Ready for hiking soon

 
Finally I found few hiking books in Crete! Or maybe I have just been too lazy to look for them before. Actully I went to a bookshop to find a guide to Santorini, but none of them pleased me and then my eyes catched these books instead! As I like to hike with my doggy now I have some new interesting hikes to do in near future - good for her and good for me. But before we start our longer walks again, I will head to Santorini next week for five days to meet my dear friend who comes there from Finland. Can´t wait! So next update will be I guess about picturesque Santorini, after sorting the photos.

No more dumping!

Do you remember the unofficial dump on the beach parking I wrote about in June?

Click here to see the article and see the photos what we created from the carbage.

I was curious to return there and see the situation and while I got at the parking I was happy to see that there was no more garbage!!! Locals told me that usually in September the parking would be half full and the dump would be as high as a man. But not this year and there has come this little sign which is telling that it is forbidden to dump garbage. So this was excellent news and nature says thank you :)

Red!

 
I did already publish a serie with Blue- color My Blue Greece and Yellow & Green I was amusing this time to shoot photos "things in red". Most photos are from Crete and some from the continent of Greece.

Red is the color of extremes. It’s the color of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the color of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces – and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past.
Red is also a magical and religious color. It symbolized super-human heroism to the Greeks and is the color of the Christian crucifixion. Red was almost as rare and as expensive as purple in ancient days – a fact that may explain its magic and power. * source : color matters

For me red belongs to Autumn colors as well and since it is September equinox, here are some of my photos with red!

Cretan herbs

Crete offers many herbs and the flora in Crete is on its best in spring after the rain from winter and spring. This is the time when Crete looks actually very green and plenty of wild flowers are in blossom.

Many of the herbs are used widely in Greek kitchen such as basil, mint, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano and thyme. All these you can buy in shops, but my favorite shop is the one in Sivas, near Matala, called Botano.

You might have come accross to the mountain tea, many times old ladies are selling them in villages. This herb you can only find above 1000 meters, on the white mountains of Crete. This like many other herbs are known as healing herbs of folklore. Together with honey it is a good natural medicine against the cold, well you might want to have a little glass of raki too:).

Reindeer horns for the Greek boys

 
I wanted to make something different for the Greek boys (well two of them were already men), something they surely would not find in Greece. What could that be? Of course leather jewels with reindeer horn pendants! Each closure was different, one made of some nut, one from a piece of a bone and one from floated wood, so a tiny difference between them. As you can see, I have plenty of useful things in my little van :P