Happy New Year.

I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. I hope everyone finds what they are looking for in 2012.

Cya all next year

Judith x

It Felt Like Christmas.

Last week we called at our post box and inside were two parcels…………

Well, I was expecting one as I had ordered a book, but what was the other one?????????????

Excitement!!!!!

We got home and tore off the paper wrapping and this is what we found………..

 

A Doggy treat bonanza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The parcel was addressed to Lucky and friends. They even got a Christmas card, our first.

The lovely Midge (Soggibottom) had sent them all the way from England. How very kind of you Midge. Lucky, Sam and Gizzy really like these sort of surprises. Yum yums come top of the list with these three. Especially Gizzy with her pups to feed.

Thank you very much.

Cya,

Judith.x

Gizzy’s little secret….. Not anymore.

Gizzy came into our lives with a little secret. In the last couple of weeks her stomach has expanded at a great rate. Yes she was in the family way.

Now we know why she wanted to eat everyone else’s food. So on the 22nd November this little lot appeared on the scene.

Six puppies. Unfortunately  one died the next day. So she has five little noisy puppies which brings us another headache. How are we going to get these little beauties a new home. There are three boys and two girls.

This morning when Gizzy went for a wee I quickly weighed them and they have all put on over an ounce.

From the pictures you can see that Sam is the father of the whitish ones, but the black ones? Not one the colour of Gizzy. She is been a good mother though.

Happy Days.

Judith. x

The Tale of the Waggily Tails.

If you follow my blog you will know that we have a dog called Lucky as she was very lucky to find us. She was a stray who had been badly treated and was ever so nervous. We have had her for over 3 yrs now and she is a lovely dog and is so funny.. She makes us laugh so often.

Sorry about the red eye here. Anyway at the beginning of October these two dogs were wandering around outside of the monastery, we had never seen them before and we pass there often. Over the next few days we saw them in the village and down at the monestery so someone had obviously dumped them. You get a lot of stray dogs here, they don't treat animals like we do. There are a few charities around who rehouse stray cats and dogs, many going to Holland and Germany. As we were returning home from a night out there were these two dogs sitting in the middle of the road on a bend. We think they were waiting for their owner to come and pick them back up again. We drove past them slowly, if they had stopped there they would surely have been runover. We pulled over and got them into our car and took them home. They were lifting with fleas, hungry and a bit smelly. That night they had food in there bellies and slept in a cardboard box outside. The next morning they had a bath and when they were dry we treated them for their fleas. They cleaned up well.

The whitish one is a dog and the brown one with the Queen Anne legs is a bitch. We are hoping that someone will rehouse them but it will not be till after the summer season starts next year. So when or if they find a new home we are a 3 dog family. Lucky is starting to get used to them, though sometimes she is still a bit wary of them. They are a bit boisterous for her and when we raise our voices at them she thinks she is getting told off too, so she is getting extra attention and lots of cuddles. We have named them as Sam and Gizzy. Sam just seemed to fit and Gizzy cos she looks like Gizmo off of Gremlins.

There is never a dull moment. Cya, Judith. x

I am all behind!!!

Ok so I am way behind with my posts, nothing new there then eh?

On the 30th September we had pipe bands and brass bands parading the streets of Ag. Nikolaos for the Crete International Tattoo that was to be held that night. There were pipe bands from Canada, New Zealand, Scottish Highland dancers, a dance troupe from Estonia, Russian and Welsh brass bands and a Italian flag throwing troupe.

We went to the tattoo at the football stadium that night also but we were to far away to get any good pictures. We had a great time as I love pipe band music. Peter Karrie also made a special appearance and sang for us. He is a West End and Broadway star. Well that is it for now my next post will not be long in coming, in another couple of days. Need to get caught up with things that have been happening here. Cya, Judith x

Someone’s having a giveaway.

Do you like giveaways?

Do you use fabric in your crafts?

Then why don’t you all nip over to www.thepatchworkheart-heather.blogspot.com

_{and join in her lovely scrappy giveaway.}

_{Go on do it now!!!}

_{Cya Judith x}

World Tourism Day.

September 27th was World Tourism Day and in Aghios Nikolaos they had a Cretan cultural exhibition around the lake. You could sample olive oil, cheeses, wines, nuts, pastries beer and raki. There was Greek music and traditional Greek dancing.

Inco had a tent with a small display of works done by foreign residents.  Like us.

 

 

A good evening was had by all.

Quince and Cinnamon.

Today I made some quince and cinnamon jam. This is the biggest pan that I own and you can see that it is nearly full. There are loads of quince trees around and they are all laden with fruit, that for some reason goes unused. I picked a bag of these lovely fruit from a neighbours tree and set about making the jam. I now have 7 jars of luscious jam for our toast.

The next fruit that will be ripe are pomegranates. Pomegranate jam??????????

Watch this space.

Cya,

Judith x

Rain, rain go away!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh no, we were forecast for rain and thunder and yes we got it. The thunder was miles away so that was ok especially for Lucky who is terrified of it. Then we got the rain, a few spots at first then the whole thing. Mind you we need it as everything is all dried up and shrivelled.

In no time the verges will be spouting bright green everywhere. It is supposed to brighten up tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Me with my mac.

Cya

Judith x

What A Find.

