The Spider and the Bee

As you probably know, we are alowed to walk locally, for excercise.  So every day we try to explore a different path through the olive groves.

This morning we followed a track we hadn't tried before. There's a basic rule, that it's almost impossible to get really lost - there are enough landmarks to aim for.

Today we ended up scrabbling up a bank, having taken a wrong turn in the maze.  Walking between an avenue of olives, Al saw a big, fat spider in a web, slung between 2 trees.  Looking closer we saw an insect caught and wrapped.  Then in front of us, a bee flew into the web.  I had the camera in my bag, and we watched as the unfortunate insect quickly attracted the spider's attention.  It embraced the bee for a few moments - probably injecting an immobilizing agent.  It then efficiently wrapped the bee in a silk cocoon, food for later.  Take a look at the unfolding story.

The spider

The bee is caught in the web

The spider tackles the bee

Wrapping

Add caption

The Spider and the Bee

Yoga by ZOOM

I really should have taken a photo, but let's just pretend we are in the time of Jane Austin, and I will just tell you that I set up in our living room / kitchen, with 2 mats and all my various yoga bits (blankets, bolsters, yada yada...)  laptop on the table linked to JBL portable stereo speaker, shutters closed on 2 windows, and settled in to a 2 hour session given by B.K.S. Iyengar to support the immune system, originally prompted by SARS outbreak. Many inversions - including 15 minutes of headstand.  Just so good to be with a group, and Gerry (Chambers) has a great delivery for this kind of session.  Calm, clear, supportive - thanks, Gerry, if you're reading this.  ZOOM is winning me over - at the start and end of the session so good to hear and see many of my yoga friends from Bristol and elsewhere, as Gerry taught from EASTWEST yoga's home studio in Exmouth.  If any of you are interested,have a look at the website. I can't wait to do the next class with Lynda.
https://www.eastwestyoga.org.uk/

Shopping: 

This is one of our local supermarkets.  The point isn't the full shelves, although mostly they are, it's that it is a new experience for me to plan and buy for a week.  At home in Bristol we have an erratic collection of weekly veg deliveries from Riverford,  buying in bulk from Essential Trading and topping up from the Co-op across the river, or Better Foods, now conveniently situated on our side of the dock.  Anyway, the task here is plan and shop for a week to avoid as much exposure as possible.  We have worked out a strategy whereby Al goes off in search of dry goods (not to say, bottled goods) while I join in the meleé around the fresh fruit and veg.  This is aimiable enough but since everything has be weighed and bagged at one point, by a supermarket employee, it is a bottleneck, and social distancing easily overlooked.  I found myself chatting in Greek to another shopper over the spinach and didn't realise until later that we had been less than 2 metres apart whilst rummaging through said veg.  There is control over how many shoppers allowed in at one time - hence the empty aisles.  There is also a 2 metre line back from the cheese counter, behind which we must stand, until the packages are ready and we can step forward as the counter person steps back.  Like a barn dance.  The Greek Government is considering implementing a one way system in the supermarket, so no nipping back for another can of beans or pack of spaghetti.  Probably a good thing.  I think I might try the veg shop in the square next time,  In the Pharmacy, it's strictly one at a time. Hopefully the same with the veg,  I need to exercise my Greek and the woman in the veg shop is the ideal victim, since she speaks no English.

That was going to be all for tonight, but here's a bonus video.  I tried making dolmades.  The vine leaves were tough, but the filling turned out ok. Hope it works.  I sound like a harridan.  Once a director...

That's it.  Καλενιχτα.  

😘

Yoga by ZOOM

I really should have taken a photo, but let's just pretend we are in the time of Jane Austin, and I will just tell you that I set up in our living room / kitchen, with 2 mats and all my various yoga bits (blankets, bolsters, yada yada...)  laptop on the table linked to JBL portable stereo speaker, shutters closed on 2 windows, and settled in to a 2 hour session given by B.K.S. Iyengar to support the immune system, originally prompted by SARS outbreak. Many inversions - including 15 minutes of headstand.  Just so good to be with a group, and Gerry (Chambers) has a great delivery for this kind of session.  Calm, clear, supportive - thanks, Gerry, if you're reading this.  ZOOM is winning me over - at the start and end of the session so good to hear and see many of my yoga friends from Bristol and elsewhere, as Gerry taught from EASTWEST yoga's home studio in Exmouth.  If any of you are interested,have a look at the website. I can't wait to do the next class with Lynda.
https://www.eastwestyoga.org.uk/

Shopping: 

