2024 in review through friends
Old friends and new friends to mark the passage of time.
Our first year on Andros is almost over. There hasn’t been a single dull moment. This is a retrospective of 2024 told selectively through the visits of old friends and the making of new ones.
Spring
Dan and Janet from San Francisco were our first visitors, a few days after I moved in late March. We dug up a dead tree (supervised by Ioannis) and dug new holes for citrus trees. The orange trees are doing well, the kumquat tree has been giving delicious fruit since early December.
JT visited from Stuttgart in the first week of April. Ioannis showed us how to use the tiller; we hiked and swam; but mostly we spent the week continuously going on outings to the hardware store, the grocery store, the bakery, the vacuum cleaner store, and every other place you need to go to get started with a new life; all the while increasingly grateful to Maria & Tasoula for cleaning the house. We also fixed some leaky pipes, and in the process mapped out the property's entire water system.
Maria and Giannis from Kalivari are the best. Giannis helped us mount the Starlink and the TV, showed us how to slaughter chickens, and mowed the property when it was overgrown. Maria taught me how to make fig spoon sweets (sikagliko), dolmades, and gemista, and is generally an amazing cook. They taught me which wild greens are edible, and Maria knitted a onesie for my new nephew (I'm an aunt now!). They were also there to help when the moving truck arrived, and are generally some of the most generous people. I don't know how we would have survived without them this first year; especially since Maria has a magical ability to communicate with me even when I didn't speak any Greek at all yet.
Savoula & Thodoris's family was also super helpful from the start. Here are their boys Giorgos and Alexandros drilling a hole with a big augur for the Bresser weather station that has been reliably reporting temperature, precipitation, pressure, and wind speed for the past 6 months.
Spring is a beautiful time to hike on Andros. I'm grateful to Dimitris for showing Jelena and me the hidden magical river walk right by our house that Yiannis Tridimas unofficially marked. I also started going on maintenance hikes with Andros Routes. Every hike I go on makes me love the island more.
Many non-human friends also entered our lives, including Lilika, many chickens, and a tremendous number of cats. More on all the animals in a separate post soon.
Summer
Summer felt like a very crazy time. It started with an intense heat wave in the second week of June, with a few days of 40C/104F, followed by a scary wildfire in Ypsilos that ultimately burned 3 houses. Then the island suddenly filled to the brim with tourists and summer residents -- the constant population of Andros is estimated at around 9000, in the summer an additional 130'000 or so tourists come. All the usual places were crowded -- Lefteris,' Masoutis, the bakery, and of course the beaches. Sometimes we contributed to the crowd. Other times we just went to excellent parties at peoples' houses. Nikos Avgustis's potato harvest party was a highlight. Angeliki and I arrived late and got to watch the sun slowly set as Lefteris and company played the old songs. The Kalliberries' birthday party for Catherine (no photos, that kind of party) definitely another highlight, with a great DJ and lots of dancing under the stars until the early hours. Another time, we went to see the traditional dance club (Χορευτικός Όμιλος Υδρούσας) perform at the open air theater in Xora. During daylight hours, a few of us (Greeks and expats) from various places on the island held our inaugural ΥΔΩΡ group meeting at Yiannis Battis' place to talk about what can be done about the water situation.
Our first WWOOFer, Magali, came with her camper van from Paris to stay with us for a few weeks. We worked on the garden mornings and evenings, siesta in the afternoon, and some intermittent beach time. And, since we're constantly in learning mode, also spent a lot of time on Youtube watching videos of best low-budget shade cloth designs, how to cure and braid onions, how you know when a watermelon is ready to harvest, etc. The shade cloth draped over old irrigation pipes propped onto bamboo we cut down by the river and stuck in the ground held up well for a while, but eventually was no match for the Andriotic winds. We also harvested the first beans and generally ate lots of veggies from the garden, built small support systems for the tomatoes (you can't really make tomatoes grow very tall where we are because of the winds), and spent a lot of time watering and weeding. We also planted a bunch of tiny new seedlings, including pigeon pea, the magical plant that Ashwini Deo first told me about -- a perennial Indian native with a deep taproot system that can get through heavy clay soil, fixes nitrogen, doesn't mind drought and wind, grows quickly, and produces both delightful little flowers and tasty lentils.
For a few days in mid July Reuben and Sandra came to stay for a few days as part of a honeymoon tour that included Georgia before us and Berlin after, with New York as the eventual destination. Our main project was to build a Hügelkultur bed with Magali, with a bottom layer of a ton of wood, followed by various garden scraps, sawdust/wood shavings from Dimosthenis, fresh pruned greenery, cardboard, and eventually soil, compost, and mulch. In Mediterranean climates, rather than piling everything above ground and letting it slowly sink down as it decomposes, you have to bury it in the ground because it otherwise just dries out immediately and the wood layer can't hold water (which is one of the main points of such a bed). So we put in some digging labor. As of December, the bed includes sweet potatoes, ginger, kale, physalis, pigeon pea, chili peppers, borage, and calendula.
