The weather for the remainder of January was mostly fine, sunny and warm and so my beachcombing season has started with much enthusiasm.  Having said that though, Debbie and I were disappointed to find very little at Georgioupoli in January.  However I did stock up on the specific small flat grey pebbles which I use for the walls and steps in my cat designs.  Last summer alone I sold 25 of them!

The beautiful pastel colours of dusk on Kalyves beach

We had a wonderful day staying local in Kalyves where we found lots of lovely seashells on the first beach and glass and more pebbles for my cat designs on the long far beach. It was sunny and hot all day long and as the light started to fade, we sat on a bench at the edge of the beach and watched the moon come up over the sea.  The colours were spectacular and my photo doesn’t begin to capture the sheer beauty of it all.

When Ross came over for a visit he joined Debbie and me for a full day at Stavros and also at Bali.  There wasn’t much to collect at Bali but it’s such an

Late afternoon on Stavros Beach, Chania. One of Debbie’s beautiful photos.

interesting place and Ross had never been there – even though he has been coming to Crete regularly for 18 years.  So we showed him all around, taking in the four beaches and enjoying our picnic lunch at the little harbor.  In the afternoon we decided to see if we could find some new beaches to explore on the way back.  Halfway between Bali and Rethymnon, we took a turn off the highway at Skaleta and came upon a strip of sandy coastline we’d never seen before.  It certainly was a long, sandy beautiful beach and about halfway along it – we started finding lots of beautiful seashells and ocean finds.  Unfortunately we ran out of time and daylight to complete our search of this beach and vowed to return to it soon.

Debbie’s photo of our new beach discovery at Skaleta

A recent trip to Falasarna with Debbie also proved to be a bountiful one.  Falasarna rarely disappoints and there are several beaches to explore on this coastline – all yielding a huge variety of seashells, so many of which I use in my Seashell Mosaic Painting Collages.  It is great news that there are many more seashells on the beaches this year, than were there last year.

Starting to loose the light, collecting seashells on the beach at Skaleta

From early January I have been working on my stock in earnest.  I didn’t produce anything in November or December last year and I cannot hope to replace all the artworks I sold last summer.  But I am just happy to put in all the hours that I have and create what I can until my summer selling season starts again.  A relatively new design of a young girl picking seashells off the beach, has sold well on Etsy and even better as a new design from my beach stall last year.  So instead of trying to produce this larger design during my already busy summer months, I am aiming to create at least 3 of these artworks during this winter.

Shells I collected at Falasarna

Debbie and I have booked to stay in Elafonisi for a night.  Early March is the earliest we could find somewhere open.  We never have enough time to explore the whole of Elafonisi because at least 5 hours is taken out of our day in travelling to and from this beautiful and unspoilt paradise on the southwest coast of Crete.  The last few years we haven’t been able to visit it until May and by then it’s already really too late to collect the best finds.  I was desperate to go during the winter months and we are both very excited to be able to explore Elafonisi for 2 days.

Sunset at Falasarna – another of Debbie’s fab photos

Socially there have been one or two really good nights out during the past month or so.  I had a great evening at Vangeli’s a couple of weeks ago, a New Moon Charity Dinner with live music at Gyalos in Kalyves and an ‘open mic’ night at The Donkey Café in Vamos, where Ross played.  Almyrida might be like a ghost town in the winter, but there are still plenty of social events being organized in the surrounding areas through the winter.

Seashell Mosaic Painting Collage – 30 x 40cms – available to purchase from my Etsy shop

We have had one or two storms and heavy rainfall so far in February, but not much really… I think we’ve had another mild winter so far.  Saturday is forecast to be 18 degrees and sunny again, when it looks like we will be revisiting our newly discovered beach at Skaleta.  Tomorrow may not be so good as we are expecting rain for the next 3 days.  But I am still going on David’s walk from Stylos and will no doubt enjoy a hearty late lunch afterwards.