In the garden

Took this photograph in a house in Greece. Nice contrasting

patterns between the curtains and the iron work. Hot sun

did the rest.

Open Gardens

Not many Open Gardens in the yellow book scheme include

vintage tractors but when the village of Dunlop opened

several gardens at the weekend that's precisely what

visitors found. Two tractors in perfect condition

in one of the gardens. The sun shone and

hundreds of people attended. Great day. No

event in the area is complete without

Lime Tree's ice cream. If you haven't tried

it you haven't lived.

Poppies

Poppies spread throughout the garden create wonderful

colours and shapes. I just let them grow wherever they

want.

The Millennium Wood

Back in 2000 the village planted a Millennium Wood and everyone

had the opportunity to buy a tree or maybe two or three.

We went to have a look at one of our trees yesterday and boy has

it grown. The wood now feels like a wood rather than a collection

of saplings.

I like these roadside shrines. So many different

shapes and colours.

Photo of Pili

When I was downloading photos of Greece I found some

which were totally black. I must have accidentally flicked the

settings when I was walking about in the heat. At first I thought

I'd dump them in the trash but then I thought I'd play around

in photoshop and see if anything could be rescued. It was such fun

and each and every photo was rescued to a degree with great effects

like this one. Looks like an old postcard.

Candili

This is Candili. It is an estate on the island of Evia in Greece.

Once the great Achmetaga estate, it was bought in the 1830's

by Edward Noel, a relative of Lord Byron and the family still

own it. The current owner is an old friend and, as is the way

with great estates, he has to find ways of it paying for itself.

So you can rent it. This week a wedding party has rented it but

mostly it is yoga groups. There is a huge great yoga room

which is very peaceful. They also accommodate painting,

music and, well anything you want really. We stayed there

after Athens and just missed a yoga group so we had the

place to ourselves for nearly two weeks. It really is beautiful

with two plunge pools and a large swimming pool.

The cook Ioanna was wonderful...just as well we weren't

there any longer, the waistline had expanded quite enough.

I'm hoping to run a painting course there next summer so

if you are interested do get in touch with me. If you are

interested in renting the estate check out their web site:

www.candili.gr

A little pause to reflect upon the garden.

This was yesterday.

Syntagma Square Athens 30th June

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Greece and I dedicate

this post to a local follower whom I met this morning. He said

'I knew you were away, I've been logging on and if I see that

bl---y bicycle one more time...'

Anyway, we arrived in Athens on Wednesday the 29th of

June and the apartment we were staying in was on Asklipiou

which is not at all far from Syntagma Square. The street was

full of riot police waiting for whatever and fires were burning

in nearby streets with smoke drifting around but everything

was, at that time, reasonably calm. We found a small

restaurant a couple of streets away and settled down to

our evening repast only to find that things were kicking

off and the sounds of nearby rioting accompanied our

Greek salad. By the time we reached our main course

things were definitely getting out of hand and the noise

levels rose dramatically then suddenly there was the sound

of gunfire...rather, the sound of tear gas being fired.

In minutes the rioting ceased and people scattered.

The next day we went down to see what was going on

and found ourselves caught in patches of tear gas that

had hung around. Did you know it hangs around?

Stings like hell..noses, throat and eyes. What it must have

been like to face it as soon as it's fired goodness knows.

Must say we enjoyed all the anarchist graphics.

We are told by Greek friends that on that night the police

used chemicals other than just tear gas...sounds ominous.

The Greeks are quite shocked at that. Interesting times.