Wednesday 24 September 2008

A Dog Named Lucky

Awhile ago we went up to our local cafenion for some lovely souvlaki.
You know how it is, there are always a few cats waiting around for some juicy morsels, but tonight it was different for this little dog appeared looking for a bite to eat too. She got her fair share of the offerings.

We had already met up with this little animal earlier in the week. We had let Sandy our tortoise out the front for a change of scenery, shutting the gate so he could not escape. Later when we went out to check on him he had come face to face with this dog, for unknown to us she had been living on our roof and of course could not get out. She was very timid and frightened and ran away back up the steps.

After a few day she had started sleeping behind our trailer next to our door and always ran away when we approached her. Anyway after a few days she finally plucked up the courage to let me touch her and that was that, we had become the owners of this little lady for she was here to stay. We decided to call her Lucky for she was very lucky to find us.

Monday 8 September 2008

My Photos

These are just some of my photos, the ones that I really like. I got my digital camera for Christmas 2006. I like to experiment and have took some really nice images. There are many things I still have to learn about photography and the manual for my camera is quite thick. Must really make more time to devote to this hobby.

As you can see I like taking close ups of flowers and plants, landscapes and the odd animal.

I also have an SLR camera but it takes film, this too has a thick manual but I still like to have a go, trouble is developing costs. Digital is so much more convenient and you can snap away to your hearts content and just delete the ones that just didn't work for you.



Gazinias




















Couquet Island. Northumberland




































Lovely scented rose from my old garden in Northumberland






















Poppies and daisies in a meadow.











Duridge Bay sunrise with a sprinkling of snow




















Felton ,Northumberland on a winters day
















Kitten having a relaxing time in plant pot. Sissi Crete













A happy family nap

Friday 5 September 2008

The Journey Here


The journey here was a long one. It really started in 2003 or there about. We knew that we wanted to come and start a new life in Crete, but getting here was not going to be easy, as we found out. We had lived in our house in the North-east of England for 17 yrs. It was only when we decided to put our house on the market that we found out that the bottom part of our land had been registered to a builder and not to us. Then started a long battle to get the land transfered back to us. Eventually, at a great cost the land was given back to us. We now could put our home on the market. We moved out August 2007.
Our old House

We said our farewells to family and friends and set off on our travels leaving Dover on the 10th September. 2007








Some of our guest at our farewell party

We traveled to Calais on the ferry and then drove through Belgium and on through Luxembourg. We then traveled back into France, down to Nancy and then onto Basel, into Switzerland via the scenic route. Our intentions where to travel through the St Gothard Tunnel, but when we got there at 04.00 in the morning we found that it was closed. The only way forward was up and over the Pass! We stopped the car on the top to get out and have a look at the sky, my was it impressive. The stars could be seen clearly and there was billions twinkling away.





Some of our family members


In Italy we pressed on towards Milan hoping to miss the rush hour traffic. Talk about all roads lead to Rome!!! Well I can tell you they all lead to Milan as-well. We spent ages trying to get away from the place but kept getting lost and found we where heading back towards Milan. Talk about a nightmare. Once we managed to find our way we traveled onto Venice to catch the ferry to Patras in Greece.

This ferry took nearly 3 days so we had plenty of time to get over our virtually none stop journey.

Ian watching the sea on the ferry





















Me enjoying the journey
























One of the ports that we stopped in to pick up passengers
We drove from Patras on to Piraeus to catch the overnight ferry to Heraklion, Crete.

My Cretan Life