Simon and Jasmina came to visit from Basel in late July. We went to various beaches and they cooked delicious food, but our main project was undoubtedly revitalizing the barbecue. After clearing it out entirely, deep-cleaning, priming, painting, and re-filling it, it was a delight to use (and indeed got used well into autumn). It just gets a bit smoky sometimes. The cats don't mind.
In August, we had full house. Anna and Lara came from Berlin, JT from Stuttgart, Stacey from San Francisco, and Frances from Sydney. We chipped tons of wood for mulch, created more shade cloths according to the design that Magali and I prototyped, weeded and watered and harvested and cooked (including an attempt at pizza on the grill, which was not a total fail). We dug and cleared and planted and heaped more and more stuff onto the compost pile. We spent most of the month without municipal water and took a lot of showers at the beach or not at all (more on the water situation in a separate dedicated post). We also went to the panigiri in Varidi (with Magali, Maria, and Giannis), the big village celebration where a few thousand people come and eat souvlaki and drink beer and dance all night in the old school yard to live music -- see the video below to see Quinn and Maria in action.
One of the main August projects was harvesting and processing the many many figs. JT was our most ambitious harvester, climbing onto the trees. Anna, Lara, and Quinn built some drying racks from old curtain holders. We ate a ton of delicious figs fresh, dried others on our new racks, and JT processed the rest into 2 dozen glasses of tasty jam.
Of course we also hiked, but during the day it was so hot that it didn't really make sense to move much between 11am and 5pm. Nevertheless, we got a few in: the river hike, the caves beyond Zorgos, and the Alba route from Amolochos down to Vitali Beach and back up -- a tough but spectacular one.
During the hot hours of the day, resting was the main program. At the beach, in the hammock, at Lefteris.' Reading, napping, eating, and drinking. Simple.
In late August all the grapes also suddenly ripened (everyone agreed it happened early this year). Ioannis told me in the spring that I don't need to do anything for them to grow -- no water or compost. I couldn't resist an experiment and gave half the grapes compost and a deep watering once in the late spring. That half gave grapes abundantly, the other half gave grapes sparingly. Lesson learned. We harvested and ate all we could. With the rest, we made raisins out of the small seedless variety (re-using our fig drying racks), made grape molasses (which you can turn into a dessert called mustalevria), and contributed the rest to Maria and Giannis's much larger grape harvest, which they make wine from every year.
Harvests are more fun when you don't do them alone. Towards the end of August, I went to Apoikia to help with Michael's harvest, along with many others from Palaiopolis. In the end there weren't enough red grapes to cleanly separate red and white, so we just put them together. What could go wrong with the wine.
Autumn
Autumn came just as abruptly as summer had. Seemingly from one day to another, the tourists disappeared again. The beaches emptied out, restaurants slowly started closing, and everyone who worked the summer season 24/7 finally had time to sleep a bit and lick their wounds. We still had music on porches and at parties (this time for raki instead of for potatoes); the ΥΔΩΡ group reconvened; and Quinn learned to find water from our neighbor Stefanos, who has the gift and whose wife Ioanna bakes excellent pies. There was a giant rainstorm on Sep 10 that brought 7cm of rain and turned the mountains purple with the heather bloom for weeks. The light started changing and the mood turned more contemplative.
In mid September, my parents visited from Basel. My dad and I fixed the e-bikes that had broken in the summer. My mom started clearing the weed jungle from the overgrown parts of the garden. My father eventually accepted her garden authority and helped her. I threw out my back and just watched. And of course we went to the beach.
In late September, Sebastian and Chris visited from London, and Greg and Nathan visited from Irvine, California. Sebastian tried his best to harvest whatever measly skinny carrots had made it in our hard, rock-riddled clay with very little water. Nathan showed me how to graft (or rather, bud) grapefruit, lime, bergamot, and mandarin scions we got from neighbor Stefanos onto a tree whose rootstock took over a long time ago. It was the wrong time of the year (as he told me multiple times), so until now only one graft survived. But I'll try again in the spring. Greg was on a re-organization mission. He completely re-distributed the living room books and (with Quinn) cleared out, cleaned, and made a design for storage and a work bench in the garage. He also planted a wildflower bed that thus far mostly serves to showcase the impressive variety of seasonal weeds. Lilika's favorite project was hiking the 14 from Zorgos all the way up to the Irini chapel.
