String-Along Round Up and More...

As March ends, so does the String-Along 2010 Challenge held by Mousybrownshouse and Rattling On.
I've thoroughly enjoyed joining in as it dragged me out of my comfort zone screaming and shouting... The above string bag was crocheted and I had to follow a pattern...successfully!I was disappointed by the size though, it's more hand bag size than shopping bag size, never mind I'll still use it..

I do have a collection of reuseable shopping bags as you can see ..

They all come in handy when I shop for veg from the mobile veg. van which comes around the villages twice a week. Here he's in Limnes, a neighbouring village to us..I always forget to take a camera when I go down to shop. You know when he's reached the village because of the very loud greek music he plays.

Here's a very bad photo of the finished ear-rings I designed at the bead shop last week. Geoff took the photo...

but to show he can take a very good photo just look below.

This is what greeted us last week when we opened the balcony door early one morning...stunning isn't it?

I've bought some plants to pretty up the exterior of the house for Easter so I thought I would share this gorgeous fuschia with you.

We're all getting excited about the coming weekend. As you may well remember Easter is a very big deal here....and the weather is going to be great for bbqs and outside eating.

Finally, thought I'd point out a new blog on my list. As many of you know my daughter and her husband live in Saudi Arabia and J is a friend of Bethan's, explaining some of the realities of life as an ex-pat in Riyadh. I find it extremely interesting and thought provoking..

Take care.

My Wednesday

This is the tale of 2 country bumpkins......

trying to be 'cool' in the "Big Smoke" of Iraklion

We ooo'd and aar'd at the architecture

Looked like tourists..taking photos of Lion Square......

and bumping into people as I took photos of the magnificent pods??

slurped gelato before they melted.........

wondered whether we could hitch a lift to Athens.........

designed earrings..

tried not to get run down crossing the road..

had coffee in the Talos Centre.......

The concept of paying ( 2 euros) to park your car still hasn't arrived in Crete...the Greeks prefer to park haphazardly within 2 steps of where they are going...

so we get the car-park to ourselves virtually.......

Most importantly, we laughed and enjoyed ourselves...looking at clothes, shoes and best of all ...people!!!!

String-a-long 2010, Week 3.

Here it is...ta da!!
My knitted string bag.
I'm rather proud of it!

It's small but strong and as you can see, holds rather alot.

Because I had to print the pattern I didn't have photos to check so when it came to joining the rim to the handle I was rather flumoxed..
A quick email to Rattling On and I was delighted how easy the whole Kitcheners technique worked..

As there's only one more week to go on this challenge I'm not sure whether I'll complete a whole bag but I'm jolly well going to try.
This lovely little bag will used to carry produce from the kypos..(allotment)

You can see more string bag knitters on Mousy Browns House.

Thanks you 2 for arranging this challenge, I've enjoyed it,

Grow...Baby ..Grow!!

Hello,
Look at this little thing,,,dropped on the road..covered in ticks!! No, we didn't pick it up, my neighbour Leonie has taken him in.


Here's the 50 odd year old donkey that was treated a fortnight ago, he's looking well, taking in the rays in the olive grove..
I was on my way down to the kypos, to see how things are growing.

Our usual 2 eggs were there..

...and just look at these!!! in March...strawberries..yummy!

I spied some broad beans tucked away

We planted some artichokes this year, we probably won't get any this year but the spikey plants are huge and very sculptural.

My parsley is prolific...I can freeze that.

The tomato plants are thriving

Some courgettes are ready and waiting to be transplanted (or is that a cucumber? ek! Lost the label!)

There's some mandarins on the furthest tree whilst the one closer is flowering..

The vines are sprouting..gorgous colour, so vibrant.

Dewi, waiting ..patiently in the shade.

The sky was a wonderful colour and it's been warm today..this is a redundant windpump, it's such a shame that they've been left to collapse.

The field gladioli are in bloom under the olive trees, just a glimpse of colour.

A huge 'pithoi' left in the undergrowth..

Oh dear....our potates are rearing their heads out of the ground but my photographs were so out of focus I couldn't use them...so you'll just have to believe me when I say we've got rows of spuds too...

A Brief Interval...

Hello....

I'm still here..

Just finished my stint of working away from home for a month...

I've LOADS of photographs to show you but I need a few hours to gather my thoughts together...

Everything is growing madly at the moment...

Everywhere you look, folk are digging and planting veg...

Just look....

the almonds have arrived!!

I'll be back soon with some more tales and photos..

Promise...

The Tale of 3 Donkeys

It's a normal thing to see around our village, donkeys are part of the older folks' lives, they are still used as transport and the carrier of all that is needed to be carried.. they also provide compost for the kypos. One can only hope that they are fed well and basically cared for, after all, it's in the owners own interest to keep the animals healthy .

Having said that...many of the villagers cannot afford the fees of a vet.

So, enter...Suzanne and Alistair ...'Walk With Donkeys'

I've blogged about them before here, they have as donkey sanctuary above Ierapetra, taking in and caring for abandoned and abused donkeys
. They also try to get vets to volunteer to spend some time with them, travelling around the surrounding villages giving free health checks, free treatment including dental checks and 'pedicures'...

So, this is where we come in..Leonie and I have discussed our worries about the health of the donkeys we see here in Houmeriakos, and yesterday..Suzanne, Alistair and 2 vets arrived..hoorah!!

The adhoc 'clinic' was on the street and 2 donkeys were quickly seen to..their hooves were cut and cleaned and their teeth were checked and scraped. The owners were given medicine and information on what they could do to help the health of these stoic beasts.
Erini, the owner of one of them told us that he'd been in her family for 50 years...can you believe that!!!! He's still a working beast, carting and carrying every day.

They were given new harnesses and the old ones were cut off and thrown away after finding sores where the rope had cut into the neck. I don't want to think of how long that had been rubbing.


I spied a fellow that was wondering what all the noise and hulabaloo was about!

After they'd had the full treatment, it was time for a bit of fun so Dominic had a ride down the street

So, off we went in search of one donkey I was particularly worried about...

we'd seen it in the lanes, carrying huge piles of wood and it's hooves were evidently in need of treatment.........................................

Luckily, we did find it and sadly, I was told it was the worst case Suzanne and Alistair had seen..

You can see from the above photo that the front hooves are severely overgrown

but the vet was more worried about the back legs and hooves

as a lay person, it's hard for me to describe what has actually happened so I hope the photo above helps my explanation... they donkey is actually walking on 'twisted ankles' the furthest hoove in the above photo, if you zoom in...well, that is supposed to be underneath... that is the 'sole' of the hoof. How painful is that..!!! it's been like that for years and the legs ar so deformed

You can imagine ...the best possible ending to this is that the poor thing is put to sleep immediately

When it was explained to the owners that the most humane thing to do was to have it put to sleep..they refused

saying they had no other transport.....no other way of carrying their wood.....their grain.... their veg fron the kypos.

So, the best was done of a bad job...it's front hooves were clipped and filed

The donkey struggled and slipped on it's back hooves when the front 2 were being seen to...such a sad sad sight!

As you can see, things are a little better at the front now.

Neighbours come to see what's going on and give their expert advise..

Now the hunt is on for another donkey so this one can be put out of it's misery and pain forever..
Please mention/pass this post around..the more people see what is being done by a handful of folk the more chance of people donating money/help/food. Thank you

For more info please go to Suzanne and Alistair's official site www.walkwithdonkeys.com/

They are on Facebook.

I've also noticed they have already written about this donkey on their site..