This is one of our local supermarkets.  The point isn't the full shelves, although mostly they are, it's that it is a new experience for me to plan and buy for a week.  At home in Bristol we have an erratic collection of weekly veg deliveries from Riverford,  buying in bulk from Essential Trading and topping up from the Co-op across the river, or Better Foods, now conveniently situated on our side of the dock.  Anyway, the task here is plan and shop for a week to avoid as much exposure as possible.  We have worked out a strategy whereby Al goes off in search of dry goods (not to say, bottled goods) while I join in the meleé around the fresh fruit and veg.  This is aimiable enough but since everything has be weighed and bagged at one point, by a supermarket employee, it is a bottleneck, and social distancing easily overlooked.  I found myself chatting in Greek to another shopper over the spinach and didn't realise until later that we had been less than 2 metres apart whilst rummaging through said veg.  There is control over how many shoppers allowed in at one time - hence the empty aisles.  There is also a 2 metre line back from the cheese counter, behind which we must stand, until the packages are ready and we can step forward as the counter person steps back.  Like a barn dance.  The Greek Government is considering implementing a one way system in the supermarket, so no nipping back for another can of beans or pack of spaghetti.  Probably a good thing.  I think I might try the veg shop in the square next time,  In the Pharmacy, it's strictly one at a time. Hopefully the same with the veg,  I need to exercise my Greek and the woman in the veg shop is the ideal victim, since she speaks no English.

That was going to be all for tonight, but here's a bonus video.  I tried making dolmades.  The vine leaves were tough, but the filling turned out ok. Hope it works.  I sound like a harridan.  Once a director...

That's it.  Καλενιχτα.  

😘

There's a Rat in Mi Swimmin' Pool with links

Well, it's been an eventful day. This mornng I went to look at the reflections of the overnight rain on the side of the (empty) swimming pool - the pic is from 2018 and my dog pose is probably no better now.  As I looked down into the empty pool, I saw something curled up in the corner.  Yes, it was a cute little RAT! What to do?  Well, we did what any sane person would do, fetched a sunbed, lowered it down so it made a ramp to the edge of the pool. Instantly, without any hesitation, the rat was out of there!  Reminded me of UB40.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5rCpAwrWFRGpsqc8wVVhql?si=M2536TV5TiSoaL023SldXw

Later that day: another walk in the olive groves with the self-written permit, a Greek lesson over Skype, a chat with Rebecca who lives in Italy, so further into the lockdown than we are.  

Second exciting event was a performance on YouTube of the 300 Strangers performance on YouTube - celebration of World Piano Day and a bonding excercise for self-isolated musicians everywhere.  What's the connection to us?  You really have to look at the YouTube where you will see our across the road neighbour, Phil Docking, who contributed  to the Piano day project by Christian Henson of Spitfire Audio by making a his rotovator into a musical instrument for the afternoon. You will really only get it if you follow the link, soon to go viral, I'm sure.
 https://youtu.be/enFB33SOo6k

Last exciting event of the day so far, we heard a Scops Owl just outside the house.  We opened the front door quiety just in time to see it fly off the roof and perch on an electricity pole.  They have a strange hoot, a bit like a radar blip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_scops_owl

Who knows what's to come. It's only 2130.

PS. Here are some tiny irises - loads of them 2 days ago
but none of them showing today.  They grow in the middle of paths and they are a really magical sight.

So tiny they look like they belong in a fairy world.
Just needed to show you those.
Καλενιχτα!

There's a Rat in Mi Swimmin' Pool with links

Well, it's been an eventful day. This mornng I went to look at the reflections of the overnight rain on the side of the (empty) swimming pool - the pic is from 2018 and my dog pose is probably no better now.  As I looked down into the empty pool, I saw something curled up in the corner.  Yes, it was a cute little RAT! What to do?  Well, we did what any sane person would do, fetched a sunbed, lowered it down so it made a ramp to the edge of the pool. Instantly, without any hesitation, the rat was out of there!  Reminded me of UB40.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5rCpAwrWFRGpsqc8wVVhql?si=M2536TV5TiSoaL023SldXw

Later that day: another walk in the olive groves with the self-written permit, a Greek lesson over Skype, a chat with Rebecca who lives in Italy, so further into the lockdown than we are.  

Second exciting event was a performance on YouTube of the 300 Strangers performance on YouTube - celebration of World Piano Day and a bonding excercise for self-isolated musicians everywhere.  What's the connection to us?  You really have to look at the YouTube where you will see our across the road neighbour, Phil Docking, who contributed  to the Piano day project by Christian Henson of Spitfire Audio by making a his rotovator into a musical instrument for the afternoon. You will really only get it if you follow the link, soon to go viral, I'm sure.
 https://youtu.be/enFB33SOo6k

Last exciting event of the day so far, we heard a Scops Owl just outside the house.  We opened the front door quiety just in time to see it fly off the roof and perch on an electricity pole.  They have a strange hoot, a bit like a radar blip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_scops_owl

Who knows what's to come. It's only 2130.

