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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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!