October’s weather has been as bad as the second half of September’s was. A shock and a big disappointment after last year’s wonderful autumn of abundant sunshine and warmth. My selling days have been seriously affected and I only managed 3 days in October. This time last year the weather was so good that I didn’t put my heating on until 3rd December. This year I have been resisting the urge because the fuel is hellishly expensive, no thanks to Trump’s war. I was tempted to switch ‘on’ at the end of September even… and many more times since. But what can you do? It is what it is.
Beautiful weather for a day at Stavros
So my last day of selling this season was on October 22nd and it couldn’t have been more of a contrast to last year, when I ended the season on a high after selling 13 artworks. This time I had a rare ‘no sales’ day and I can’t deny it put me on a downer (also rare). I felt quite sad that this was officially the end of summer. Thankfully this feeling didn’t last long – only for that final selling day! On a more positive note the total of Seashell Mosaic Collage Paintings sold this summer was 146. I am, as always, most grateful.
On Lisa’s birthday at the charity gig in Kalyves
There has been plenty of socialising going on in October. We saw the Horny Boys again, this time at Gyalos in Kalyves. The weekend of Lisa’s 60th birthday we were at Neisha’s annual Libra party at Nikita’s in Almyrida. The DJ played dance-worthy tunes pretty much all night and Nikita’s was packed with friends and people we knew. On the Saturday we were back in Kalyves for a big annual charity do for the local animals, cats and dogs. There was live music as is usual, but the tables were packed closely together to fit everyone in so we were dancing outside again. The food was not the best but we had a jolly good time, as we always do when we go out.
At Vangeli’s Halloween Party
The next day, the Sunday of this same weekend, the sun was shining warmly and so I drove with Debbie and Lisa to Stavros for a beach day out. The weather was indeed lovely – such a contrast of late, but there were barely any seashells to collect. We enjoyed our picnic lunch on the beach and also visited the far long beach so we did lots of walking and as always, we had another lovely day.
The Lions played brilliantly for Halloween!
Apart from that day at Stavros, we’ve only been beachcombing one other time so far. Our friend Ross arrived on the island a few weeks ago and we recently went to Kissamos for the day. Debbie then went back to Wales for a few weeks and actually she didn’t miss much because the weather has generally not been good enough for beachcombing days since, sadly.
Three Black Halloween Cats
We had quite a blast at Vangeli’s Halloween party last weekend. I didn’t go to it last year as Debbie and I were up early for the long drive and stopover at Elafonisi. Almost everyone went to town on their costumes but Lisa, Chrissie and I just went as black cats – an easy outfit to organize quickly. I made the ears and a fluffy tail, using make-up for whiskers and a black nose. The band, The Lions were brilliant, regularly surprising us with the variety of their music and always playing new and different tracks. We danced wherever there was room inside. We all had a great time and stayed until the wee hours of the morning.
Lions in fancy dress
My birthday is coming up fast – this weekend. There’s nothing special on so I will do what I do regularly.. and that is to go to my local Vangeli’s on Friday early doors and take the evening as it comes… go with the flow. I enjoy caching up with my other good friends, Robert and Patrick to name but a few. Lisa will join me early on and then on Saturday, with Debbie, we will drive into Chania, have a mooch around the shops and markets and wherever looks interesting. We will stop for a lovely lunch probably somewhere on the harbourfront. Another lovely weekend about to start… so arn’t I the lucky one?!