Everything Comes To Those Who Wait

Throughout the season I've shown you many stunning examples of the wild and sometimes rare flowers we have here.
But for me this is the most stunning of them all. It's Dracunculus Vulgaris or Dragon Arum. It stands about 3 feet high and lives in the shady undergrowth of the olive groves.
The first time I saw one was about 4 years ago, we were out exploring in the car and I saw this flash of colour. The car screeched to a halt and I was out scrambling about trying to get close enough for a decent shot.
I've had my eyes peeled for any signs of them flowering for a couple of weeks now and I was finally rewarded yesterday.
I love the colour, it's so rich and sensuous. The texture is velvety, though it glows like satin.

The leaves too are beautiful in their own right. The stem is stripped like a tiger but sadly my photo was rather blurred.

Soon the undergrowth will be filled with these wondrous plants but for now I'm enthralled by the singular rareness of my favourite plant. Some might say it's too showy but I think it has a darkness to it, as it emerges from the bushes like an alien. It's life is very short and soon it looses it strength and collapses, deflated.
As with all things that are so beautiful, it does have one flaw......
it stinks like rotting flesh.

Get Your Dancing Shoes On

Well, more of that later,.
Firstly I've got to thank Soulbrush for my award, "Certified Queen of Blogs"
Sorry I'm so late.
I'd like to pass it on to
My Cretan Life who writes about her craftwork and renovating a home here in Crete
A Quilters Journal who has been posting about a trip along Route 66 with her husband
Cocoa and Blankets a lovely blog and recent posts of a trip to Venice
Little Over Living another crafty blog, Jenny makes gorgeous quilts.
If any of you choose to accept, link back to me and send it off to as many fellow bloggers as you want. You can copy my button.

Also, a huge thank you to Lydia of 'Waving or Drowning, Reflections of a Working Mum' for sending this gorgeous parcel. I was suffering from some nasty germs a couple of weeks ago. So she kindly sent me a tub of Rose and Almond oil Vaseline for my sore lips, although I'm not suffering anymore, it's delicious! The gingerbread Adam and Eve were scrummy and just look at that pack of tissues!! One side says Bless and the other says You!!! Aren't they wonderful?? I'm saving them for the wedding, think I'll be sharing them with Mother of the Groom.......
Sunday was Easter Sunday here and also my birthday.
We were invited to our neighbours, Dimitri and Thalia. They live in Athens and come over to their family home for holidays.
I shall be posting about that within the next couple of days, just got sort photos out. The sparkly shoes were Little Thalia's who danced the afternoon away.

Falmouth Working Boats 1

It seemed that several of my blogging friends were heading down to Cornwall over the Easter holidays. I felt... homesick... and I spent a while remembering happy times while I lived there.
We are still ploughing through boxes and boxes of our belongings which were in storage for a few years while we were sailing here but during the weekend I found this collage of photos of the Falmouth Working boats.They are rather grubby and a little torn around the edges but the memories are still intact....

I spent several summer seasons crewing on these wonderful traditional boats and had many friends who enjoyed it with me. If you are local you may recognise some faces, slightly older now as these photos were taken the the mid 1990's.

In fact, that's me, above, with Robin and Howard. Julian is on watch above.
We crewed "Agnes" who was one of the younger boats, some were nearly 100 years old. Some owners would not allow women on board, bad luck. The working boats belonged to a small fleet of oyster dredgers and Agnes had spent some of her life actually doing that. Some boats are built these days just to race. None of them race with engines so it's all the power of the wind and stratagy by the boss.

Falmouth Working Boats 2

We had some adventures each summer, especially when we sailed to Fowey for Fowey Week, it mostly involved copious amounts of warm Bass. When the mast snapped just before the start of the racing season it was 'all hands on deck' to make another from a tree trunk....
It takes approximately 8 strong folk to sail Agnes, we all assigned our special jobs.

Above is Jane, my best friend, enjoying some damp weather.

Rounding a bouy when all the fleet was screaming along in full sail was hair raising to watch and to be in there was quite scary sometimes.
Below is Pamela, she thoroughly enjoyed her days out and I have many memories that I have to keep to myself but they do make me giggle even now.
I hope people get to see the fleet when they visit Falmouth in the summer months, it is a stunning sight and I'm very proud that I was, once, a part of it.

Still Waiting.....for Easter.

I'd like to thank everyone who commented on my last post, I had over 40 between the 3 groups of flowers. I've never had so many!!
In typical Greek tradition my back door is surrounded by an array of plants, miniature roses (bought from Lidl last year and stll alive!)geraniums (cuttings collected from random places) honeysuckle, I thought it wasn't going to survive but it's now romping away! mint, gardenia and stephanosis, both of which are in bud now. They are in an assortment of recycled containers, including the large feta tins that the shops have. On the chair is the latest carrier bag of lemons to have been delivered by neighbours, they are so succulent and fresh.

I've completed this cushion. Following Attic 24's instructions it's made from recycled items. It's for a friend's 'big' birthday. unfortunately, I did not go to her party.

Today is Palm Sunday, some people are still fasting, not eating milk, cheese, anything with a backbone etc. The bells have been ringing and the priests chanting since very early this morning and this week is a build-up for next weekend, when there will be huge celebrations. Plenty of lamb and kid will be roasted and bbq'd.
Finally, the monster! Look at him, butter wouldn't melt??? He still doen't understand 'no' and loves chewing anything that I wear..
He clearly loves Geoff and dispairs of me, as I don't laugh when he scampers in with half of a beloved plant of mine in his needle sharp teeth.

This is What Crete is Famous for..........................1

As some of you know Crete is known throughout the world for it's rare and wild flowers.
There are many species here that are not found anywhere else and many of those are becoming extremely rare. That is why my friend Julia has set up a charity, to help bring attention to and to try to educate people.
We are now in the middle of the very short season where Crete is in bloom. With the hedgerows and hillsides covered in wild flowers. Some are very common, the poppy, chamomile and borage for example but if you look a little harder there are hidden jewels.
As usual,this post is 3 posts long... so please scroll down after reading this 1 to 2 and 3!!

We were lucky enough to uncover this odd specimen, it's commonly know as Cretan Birthwort (Aristolochia cretica) or you may know it as Dutchman's Pipe. This species is only found on Crete and Karpathos and is quite rare.

The orchids are stunning, most are tiny though and can be overlooked quite easily. I do have the names of all the orchids, but if you want more information please visit Julia's site. I have only written the names which sound like fun..........The markings on the lip are to attract pollinating bees

This is What Crete is Famous for...........2

All these have such wonderful names.
They were also found within 2 kilometres of where we live,, mostly on the kerbside or in the olive groves.

Below, can you see, each little cluster looks like a monkey?.....It's a Wavy leaved Monkey Orchid (orchis italica)

This is What Crete is Famous for...........3

All along the lanes there's an abundance of sage and broom.

The black pipe you can see now and again is the watering system used for the olive groves, we are in the open countryside.
A cistus endemic to Crete.

There's no words needed really, the blooms speak for themselves.

Fields of gladioli

There Must Be a Pot of Gold.................

I had to share these photos with you, justlook at the colours!
We've had a few days of mixed weather, including an thunder and lighening storm that stayed on top of our house for quite some time in the middle of the night.
It's a good thing we don't have 2 dogs that are afraid of the noise.

The only sad thing was we had spent the day before whitewashing one side of the house... we woke to dirty streaks down, what was, a brilliant white wall only hours before.

The temperature is going up though and I'm hoping to be swimming on my birthday!!