Friday, April 30, 2010

Beautiful Chamomile


The chamomile is growing freely and it smells absolutely wonderful... 
I've been gathering and drying bunches for tea. This year I started earlier because I didn't gather enough last year. Izabella is making sure that I don't pick flowers that have been run over by cars or slept on (or worse)  by dogs. It's so funny. "Don't pick those, dogs walk here!" I wonder where she learns it. 


Have nice weekend!





Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Coffee on a Wednesday Afternoon

Spring has been so enjoyable and the weather has been perfectly spring-like. One our favorite things to do in spring is to a enjoy cup of coffee, or two, alfresco. It's always fun to visit different cafes and change our view. Plus, the kids alway enjoy getting away from home a little. Here's a series of shots taken one beautiful, spring Wednesday afternoon. The temperature was about 65 F/18C. Just perfect. 

A covered carousel, the children wondered when it would be working.

Alexandra running along the port. 

Foti is always impressed by the fishing vessels. 

Izabella looks for fish. 





It's great that there's a park near the cafe so that the children could play while we enjoyed our coffee. 

A friendly dog receives a lot of attention from the customers. 

Cappuccino!

I love the simple blue & white furniture here. Invigorating! 


We had coffee in Nea Michaniona 

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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lobo


Lobo on one of his first nights in the compound. He was still a little nervous. 

I'd like to introduce you to our newest resident, "Lobo".  Lobo is a stray that was hanging around outside of our gate for nearly a week. He grew so comfortable with us that whenever we opened the gate to leave, he would run in and we couldn't get him out. 
I fed him and I rubbed his head and now he's definitely not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. He's wearing a collar so I assume he's lost. I've been to the vet to report that we have him. Lobo is welcome to stay until we find his owners (hopefully). 

We decided to name him yesterday because we were calling him "the dog" for more than a week. 
The kids think that he looks like a wolf to them so they decided to call him "Lobo" which means "wolf" in Spanish. 

I believe that he's a Belgian Shepard, he's gorgeous and still quite young. He has a bad habit of jumping on me when he sees me but since I've been working with him, he's not jumping as much. (although it's still irritating...  
he's a big dog!)

He's adorable, gentle and already very good to the children. As you can see, he's relaxed a lot since we've taken him in. Although I don't mind keeping him, I hope to find his rightful owners as he's probably missed.  If any of my readers know of anyone missing a dog please leave a comment or show them this post. He could be from the areas of Mixaniona, Epanomi or Mesimeri. In the meantime, he's getting a lot of love & hugs from us. 




Friday, April 16, 2010

Yes! The sun is shining...



Sunshine Blog Award!


Jessica at Propsero's Cellphone passed this award on to me a while ago and I am once again, humbled and grateful. I appreciate that she enjoys my blog and is willing to share it with her blog friends.
Not only does she bring sunshine into my life through her blog, but she shines bright for me every day on other social networking sites and is a true friend that I appreciate and admire.  I'm incredibly lucky that Jessica has entered my life and I hope to make a trip to Corfu to meet her one day!
***

Now there are rules with this award, naturally.

The rules are as follows:
Forward it on-Nominate 12 bloggers.
Put the logo onto your sidebar or withing a post.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let the nominees know they've received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link the sidebar logo to the person from whom you've received this award.

 So, here we go...

John Palmer & Ryan Lindsay - John Ross Palmer's Blog 
Christie- My Comfy Escape
 Bhavesh - chaukhat.com BLOG
Peter - Kalofagas.ca GREEK FOOD AND BEYOND


My list includes many of my long-time favorites as well as a few newcomers;  blogs that I've only recently started to enjoy. It's hard to choose only 12 bloggers! 

Thank you Jessica!!



And now a gratuitous photo of a very personal source of sunshine...


Monday, April 12, 2010

Beach in Spring...

There are days when we have time to kill and our favorite place to pass the time is the beach, no matter the season.  One afternoon we had about an hour to spare before it was time to pick Foti up from school, so the girls and I enjoyed some fresh air at a local beach. 
As we approached the beach we spotted a dog sleeping. At first we thought it was dead, as it's not uncommon to come across dead dogs here. I know it sounds grim, but it's reality.  This one woke up a few minutes later and we were relieved. He was extremely friendly and lovable. 


Exploring...


We saw some brave swimmers. The temperature this day was about 60 F/ 15.5 C...so not technically warm enough for most people to take a dip. I applaud this couple for their enthusiasm because I won't go in yet.


A strange find on the beach...


Alexandra fell and Izabella was taking photos...


and caught the moment when I went to help her up. She was using my camera, she's already great at photography, especially given she's only 7 yrs old. She won't be satisfied with a point & shoot, I'm afraid. 


Izabella posing on the life guard station. 

Alexandra loves the sand...just loves it. 
That's how we kill time. I love living near the sea. 


Have a nice week! 






Saturday, April 10, 2010

A Look at our Easter


Chocolate bunnies &  traditional red Easter eggs given to the children by our neighbors.

Easter was a week ago and I've finally got my act together so that I could post some photos from our celebration. It's been quite a busy week given the kids are home from school. 

Our Easter was very quiet this year. Friends that have spent the last two Easters with us moved back to the U.S. two weeks ago and another family that we invited informed us, on Friday, that they would be going away to a  spa resort for the weekend  instead. I ordered the lamb on Thursday. So, we had a much bigger lamb than we needed but everything always works out in the end. 

Enjoy the photos...
The coffee table ready for Easter. 

Here's a photo of Alexandra before church on Saturday night. The lambatha(candle) she was holding was decorated by her with her Yia Yia & Thia's help. The kids received many lambadas this year, typically they are given to children by their God parents/oi noni. 

A quick family photo before church. Foti is missing because he was sleeping. He was so tired and we didn't want to wake him up. Last year he went to church tired and he was so difficult that we learned to just let him sleep. 

Here's Izabella with her lambatha and the pretty dress that her Nono/God father bought for her. 

After the church service Alexandra is holding the Holy Light and ready to play tsougrisma. Izabella's egg cracked last so she'll have good luck for the year. 

Outside of the church after midnight- everyone is leaving with their lambathas to bring home the Holy Light. 

The children decorated their eggs with Yia Yia and Thia, they were so proud. Izabella's is the one with the face, Foti's with the ribbon and Alexandra's with the flowers. 

Early in the morning on Easter Foti helped Kosta clean and prepare the lamb for the souvla/spit.

Ready to go... sharing a proud "guy" moment. 

Myself with my proud little man. A proud "mom" moment. 

Foti enjoys snacking on tyropita near the lamb. Gigi wants a piece but we don't allow her to eat our food. Poor Gigi. 

Izabella spent a lot of time with her tortoise on Easter. 

Homemade Restina given to us by our neighbor. Actually, it's mine. No one enjoys it more than me!

Pouring myself a glass of Retsina. 

The lamb is ready! Time to eat...finally. 

A quick shot of the table. I was in a hurry to eat so I snapped this very fast because I was hungry! 

Finally, here's a shot of a pear blossom. We roasted the lamb near our pear trees that were in full bloom and thoroughly enjoyed their blossoms. Later in the evening we had friends stop by for coffee and dessert which was a nice way to end the day. 



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