiros all decked out in his band gear.

And she enjoyed looking around a bit.
 

But, she got a bit overwhelmed (as did mama) by all the toothless wonders (aka old village ladies) poking and prodding at her and asking if she wasn't cold.   

So, we headed in early.


Maria has started getting interested in playing with toys lately.


And her feet have become a source of grand entertainment.



This morning, I cooked myself this for breakfast.

I had a major craving.  It was satisfied.  That would be an enormous amount of ground beef (fastest way to get meat from freezer to face) and spinach with rice.  Can we say mama maybe needed some iron????

So, those are the latest happenings around here.  We have got some fun and exciting stuff coming up that I cannot wait to share with y'all, and I still wanna catch y'all up on some things that happened when my parents were here.

As for now, though, I will leave you with a few more pictures of the most adorable face around.  Happy Sunday!!!!
 

2 comments:

  1. Haley, I have just had SO much fun reading your blog!!! Maria is beautiful! Just like you! And your birth story-oh my! I got so teary. How precious! Life in Greece sounds like quite an adventure! Can you stream Netflix there? Just thinking... I can't wait to read more! Thanks for sending me your link.

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  2. I spot a Taki the talking greek bear...my twins have those. :) all the best to you and yours. i enjoy peeking in and laughing from knowing exactly what you are talking about...lovely Greek men & their culture! I sure love mine...being the constant source of entertainment that he is...

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