The
major earthquake affecting Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on 8th October 2005
killed more than 20,000 people, attracting international assistance which
included
Greece...
Link
to story.
Greece: Earthquake
activity in the region of Greece continued rising this month and including locations
in the regions of Chios; Samos; Icaria; Fourni; Lesvos; Zakinthos; Konitsa; Karpathos ;
Kos; Thessaloniki (Volvi) and Patras.. attracting yet more
attention... Link
to story.
09 Oct: 4.4 Richter Scale, 10.12am. Epicentre between lakes Koronia
& Volvi, mainland Greece. Link
to Story.
11 Oct: 4.8 Richter Scale, 8.45am. Islands of Karpathos & Kos.
Undersea epicentre 550 Km southeast Thessalonica.
Link
to Story.
17 Oct: 6.0/5.9/5.5
Richter Scale, 18.45am & 12.46 approx. Three quakes. Chios, Samos,
Oinnouses, Ikaria, Fornoi, Smyrna. Links to story: Link
1 Link 2.
18 Oct. 4.9 Richter Scale, 15.06pm. Konitsa. Approx 380Km north west of
Athens.
Link to Story.
21 Oct: 6.0 Richter scale, 12.40am. Chios, Lesvos. Epicentre in Turkey.
Link
to Story.
31 Oct: 5.0 Richter Scale, 7.25am. Chios, Samos & Turkish
coast.
Link to Story.
At least one
professor believes that there will be at least 4 major earthquake in the future.
Link
to Story.
Earthquakes are a common feature of life in Greece and rarely cause any damage. The problem is that the ones
that do are unpredictable. Recent Greek research has indicated a strong earthquake
in SW Bulgaria and
the continued advance in methods
of prediction.
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A Little Extra News.... Threatened Flowers...
One of the
great things about being able to live at the base of the Rodopos peninsula is
that we are surrounded by wildlife of all descriptions. Some of it,
particularly the wild flowers, can be very beautiful, given the chance.
'Chance', my mother used to tell me, 'is a fine thing'. I am now, many years
later, beginning to see the point.
Paul Smith, our resident bird watching expert, recently replied to an e-mailed
bird photograph I had taken (it turned out to be an adult bonellis eagle in
full flight). Ever honest he said basically - 'where did you take it? There
are about ten pairs on Crete with at least one pair on ... (but don't dare
tell anyone else where they are or you will have to eat each and every one of
my premium bonds without the benefit of even one drop of Amstel).
He can be a bit secretive. A bit protective of wildlife. Giving it a
chance maybe... First my mother, now Paul Smith.
I am a bit of a slow learner, but a few days ago I finally got there.
Cyclamen... We have an absolutely astounding show of cyclamen in the areas
close to our village this year. Astounding.. Dark pink, light pinks,
white,... Wait - did I say white? The pure white varieties are a very, very
small minority, at least in this area. Now there are probably
none....
Searching the beds for photographs of the white variety we found none. Even in
the more secluded and difficult to reach spots... But we did find, even in the
secluded spots, regular occurrences of similar shaped holes - maybe made
by a trowel.. And traces of cyclamen root. Corms gone. But in one case
the a broken off flower head. Pure white. Examples of Cyclamen graecum.
Common enough - but not the pure white. Have a look at our picture strip
above.
A local? Not likely. A tourist then? Well, maybe... But not a
casual. We have known members of cyclamen societies from abroad take
specimens - one carrying a digging tool whilst the other denied what they were
doing, and the flowering this year has attracted more than a few...
Expatriate collector or tour operator? Probably. No proof. But
strangers do tend to be noticed and commented upon. You can't visit this area
without being noticed....
Given the chance the corms which were removed would no doubt have multiplied
and been there in increasing numbers for all who are interested in wild
flowers. All those who, given the chance, would have been able to view
them here in their local, natural habitat. Or, had we been given the
chance been available for many more to see on Cretanvista flower galleries -
25,000 potential viewers a month, many who of whom would have been able to see
a local specimen in it's natural habitat whenever they wanted to and wherever
they are. Given the chance....
