Share files???

I verified that we can't share files through our blog.

Do you want to open a joint yahoo email account, where we can send emails with file attachments?

I'll let you choose the name - you are so talented in this!

How do you like the baby kimono I made some time ago?

Merhaba!

It is 7:20 pm - I just finished the stressful day after a sleepless night! I was looking forward to doing something nice - such as writing this.

I went to the concert last evening. Although the stadium was not very nice and the spectators were not respectful to the artists, I ENJOYED the concert. It was the first time I heard an only men concert: four of our best singers, fantastic strong voices! The composer (Thanos Mikroutsikos) is also one of our best and his songs based on Kavvadias poetry are unique. They presented the songs in an unusual way last night, with a jazz twist. There were 6 instruments in the orchestra, plus the composer on the piano, and in many of the songs each instrument was playing a solo part, one after the other. Fantastic!

Maybe I have already told you, but an open air concert is my favourite form of entertainment. I feel that I really participate by singing.

Smart that you changed the name to Arachnes... I like it...

Here is how you fooled me yesterday: it is not true that in Greek the plural is formed by simply adding an s at the end of the singular. The last syllable is usually - if not always - changed in the plural. Example (one of your favourite words, not Greek in origin I think, but shows the point): dantella (lace) - dantelles (laces). In the case of ΑΡΑΧΝΗ (pronounced arachne, but the last e is i as in Izmir), the plural is ΑΡΑΧΝΕΣ (arachnes, the es is like in Estonia). In english it seems to need only an s. When I saw it, I read in with the Greek pronounciation and remained STUNNED!!!

Cooking news: I made a large pot of lahanodolmades (no need to translate) on Sunday night. They became delicious. Tonight we (my siste and I) will eat them with egg and lemon sauce. I told you that my youngest sister is in Cyprus since September, working here and living with me.

Decorating news: on Sunday my sister and I made plans to paint the appartment: living room and hall way in two tones of yellow, kitchen in three tones of peach and terracota, kitchen veranda door terracota, verandas colour not decided yet. I will also do stencils, which I love! We are expecting friends for the baptism, I told you. I wanted to change the colours but was not brave enough. She is the bold one regarding this - she is 26!!!

Till this weekend I must find a way to send you the lace file!

Let me stop here for tonight.

Love!
Κατερίνα, η Ελληνίδα Αράχνη (you can read this, I will not translate)

A little twist in the hot wine recipe...

Pierce the lemon or orange with the cloves and bake it in the oven before putting it to boil in the wine... from a recipe called "Bishop's Wine". I'll send it to you

Two Terrible Twos & Hot Wine ~ Ç

• 
  Was very nice weekend...:
  Friday-Saturday at the best friend’s lovely home...dinner, fireplace, wine,hot wine, knitting...girl-talk...two boys...the younger one is almost two which means terrible two...
  He is very cute... Curly light brown hair, a very happy face and he is outgoing...His down fall (w/out injuries) frequency is very high: three per 2 hours.
• My Hot Wine recipe:
  1 bottle of a medium quality red wine
  2-3 Cinnamon sticks ( if you have only the powdered one, then you should filter it later on) 2-3 cloves
  2-3 table spoon of sugar
  Orange / Lemon peel
  Very small pieces of apple / pear (like mini-dices as we say in Turkish)
  You boil everything in a saucepan... serve in anything glass...
• From Finland Christmas glögg

1 Bottle red wine * 2-3 tablespoons Madeira (optional) * 1/2 cup raw sugar, or to taste1/3 cup raisins * 1-2 sticks cinnamon * 5-6 whole cloves peelings of I orange * 1/4 cup blanched, slivered almonds * 1/4 cup vodka to spike it up (optional) ( in another recipe it was brandy-Ç)
In a large kettle, combine all the ingredients except the vodka. Heat slowly, until the drink is steaming hot. Stir every now and then, and taste with a spoon whenever you feel like it. Do not let the drink get even close to boiling. Just keep it warm. Before serving, add vodka if you wish. Servings: 1 to 6

• I continued to knit my scarf, even started a beret...It has almost every tone of blue from white-blue to turquoise...
  
• Sunday started with a breakfast in a friend’s house... Again a lot of girl-talk, in this case i must say women-talk... We bought a very elegant vase from Paşabahçe... The wrapping was almost more elegant than the inside... Lily paper and a fabric- flower, Lavender...Beautiful....
  
• Sunday evening continued BBQ in the apartment (building)’s garden with the neighbours..Again meat “sucuk” with hot wine... Then tea&talk in one of the neighbour’s house...They have a son, two years boy = terrible two: In a second,, he scratched my face!
  

