We are back from a week's holiday in the UK. Nice as it was to see our family and friends it has convinced me more than ever that we did the right thing buying a property in Crete. The traffic in the UK was hardly moving wherever we went, the political correctness visible everywhere was so over the top it was comical, the prices for eating out even more scandalously expensive than a year ago, the government 's interference with every single aspect of an individual's life was overbearing. The newspapers were still full of the same childish attempts to ruin peoples lives under the guise of investigative journalism, etc., etc.. The less said about parking restrictions, traffic cameras and fuel prices the better. However the weather was not too bad - a bit damp and dismal but not particularly cold!
We have had a mixture of weather since arriving back in Crete. Several days sunbathing followed by a day or two of heavy rain seems to the the norm for February. We are expecting low temperatures next week (down to about 5 degrees although it will feel colder when the wind blows.
We have had our 5 litres of olive oil from our tree - what I had not realised is that it starts off cloudy and has to be left for a months to settle before it can be used on salads etc; however it can be used for cooking. Oranges and lemons are in abundance again as this seasons crop has now ripened. The local farmers keep slipping us a few free ones, and even if we buy them they cost hardly anything.
Happy New Year. Today was an important day for us in Crete as for the first time our olive 'harvest' was picked. Greek friends - Tina and Yannis, whilst harvesting our neighbour's crop also picked our tree for us generating a full sack of olives (around 20 Kg) for Cathy and myself. The olives have now gone to the mill and hopefully there will be several litres of olive oil awaiting for us on our return from our forthcoming UK holiday.
Another sunny and warm day and so just after lunch I spent half an hour in the garden and the surrounding olive groves with a camera. I took the Nikon D80 fitted with a 70 - 300 mm lens (105 - 450 mm effective) and a SB-600 flashgun. To all practical purposes the pictures on this page are exactly as they came out of the camera, they have just been reduced in size and then compressed to prepare them for the web.
Shot 1: I particularly like the photo of the bottle brush plant flower as it was taken outside where it was growng but has the appearance of a shot taken in the studio.
Shot 2: The olive tree branch caught my attention because of the way the light was catching the leaves, thus contrasting the dark blue sky.
Shot 3: Cathy with her best new friend - Sami the cat.
Shot 4. The Geraniums just never stop flowering.
Shot 5. Flutterby. There are many types of butterflies here including species common in the UK.
Shot 6. This goat never lets me get near her, but the long lens soon solved that problem .
Shot 7. Carnations have now been flowering in our garden for at least 6 months and show no signs of stopping.
Shot 8. Amaryllis are an outside garden plant in Crete, this one (now past its best) has four blooms each about 6" across.
Shot 9. Clemantines. Not the best of photographs but included because I picked and ate the one nearest the camera immediately after taking the shot!
Shot 10. These particular lemons will not be ready for a few more weeks, but a local farmer is already giving us free ripe lemons from one of his trees.
Shot 11. This photo was taken as much to show the clover as the insect. Clover grows everywhere like a huge blanket. From a distance it looks like a green lawn. Any day now it will change as the clover produces beautiful yellow flowers. I do not know what this particular insect is but there are many interesting varieties around, with preying mantis being particularly common. Our cat loves chasing them all (with the aim of eating them!)