On Learning Greek, and Model Railways, and COLDNESS

I've been very fully occupied sorting out things to do with my mother's estate.  I'm trying to get round blogs so my apologies if I haven't yet reached yours! And I also have a couple of trips coming up, soon, so my time has been very full.

One of the trips is to Greece. We used to go to Greece so often (almost always with our bikes - the Greeks thought we were totally insane cycling round rural roads in remote areas).that T and I actually learned some Greek.  Where we went, people often hardly spoke any English.

We took Greek lessons with a delightful man who was convinced that the best possible textbook for us was an ancient children's alphabet primer.

It gave interesting glimpses of the daily life of country people not so very long ago.    Here is the page to teach the infants the letter "fi."   You see little Anna confidently blowing the flames to make the fire blaze up, and when the flames don't get high enough, she gets more kindling until she succeeds.   Of course children had to do this and no doubt were taught to be careful..

A later edition of the book had new pictures.   In the new book, Anna is blowing the fire rather than feeding sticks into it by herself.   But I love this picture, she looks so calm and competent in her little apron and her ankle strap shoes.

Unfortunately I forgot all the Greek I ever learned. I don't have any talent for languages, but T is now reminding himself (with the BBC language course) of what he has forgotten, so I expect we'll be fine. Where we're going, they probably all speak English anyway.

Other than studying Greek, we found time yesterday to take S to the annual Model Railways show at Alexandra Palace. It is a regular outing and we always enjoy it.  I never fail to marvel at the absolutely incredible model making skills of the club members who exhibit.  I don't suppose they are professionals, and yet they turn out work that could hardly be improved upon.

Here's just a detail of the background of the Helford Valley Railway.   I am not even sure this railway ever really existed - click the link and read up about it and make up your own mind! Hmmmmm....

But I feel as if I could step right back into this little Cornish village in 1920 - don't you?   The houses are about 70cm high - about dolls house size.  All the stones of the houses are irregular, the concrete yard in the front is weathered, the roads have stones on them......

Each year we try to choose our favourite diorama, although it is always hard to pick just one.  Since the weather outside is so cold outside, this frosty diorama of Kinmundy appealed to young S.

London's actually getting better weather than most other bits of the country, so we didn't have any problems getting to the venue, unlike some of the exhibitors, who didn't manage to turn up.  Parts of the trip between our home and Alexandra Palace were lovely in a Lion Witch and Wardrobe-y way.

Actually I didn't feel too well, and ended up looking like poor old Yiayia (Grandma) in this picture.   I see that I have written the translation (although I am darned if I could translate it now.)   Grandma reckons that it is freezing, and she wants her corner by the fireplace.  Corner by the fireplace!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

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