In autumn, the Andros Routes maintenance hikes also started back up. A particularly impressive one was from Vourkoti down to Achla Beach through the Agios Nikolaos monastery. We went with a large group (~40 people) and were also joined by Olga, who runs the whole impressive operation with the help of Katerina and all the volunteers. Our new friends Dimitris and Benita with Susuna were also part of the crew. We walked for many hours down into the valley and along the river, back up to the monastery, and finally down all the way to the beach for a replenishing swim. The whole outing was capped a little ways back up the hill by an excellent homecooked meal involving a goat. We rode back up to our cars precariously packed into the beds of a few pickup trucks, exhaustedly enjoying the scenic ride.
Winter
Winter on the island is beautiful. The brassicas and garlic I planted in the fall started to get completely overrun by the green of the clover and nettles that springs up absolutely everywhere. The leaves of deciduous trees like mulberries turn and fall (new compost material!). There is rain. Building materials arrived and we spent a lot of time on the roof with Xhafer working on our first substantial infrastructure project (dedicated post to come). We had a great birthday party with our many delightful new island friends. I got two straw bales and some perennial food plants from Kimon and a pitchfork from Daan, Lisa, and Luea. Best presents ever. Except for Quinn and Christiane performing Bon Jovi live. Dimosthenis lent us his sound system and party lights, and he and Catherine came and ruthlessly rearranged (improved) our living room. In winter I also notably finished my route angel training under the supervision of Yiannis Tridimas and Antonis Sassalos and am now officially in charge of maintaining the Alba route. And of course, the ΥΔΩΡ team reconvened, this time to write a letter to the mayor about the proposed land use plan for Andros. Spoiler: renovating the port to allow cruise ships to dock is likely not the way to go.
In early November, Anna returned for a few days. We cleared the completely overgrown seasonal creek bed using only pruners and the hand saw, in preparation for eventually installing some micro-dams to slow down some of the water that flows straight off the property, and felt very accomplished. We also hiked Alba again. In contrast to the summer, Vitali beach was completely empty when we arrived. After a swim we had a delightfully lonely lunch, joined only by the inevitable cat, so Lilika chose to perch herself at a distance.
My mother the garden maniac enjoyed blazing through the brush with pruners so much that she convinced my father to return for another week for more of the same. Our main achievements included digging out the pig house from under years of growth -- what shall we turn it into? -- and planting some things. Notably: a bougainvillea (even though I told her no purely ornamental plants) and a bay laurel tree for my new nephew Magnus Aurelius. Quinn and my father had a productive collaboration building garage shelves, implementing part of the design we developed with Greg. We also discovered the long but beautiful drive to Achla, and hiked the river walk by hour house (though it took us longer than expected and Quinn had to come pick us up at the bottom). And watched as Lilika and Bobby -- the Kalliberries' dog -- became best friends.
It has been a stimulating, challenging, and thoroughly enjoyable first (almost) year on Andros. The challenges stemmed mostly from bureaucracy and lack of resources (e.g., water). The thoroughly enjoyable part was the place -- the nature and culture all around us and the many people, local and foreign, who we connected with. Needless to say, there are tons of people who I haven't properly acknowledged here just for lack of photos. The Kalliberries -- Catherine, Dimosthenis, and Thanos -- have been amazing and inspiring neighbors and friends throughout the year. I have no idea how many tools I borrowed from Dimos. Daan and Lisa arrived roughly at the same time as us on the island in similar (albeit different) situations and have become treasured confidants. Inga and Önay show up every now and inject some more delightful nutty energy into our corner of the island. Working on this property requires many trips to the hardware store. I've seen Katia Mamais at least once a week this year, and she always has the right piece/tool/information for us. She also makes delicious tiropita. I don't see Angeliki as much since my back problems returned and I got a job and can never make it to evening yoga again, but she is a consistent source of peace. Alexandros Stavras is a cool guy and knows everything about the island. He will also bring a delicious roasted sheep leg to your party. The Palaiopolis crew keeps us connected to art and togetherness -- Christiane, Johanna, Daan, Lisa, Luea, Johan, Jose, Colette, Vasilis. So do others who happen to not live in Palaiopolis -- Kostas, Leen, Lefteris. Nigel is a fixture who we can count on to be in Gavrio almost anytime we go and to disseminate relevant news to us while incidentally living a vegan lifestyle except when he cheats by eating Kimon's goat. Loukas has shown up countless times to help with our abundant water and heating issues, and he is just one of many without whom we would be lost here. My hope for 2025 is that I can start giving back.
An excellent summary Judith! Wowza, I had no idea your Greek Island would be the social hub that it is. You are abundant in your gratitude but I imagine your visitors received just as much joy.
I have great envy for your different growing/composting/watering methods. I need to hit the books instead of wringing my hands, which is my go to when agricultural plans do not come to fruition. You are an inspiration!
Another great update of life in the Greek Isles.... We miss you! You probably got my update.... https://doebayresortretreat.createsend1.com/t/y-e-cyklhuy-l-ji/ will you ever be stateside again?