Hellooooooo!!

Just had an (enforced) holiday........... in the local hospital.
I shall not bore everyone with details, not nice though.
The infection in my gum started invading rest of my body.
I'm hoping to get back into action and catch up with everyone in the next couple of days.
Thank you for your kind comments.

Help,,,, I'm in pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have your attention, has anyone got remedies, apart from obvious..(dentist) to relieve pain from a gum abscess?

Choir Bazaar

Yesterday I helped out at the bazaar my choir arranged. We are a international choir, singing in many languages, Greek, Swedish,Swaheli, German to name but a few.
We produce a concert at Christmas in the local theatre for free, in fact all our concerts are free, so we are self funded except the local council(Dimos) pay for the theatre and the advertising.
Everyone loves a bargain, especially books,as English books are expensive here. The bazaars are always full of ex-pats looking for books and a bargain...

The bazaar was held in the Scout Hut near the famous lake in Agios Nikolaos. There are many stories about this lake, it's bottomless, it has a underwater tunnel from it to Santorini............... who knows!!!

We raised over 800 euros and the remaining clothes etc. will be donated to a boy's orphanage and the cats' and dogs' bazaars.

Cat protection

Went to a meeting at Virginia's last night, she's a wonderful woman who started a charity to help the stray cats in our area.
You've already seen some, the 3 above were saved by Bethan in April when an old lady threw them in a culvert.

The 3 above were rescued and then adopted by Julie.
Virginia tries, with her band of helpers to capture females and have them neutered, she also organises adoptions so some of them leave Crete and find homes in Europe. Remember, these are street cats originally, scavenging from bins. I've seen some dreadful sights when they've been in fights and are scarred.

But, sadly, Virginia is running out of help and funds, even though she has monthly bazaars and everyone are volunteers. She is hoping to open a charity shop but will be reliant on volunteers.

Anyway, I'll keep you informed on how she does but at the moment it seems she is desperately in need of many more helpers.

Wine Catch-up!!!

So, for anybody that's interested!! We checked up on the raki, hmm, ok, still got a few weeks to go.

The wine was decanted off, believe it or not, smells ok, looks ok!

Tastes............ok!
Thank goodness I take the photos.

Then it was gently poured back in to barrel. Look, it looks clear and is a rose colour. So, we shall see, I'm not holding my breath but I might me pleasantly surprised, keep watching.

Capturing a Day

A corner of Houmeriakos, with the sun just catching smoke from a wood-burner/cooker.

The clouds coming down the valley looking rather ominous

Thought this was a lovely idea, though I'm not sure whether you can see clearly. One of the street cafes in Neapolis has painted assorted scenes on the metal coffee tables that you see everywhere.

Big Draw 11 and 12

Again, exercises from 'Drawing on the Right Side of your Brain'. The first is modified contour drawing, trying not to take the pencil off the paper. The second,you check angles in relation to vertical or horizontal. As your eyes move slowly along the contour on the paper at the same speed. Move from contour to adjacent contour. Do not draw a complete outline and then try to draw the interior forms.

I've been tagged!!!

Never been tagged before and took me a couple of minutes to realise it was me!!!
So, lets see
1 Clothes Shop...
Difficult in Crete, so I generally have spending sprees in Britain, don't care really as long as I like the style, since I've left supermarket clothes have become really fashionable. Favourite used to be Monsoon.
2 Furniture Shop...
Second hand, not too keen on modern. Geoff drove all our bits from Cornwall so I don't have to go through the stress of buying over here. Probably nip to Ikea in Athens for comfy sofa though.
3 Sweet..
Organic dark chocolate
4 City...
As we sailed here from Cornwall, we were lucky to be able to visit many beautiful cities in different seasons. Palma on Majorca in April was lovely. Grenada in Spain in winter, Barcelona, I could go on........
5 Drink...
Rooibos tea
6 Music...
Varied, favorites are Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Welsh Male Voice Choirs
7 TV Series...
We have free to view Arab Sat. so receive mostly American programs, Greys Anatomy is a favourite.
8 Film...
Memorable and funny, watch them when I want to laugh or cry, Saving Grace, As Good as it gets and The Piano.
9 Workout (ha ha!)...
Walking Jose, just started yoga and swimming.
10 Pastries...
I'm in Greece!!!! Baklava!!!!!!!!!!
11 Coffee...
Got to be black, strong, ground and good.

Blimey, difficult.
I hereby tag bindu (Transient Lives), Lynn( Getting my feet wet) and Soulbrush

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Bethan
I'm sure you're having a wonderful day with Matt
x

A Day Out

Oh dear, I'm not doing well with my Big Draw.

On Tuesday Geoff had a day off, so, while the sun was rising on Houmeriakos, we set off.

We got caught in the rush hour in Iraklion.

We saw lovely renovations and beautiful countryside that reminded us of Italy.........

We looked into people's houses,

We passed tiny churches on top of huge mountains.

Finally, caught a glimpse of the sea again, but this time it's the Lybian Sea...

And there they were, my aunt Susan and her husband Paul. They were staying in Agia Galini. We spent a lovely day with them, catching up on family news, they became grandparents for the first time 8 weeks ago so we looked at photos.

We had a long lunch, and walked around admiring the views.

So, if you are familiar with Joni Mitchell's album 'Blue', she sings a song called 'Carey' and in that song she sings about the Matala moon, well, Matala is over the bay in the haze. It was a reknowned hippie commune.

Sue, Paul and Geoff discussing the flowers,

It was really nice spending time with them, but, the day flew by and very soon it was time for the long journey back, just as the sun was setting over Agia Galini.

A Fishy Tale.......

Gosh, how the days fly by. Gardening Club monthly meeting yesterday (plus lazy lunch in the sunshine).
This morning, I went off to choir practise.
Plus, sad news from Gareth and Vanessa, love to both of you from us. I'm so sorry.

Big Draw, Day 4

An old house next to us

The Big Draw, Day 2 and 3

These are excercisesfrom Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain, a book I've had for many years and that is recommended by Bad Faery. You copy the marks within a rectangle and don't worry about the subject.

More info on The Big Draw..... http://www.badfaery.com/index.php/sit/index

The results...........

I'm always amazed by the result, it shows what you can do when you're not worried about "copy" something, you're just enjoying making marks.