739 days ago
I lay in bed this morning with the cocks having crowed and with the birds tweeting away, but with my family all snoring happily, thinking of how I would tell you about the warming sun of a Greek Spring. Opening the doors to head upstairs for that first pot of coffee and some writing while the family snoozes on,my feet found the tiles outside the door still wet from overnight rain. And above the mountains looming above us, dark clouds assembled. But they will go and by the time we hit a stone covered beach at Kitries later this morning, the sun will be blazing down upon us.
2014 days ago
I run these photo articles every autumn for you folks who only come to Greece in the summer and know it as a country of burnt brown grass and vegetation. Right now with autumn rains kicking in the area around the hovel is bursting into life. The patches of green are expanding rapidly and the brown is in full scale retreat. Meanwhile, everywhere, you see reds, blues, whites, purples as little flowers spring to life. It is almost alpine. All we need now is snow on the Taygetos mountains behind us. It will be here by Christmas.
2498 days ago
I was driving on the road that heads up into the mountains heading from Kalamata to Kambos. Of course it does not end in Kambos, the nearest village the Greek Hovel. Kambos is just a settlement, of no particular historical significance, beauty or importance, sitting on the road as one heads to Kardamili, the ghastly tourist fleshpot of Stoupa or the regional capital Areopolis. But Kambos is as far as I usually go.
2515 days ago
Wall to wall coverage of the London Bridge attacks continues on BBC World News. the only interruptions are the adverts which are largely for BBC news itself. How much do they cost and what exactly is their purpose? But in between the adverts and the latest recycling of old footage the BBC served up a montage of how London and the World reacted. It was so utterly dismal and predictable.
2622 days ago
I have noted before that at this time of year the fields around Kambos and at the Greek Hovel are not the straw brown you associate with a Greek summer but pure green albeit daisies are everywhere so there are spots of white dotting the field. But as I wandered around burning old olive branches today (gosh I smell like a bonfire) there were other colours, other flowers just growing on their own here and there as you can see below..
2893 days ago
A reader tells me not to count my chickens. Just because our 150 trees are heaving with flowers that means nothing I am told, I must see evidence of flowers becoming olives. Okay, here you go. It is happening right now, across all the trees as the photos below demonstrate.
