The two photos above were taken by Yvonne a couple of evenings ago at sunset, and they well illustrate how clouds make a sunset sky much more interesting, don’t they? The weather’s become a little more changeable lately, after what has proven to be a very dry November. We’ve had some rains, occasionally heavy, but nor for very long, and the temperatures have dipped to below 20 during the daytime quite often during this past week. Our last swim was about two weeks ago. The up-side of the cooler days has been that we’ve started to go for some longer walks among the hillsides again, something for which we long for the winter months to arrive. So it was during one or two of these walks this past week that I took the next lot of photos…

That plant with the creamy bell-shaped flowers was really lovely and it adorned a metal fence around one of the olive groves. If anyone can tell me what that plant is, I’d be very grateful, thanks. I did have an app on my phone which was supposed to tell you what a plant was when you pointed the camera at a flower, but the thing got on my nerves and was cluttering my phone up to be honest, so it got trashed, and then, of course, I found a need for it! The nets, of course, are a dead give-away regarding what time of year it is, as we passed a family group busily harvesting their olives during that particular morning walk. They’re not in the shot because as we passed they were all hanging around their 4×4 pickup taking their morning break.

I rather like the photo showing the bank of cloud shrouding one of the mountaintops too, it puts me in mind of a scene from The Lord of the Rings, or something.

I’ll post some more photos further down, but I wanted to first talk about the ERT TV series that we’re currently watching on ERTFLIX (The ERT catch-up website, catchy name, eh?), as it’s a serialisation of Victoria Hislop’s book Cartes Postales From Greece. I’d read the book a few years ago and quite enjoyed it. It may not have been another ‘The Island’ or ‘The Thread,’ both of which are excellent IMHO (although I’ve not enjoyed all of her books anything like as much), but it was a snazzy idea for a plot and contained many stories that were based on fact, although the book is ostensibly a novel. In the original book the main character tours Greece experiencing some quite extraordinary things along the way. In the TV series they’ve set the whole thing on Crete, and even more interestingly from our point of view, it’s mainly filmed in Lasithi, the county where we live. If you’re familiar with Agios Nikolaos or Elounda, Spinalonga or Plaka (the village from which one takes the boat to visit the former leper colony), you’ll be thrilled at the cinematography and you’ll recognise scenes in virtually every episode. Last year (or was it the year before?) we actually passed the beach at Pachia Ammos while they were filming scenes for episode 4. We saw the film crew and actors as they filmed a scene at a make-believe petrol station, erected on the parking area behind the eastern end of the beach for the purposes of shooting some of the scenes. I’m sure that if we were to watch those scenes back again, we’d probably see our car driving past.

There are twelve episodes in the series, and we’re up to no.10, as they’re all available on the website I linked above (the words TV series in the previous paragraph). We’re not looking forward to it coming to an end, as we’re sure to get withdrawal symptoms, it’s that good. I don’t know if that link will work in countries outside of Greece, it may require the use of a private VPN or something, but if you can get to see it, I highly recommend it. There are scenes where English is spoken, as you may know that some of the action takes place in London, England, but it’s mainly shot in Greek. Perhaps you can get a version with subtitles. If anyone out there manages to watch it in the UK, for example, perhaps you’d let me know. I have to admit that it’s a thrill to watch a well-made and really well-acted Greek production like this and see it shot in our own back-yard.

Just before I post the rest of the photos, I wanted too to mention that the birds are back in the garden. During the hot summer months we tend to see mainly sparrows around the house here, and the birds of prey soaring high above, mainly Griffon Vultures, they too tend to be more scarce when the weather’s baking hot. We don’t see anything like as many Bee Eaters here as we used to in Rhodes, I presume mainly due to the different flora on the hillsides, but we do see a few, and also Hoopoes, plus swallows are often in evidence, although we don’t see any of them nesting anywhere near us. During the hot nights we often hear owls in the olive groves around the village too, but the variety of birds that we get here in winter is much greater. This past week we’ve delighted to see that the Black Redstarts have returned, along with Great Tits, Blue Tits and Chaffinches. These often perch on the wooden rail along the front of our veranda while we’re having breakfast and we get a wonderful view of them.

In the lower garden we have this Fatsia Japonica…

As the photo above shows, it’s in flower right now and it’s acting as a magnet to a selection of insects, but also to some lovely little warblers. I think they’re Willow Warblers, but I’m not sure. The Warbler family is quite large and a lot of them are very similar in appearance, apparently. Either way, we sit and watch them pecking away at the Fatsia’s ‘blooms,’ if that’s what you call them, most days at the moment. The Griffons are much in evidence in the crag above the village now too, plus Buzzards and a selection of hawks and falcons are all swooping and soaring in the partly clouded skies. It’s a birdwatchers delight right now. And so to some more photos…

Above: It’s that time of year when citrus trees (oranges, mandarins etc) are looking their best. You only need pick what you require on a daily basis with these trees, the fruit stays fresher if you leave it on the tree until needed.

Above gallery: We had lunch in the Konaki on the seafront last Sunday, and we took this series of shots while taking a pre-lunch walk to get our appetites up.

Above: You know you’re living in a Cretan village when the local washing lines are as colourful (!*$?) as this!

Above: Also taken during our pre-lunch walk last Sunday, but I saved it for last!

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