Weather

Well the weather is still hot, but not so bad compared to Turkey 50C which is like 125F. But since we have the heat wave we now have over 100 fires burning in Greece and the Islands, all of the planes are being used and we have even borrowed some firefighters from other countries (Italy and France). The closest fire to us is about an hour away so it's not affecting us, but that is the fire that they found 2 dead people. We are surrounded by mountains so hopefully no forest fires will come here.
Everything is going well here.

Peaceful on the Greek Front

Just wanted to let everyone know that not much is happening here. We haven't had any greek holidays, so I'm missing out on my dancing. Last night there was a DJ at the central square and we could here his hiphop bass booming music all the up to our house. This weekends weather is supposed to be at 43 C, I have no clue what that is into Fahrenhiet, but I know it's pretty darn hot already at 36 C. We get summer showers like New Mexico here, but the humidity doesn't allow it to cool down, unlike NM where the summer shower can cool the place by 10 degrees F. We also have the coolest thunder and lightening, the thunder echoes off of the rocks and can last for several minutes, very loud and totally fun to listen to as long as you're hanging out in a dry spot.

A Visit from Rhonda

Yahhh, Rhonda made it to Greece, our first visitor from the states, Hello Rhonda!We picked Rhonda up at the airport in Athens and drove back to Kalampaka making a stop at a beach town to have some coffee and chocolate.
We took a small break at Varlaam Monastery and had some cookies and water. Rhonda and I hiked from Koka Roka all the way down to Kastraki, as we walked by the lady who sells us our bread that we give to customers I told her we had to stop and say hello. As we left here comes Arthur to pick up some bread so we were able to hitch a ride back with him, I'm so glad he came when he did my legs were killing me.
This is our last night with Rhonda, after eating a big meal of sausage, mutton and lamb chops for the meat selection along with greek salad, bean salad, olives and bread for the side dishes.
From left to right: Nick, Arthur, Mara, Rhonda, and Katerina

White Spider

We have some of the coolest little creatures here in Greece , some of them are scarry looking like the house centipede and some of them just don't know that they belong outside like the millipede and the scorpion. But this was a totally awesome white spider who had caught a bee inside of one of my roses, of course I tried to explain to the spider to eat the bad bugs and not one of the good bees who help pollinate our gardens and make honey.

A Day in the Life of Mara - Part II

Okay so this was a month long nap, but well worth taking. In the afternoons on the weekdays I take a nap, on the weekends I'm busy watching TV series like Grey's Anatomy, Friends, House, Veronica Mars and Monk so I don't take naps.Feeding and talking to guest at night, Mara makes the salads, Arthur takes the orders and Katerina prepares the meat, we all make sure it doesn't burn on the grill. Then it is Bon Appetite.