PS. Here are some tiny irises - loads of them 2 days ago
but none of them showing today.  They grow in the middle of paths and they are a really magical sight.

So tiny they look like they belong in a fairy world.
Just needed to show you those.
Καλενιχτα!

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

With thanks to Monty Python for the reference (You Tube). So although we knew about 'the Virus' when we left, we still hadn't grasped what it would mean for our stay in Crete.  I had expected this to be a blog about our search for a building plot and subsequent negotiations (with each other, the vendor, the builder etc.). Now I find it is about somethong else entirely.  We had also hoped to expand our social life here - maybe that is happening, but not quite in the way we envisaged.  

I also thought I would start more or less on day one, but it is now approximately day 19.  I think that demonstrates how fast things have changed from day to day, as much inside our heads as outside.  It is a brush with a dark cloak at the supermarket, a vision of a chance meeting with death, for us, our friends and relatives.

Back to the reality I had expected, a sort of show and tell of the story so far:

DAY ONE: recovery from a ghastly day
when we missed our flight, and a second very long day when we caught one, arriving in Marediana on March 4th. But here we are!
 
The Spring was a little late in arriving - some cold North winds:
there is still snow on the 'white mountains' but not so much as when we arrived.  This was taken from an olive grove walk just opposite the house. There's some zoom in there, but we really can see them. I love seeing the flowers and trees changing here almost day to day.  This year the weather has also been changing from day to day, from cold enough to need the heating on, to warm enough to swim. Here's Al at Falasana beach. It looked so good, I swam too.

Our neighbour, Shehina was probably a botnist in another life - or maybe that's coming. She can tell us the exotic from the common.
Below are red anemonies, and I haven't a clue what the white ones are except that they look common and sort of cheerful.  Not a bad thing!

We have managed to do a few things before the curfew came down.  We ate at our favourite restaurant with our neighbours - roughly Translated as the Angel At My Table.  It's in the countryside, Cretan cooking by staff who usually work elsewhere in the season.  Needless to say, the season has looks to completely go missing this year. We've also managed a visit to the huge and wild Elafonsi beach, a lunch at 'Argentina' on Kolimbari market day, a walk up to the chapel on Polyrinia - a Minoan settlement on a hill we can see from our bedroom (below). Now our days will take on a different shape.  More about this next time.

 
I'm not quite sure where this blog will go, but I'd like feedback and I will try to find ways of making it more interactive.  Please subscribe, then you will know when I publish a new one.  Also open to suggestions - what you might want to know.
That's it, making supper now. 

 

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

With thanks to Monty Python for the reference (You Tube). So although we knew about 'the Virus' when we left, we still hadn't grasped what it would mean for our stay in Crete.  I had expected this to be a blog about our search for a building plot and subsequent negotiations (with each other, the vendor, the builder etc.). Now I find it is about somethong else entirely.  We had also hoped to expand our social life here - maybe that is happening, but not quite in the way we envisaged.  

I also thought I would start more or less on day one, but it is now approximately day 19.  I think that demonstrates how fast things have changed from day to day, as much inside our heads as outside.  It is a brush with a dark cloak at the supermarket, a vision of a chance meeting with death, for us, our friends and relatives.

Back to the reality I had expected, a sort of show and tell of the story so far:

DAY ONE: recovery from a ghastly day
when we missed our flight, and a second very long day when we caught one, arriving in Marediana on March 4th. But here we are!
 
The Spring was a little late in arriving - some cold North winds:
there is still snow on the 'white mountains' but not so much as when we arrived.  This was taken from an olive grove walk just opposite the house. There's some zoom in there, but we really can see them. I love seeing the flowers and trees changing here almost day to day.  This year the weather has also been changing from day to day, from cold enough to need the heating on, to warm enough to swim. Here's Al at Falasana beach. It looked so good, I swam too.

Our neighbour, Shehina was probably a botnist in another life - or maybe that's coming. She can tell us the exotic from the common.
Below are red anemonies, and I haven't a clue what the white ones are except that they look common and sort of cheerful.  Not a bad thing!

We have managed to do a few things before the curfew came down.  We ate at our favourite restaurant with our neighbours - roughly Translated as the Angel At My Table.  It's in the countryside, Cretan cooking by staff who usually work elsewhere in the season.  Needless to say, the season has looks to completely go missing this year. We've also managed a visit to the huge and wild Elafonsi beach, a lunch at 'Argentina' on Kolimbari market day, a walk up to the chapel on Polyrinia - a Minoan settlement on a hill we can see from our bedroom (below). Now our days will take on a different shape.  More about this next time.

 
I'm not quite sure where this blog will go, but I'd like feedback and I will try to find ways of making it more interactive.  Please subscribe, then you will know when I publish a new one.  Also open to suggestions - what you might want to know.
That's it, making supper now.