The morning after

Despite the fact that there was no night before, we still have the morning after. This is Clean Monday, the first day of Lent and Lent is something that most Greeks take seriously. No flesh nor sweets will be eaten from today until Easter. For the next seven weeks the popular diet consists of fish, eggs, dairy and vegetables. Thankfully our hens are currently producing between 3 and 4 eggs per day and our freezer is well enough stocked with home-grown goodies to save us from curtain-twitching visits to the butcher. We have just finished all our home-grown broccoli and cauliflower but we still have fresh cabbage and spring onions in the garden as well as a variety of beans in the freezer. The locals are out on the hillsides with their little bags and their sharp knives gathering 'horta', also known as 'mountain greens'. We have been shown several times which weeds are popularly said to be edible, but we have found that no matter who's instructions we follow, they never become a dish we relish and so the lessons have not become fixed in our minds. I'm pretty sure that something in this shot is popular, but I could be mistaken and this is the most appetising photograph of dozens! However, when a Greek baker puts horta into a pie it's lovely!