My last weekend

Kalispera!

I am drinking my afternoon coffee (a tradition since I came to Hyperion, not nescafe', the real coffee - turkish/greek) and will take a break to write highlights of my weekend related to Arakhne. I would really like a lokum with the coffee.....

I am making samples for my new knit, the one in green/mauve mohair. I still haven't decided upon the correct needle size and I get upset when I have to undo what I knitted!

I am also very much taken by a book I am reading these days. Actaully, it is a trilogy called "Les Enfants de Salonique" and written by Bernard Lenteric, a French. The story begins in Thessaloniki, around 1880 and gives a very vivid description of people's lives and relationships between Greeks and Turks mainly, but also Jews and Slavs in the background. Fascinating! A friend of mine recommended the books to me when we were in Paris many years ago. Then I had found volumes 2 and 3. Last time I was in Paris 10 days ago, I had only a few hours and went only for dinner and to look at books and I found volume 1!!!! So I started reading it immediately!

Lace related news: my sister will baptize the daughter of a close friend in the end of April here in Nicosia. She and mama are making all the clothes for the baby and she asked me to do bibila on the underware and cap and maybe the dress also. Of course, I will post the pictures here.

Yesterday I watched an old boradcast dedicated to one of our singers, Glykeria, who sings "anatolitika" - eastern - songs mainly. One of the guests was Omar Farouk Tekbilek. It was the first time I listened to him and liked very much his songs. He has sung with Glykeria Greek songs in duet - fantastic...

Tonight I am going to a concert: composer Thanos Mikroutsikos presents his two masterpieces 'Southern Cross" ("Σταυρός του Νότου") and "Horizon Lines" ("Γραμμές τών Οριζόντων") based on the poetry of Nikos Kavvadias, a sailor who wrote poems on the ships during his life time. 4 singers and the composer himself on the piano! The CD may be in the next Pandora's envelop, but I am not sure whether you will like the songs, as it is a little peculiar and the important part are the poems.

I am going back to work now!
I always write too much!

Love,
Κατερίνα

Arakhne's Story...

Arachne was a young woman from Lydia, who offended Athena, and suffered the consequences.

Arachne was gifted in the art of weaving. Not only were her finished products beautiful to look at, but the very act of her weaving was a sight to behold. Nymphs were said to abandon their frolicking to come observe Arachne practice her magic. So remarkable were her works that observers often commented that she must have been trained by the very patron goddess of weaving, Athena herself. Arachne scoffed at this. She was disgusted at being placed in an inferior place to the goddess and proclaimed that Athena herself could not do better than her.

Athena was quite perturbed at Arachne's bold claim, but she decided to give the young woman a chance to redeem herself. She came to Arachne disguised as an old woman and warned her to be careful not to offend the gods, lest she incur their wrath. But Arachne told the old woman to save her breath. She welcomed a contest with Athena, and, if she lost, would suffer whatever punishment the goddess deemed necessary.

The goddess accepted the challenge and revealed her true form. The nymphs who had come to watch Arachne's weaving shrunk back in fear, but Arachne stood her shaky ground. She had made a claim, and she was sticking to it. So the contest began, the mortal at her loom, the goddess at hers. Athena began to weave the scene of her contest with Poseidon for the city of Athens. A beautiful scene developed from the threads, showing Poseidon and the salt water spring, and Athena with an olive tree, gifts to the people who would name Athena as their patron, and their city after her. The bystanders marveled at the goddess' work.

Arachne, for her part, created a tapestry showcasing scenes of Zeus' various infidelities: Leda with the Swan, Europa with the bull, Danaë and the golden rain shower. So exquisite was the mortal's work that the bull seemed lifelike, swimming across the tapestry with a real girl on his shoulders. Even Athena herself was forced to admit that Arachne's work was flawless.
Angered at Arachne's challenge, as well as the presumptuousness of her choice of subjects, Athena tore the tapestry to pieces and destroyed the loom. Then she touched Arachne's forehead, making sure that she felt full guilt for her actions. Arachne was ashamed, but the guilt was far too deep for her poor, mortal mind. Depressed, she hanged herself.
Athena took pity on Arachne. She most likely did not expect that Arachne would commit suicide. She brought her back to life, but not as a human. By sprinkling her with the juices of aconite, Athena transformed the woman into a spider, her and her descendants to forever hang from threads and to be great weavers.

(by Melissa Lee)

Inaugurating our Arakhne, I contribute α picture of my οwn bibila lace, dedicated to my dear friend Çiğdem!

Κατερίνα

Merhaba - Hello - Kalimera