Sunday, December 23, 2012

May there be light




In your house and in your heart.
Not only in these dark days but every day.

 Merry Christmas!






Tuesday, December 11, 2012


Slowly, slowly I am getting into the Christmas mood. The tree is up and full preparations are in order for the island's annual Christmas bazaar which is to be held this Sunday. 

(Now that I made a picture of it I notice the not so quite round shape of the wreath. Well, never mind, you have to be able to tell it is handmade.....)

 I have been making lots of little crochet hearts following Karin's instructions




The other day my fisherman and I went to his boat and it was close to sunset. There was a beautiful peaceful athmosphere which I tried to catch in these photos.




Sunday, December 2, 2012

Is it really December?


A little impression of our walk yesterday  to "Agios Giannis o Kryfos". There were many different kind of mushrooms and ripe koumara and of course breathtaking views.





I also have been playing with some paper mache beads that I had made some years ago and they turned into this:

Necklace

Bracelet
Have a beautiful Sunday!


Friday, November 30, 2012

Olives

'Tis the time of year again. No, nothing to do with Christmas or Sinterklaas but everything to do with olives.
This year all the olive trees are so full that the branches are bending over. Everybody is picking and sorting out olives, for oil and for consumption. Families and friends get together and combine the work with the pleasure of being out in nature.
Pick up trucks are driving up and down the olive oil factory. The main topic of discussion is the quality of the oil that is pressed.
Have a look at this lovely video made by a young local which gives not only an impression of the procedure but also a taste of what working in this beautiful nature is like.




Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sightseeing

These last few weeks I had the pleasure of having friends visiting. First there was Ariadne and her husband. It was extremely nice to spend some days with them and show them around our beautiful island. Ariadne has written several posts about their stay and as always put up some beautiful pictures. Especcially our morning  to the old  town of Kastro was a trip to remember! We had a marvelous time and I sure hope we can repeat it soon.

Then a week later our friend and collegue from Prague arrived with a friend. He has a greek taverna in a small town just outside Prague which he also named  taverna Thessaloniki. Again we toured the island and had a great time. Everything was different though. There was a strong wind and we had to hold on tight not to fall off the cliffs!.


Again there was a lot of eating, talking and drinking involved.

Now I am slowly picking up the routine of our daily winter life. Coming Sunday a fundraising event for our Green Fox project. It is a pie contest and I think I am going to take part with a quiche with a twist.






Saturday, October 20, 2012

Greetings from Koukounaries

Koukounaries beach is in the top 10 list of most beautiful beaches in the world. In the summerseason it is very, very crowded and not so attractive to my opinion but the rest of the year it could easily be number one this list.

Crystal clear water (temp. today 24 degrees) and the scent of pine trees

Fine sand that glistening as if it has gold in it

Protected sea lilies

Unfortunately they were no longer in bloom


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Back again

After a long, hot summer with a lot of working, swimming, gardening, Green Fox bottle collecting, it is finally time to pick up the blog again.
There hasn't been any crafting since that wool episode but now I am slowly getting into the mood again. The first project will be crochet with a kind of zpagetti material that I picked up in a wellfare store in Thessaloniki.



The weather is still summerlike and we have the luxury of almost a private beach.


I also started picking up some seaglass again and was rewarded with a very extraordinary one.


Only when you hold it agains the light you can see it is actually green and not black.  Surely a very old piece of seaglass.


The catch of the day

It feels good to be back in bloggingland!


Sunday, March 4, 2012

Wool

A beautiful sundaymorning, it looks like spring is finally here.
Two years ago, also in spring, I had another attack of the me-2!syndrome, when I saw all the sheep with their thick furry wintercoats. I had this vision of spinning and dying wool and making all kinds of fantastic things with the wool. In older days the wool was used for making the traditional island rugs and carpets. These rugs were very timeconsuming to make and handdied and handwoven on big wooden looms. It would give the women on the island an income in the years when a lot of the men were away for months and sometimes even years on the ships.At the moment I can think of only two women still working this loom. I shall try to post some pictures soon.

Almost all the wool that comes of the sheep nowadays is just thrown away! What a waste. That's why 2 years ago I collected a few sheepskins. But oh my, where they dirty! It was a lot of work to clean them and after I  karded a few bags of wool, well, I realized how hard those women had to work for these rugs! And I never actually made anything with the wool which is still in the bags.

