Despite all my best intentions to slow down on the work front this summer, a record number of visitors to Almyrida has resulted in increased sales, especially during September. I sold 43 Artworks in August and a further 40 Seashell Mosaic Paintings in September.
At the end of last summer I promised myself I’d sell for only one day a week but I’ve fallen into the habit of setting up my stall and display twice a week, as usual. This I think, is because I can’t deny the extra income is welcome, but this year it’s also because I’ve had no family staying with me this summer – which is unusual.
When I am in Almyrida selling all day from 8.30am until 7pm or later, I need to have plenty to work on. So inevitably I need to spend a couple of days a week at home, prepping up designs that are ready for mosaic and which I can work on from my stall. It’s precious time when I can still be productive and my customers can see me creating the designs they are buying. Most importantly – I do really love my selling days because I get to meet so many interesting and lovely people… and just maybe.. that’s the real reason I am still selling 2 days a week.
With a customer who bought one of my larger pieces
In the last six weeks since my previous post we have had no heatwaves and I missed only one day of selling due to high winds and not the heat! In the final two weeks of September the temperatures dropped noticeably, and we’ve had lots of mixed weather in the way of sunshine and clouds ..quite a bit more cloud than is normal for September. But what’s normal these days?! Nevertheless, these conditions continue to make life easier to live and work in.
I’ve enjoyed some fab beach days with Debbie in Skaleta, Georgioupoli and Stavros. Lisa joined us at Stavros after first dropping our friend Solveig at the airport, as Stavros is not far from the airport. The beach days we’ve had more locally – at Almy in Kalyves, are always laid back and lovely… chatting swimming and lunch. These are all wonderful days off and I really love all my beach days here on Crete.
The wild sea daffodils next to Almy on Kalyves beach
The most memorable social event of the past six weeks has without doubt been the annual ‘Sagapami’ music festival held at Gavalochori. This is a charity event where 4 bands played their different brands of music. The music was fantastic and the dance floor was heaving for most of the evening (ha, that rhymes!) ‘Basic’ food and drink were available, consisting mainly of Greek salad and souvlaki and the alcohol available was beer or wine. I knew the red wine was going to be the ‘village’ red wine which is heavily fortified and a bit like sherry (Dopia is the local name for it, I think!) But this was preferrable to the poor quality white. You could only purchase by the large plastic bottle and so I only managed to get through about one third of it. But hey, after the first plastic cup of ‘Dopia’ one gets accustomed to the taste… and the effects of its higher alcohol content, haha!
At Sagapami Music Festival
But you don’t go to ‘Sagapami for the food and drink…. You go for the music, the dancing and the atmosphere. The event was very well supported and ‘packed with practically everybody and anybody I knew and we all had a brilliant time! This wonderful event raised over 6,000 Euros for charity.
My daughters and grandchildren didn’t make it to Crete this year… but I’m super excited about my sister and brother-in-law, Karen and Mike’s visit in just under a week’s time. I just hope the weather stays like it is now.. warm, calm, sunny and comfortable. October can often be dodgy, it’s when we usually get our first heavy rainstorms, although they typically occur towards the end of October. I’m glad they are arriving soon.
Lisa, Debbie and I having fun at Sagapami music festival
of course… right now I am happily ensconsed on my balcony sofa on this warm, calm, sunny and comfortable afternoon, writing up this post for 1st October 2025. So how lucky am I? 🙂
