Embroidery and Art Classes for the Winter

Winter in Rethymnon brings with it a golden opportunity for many of us to discover - or rediscover - some of our hidden talents, and also to learn more about the traditional arts and crafts of the region. As we reported earlier in the year, Maria Hoffmeister is a locally based artist who has also worked for many years as a lace making teacher and designer. She has developed a special diagram for recording traditional embroidery designs (in particular the geometric designs associated with the ’Rethymnon Stitch’) and for creating new ones. We thank Maria for providing us with the following update about her Embroidery Group and also for giving us the details of new Art Courses for Adults that she will be running from this month:

Embroidery Group Update
Starting on November 8th, the Embroidery Group will move to The Cretan Corner Taverna in Aptera (direction Chania / Megala Horafia). The main emphasis of the Embroidery Group is on Rethymnon Embroidery, but you can also learn about / get advice on other types of needlecraft, including quilting and patchwork, and obtain guidance on making and planning your own designs. The group meets on the second Saturday of each month from 10.00 to 13.00; participation is 10 € for session, no prior booking is required. For further details please contact Maria at email hemahoff@web.de or phone 28250 22331.

New Series of Art Courses for Adults
We adults may think that we “have no talent”, but we do have a life-long experience of responding to visual impulses. Using this experience, we can re-discover our innate abilities for painting and drawing which we had when we were children, and develop them consciously.
The series starts in November with the following courses:
ART IN OUR LIFE – exploring the elements and principles of design and how we respond to them (weekly).
DRAWING 1 / PAINTING 1: (alternate weeks) for beginners and advanced students who would like to ‘close gaps’.
Contact details for the Art Courses are as for the Embroidery Group.

Recipe: Strangely Exciting Spicy Fishy Pasta

You will need:

Surgical Gloves — these can be obtained at any halfway decent pharmacy in town. I would give you the official Greek for ‘gloves’, but have just discovered that in my Collins English Greek Dictionary there are some missing bits: the page that starts with the word ‘conjurer’ seems to be immediately followed by a page that starts with ‘inducement’. For those of you who want to know the Greek for ‘conjurer’ it is ταχυδακτυλουργός (masculine and feminine, what a relief!), which is not to be confused with αγριοκάστανο (conker) or τα φτύνο (to conk out). Anyway, to get back to the gloves—if you go into a pharmacy and say something like ‘γάντια’ and wave your hands about the pharmacist will understand (or will phone the nice men in white coats at the hospital in Souda).
Apart from the surgical gloves, the other ingredients for this dish are:
Garlic, onions, hot peppers, black olives, tuna, anchovies, tomatoes, tomato purée, fresh Mediterranean herbs, your favourite type of pasta, olive oil, butter, black pepper, fish stock and / or fish sauce.

Method:

Take the stones out of the olives and chop the onions and garlic. Don the surgical gloves, chop and de-seed the hot peppers. This way you will help to protect your hands from irritation, and once the gloves are removed will also be less likely to rub your eyes with chilli covered fingers. Blanch the tomatoes. Sweat the onions and garlic in oil, then add the peppers. Once the peppers have softened, add the remaining ingredients for the sauce. Top up liquid with fish stock as required.
Boil the pasta: my preference is ribbon spaghetti, but curly wurly shapes or penne will probably be fine as long as you don’t overcook it (steer clear of tins of Heinz spaghetti hoops). Toss the pasta in butter and season well with freshly ground black pepper. Delicious, really quick and easy to make (once you’ve bought the gloves!) and the sauce freezes well.

Cocktail of the Month: Flamingo

Following on from the word association theme, our cocktail of the month is Flamingo. This is to do with the fact that some British people will be celebrating Guy Fawkes night on the 5th November. This night is also known as ’Bonfire Night’ and ’Flamingo’ has the word ’flaming’ in it (we get worse).

Anyway for your pink drink you need: 1½ oz gin, ½ oz apricot brandy, ½ oz lime juice, 1 teaspoon grenadine. Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Music to drink this by: Bird on a Wire by Leonard Cohen, or Light My Fire by The Doors….