But then 2 weeks ago I attended a little felting seminar while in Thessaloniki and remembered my wool. So now I have been poking with the feltingneedle but still not sure of what to make. Anyhow it is fun to do and as long as I (still!) have the luxury of doing it as a hobby and not as a much needed income like the women in the old days it doesn't really matter how long it takes to finish the project.

My craft table...a mess as usual

I know it's not valentinesday but hearts "speak" to me at the moment

My friend's object, inspired by nature and using driftwood and pebbles

Wishing you a beautiful sunday too!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Rainbow





On this leap day just a pretty picture of a view from the bedroomwindow.




Saturday, February 25, 2012

Back at last

After two weeks of big city Thessaloniki and spending some time with my sons and doing all those things you do while in a city. No, not only shopping. I also went to a felting seminar, strolled through the ancient ruins that are in the middle of the city, stocked up on lots of herbs and spices from the most quaint little shop in the old centre and had a very nice sunday lunch with the lovely and hospitable Ariadne and her family. Ariadne also took me to the theatre. Unfortunately I didn't have to the time anymore to see her and her husband perform in the play they were doing this week.


I was greeted back on the island with lots of blossoms and flowers trying to bloom in the middle of weeds and overgrown bushes.

Almondtree in full blossom


Daffodils trying to keep their heads up in between weeds
So the last two days I have been getting my hands dirty in the garden.


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Finally on my way!

This morning the heavy winds had stopped and the ferry boat left the mainland which means it passes the island again in the afternoon on its way back to the mainland. And I made sure I was on it! Now I am killing some time at the busstation waiting for the coach to take me to Thessaloniki.. And there is internetconnection at the busstation. O yes, modern times.
So it is a good opportunity to tell some more about the island as Lisa had some questions in yesterday's post.

First of all a picture from high above:

This is it, our little diamond in the aegean.
The white line on the left side is our airport landingstrip and it is about 1700 metres long. The runway is from the south to the north side. At the top of the runway, which is the south part of the island, and to the right is our town with approximately 5000 inhabitants. 
Our main road is from the town to the end of the island, at the top right side of the picture,  where the famous Koukounaries beach is. This road follows the southcoast line which on the photo is on the top. This road is about 15 kilometers long.
All along the south side are beautiful sandy beaches and on the north side which is more barren is the famous lalaria beach which you can only reach by boat.


Koukounaries beach


Lalaria beach which is entirely of white stones.


  
Typical Lalaria beach stones
So much for the geography. 
About the mall..... I can be very quick.....there isn't one. Over the last few years 2 bigger supermarkets have opened but they are tiny in comparison to the big supermarkets elsewhere, although you can actually use a shopping cart. But my favorite shops are the little family owned shops where you leave your basket and shopping bag (with wallet) at the counter and walk around the shop finding the items on your list whilst talking to the owner and exchange the latest news and maybe pick up some gossip as well.




Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Stuck on the island!

My bags are packed, I am ready to go since monday. I was looking forward to leaving -not on a jet plane but by ferry- to go and visit my boys in Thessaloniki. But it is not happening. The weather has changed again dramatically and heavy rain and storms have stopped all the ships and so I am stuck. I hope to get to Thessaloniki at least by friday because that will be my eldest birtday and it will be his 20th!


View from above at the jetty in the harbour
(photo taken by Skiathosbooks)
In the meantime I am working on an update of our taverna's website, which I have neglected for too long. I want to make it as blog so it is easier to update.


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

It was great!

The day of the party arrived and we were very lucky. The sun was shining, all the snow had melted and it wasn't very cold. My dear husband had offered us the use of the taverna and of course this is a summer beachtaverna so not very easy to heat up with only two gasbottle-heaters and plastic windows.

We were very worried we wouldn't be able to sell all our tickets. After all, these are difficult times and  fundraising for a volunteer recycling project is not on the priority list when you have to be very careful with your budget.
 But I am so happy to say that our project is so well received and many, many people wanted to attend to give their support. So many that we had to say no to quite a few people who wanted to attend but there simply were no more chairs.
There was good food, plenty of wine, fantastic music, a bingo game and lots of dancing.

A real greek night! And here are the pictures:

Some more plastic bottle decorations
Lucky for us (and our guests) some of our husbands stepped in and helped

in the kitchen

many hands make light work



A full house

Everybody had a good time

A lot of dancing

also in the kitchen



Bingo