Flower Pounding, Crochet Squares catch-up.

I'm going to do more of this... what a gorgeous effect. Above is a 'mum' and below is a convulvulus, it's such a water colour painted effect. What shall I do with them though and does anybody know, are they permanent or will they fade and disappear?

And, for Charlie, sorry it's late. I'm starting to block my squares now and what a difference it makes. I pinned then down on a towel on the ironing board outside in the sunshine. Then sprayed them with water. Left them for a couple of hours to dry and hey presto! they are so, so, well, straight and neat, not like the wrinkly things I crocheted....... see, the ones on the left are done and the one on the right is waiting for it's beauty treatment.

The sun is out and the temperature is rising, I spent a couple of hours admiring the view and noseying at the neighbours. Do you think they can see me behind the baby banana plant?

A good thing about the clocks moving forward.. our church clock chimes the right time now, only does that 6 months of the year because nobody moves the hands.....

Geoff's working today getting the jeeps ready for the safaris he is hopefully going to be doing within the next few months.. That is if there are any tourists..... come on over, it's lovely here!!

Whistle Stop Tour 1

I found it very daunting thinking of spending 2 days wedding dress hunting with these 2.
They have known each other since the first day they walked onto a ward as qualified nurses in London 10 years ago. They have kept in close contact with each other and can still be extremly naughty when in each others company........Chloe and her daughter are both going to be bridesmaids for Bethan.

Gareth and Lindsay, (Matt's mum) got on very well, after all she's very easy going. She's going to look wonderful wearing her fasinator on the Big Day. John and Lindsay had a good time in London and Lindsay joined us on a quick look at the shops, including Libertys, I loved the place and could have spent hours there.
Now,keep reading as the next 2 post are part of this. I just can't get Picasa to letme download more than 4 photos at a time

Whistle Stop Tour 2

We saw many of these (at least 35, in 2 days..)

Alot of staring into mirrors

And umming and alot of sighing
And 'turn this way' 'do I look fat in this?' Alot of no, no, no,
then finally...yes!
But you will have to wait for that

Whistle Stop Tour 3

We managed a few sights, usually at high speed, rushing to meet someone.
I did meet Heather, Gareth's very nice partner but, I'm sorry, I didn't take a photo. They will both be excited today as Heather moves down from York tomorrow.
Bethan treated me to my hair cut at a wonderful place, Urban Spa.
Louise and Dan who let us stay with them in Putney were lovely, very hospitable.I look forward to meeting them again in Sept. Louise was on nights so was unable to meet us in the evenings.

This was outside a Dali Exhibition.

We ate yummy yummy food and got to cuddle a yummy yummy baby

Swaps and Giveaways.

Blogging has been suspended
for a week as I managed to inhale some grotty germs on the plane from th UK.
I know who it was and if I ever bump into them again, they will know about it!
I feel as if my ribs have broken, I've coughed so much and I do wish I'd practiced pelvic floor exercises more often...
But, whilst I was away enjoying myself, Elpitha, (the post lady) delivered some lovely swaps.
The first photo is of the Altered Oriental CD giveaway, thank you Genie

Below are the books JennyFlower was giving away, I can't complain about not having
enough reference books now.

Next, was my parcel from the Mug Swap, also with JennyFlower.

This came from Lindsey at Ethel and Edna's Tearoom, thank you so much.
I love the mug and all the embellishments, they will keep me busy for a while. I especially appreciated Lindey sending me a small envelope of angel's tears (worn glass from the beach) as she comes from my old stomping ground of SW England.
As I've been bed ridden most of the week (did I tell you I had a bug!!) I really liked the pillow stuffed with dried lavendar.

I sent to Kitty's Bloggy Bits, do you remember the lacy scarf I was knitting? The one which was the same shades of the sea? Oh, and a mug thrown by a local potter and some buttons and of course, some chocolate....
Hopefully, I shall resume blogging soon, I just feel too spaced out to write or photogragh anything at the moment.
ps. just a little something to entertain you if you have a couple of free hours,
look at Tag Galaxy , I'm addicted!

I'm leaving On A Jet Plane.....

