The village of Houmeriakos

Houmeriakos is where we have two houses, one is nearly renovated and the other has come to a halt. The village is 3km from Neapoli. It was occupied by the Venetians and Turks. In 2001 it had a population of 273 but I think there are alot less now. They are a very friendly bunch and we have a taverna which is popular and a cafeneio which is used by mainly local men.. we will go there soon! There are approximately 10 Brits. here at the moment.

Fruits

Everything else is having trouble surviving but look at these grapes and pomegranates, yummy!

More quilts

This is a project, I think is going to take rather a long time, it's all hand stitched. Based on the cathedral window pattern. I'm hoping it's going to grow into a double bed quilt, but, I'm not

holding my breath..

Now this one is a machine sewn quilt, all the coloured fabric was sent to me by my mother who spends many months in Thailand, so most of these fabrics are colourful silks.

Hot Dog!!

You would think a Spanish dog would be acclimatised but, no, this is what Jose does all day, he has a walk at 7am, comes home, licks his sore feet, eats something then sleeps until late afternoon.

He then livens up enough to chase geckos and cats, another walk then, yes, sleep!!

Since he fell overboard when he was weeks old he's not too keen on water and swimming so there's no cooling him there.

Allotment

Obviously, not in the right order, but some moments in our first steps into growing our own vegetables.

We are now entering the Cretan Winter.. most vegetables have died but we've been very pleased with our first crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, sweetcorn, potatoes, aubergines, onions, beetroot,peanuts (not enough to make peanut butter, but a good start) radish, lettuce, strawberries, basil, parsley, celery, melons, carrots.........

We'll now rotivate again, that's Geoff's favourite piece of equipment, feed the soil and replant again in August.

We are lucky we have a well near us that we share with 2 other allotment owners, otherwise we would be paying for agricultural water. We made a watering system from black piping which saved alot of back-breaking pulling of buckets from the well.
That lovely looking yellow flower is the bane of all growers here, many names, oxalis, Bermudan Buttercup. It takes over everything and is very difficult to get rid of.

Let's Pamper!!

Greece is having a heatwave...
We need something to cool us down, what shall we do??
Yes, let's pamper ourselves,







Ade's tootsies

Joan's nails

J had a hot stones and oil back massage and I had my eyebrows waxed.

How do you finish that off? Why, with a lovely meal at a taverna in the back streets of Neapoli of course.................

Ade said she felt like she was walking on clouds and J was feeling so relaxed all afternoon. Nothing to do with the wine. I think itshould become a regular date.

Festival Season

At the moment, everywhere you turn, there's a festival happening.

We've been to two lately.

One was in the village we live in, Limnes. It was to celebrate Agia Marina's day as she has a church in Limnes. It's an excuse for copious eating, drinking and Greek dancing. We went with friends and had a lovely time though our ears were ringing by the end as the band which consists of basouki and lyre players as well as the singer were rather loud.

The other was at Sylvia and David's village, Nofalia, in the hills. Sylvia described the atmosphere as testosterone charged when all the young shepherds arrived in their 'Sunday Best'

Agia Marina

Agia Marina is one of the Great Martyrs in the Orthodox Church.She was born a pagan, raised as a Christian, refused to marry a king, he had her tortured. She prevailed through prayer, the devil attacked but she beat him with a hammer, a dragon tried to swallow her. The king ordered her execution, many were converted as she prayed, the axeman hesitated but she pleaded with him to end her life. Her relics are in Athens and Mt. Athos, if anybody wants to go and visit....Gosh, what a life!!

Quilting

My very first attempt,

I'm doing my best, but this is beyond me...

Begin

So, let's begin,

Here we are, husband Geoff, Jose the sea dog and our boat Cariad, all washed up in Crete.

Three of us have been here longer while Geoff went to England to work.

He came back to us in Sept last year with all our worldly goods.

Since then we've been renovating a village house in a Houmeriakos.