Back home

I am now back home on Crete after a long and very enjoyable time in the UK. I am straight back into work. I am hoping to complete my watercolour study of Cretan dittany shortly and am working with Rosemary and a German University student Carl Barnick on species lists for various endangered habitats in the Aghios Nikolaos area. Tomorrow we are continuing our survey of the wetlands at Almyros which we started in November. It will be interesting to see what new plants are starting to appear as the winter has been very cold and wet and everything seems to be late this year.

Christmas quilt

Am in a small village just outside Lichfield with friends at the moment and I can gladly say that the Christmas quilt was much appreciated by my friend Judi. The weather here is lovely and we are going out to the sales this afternoon for my annual clothes shop. Really looking forward to it. Am going to spend some time this week working on the Albion House website www.albionhousecrete.com and on our listing on Holiday Lettings, in time for the New Year and the great holiday internet search.

Chronia Polla

Am all packed and ready for my flight to the UK tomorrow. I am staying for six weeks and hope to catch up with all the work I need to do for Flowers of Crete and my botanical art courses. I am also setting up a blog for Albion House and am updating the Flowers of Crete blog and my Art site too. So lots to keep me busy. I finally finished Judi's quilt and with my heart in my mouth I washed it this morning. I need not have worried as it looks lovely. I hope she is pleased with it. So I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year.

Botanising

It's 2.00 a.m. and for some reason I can't sleep. Have just made a cup of tea and decided to check my e-mails, etc. I am meeting up with Rosemary later to continue our surveying of the wetlands at Almyros. We are planning to compile a species list for this precious habitat. This will take us twelve months and I am hoping to photograph each plant as it comes into flower. The list will be online at www.flowersofcrete.info and visitors to the site will be able to see how we progress over the coming months.

Quilt - almost finished

Why is it that cats ALWAYS have to settle down on the last thing you want them to? I had spread out the quilt to assess how it looked, turned my back and five minutes later Perry was comfortably asleep as you can see!

Course at Knossos

I received this information from the British School of Archaeology today

'We have a residential course here (22-28 April 2012) of an ecological Historical nature .. it is led by Oliver Rackham. It's theme is The Making of the Cretan Countryside.
There is room for 10 places.'

If anyone would like more information please contact me for prices and itinerary.

Quilting

I have been really busy for the last few weeks making a lap quilt for my friend's Christmas present. It will be finished tomorrow I hope and I will post a photo.

Lovely morning!

Absolutely wonderful morning here.  Was woken by Maria bringing me aubergines, cucumber and tomatoes.  Just enjoying a few more days of having nothing desperately important to do.  My Cretan dittany outside the kitchen door is still flowering, so I ought to do some work on my new painting.  Above is my first attempt at this complex plant.  I am really pleased with the new version, although it is taking much longer than normal.  It is a much bigger painting than normal though. However, quilting still calling me - I am making a lap quilt for my friend Judi and it is not going as well as I hoped. The colours are great but I feel it needs something to add some oooomphhhh.  Not sure what though.

Back from Maria's

Back from Maria's having been given some of her delicious vegetable stew for my lunch.  Also have to take her to Neapoli on Wednesday, not sure why and bring her some biscuits next time I go to Lidl - which she calls Litro.  Here are photos of her I took this morning, along with her bowl of stew.  She is a wonderful cook who makes everything, however simple, delicious.

Monday morning

Still have to fetch Thera from the apartment.  Still in pj's when Maria called me to go round for yet another coffee.  Just want to potter here and read for a while, but duty calls.  Lovely sunny day - washing out - house clean and tidy - might do some quilting later on!  Oh well, off to Maria's :-)

Back home

Back at home after TWO carafe's of raki with Maria, Dimitri and Dino.  Have been talked into doing a village meal on Thursday night by Dimitri - chicken with pomegranite. Hopoe I can remember how to cook it. 

Starting again

After a huge amount of time, I am hoping to re-start this blog.  So much has happened in the last year or so I can't begin to recall.  However, the season is now over and I am returning home to Pano Elounda this afternoon.  Yippeee.  I am working on courses and holidays for next year and these can be seen on www.flowersofcrete.info.  A new (and only one) taverna has opened in the village and I went there last night with guests from Canada.  The taverna was packed to the rafters with locals and we had an excellent evening.  This afternoon moving stuff back to the house and re-starting work on my latest painting of Cretan dittany.

