Earthquake
activity
June has saw an increase in earthquake activity of interest to watchers of earthquake occurrence
in Greece. Several incidences were worthy of note:- 05
Jun: 5.3 Richter Scale, 14.50pm Agrino, northern Greece.
Epicentre
near Lake Trichonida. Two aftershocks 5pm.
Link
to Report.
12 Jun: 4.9 Richter Scale, 16:13pm Southern coast Island of
Lesvos,
350Km south of Thessaloniki.
Link
Unavailable.
16 Jun: 4.6 & 4.2 Richter Scale, --:--am/pm Northwest of
Yiannina, northwestern Greece.
(Item 5)
Link
to Report.
21 Jun: 4.3 & 4.5 Richter Scale, 13:00pm Paramithia,
prefecture
of
Thesprotia, mainland Greece.
Link
Unavailable.
24 Jun: 4.3 Richter Scale, 12:00noon Area of Evia.
Link
to Report.
25 Jun: 4.6 & 4.4 Richter Scale, 09:34/10:30am Ionian
Island of
Lefkada.
(Item 4)
Link
to Report.
25 Jun: 4.4 Richter Scale, 07:14am
Serres. Mainland Greece.
Previous
Report.
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
Well, here I was, thinking that it had been a good time to have a break or
two - a family holiday, off to Northern Greece for a few days on what was a very
special trip, a few birthdays, feet up in the sun!
I should know better. Never have I seen such a woeful batch of news awaiting
addition to the site as I found on my return... I am usually among the first to
ask why news reporters seem to push all the disasters in life, but this month I
had serious difficulty finding anything at all to laugh about on Crete...
Murders, shootings - accidental or otherwise, children drowning (again) in hotel
swimming pools; puffer fish making the sea a bit hazardous; heat waves causing
fires or simply killing the more fragile and the fire fighters trying to control
the blazes; hospitals under serious pressure; climate change and increasing
urban development threatening 'Desertification' of Crete; electricity supplies
failing because demand - much apparently from air conditioners - exceeds supply;
water supplies dwindling as new swimming pools fill; and to cap it all - pot
that you can't smoke/eat/make into tea/sell or even give away because it was
dumped overboard from some passing freighter and has become soaked in
sea-water!!
Oh, and if you try to smuggle into Chania jail you will be caught and (right!)
probably end up pot-less in Chania jail..!!
Is there to be no let up - or is this the start of Dante's Inferno?Well, from
where I sit there is always light on the horizon.
Crete is an incredibly rough and beautiful island. Inhabited mostly, to my mind,
by an incredibly tough, hospitable and beautiful people. If you can't see that
you are missing something - look again, carefully. Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder....
What do you see now?!
Kalos Ilthate Stin Kriti.
WB.
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A Little Site News.
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!
Since last month's news we have covered a lot of miles, bounding about on the
Rodopos peninsula - to Agia Ioannis and back to Kolimbari; re-visiting
villages such as Mhlia (and re-tasting the
very excellent food there); taking the Kastelli ferry (complete with
car) to Githio on the Peloponnese - exactly as outlined in our pages, and if
you have ever wondered - yes we do drive to all the places we feature,
including the UK, regularly.
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.
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 assures us that his Chania photographs are imminent - if all goes well we
will be publishing these very soon now.
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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