What is it?

Did you get it right?
Its a tomato........a friend from Vrahassi Greek class brought some plants in and they were not tagged so she wasn't sure what kind they were....I have never seen a tomato like this before, they are only around one to one and a half inches long, but they taste delicious and are very sweet.

Cool for Cats.....

You can tell how hot its getting here when the cat jumps in the fridge the minute its open!
p.s. no your eyes are not going funny, the picture is blurry.

New Doors

At last...my lovely new doors are here and fitted.....complete with window to open when it is too warm inside, and I had the blessing of Papa Manolis who came to have a look at them and declared them "fantastico". He has also ordered some for his house remarkably like them - a result I think!!!!

A wedding in the village

Yesterday was a special day in the village. The first summer wedding. Dimitri and Sofia had the most beautiful of weddings. It took place (unusually) in front of the church and was followed by music from a famous professional band and display dancing by the local Cretan dancing display team (including Dimitris' brother Niko who is not only a good dancer, but a talented musician) The bride naturally looked absolutely stunning, as did all the rest of the wedding party. Rafael (next to Dimitri on the photo) walked to the church with a little girl on each arm...a proper little gentleman! There are also photos of the wedding favours which are traditionally given to all guests. There is an almond macaroon, sugared almonds and honey and nuts (usually spooned in your mouth as you leave the church - this time in little jars with a D and S and a heart hand painted in between) The wedding was followed by fireworks and lots and lots of partying. Needless to say the village was very, very quiet on Sunday. Congratulations to the happy couple!!!

Heatwave and the fire engine.

We have had a heatwave here now for over a week, with temperatures well into the mid 40's but also a wind from the south. Those of you in England will be familiar with a wind chill factor. This is the same in reverse. The temperature is 44 but it feels more like 54!!! This has a number of drawbacks:-
1) Its too hot and sticky to do ANYTHING!
2) The amount of extra electricity to power the air conditioning in the resorts blacks out the whole island as the grid cannot cope.
3) We get fires.....sometimes caused by idiots discarding fag ends without realising the risks at this time of year.....
Yesterday there were a number of local fires, the worst being in Elounda, consuming 700 Stremma (a Stremma is 1000 square metres) of land and houses, and taking two days to put out. Very scary! The photo above is of the local fire engine flying over my house on its way to deal with the fire. There are a number of planes and just the one helicopter, they pick up water from the sea and drop it on fires.
Well done all the men who worked so hard.....

End of Term

Well it is end of term at the local schools and to celebrate they held a competition for art and poetry on the theme of Peace. Prizes were given for the best in each age group at a party in the square. Traditional Cretan music and dancing was provided and went on until around 12 o'clock (very early night here!)

Bored !!!!

Well I just got back after a long day, to and fro from the hospital where my poor mum has ended up while she is here on holiday to find that sweet little Jessica obviously got bored while I was out. She managed to shred an entire toilet roll over the floor and looked really pleased with herself when I opened the door and found her !!!! I wonder if Andrex will pay me for the photo :-)