Since my last post it has continued to remain extremely hot here on Crete. Although other islands, including the mainland, have suffered even higher temperatures – Crete’s have hovered around the mid 30’s for what seems like forever! It is officially the hottest summer on Greece’s meteorological records. From my point of view, this being my 16th consecutive summer on Crete, I have certainly found it to be the most consistently hot one I’ve ever experienced. It is, of course, absolutely fine if you are on holiday here, but it’s a different story when you have to live and work in it.
That being said – it’s all about keeping cool and the aircon in both my car and at home has become invaluable to the quality of my life here. Yet despite my experiences of the extreme heat, my life continues to be quite wonderful on all levels.
With my dear friends Jill & Rick at Elpis in Plaka
My dear and close friends, Jill and Rick came to stay with me for a week, during which time we spent many happy hours chatting, eating, drinking, swimming and relaxing. Apart from the two days I was selling in Almyrida, it was a kind of mini holiday for me too. It was lovely to spend such quality time with them. We ate out every lunchtime and evening, the evenings all at Elpis in Plaka. The food there is so so good! With the exception of Saturday, when we took a wander around Kalyves, browsing the shops and enjoying a tasty late lunch at Café Delight, overlooking the sea. That evening we played cards on my balcony, whilst listening to music.
The week flew by as these wonderfully social times always do. I was so happy to have hosted their holiday and return the favour, when on so many occasions Jill and Rick have had me over for dinner at theirs, when I’ve been in the UK over the Christmas period.
I only made 3 of these in winter and I have already sold 2 from my beach stall in Almyrida. Seashell Mosaic Collage Painting – 30x40cms
As far as selling my art goes – July was a little disappointing for sales, 29 Seashell Mosaic Paintings were sold compared to 40 last year. I sold on 7 days instead of a possible 9, having missed 2 days because it was simply too hot to sit and work at my stall for 10 long hours! However, so far August seems to be exceeding last year and sales are going very well. Last Thursday I sold 11 of my Seashell Mosaic Paintings and this month alone I have sold 2 of my most expensive artworks at 170 and 250 Euros respectively.
Girls Night Out – with Lisa & Solveig – Cocktails in Kalyves
Socially there continues to be many fun events to go to and among the most memorable of these has been ‘Kez ‘n’ The Band’ at Vangeli’s. This Greek band had not performed there before and they were brilliant… churning out some great well-known tunes. I loved the band as much as I do ‘The Lions’, who played there 2 weeks ago. So two great evenings of live music and dancing at my local, just 5 minutes walk from my home.
Madfest Crete at Embrosneros Amphitheatre
Another great evening was the ‘Madfest Crete’ music festival held at the Ampitheatre in Embrosneros. I went there with Lisa, Chrissie and Debbie. What a fabulous venue for music and we found great seats (we brought cushions to sit on!) at the very top of the amphitheatre. The atmosphere was wonderful and the majority of the audience were young Greeks. Over the course of about 5 hours we listened and danced to Carl Axon & The Rocking Rebels (opening), followed by a popular Greek chart band called Locomondo, who also played at the annual Matala Music Festival. Last on stage were ‘Marmitas’ , with two excellent female singers, although their music was a little too ‘jazzy’ for our tastes. We all agreed it was a fab night and something different from the norm.
Sitting in Poseidon’s Throne at Ancient Falassarna
Despite my best intentions to take it a little easier on the work front, I’ve still had plenty of days prepping up new artworks to work on during my selling days in Almyrida. However I’ve spent the last two Saturdays out with Debbie visiting Skaleta and Falassarna. We were keen to see what Skaleta was like in the summer so we took our new beach chairs and my parasol and set up in the bay where we found so many seashells in the winter. Luckily it was an unmanaged beach, so no sunbeds or tourists! Amazingly the seashells were all there but without a hint of a breeze – it was too hot to collect them! So after several dips in the warm sea, we packed up and headed for the outskirts of Georgioupoli on the way back. We found a large taverna on the beach with comfortable seating to eat, swim and relax.
The beautiful rock pool at Ancient Falassarna
Last weekend we finally decided to venture beyond the areas we usually do our beachcombing and explore the ancient ruins at Falassarna. High up there it was unbelievably hot and a strong hot hair-drying wind didn’t help! So after sitting briefly in ‘Poseidon’s Throne’ and discovering – not to our surprise – that access to the ruins was closed, we turned back to try and find somewhere to set up our parasol and beach chairs. This was a beach we had never been to before and it looked really interesting. To cut a long story short, it was quite impossible to set up the parasol for shade in the strong winds and so we abandoned that idea and went for a wander instead. We came to this amazing and beautiful large rock pool which was deep enough to swim in. It must have been full of salt because I could actually float standing upright, without moving my arms and legs. It was heavenly! Later on we ate at a taverna on the beach again and went for another wander around afterwards.
Yamas! We got free mini cocktails on the Almyrida Residence Roof Terrace during ‘Happy Hour’ yesterday!
In just 5 more days my daughter Emma, and grandchildren Ralph and Neve arrive to stay with me for two whole weeks! WOW, I am crazy excited! Sadly Ash, who works in the military is unable to join them, but this won’t stop us all from having a truly wonderful holiday. During the time they are here, I have decided to sell in Almyrida only once a week so that I can make the absolute best of my time with them all.