Photos of Albion House and Pano Elounda

Here are some photos of Pano Elounda and Albion House.  I have been busy today scrubbing the wooden floors! Great job in this heat.

in Memory of Manolis

A small tribute to my neighbour Manolis who died last month.  Manolis contracted leprosy as a child in Athens and his parents fought hard to prevent him from being sent to Spinalonga leper colony.  He was a great help in her research for Victoria Hislop when she was writing her best seller 'The Island".  He was a lovely man and he will be sadly missed by a lot of people.

Photo of film set in the village

As promised, here is a photo of the road up to Albion House. Looks very different.

Back again!

After a somewhat hectic few months, I am back in the house. My son, Matthew, came over for three weeks and we had a wonderful time together. Filming for 'The Island' is taking place in the village - apparently Pano Elounda is doubling as Spinalonga. When the film crew is here it is impossible to get through the village and oftn filming goes on quite late into the night. It is, however, really interesting to watch. The film in 28 episodes will be shown on Mega either this autumn or next - my money is on next. It is quite spooky to see people in 1940s costume wandering through the village. The old ladies here say that the film people have got it exactly right, so I am going to get some photos to post on my blog this morning.

Filming in the village

The road through the village (the only one) is closed at the moment because the false walls are being painted and aged - crazy!!! We have nothing but old stone walls, so the producers have built false walls which are now being aged! However, apparently filming for The Island is beginning in two weeks time - a Greek TV company (Alpha I think) is making 28 episodes which I presume it will try to sell to other countries. Wonder if it is in English or Greek? This means I can't get jeep to house to unload. The car is full of things friends brought over from UK for me, so am having to ferry them from the car to the house. I have downloaded a free website design programme, so am going to be trying to make a new website for my artwork. No rest for the wicked!!!

Can't believe it's been so long

I am finally back home and the pressure is off somewhat. Having spent nearly four months looking after a friend with Alzheimers, it has taken me a bit of time to get myself back together. The exhibition at Kolymbari went very well - more about that later and Rosemary and I met lots of interesting people and made a lot of friends. The artwork on display did us proud and I hope to be publishing examples of everyone's work online shortly. I am going to Istron this afternoon to have tea with friends and supporters of Flowers of Crete. They are wonderful and bring over things from UK for me when they drive over. This afternoon I will be taking possession of my jam pan!!! Means I will be able to get down to making preserves and chutneys to sell at Flowers bazaars in the autumn. Thank you, thank you Willie and Liz!

Back Again

After a very stressful and hectic summer, I am back at home with a computer that works! Rosemary and I should be going out botanising today, but the weather is awful - grey and rainy and quite cool for Crete. It's around 15 degrees and all the cats are snuggled up in the warmth of the house. Farsin was out all night and came in very bedraggled when I got up to make a cup of tea. I am treating myself to a day listening to Radio 4 and doing some quilting. I need to set up my sewing machine in the living room and to do a little housework before I settle down to my quilting. Rosemary and I were hoping to go out to find a very rare plant called Biarum davisii which grows nearby, but as the track is a dirt track with a steep drop into the sea, I don't think we will be doing it today - the dirt turns to red soup which is so slippy even the jeep tyres don't grip. Never mind - another day!

Bazaar at Cindy's

There will be a bazaar for Flowers of Crete at Cindy's Bar near Pelagos in Aghios Nikolaos on Sunday, 13th September at 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. Everyone is welcome - please come and join us. Lots of home made produce, spicy chutneys, lemon curd, cakes, scones etc., books, bric-a-brac, Flowers of Crete bookmarks, T-shirts, postcards and pens. If you have anything to contribute or can help out on the day, please contact me or one of the other Committee Members. The flower season will be here soon, and we need to get out and about to record and photograph. Rosemary and I have also been invited to visit the Director of the Greek Orthodox Academy in Kolymbari to discuss ways that we can collaborate and we hope to make a trip to Hania in November. This will also give us a chance to photograph flowers which we have not yet recorded.