Earthquake
activity
May has seen little activity of interest for watchers of earthquake occurrence
in Greece. Almost no activity at all. Perhaps the quiet before the storm.
But then maybe not... Just two occurrences noted:- 07 May: 5.1 Richter Scale, 04.34am. Zakynthos
island.
South eastern undersea epicentre.
(item 4) Link
to Report.
10 May: 4.2 Richter Scale, 00:00am Gulf of Patras. West
of
Athens.
Link
Unavailable.
Earthquakes are a common feature of life in Greece and rarely cause damage or
injury to people.
Recent comment has centered upon reassuring that whilst another Athens
(1999) 'quake is unlikely (Link),
a Tsunami caused by a 'quake occurs every 136 years Link
to story.
States in the Balkan region are now cooperating in sharing information. Link
To Story.
There are certain existing buildings considered to be at risk from major
earthquakes. Link
to story. These buildings, which include a number of schools, are being
investigated with the objective of safety. Link
to story.
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A Little Extra News
One of the great privileges of this column is that the news editor of the day
can fill it with his or her own observations on anything at all - as long as
it is about Crete.
Getting here; going where; doing what; for how long; is it good or bad?
Indeed it seems like manna from heaven. So why say anything at all?
Well, questions need answers, don't they?
An extremely good question, especially when one remembers the news flurry in
March last
year when two British expatriates, Terry and Josephine Johnson from Newlyn,
Cornwall, were found stabbed and strangled to death at their new home in
Almyrida, near Chania, Crete.
Their 33 year old son, Ryan, was charged with their murder soon afterwards.
All, quite rightly and in accordance with the law, became relatively silent.
A little while later Ryan, who always protested his innocence, was released on
police bail of 20.000 euros - his passport confiscated and ordered not to leave
Crete.
Now, more than a year after these tragic events, the BBC (British Broadcasting
Corporation) in London published news of the end of the saga, as charges against Ryan
were dropped (Link
to Story). Although the Greek prosecutor had 30 days to appeal the
dropping of charges this is reported to be unlikely.
I have personally seen no comment in the English language papers in Crete -
perhaps I have simply missed it - that is quite possible. But the BBC reports
have followed the story since it's inception - including the fact that the
bodies of Mr. & Mrs. Johnson - which had been transferred back to Britain
- had incurred a 'storage' charge by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust of ₤2,200
- later waived because of the 'exceptional' circumstances (Link).
Perhaps more to the point that I am making about the lack of comment, the
absence of reported dialogue about these murders on Crete - is that the
Johnsons did not murder each other... If that simple fact is accepted, then it
must also be accepted that someone else did.
That being the case one can only ask the obvious question - what is being done
to find out who did? Living on a small island with such a small
population, excepting the summer visitors, it seems strange that there appears
to be no idea who the person or persons responsible may be.
It is a somewhat unsettling question, which has probably led to more locked doors on
Crete, where some of the older people cannot remember ever having them locked,
than at any previous time.
Our sympathies must of course go to the families of Terry and Josephine
Johnson. The question must remain....
Kalos Ilthate Stin Kriti.
WB.
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A Little Site News - But
no new additions this month...
But what we already have isn't at all bad - judging by the 27000 plus (and
rising) monthly unique visitor figures to Cretanvista websites. But
taking nothing for granted, we are all
hard at work - working on updates and getting out and about - obtaining the
new information and photographs we need to keep Cretanvista well to the
forefront of websites about Crete. Two new galleries - our nature gallery and
the WWII museum at Askyfou are progressing well. We treasure our
visitors...Really!
Cretan Art and crafts - Weaving...
Our updated hand-weaving page is now on-line. This revision includes the first
full project - start to finish! A beautiful traditional craft producing
beautiful products. And much more to follow.
Photo Galleries
Bird Galleries: Gallery Page 4 Online...
The first pages of our bird photograph gallery went on line in
March 2006. Colin Turvey's Cretan Bird-Life photograph gallery (see
February 2006 News) now has a fourth page. We are now working hard on
adding page 5 - another 12 of Colin's bird photographs - which will bring the
number up to 60 so far. A big plus for Cretanvista.
Wild Flowers: Now 216 different
wild flowers.
99% of photos have been taken right here at the base of the Rodopos
peninsula. We are continually working on these galleries and will, as soon as
practicable, be adding further online pages, including detailed reference
pages and more photos of each specimen. We will be publishing our book - but
all the information will remain on line.
Cretan Countryside: The basic page is already on-line - has been so
for some time. In the background we have been busy collecting more
photographs and will very soon be publishing the first gallery. There really
is some superb wild life on Crete.
March has seen the Cretan countryside continue it's very, very,
early Start. It seems that almost every wild flower on Crete is in
bloom. The birds and the bees, to say nothing of the beetles and lizards
abound. The sheep are being moved to their summer pastures. The
previously tiny bouncing lambs and goat kids are now growing rapidly. The Sun shined
most of the time!
No Change - Still in line.
Anastasios Sakoulis, who contributed the magnificent gallery from his book on
Cretan wildlife Moments of
Cretan Nature to our site, has
also 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.
But that isn't all... Anastasios Sakoulis has also given us permission
(and supplied the photographs) to produce a gallery of his latest book. A book
of 20 superb postcards of Cretan wildlife called Naturally...
Crete.
Miniature Chapels of
Crete.
A first! Klaus-Dieter Thill - author of Minaturkapellen
auf Krista, a real photo album detailing some of those enigmatic
roadside shrines of Crete. Klaus has supplied photographs for this gallery
which is now on-line here at Cretanvista. There will also be, of course, a
review the book - which we have already. Klaus is not keen on that as the book
is not publicly available, but we hope to persuade him!
Klaus is working on some photographs of Chania and if all goes well we
will be publishing these.
Calendar Photo Galleries:
A new one every year! The 2006 gallery is, of course, on-line (LINK)
and the 2007 Calendar gallery is as good as complete. We are already arguing
the topic selection for this year's 2008 gallery!
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); our infant gallery about house renovation; and of
course our annual calendar galleries containing 60 or so pictures of north
western Crete about to increase by 12 - for 2007.
Meanwhile, with the commencement of the holiday season upon us, we will be out
and about with our cameras. Watch this space - very, very carefully. Remember
that you might just be in it!!
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