Hard to believe that only four short months ago the absolute temps were in the negative teens, the wind chills were below minus 30' F and that the icy grope of winter reached all the way to Mexico devastating crops below the Rio Grande. Eggplant and squash blossoms were annihilated and the price of eggplant jumped from $16.50 in mid-January to over $72 for the same quantity. Zucchini was gone.

We asked where we should eat and they said to "the shipwreck' a family-owned taverna by the sea. And what didn't we eat? Octopus drying in the sun, homemade wine, yigandes and skewers of lamb and pork. YUM!

Delphi, Day 1, Olympia Day 2, Gytheion Days 3, 4, Tolo Days 5, 6. Wi Fo spotty and poor at best; the Smatfon, Motorola Exprt, purchased JUST to make bloging and uploading photos easy is NOT. But finally we are we are sufficiently apprisedto start posting. Photos here: Gytheion, yes, view from our balcony. A sweet,1950s style hotel with illuminated plastic blocks announcing its name to the harbour: Pantheon. Here we rested three days after extensive drives from Delphi to Olympia to Gytheion covering main land Greece down to the southernmost regions of the Peloponese.

It's been a while since I cut 24 or so hearts free hand to make individualized cards for my kids' pals on Valentines' Day. But there I was today, Saturday, cutting with my very good Whiskars, pink hearts to cover the Gioconda Truffles that are being sold at the Wedge and Hampden Coop as well as here at the Gardens for about $5.

Over 20 years of working in the kitchen at Gardens, only one preparation defies my mastery and that is Tyro. An emulsion of feta with nearly double its volume of oils and peppers that is whirred in a commercial high-capacity food processor for nearly an hour, the "finishedness" of Tyro is understood as much by an audible drop in decibels as by its visual texture which runs the gamut of a thickly running latex to a fluffy mousse.