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.

Catching up

Despite having a frozen shoulder I am busy getting the house ready for guests arriving on Sunday. I have had a wicked virus (in the real sense of the word) on my laptop which has destroyed almost everything, so the time has been a bit stressful. However, I have got the desktop up and running after a fashion and am trying to get myself organised to get on with some work. I've finally got to grips with the GPS and Google Earth, which isn't as daunting as I expected. The weather has cooled down a little thank goodness and I,for one, am hoping that we have seen the last of the scorching days. Can't wait for the rains to start so that Rosemary and I can get out into the mountains to enjoy the flowers again - it seems ages since we had an exciting day out.

Maria's loom

For those of us interested in crafts of all types, here is a photo of one of my neighbours, Maria, who still has a loom set up in her back room. She showed me examples of her weaving and was kind enough to show e how the loom works. I have an old loom at the house at Houmeriakos and maybe one day I will be able to set it up and even use it.

Welcome to my World!!

This is the day to day story of my life in a small traditional village on the east coast of the beautiful Greek island of Crete. I spend much of my time in the mountains, looking for and photographing wild flowers, which are my passion. Here is a photo of the main street of my village - where you are more likely to see an old woman on a donkey, or a small flock of sheep or goats, than a car or van. The streets are definitely too narrow for a lorry. My neighbours are mostly Greek, mostly old and very, very kind to me. A piece of cake offered to a neighbour results in the gift of raki, olive oil, wine, or grapes, depending on the season. I live next door to the local kafenion, where Maria makes the best Greek coffee in the world.