A little background first. In times gone by the Greek people used to tip their rubbish over the mountainsides. Now today this is frowned upon  and is very unsightly, however it is still done. You can go along a country roads and find places where things have been fly tipped.  Usually this is builders rubble. Anyway we sometimes stop to see if anything of interest has been tipped. Something we could use like wood, marble, you know things like that. If your a follower of mine you will know that my cupboard above the bathroom door was made with  wood found dumped..

Anyway we went to the garden today to do some watering and on the way back we stopped at a dumping ground, just to have a look. There was some wood but not of any use, then something caught my eye buried in the rubble. We racked around a bit and found all these.

We have 5 pairs and 5 odd ones. I have cleaned up 3 of these wood shoe forms. Bet you can pick them out.

I think they have cleaned up well. I am sure we will find something useful to make with them. You never know what your gonna find and that’s why we keep looking. Does anyone have any ideas?

I also have another finish that I forgot to post the other day. This is my Baktus scarf that I knit to keep me warm in the winter it is graciously modelled by Lucky.

As you can see she is a little bit camera shy. It is so soft, I know I am gonna love wearing it. Oh! and I got the wool from one of the animal charity bazaars.

Got to go as Lucky is patiently waiting for her afternoon walk. Think she deserves one.

  Cya,

Judith x

Playtime and a finish Woo hoo!!!

Yes, I have been sat at my sewing machine again. It has been too long since I did any sewing. Anyway I thought I would have a play around and this is what I came up with. It’s  from Ricky Tims and is called convergence quilts.

Not sure what I will do with them yet, but I enjoyed playing around. Might make them into cushion covers, we will see.

Also I have finished up my denim throw/blanket. It has taken me ages to clip all the seams so that it would fray in the washing machine. Just sitting clipping caused a big pile of threads.  It was about time that I got it done. When I had clipped all the seams I checked very patch to make sure it was done and I found 21 seams unclipped. It pays you to check very carefully. Oh! I have just thought I never took any photos of this part. Too late now!Then it went into the washing machine on a cold wash. Cor, you should have seen all the loose threads from the fraying process. I shook it in the courtyard and they went everywhere. Now you are supposed to dry it in the tumble dryer but, I don’t have a one, so onto the line it went.  I washed it twice and then the washing machine didn’t pump out the water. Mmmmmh!!! PANIC!!!!

After I drained all the water off I removed the filter and guess what?  Yes it was jammed packed solid with frayed threads. I gave it a quick clean out fitted it all back together and hey presto it worked (Thank Goodness or I would have been in trouble from the other half.) Still after two washes it is still casting. Might take the hoover to it so don’t look to close at the finished photo.

So sorry but this is a terrible photo

It is supposed to get frayed more every time you wash it. I am pleased with it too. This was very easy to make sewing wise, but the clipping took a long time and it was very messy and hard on the hands. It is also  heavyish.

That’s all for now.

Cya,

Judith. x

Who likes their comfort then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is Lucky's favorite way to relax. Yes it's a dogs life.

A Beautiful Pair

Good Morning!!!!!!!!!!

How are you all today?

Bright eyed and bushy tailed I hope.

Yesterday this was the veiw from my front gates at about 6.00 am.

Today this was the veiw at 7.00 am.

See the clouds we have had a lot of those just lately.

Anyway now for the beauties. For the last three times that this has flowered I have missed getting a picture, but today, I got them. Yay!

They open and die in just a day.

You can just see the cactus plant at the bottom of this picture. This plant puts a tremendous amount of energy in producing these large flowers and they are so delicate.

They have  a very fine perfume which attracted this wasp. Think he enjoyed his visit. He looked like he was anyway.

Yesterday I went to the beach with Jude and we had a lovely time splashing about in the sea. The beach was crowded as it was a very hot day, but there was a nice cooling breeze. Wonder how many people overdid the sunbathing?

Anyway enjoy your day whatever you are doing and catch you all again soon.

Cya,

Judith x

20 Years, Well I never.

The veiw from my gate this morning

What a lovely day to be celebrating 20yrs of marraige. When we got together lots of people said it would never last so I am saying today, "Well it has."

I am sorry that I can't put a wedding photo on here but my pc won't let my printer work.
So the above will have to do for now. This was took at our leaving party in 2007 just before we moved to Crete.

Our Potato Harvest.

Over the last couple of days we have been digging our potatoes and what a fine crop it is.

These should keep us going for a while. We are still picking courgettes, tomatoes, cucumber and aubergines too. When we get the ground that the potatoes were in cleared we will be planting some beans and maybe beetroot we will see.

My voice is still missing too. It’s very quiet around here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never mind, anyway I have managed to do some knitting this morning and also make some tomato sauce to freeze. A woman’s work is never done even with no voice.

Enjoy your weekend everyone

Cya,

Judith x

Oh, Dear I’ve Lost IT.

Well I had it yesterday, but this morning I cannot find it. I’ve looked high and I’ve looked low. What ever am I going to do without it?

I am just not me without it, do you think I should offer a reward?????????????????

A passion flower doing what it does best.

All I can say is that……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I have lost my voice. If any of you out there in blogland happen to see it please contact me. I would love to have it back.

Thanks.

Judith x

This Morning.

Yesterday and today we have clouds

It is slightly cooler up here and we have a bit of wind, which is nice.


Eventually the sun came up and reveilled a mist.