We were so lucky with the weather in January. It was sunny and mild for the whole month but in the first week of February it turned cold and stormy with lots of heavy rain – even hailstones! And suddenly the mountains were full of snow! This lasted for about two weeks and now, for the past week the warm sunny weather has returned.
On one of my power walks in Almyrida
The weather did affect the walks. A couple of David’s walks were dotted with showers, some of them heavy and I was glad of my rainproof jacket, even though the zip broke! Nevertheless we also enjoyed warm and dry conditions on our walks to Stylos and Nippos. What is so lovely about David’s walks is that I always learn something about the local flora and fauna and David is also very knowledgeable about climate change.
Never too far from the white mountains.. a rest stop at the Kefelas monuments during the Happy Wanderers walk.
I’ve actually only been on one of the Happy Wanderers walks since New Year and this is down to various reasons. If a walk is postponed due to bad weather, it is moved to the following week. As they are always held on Sundays, it’s not a good idea to have a late and boozy night on the Saturday before and this is the reason I missed one of the walks. There was a Saturday Night in Vangeli’s when two different bands were playing and I knew it was going to be a late one (and there have been quite a few of those lately). I think it was around 4am before I hit the sack! What a dirty stop-out I am… and at my age too!! An early start and a long strenuous walk were never going to happen!
One of the larger designs I took off Etsy to sell from Almyrida beach last summer – 40x50cms Seashell Mosaic Collage Painting
Yet I did make last Sunday’s walk around Selia and Kefelas, followed by a lovely long lunch at a taverna in Kalamitsi Alexandrou. It was good to see some familiar faces again and to catch up as we trekked along the way and over lunch. It’s always so nice walking in the winter sunshine.
Another design I took off Etsy to sell from Almyrida beach last summer – 40x50cms Seashell Mosaic Collage Painting
I have been putting all the hours I can muster into my art business. A busy winter always follows a successful summer season and I have too many designs to replicate in time for next season. I especially need to replace some larger designs I took off Etsy in order to sell last year. These I can only create in the winter months because in the summer I am too busy with selling and producing the smaller designs that always sell well. Hey but I have made a great start.
Although I do nothing to increase traffic to my Etsy Shop, I have some really good customers and amazing reviews. I recently completed a custom order for one such client. I know I could do a lot more marketing on social media in order to try and attract more sales but… I really don’t have the time or the inclination to do this. Etsy isn’t the marketplace it once was and all my efforts would probably make no difference anyway, from what I can gather on the Etsy Community and forums. I could easily write a whole blog post telling you how bad Etsy has become, but I don’t have the time! Otherwise I would spend that time uploading all my work onto another marketplace.. and we are talking about a lot of work involved in doing that.
The beautiful little cove on the outskirts of Stavros, where Lisa, Debbie & I were beachcombing
All I want to do is to create! When I am not creating I want to beach comb, explore, walk, socialize… I make sure now that I maintain some balance in my life because it just can’t be all about my work, all of the time. Life is too short and there are never enough hours in it for me!
Every winter I look forward to my beachcombing trips. Whole days of exploring the awesome empty-of-tourists beaches. Ross was over for a couple of weeks and offered to drive Debbie and me to Georgioupoli beach for the day, making a nice change for me not doing the driving. Ross has been beachcombing with us many times before and he enjoys exploring the different areas we visit and in the summer he also loves swimming and snorkeling from whichever beach we are on. We had a lovely day out and decided to end it with an early dinner at The Loft in Plaka.
On the way down to one of Bali’s stunning beaches, where Debbie & I were beachcombing
Last week, Lisa, Debbie and I visited Stavros again. We always stop now at the little cove we recently discovered, which is just on the outskirts of Stavros and where there are always teeny tiny seashells to find. The weather was simply gorgeous and we collected lots of ocean treasures. Yesterday, Debbie and I spent the day at Bali and although there wasn’t that much to find along any of the tidelines, we still enjoyed walking the 3 beaches there and soaking up the winter sunshine. We also found another small sandy cove which we stopped to explore on the way back.
The Awesome Lefka Ori Mountains.. a zoomed in, early morning image taken from my balcony
Tomorrow Carnival is back at Kalyves! It has been a few years since they held carnivals all over Greece, mainly due to Covid. I don’t think I have been to one for many years… but I’m going this year. It’s going to be 20 degrees and sunny again tomorrow, so another perfect winter’s day for being out and about, socialising and having some fun!