Why, oh, why do I do it? I tell myself every time, it will be different next time, I'll plan, I'll leave myself loads of time, my suitcase will be packed and standing by the door with hours to spare... but no, of course not.
Here I sit amidst the daily mess, with a puppy hanging from my ankle, a pile of ironing (yes, Chris, I do iron sometimes!) I've printed my tickets and found my passport. I'm still trying to find things I normally don't use...make-up, tights!! jackets.
Whatever is left not done will have to wait. Geoff won't starve and neither will the dogs.
I've downloaded lots of podcasts onto my ipod, I've charged my phone and camera.
So,tomorrow at the crack of dawn I will be driven to Crete's finest airport at Iraklion by my beloved. I shall board the Agean Airlines flight to Athens, on that flight I might manage a glass of juice and a quick look at Santorini through the window,but, before I've had time to listen to Woman's Hour I'll be deposited onto the ground at Athens. After 2 hours wait, I'll be back in the sky flying with Sleazy Jet to Gatwick. Then, on the Gatwick Express to Victoria, where I'll be met by my son Gareth, yes! and the celebrations begin!! I haven't seen him since last May, he's got a different job and a new partner.
After that, we meet my daughter. She's been in North Wales with fiance, organising the preparations for the Big Do, in Sept. They flew from Saudi last Wed.
I hope someone knows where we're going to sleep because I don't and by this time I'll be thinking of my bed.
After the celebrations tomorrow, Bethan and I have some serious shopping to do, Bethan's organised the whole week.... she has to so we can fit it all in! There's appontments at Jenny Packham's bridal boutique and Sarah Arnett's... I didn't know one had to book appointments to see wedding dresses, but I've been told one does!
There's hair appointments, they've been booked too.
There's a very special meeting with fiance's parents, yikes!! They are flying in from France.
We've emailed and I know they are lovely people so I'm not too scared.

I'm furiously making granny squares for a blanket for a friend, but I can't take them on the plane so I have something to do whilst I wait at Athens, no, I might decide to attack someone with my crochet hook. Must remember to put them in my suitcase instead.

Husband said he would miss me, who's going to nag him?

It was his birthday yesterday, he had a pasta maker as a present. He's going to practise while I'm away. He said he's going to do lots of finishing off jobs around the place as Im not going to get under his feet....

And what about these Maverick Stars? See, I've not been sitting about doing nothing but taking photograghs of flowers.

Then we get to these 2, most of the time they're great together. Dewi has a completely different temprement to Jose, he's a little bully. But Jose is learning to get along and ignore his outbursts.

No, Geoff isn't trying to coax him into the sea.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now and I'll repeat to myself that which I've been muttering all day, I shouldn't have gone out and celebrated my husband's birthday so vigourously last night. That way I wouldn't have felt like a wet week all day.................................

I'm in good company anyway! Birthday Boy has been looking rather green as well....

I'll be back with lots of tales and photograghs next weekend, night, night.

Walking With Orchids

Milky Orchid (Orchis Lactea)

This post is a combination of photographs from 2 walks I've done recently. I feel maybe I am posting too many photograghs of the proliferation of wild flowers and orchids in my area of Crete at the moment?? Well, you don't have to look, do you? But I would like you to comment on the subject.

It is something close to our hearts though.

Many of us realise how fortunate we are to be able to see this "show"each year. We are also aware of how vital it is to try and protect them and their environment.

Unfortunately, as well as new development being built, the number of herds of goats roaming the mountainsides have increased hugely over the last few years causing untold damage to the flora.

There are plans afoot to limit where the goats can forage but much damage has already been done.

One of the walks was with Julia, (look at the link to her site for more information) and Rosemary, who is a botanist. If you enlarge this photogragh, you'll be able to see clumps of Butterfly Orchids (Orchis Papilionacea ssp. Heroica)

We were scouring the hillside for any sightings of orchids. Believe it or not, in the 2 hours we spent clambouring around, we found 12 different species!! Some are so tiny they are very easy to overlook, but once you get your eyes "trained", they pop up everywhere.

The photograghs of the orchids are at the end of this post.

Meanwhile, the second walk was with Geoff, we took photograghs of a variety of the wild flowers.

These sweet cyclamen were peeping from the hedgerow.

Another thing I mention often, is the abundance of (mainly) ladies we bump into, picking "horta", wild greens. Now,these must be very special as she's abandoned her car on a corner and is risking life and limb to pick them.

Just look at these beautiful anemones!

I love this photogragh of a euphorbia head, (euphorbia characias), it's so sculptural.

More red anemones bobbing their heads in the breeze.

These cyclamen are Cyclamen creticum, endemic to Crete.

And from here on I'm going to take the easy way out and ask you to look at Julia's site if you want to know the names of the remaining orchids, they are all very difficult to differentiate as the differences are slight. Julia and Rosemary were cross referencing with their books..

And finally, some Snake's head or Widow Iris.

A New Arrival.......

We deliberated, hummed, harred, slept on it, then ignored every problem we could forsee.
So, on St David's Day, we picked up the smallest member of our little family.
His name is Dewi. For those who don't have any knowledge of Welsh, Dewi Sant is the patron saint of Wales, he was a monk and lived around 500BC. Now, the other thing is, pronunciation...it's not Dewi as in "dewdrops", it's De.....wi as in De ...von and De...vil, ok?

He's a sweety, with such a sad expression on his face which is at odds with his true nature. He's into everything and scampers around, getting under our feet most of the time.

He's still rather confused..... and Jose is in shock.
But being the elder of the pack Jose is showing him patience and fun.
We know he's part Springer Spaniel and his mother is long and low, so watch this space....

Ok, the Greek word for small dog, puppy, is skilatchi