Given the chance I would publish your photograph - high resolution....
Kalos Ithate Stin Kriti
WB.
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A Little More Site News.
How about that?....
Since we first published our site in 2001 it has
grown slowly but surely to its present size. Cretanvista contains more than
1500 files; supported by over 1000 photographs (mostly high quality). To
keep it all together there are more than 4,000 links between the files.
If you read our news page you may notice some of the links to other sites, all
of which have to be replaced with an updated set for each edition - once a
month... As does the news page itself.
Finding us ......
Don't forget you can access this website via several different spellings of
our site name. So if your typing skills are a bit 'iffy' you can still find
us. We also use different ISP's and domain endings to make it as easy as
possible for you to find us.
Try it: www.cretanvista.co.uk
really is no different to www.cretanvista.gr
- except that you receive them from different parts of the world.
Did you want one and didn't get one?!
The publishers have agreed to support our Christmas/New Year news with a
few more copies of Carol Palioudaki' The Cool
Guide to Living in Crete (Cool Publications). You
can of course buy one yourself if you can't wait, but Christmas isn't far away
if you can...
Last Competition Winners:
Ann S - Yorkshire, UK.
Niall B - Birmingham, UK.
Alan P - Lincolnshire, UK.
A. Davies - Nomos Chanion, GR.
Books &
Good Reading - Latest Review.
No increase this month, but several in the pipes... Try our latest, you
may want it for Christmas...
Collins Complete
Mediterranean Wildlife.
Dr Paul Sterry. HarperCollins.
The people behind the books: Every
book review has an introductory paragraph about the author/s. We have decided
to go a little further and where possible, include profiles of not only these
talented authors but also, where we can, of people behind them.
Good examples are 'Patouchas' -
Ioannis Kondylakis (Read
the review) and 'Who Pays The Ferryman' - Michael J. Bird (Read
the review) These profiles will be attached to relevant book
reviews. Watch this space...
Photo Galleries
NEW Gallery. A first! Klaus-Dieter Thill - author of Minaturkapellen
auf Kreta, a real photo albumn detailing some of those enigmatic roadside shrines of Crete,
has supplied photographs for a gallery which is now being put together here at Cretanvista.
There will also be, of course, a review the book... the gallery should be
on-line within the next week or so...
Wild Flowers: Up from 96 to 144 different wild flowers covered. 99% have
been taken right here at the base of the Rodopos peninsula. We are continually
working on these galleries and will soon been adding further pages including
detailed reference pages and more photos of each specimen. There are now more
than 4,000 flower photographs in our databases. Rising to 168 shortly and
an additional 24 already in the workshop!
Bird Galleries. Building on...
Athanasios Sakoulis, who contributed the magnificent gallery from his book
on Cretan wildlife to our site has now contributed 18 pictures of birds
for addition to a gallery. We will attach this to Paul Smith's bird-watching
page in the near future. Something worth waiting for..
Insects..
We have built up an extensive collection of photographs from which
we are producing galleries for our wild life page. The next of these
will be insects - about which we have received few queries, but many of which
are supremely photogenic. We have some beautiful reptiles too...
GENERAL: There are now 13 galleries featuring aspects of Cretan
life, including sunrise and sunset pictures; Souda Bay War Cemetery; and the
gallery of magnificent wild-life pictures by Anastasios Sakoulis,
author of "Stigmotipa Tis Kritikis Freesis" (Moments of Cretan
Nature) - (Links below - bottom right column); our infant gallery about house
renovation; and of course our annual calendar galleries containing 60 or so
pictures of north western Crete.
There are of course many other areas being developed all the time - including
new ones in the pipeline.... Continued progress with additions to our
weaving page for example, is being built upon to match the practice which has
taken place since the page was first added.
___________________
Are we listening, do we hear?
We are and we do. The continuously increasing numbers of visitors
and complimentary e-mails seem to show that our visitors - 21,000 plus individual
visits in our best month last year - appreciate our efforts.
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