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MARCH WEATHER ...
Variable but increasingly sunny in the day with a definite 'spring is here' feel about it and although the nights sometimes still demanded a log fire, they were often beautifully starlit, with the sound of scops owls and occasionally barn owls. Summer is en-route, but it still wasn't beach weather....
Russ Collins (Lt) & Eric Rowe
CretanVista Visitors From France
Above: We could not include this superb shot (!) of Eric & Russ last time, but anyone can see that with friends like these we are certainly not worried about enemies!! Although both now live in the south of France, Eric originates from Suffolk, UK, whilst Russ is from America.
Both are interested in and specialise in aspects of nature - flowers, birds - and Eric is our own site (cretanvista) advisor on flower identification. They had a reasonable ten days, staying gratis at the holiday home of Klause and Gudrun Harms in Afrata, (Gudrun is translating the site to German) - but the real flower show started about three weeks after their visit. The flowers just will not go by the
clock!! Russ is also webmaster of www.provencebeyond.com well worth a visit if you are interested in France, especially the southern parts. Nature Abounds....
And seemingly doesn't know any! Barely a month after our February blizzard the local countryside is ablaze with wild flowers. Trees and shrubs are coming on and the birds are in increasingly active - as a look at Paul Smiths bird watching page will undoubtedly confirm. Link: PaulBird1
Holiday-makers are also making their presence felt in small numbers, passing through both in hire cars and, probably the best way if you like nature and walking, on foot.
Since most charter flights have not yet started we presume that - because the common language we hear is German, the early visitors are from Germany flying in via Athens on scheduled flights. For British readers who may not know this - Easyjet to Athens and a scheduled flight from Athens with either Olympic or Aegean Airways can sometimes work out very much cheaper than a scheduled
flight all the way with either Aegean or Olympic - though you will still have to change at Athens.
For anyone living in the past, Athens Airport is not the old Hellenicon (now long closed and to become a park and/or sports centre) but the magnificent and international award-winning El Venizelos. No more rushing around the Hellenicon Airport perimeter in a taxi with your baggage - everything is on the one spot. This is a real way to get to Crete (our way!) and means that
you can break your journey at Athens for as little as a day (an overnight Easyjet from Luton UK will have you on the tarmac at Athens not long after 4am). By the time you have de-planed, retrieved your bags and said "Kalimera" to immigration and customs, a day or more in Athens is easily feasible. If you do this, use a taxi or the airport express bus into Syntagma, (or you hotel), NOT, unless you
are a Rothschild, a 'limousine'.
Before leaving the airport book your onward flight(s) to Crete (and back) then have a happy day (or two) in Athens. PLEASE DON'T ATTEMPT THIS DURING THE OLYMPICS!! What to do when you get there? Have a look at our day in Athens Take a plane. The picture
strip: Although the flowers have been blooming with a serious vengeance since the beginning of March - and the four specimens below are representative of the quality, (enlarge them - my favourite picture is the Iris), nothing can really compare with actually walking along a track between the olive groves in the sunshine. Unfortunately we can't yet capture the sounds and smells that go with the pictures -
but just for for a little while, imagine..... |
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ASTRATIGOS VILLAGE LIFE...
March comes around once a year, and so does my best Cretan friend, neighbour and mentor, Mixaelis Papadakis. Well, he comes around more than once a year, but usually only once bearing his step ladder and secateurs... He is here to cut down - sorry, I mean 'prune' our grapes. Especially the one over the front patio....
To the average Englishman here "prune" in Greek means "cut down" which is traumatic - after watching about 80% of last seasons splendid vine growth fall to the ground, leaving mainly the wood belonging to the Krevatina that supports the remains! Since the Krevatina is PAR Scandinavian pine - well dosed with Cuprinol and finished in Clusil varnish it is
unlikely to produce many grapes.
Mixaelis, a sprite 70plus years - giving me a good ten - climbed about like an acrobat - dismembering branches like a 20 year old, until he accidentally secateured the fleshy tip of a finger. Bright red blood gushed forth at a rate worthy of a newly opened champagne bottle.. He followed up this unchoreographed part of this year's act by smiling wanly, breaking open a packet of 20 Karelia lights (Greek cigarettes) -
splitting one
open and stuffing the cut full of tobacco!! Around which he wrapped a tissue for a couple of minutes till the bleeding stopped... Being an expert refugee from the English NHS in saving lives cuts absolutely no ice, vines or fingers in Astratigos. My ability to cut his finger off cleanly and apply a sterile dressing - free of all charges counts for nothing here! Being still behind with the news, I can report that four weeks or so later there are 40+ bunches of grapes developing - maybe a little Chateau Burgess at last...
The prunings - just in case this fact has escaped you - can be made into gunpowder by turning them into charcoal - but you will need rather a lot of prunings if you want to challenge Guy Fawkes. And you will need a pass to parliament if you are not an MP or Black Rod!
Meanwhile, if you think that Greek wines are rubbish you really are drinking the wrong bottles - every country makes cheap plonk - Greece produces some of the finest wines in the world.
My daughters wedding feast featured clean Cretan whites and reds, Champaign from Rhodes - and the most magnificent Boutari red 'Grand Reserve Naoussa' (87) - all of which met with the very obvious approval of the mostly English and Welsh guests at the York Novotel. Yes, we carried Greek wines to England!! None came back! Try this Link.... Greek Wine.
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