There are two churches in the village of Moskohori; one in the fields and one on the main square. The one in the fields, below, is dedicated to Agia Kyriaki, or Saint Sunday, so called because she was finally born on a Sunday after her parents had waited forever for their longed-for child. As you might guess (since she ended up as a saint), she didn't have an easy ride. Having decided that she wanted to devote her life to Christ, she refused to marry the son of the local judge in Izmit, where they lived. To cut a very long and grizzly story short, she managed to escape execution three times. Once by managing to trigger an earthquake, which destroyed the temple where she was to have been killed, then by making the flames of a fire fizzle out and finally by dying of her own accord just as she was about to be beheaded. Despite all these tumults, this little church is a very peaceful and beautiful place, surrounded by trees and cotton fields and next to a river.
Agia Kyriaki
The main church in the village is dedicated to Agia Paraskevi, or Saint Friday. She also had a tough time of it. Born to Greek parents in Rome, she dedicated her life to Christ and faced tortures because of her preaching. The Emperor Antonius tried to finish her off with a cauldron of burning tar and oil but it didn't harm her. Surprised at this, the emperor tried the mixture on himself and chucked it as his own face. Why? We really don't know. Sure enough it was boiling and he blinded himself and immediately begged Friday to baptize him. She not only agreed to this but she also cured his eyes.
Storks arrive every spring and nest on the roof of the church. This year Mum and Dad Stork have had four babies and they are already full grown. When you see them flying, they look pre-historic; just as you imagine a pterosaur might have been. They will be off again in the autumn.
This is the railway bridge in Gorgopotamos, which neighbours our village of Moskohori*. It has historic importance. In 1942, Greek partisans and British soldiers (including Major Christopher Woodhouse) worked together in what, by all accounts, was a complicated, dangerous and 'Boy's Own' type of mission to blow up the bridge and thus prevent the transportation of enemy supplies. The partisans were in two groups, both of them led by very colourful and controversial characters: Aris Velouchiotis led the Greek Liberation Army and Napoleon Zervas headed the National Republican Greek League. The fact that Velouchiotis and Zervas were seldom in agreement didn't help matters. As you can see from these library pics, it must have been tricky to know who was who!
Here is Aris Velouchiotis.
And this is Napoleon Zervas.
Christopher 'Monty' Woodhouse grew a beard to fit in.
The fighters were aided and sheltered by the villagers of Gorgopotamos as they planned and planted explosives. Legend has it that Granny Tembelis (from a local family who still own a taverna in the village) almost scuppered the whole operation by calling out to a shepherd lad 'Don't take the goats to graze there-they're going to blow up the bridge tonight'.
Apart from the bridge, Gorgopotamos is famous for its rushing river and the ice cold springs.
* I always spell the name of our village Moskohori. If it was properly transliterated, it would be Moschochori [ΜΟΣΧΟΧΩΡΙ] but that always looks such a mouthful and you have to keep explaining that it's 'ch as in loch'. So I go for the more pronouncable approximation.
Up in the mountains near here, on the outskirts of the village of Gravia is a 'corner of a foreign field that is forever England.' Or more specifically Britain and Russia. It's the British Cemetery of Bralo and it houses the graves of 102 soldiers who died during the First World War-most of them, apparently, from the influenza epidemic which hit the hospital where they had been sent to recover from war injuries.
It's amazingly well-maintained and really does look like a little bit of England in the middle of the Greek countryside.
The hot, sulphuric springs of Thermopylae are a 15 minute drive from where we live, in Moskhori. Which explains why I have only been once in my entire 25 years here in the village! Oh well, I went on the first day of this year and it was wonderful. The springs are almost completely as nature intended-in the rocks-you step through mud and then down some dangerously rotting wooden steps to get into the pool. This means that no-one who is actually in serious need of therapy can benefit from them-you have to be very able-bodied to get into the water. The upside of the total lack of organization is that they are free-you just stumble and slither in. The temperature of the water is about 40c. People come from miles around to bathe here and some park caravans and stay for a while. Of course they are right by the site of the famous Battle of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the Spartans said 'Molon Leve' (Come and get it) to the Persian invading forces in 480BC.
view from the side... 
And the garden in all its glory. 
