Well, hello!!

Is there anybody still out there..?

I'm not going to start apologizing, stuff happens and sometimes LIFE gets in the way of blogging...I know! 

Life in Crete has had it's moment recently, as you all probably know, we are living through hard times and 'crisis', 'hardship'  and 'frugal' are the buzz words.

More and more land is being ploughed up, mainly in the olive groves to grow produce so families can eek out their dwindling wages.On average, wages have gone down by 25% this year...that's alot when the average wage is 400 to 600 euros a month.

Now,

Please believe me when I tell you that all this affects and concerns me..

but , this is my blog about my view of Crete, where we came and settled. This blog isn't about what I think  should happen to this country and if you want to read about such 'stuff' you'll have to go and find a more learned person.

This is about me, my camera, my family and friends and my crafts and adventures.

 Vrissis

 Garifalia, our neighbour, sunning herself.

 Lovely time was had in Athens in February

So, having said all that...

I'll try to show you some of the crafty bits I've been doing next time.

Oh..another thing, I'm off to Surrey on Wednesday, grandchild number 2!! is about to arrive...

so, if you're really lucky..you'll have some photos of  big sister Lirys and a teeny tiny new baby....

Take care

ps.. if anybody does read this, could you possibly leave me a message..just so I know I'm not talking to the wall..

What Have You Been Up To???

I see this gorgeous bush each time I go to my Zumba class

Lily likes to find a cool place to see

Geoff spent some time dusting the vines with sulphur (the traditional way, of course..by filling a pop-sock with the sulphur dust, tying said sock to the end of a stick and dust!)

I've loved perusing my new books and practising making flowers.

Here's my completed shawl

I've used these steps often

oh, and this is Jack, isn't he gorgeous? He's joined our little family

I visited a green fair in Heraklion with a friend...just look at these huge chuncks of soap

and these interesting fruits

oh, and I squeezed in lunch and a lovely walk around a village near here called Forni

I'd love to have a courtyard which was covered like this...so cool

We're are still having odd weather, it rained a couple of days ago and we've had incredible wind for about a week now causing huge waves at one of my favourite beaches.

Lastly, we are still enjoying our get togethers, which consist of a little sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting and.....eating cake!
What have you been up to??

A Day with Donkeys...

A couple of days ago, Chris and I went off for the day to visit Suzanne and Alistair, they are friends who run 'Walk With Donkeys', a sanctuary for injured, unwanted, old or neglected donkeys. I have blogged about the once before. This time we were delivering some cuddly hand-made donkeys...

..which Chris, Sylvia and Joyce had made for the shop.
Over the last 6 months I am responsible for Suzanne and Alistair aquiring their last 2 donkeys..

Bobby

and,last week..Joy............

The sanctuary nestles in the rugged mountain crops above Ierapetra on the south coast, it a very special place.

We spent a wonderful few hours with these fabulous animals, each one has a completely different identity, some quiet, some wanting attention and some, just doing their own thing

Chris found a friend in Loukas, he realised she had carrots so followed her everywhere!

We were made very welcome and it seemed donkeys were coming out of bushes to say hello.

Suzanne had us working, brushing several of the donkeys but we enjoyed it as much as the donks obviously did!

It's so nice to see these old animals living in such a happy home after all they've been through.
Some have been mistreated or tied up for many years...some have been left because their owners have grown too old to look after them.
When I moved into our village, there was 3 donkeys living and working around the olive groves, but in 3 years it has dwindled to just 1. The older residents of the community are dying and the younger folk don't have the time to care for these creatures.
The sad thing is though that many of the donkeys are sold to the meat wagons that drive around and buy old donkeys, they then go to be fed to circus animals... but I've also been told that some end up in Italy being made into salami, perish the thought!!! Gross!!!

Isn't it much better that they end up in places like this, with loving, patient, people like Alistair and Suzanne?

?

They can be visited by families who enjoy stroking and chatting to them.

We ended our day, in the shade, drinking tea, chatting to 2 lovely people who work 7 days a week caring for donkeys other folk don't care about ..thanks Suzanne and Alistair, we thoroughly enjoyed our day and will be back very soon.
Please 'like' and follow Walk with Donkeys Crete on Facebook.
or follow Donkeycarecrete's Blog

Sunday Catch-up

Good Morning

Things are looking better today, my cold seems to be finally coming to an end and my head doesn't feel like it's full of cotton wool anymore.

And the sun is out ....and the wind has stopped...fingers crossed!! I feel sorry for the tourists that are arriving, we've not had sunshine holiday weather!!
The huge amount of rain has been good for these roses, they are glorious
....the perfume, divine...just like Turkish..oops..nooo!...Greek Delight!!
Can you believe it, this is the only bloom on my lilac bush...very sad state of affairs..
So, we are far behind with the seedlings too, many have not germinated
but some have done really well and will be soon moving from their little toilet roll and egg box homes to the kypos.
Oh, yes, more about the first photograph next time I think,

Take care

Dragon Arum...again!!

You may know already, if you've been following my blog for a while,
how much I love these plants...

and this year, maybe because of the rain we've had, they are in profusion admidst the olive groves.

so, I thought they deserved a whole post to themselves.....

Yes, I know they are rather phallic

but it's the wonderful, deep, velvety colour, so fabric .

The latin name is Dracunculus Vulgaris

So velvety, and the colour is stunning

and

so

SO.......

smelly!!

(like rotting flesh!!!)
so much for perfection!!