Summer’s here at last, and it brings two novelties in my life with my husband, Andy. First, he got retired last month, so we spend our days together at home now. We are finally able to enjoy quiet beach picnics on the weekdays, avoiding the Sunday crowds. So far, the difference it makes to our summer fun and sense of peace is tremendous.
The second novelty is our new front yard, which came to be not by choice, but by necessity. We completed the decoration late June, and already, it’s proven to be a great blessing. Our front garden that used to be there was destroyed by a flood last December, and so was the cesspit situated underneath it. We had to make a new one from scratch and make a yard on top of it instead of a garden.
Evening meals out there are idyllic, with tealights and lit lanterns all around. A cool breeze blows in most evenings from the Geraneia mountain range that towers over our little seaside town of Nea Peramos. It’s just perfect.
The first time we had dinner in the yard, it was so amazing an experience that we totally lost track of time after our meal. We couldn’t believe it when we checked the time and saw it was eleven p.m!
It’s much too hot to use this space in the day this time of year, but I did sit with my laptop to try it out once. I even took off my flip flops to do a bit of grounding. Win-win😀
Andy took this photo just as Gino, our doggie, came over to sit by me.
Gino used to be my mother’s dog. In October 2018, she brought him over from the island of Limnos at the end of her long annual stay with my father in our family home there. She carried Gino in a little bundle, and he was ever so cute and small.
After my mother’s passing in 2020, my father took on his care, and together, they had much fun in the couple of years he spent on this Earth as a widower, before his own passing in 2023.
Dad used to take Gino along with him on vacation to Limnos, like he used to do with Mom. Whenever he had a souvlaki pitta take out, he’d buy one for himself and one for Gino, which I’ve always thought was really sweet.
The other thing Dad did was he used to sit Gino before him on his moped and take the lane down to the beach (a short ride along quiet village lanes) to go swimming with him. They were inseparable.
Now, I guess Gino is inseperable with Andy and me. He gives us much affection and joy, and we take care of him, for my parents’ sake too, as they both loved him immensely.
This summer, we plan to take Gino to Limnos on vacation with us. Gino hasn’t been there since my father took him last in 2022. I bet the doggie still has the map of the village and the surrounding fields indellible in his mind!
He used to find openings in the fencing of our property (or escape through the gates, if left open, and run off to the fields to hunt wild rabbits or just to roam. He was forever sniffing around, as I recall. Of course, I intend to keep him on the leash to keep him safe, and I expect he will not like the novelty.
My father didn’t use a leash on Gino while on Limnos, but the dog used to walk closely beside him most of the time and not run after the fowl and the sheep that roam free over there. Yet, he sometimes escaped his attention and ran off out of the blue, always in the direction of the open fields, to return home on his own, an hour or more later.
These days, Gino is a good boy and listens better to commands, but he is still a bit of a free spirit, and you never know when he will turn rogue again LOL, especially once he is on Limnos! He is chipped, of course, so I guess that’s something in case he escapes again. Fingers crossed!
This is a picture of Gino from the other day. He is fully groomed and ready for his summer vacation in August.
We had a bit of fun jesting with our neighbors, as they had trouble recognising him after his first-ever, radical transformation. Andy, forever the jester, told them when they asked that we had to let Gino go and get a new one. It didn’t take them long to work it out, of course, and there were chortles all around.
With his new haircut, Gino looks more like a Jack Russell now, don’t you think? He certainly feels like one to the touch. LOL!
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