MY LIFE IN CRETE!

This is part of the talk which I gave at a hotel in Hersonissos on Saturday evening. I will be giving the same talk every Saturday throughout September and October. Then I hope to take it to England (or even America if anyone will pay me to go there)If any of you know of organizations who would like to hear my talk, please get in touch with me. My mail is: janesharp_creta@hotmail.com Now's your chance to hear what it is really like in Crete.

Happy Sunday everyone! Jane x

SOUNDS OF CRETE AT EPANO SISSI

David and Jane met David and Jayne for a bite to eat at Epano Sissi during the annual church festival. Lots of our Vrahassi neighbours were there. On the way there we noticed that the new road which leads around the back of Anavlohos, has been closed off. I would think that further work is being carried out. There will be a lovely scenic route to Vrahassi when it is finished. A new pipe line is also being put in along the road, all ready to service new developement between Vrahassi, Sissi, and Milatos. It really is an up and coming area.

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Just in case you never saw my Aunt Martha's Lenten Quest rendering, here it is. Share it with your friends if you like it. I was brought up in the Yorkshire Dales where I'm sure the spirit of Aunt Martha still lives.

GREEK DANCING - OR IS IT?

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We had a barbecue last night, this sort of sums up the evening - fun!

A LITTLE TRIP TO RETHYMNON

On Tuesday we were in Rethymnon, a little unexpected trip to pick up a parcel in Vamos. The Nomad depot doubles with the shop of the English butcher, John. We returned with cumberland sausage, cold roast ham, and home cured bacon, plus the parcels of course.

WHAT A WONDERFUL SUNDAY!

David and I had a wonderful Sunday. First we met friends for coffee in Neapolis and then on to Milatos for lunch with some other friends. Milatos, was a very relaxing place to be for our day out. My only gripe with the scenery, is the concrete shapes that make the harbour. How much more pleasing to the eye natural stone is. I am sure the designers of Milatos harbour have provided a very functional wall, and a very safe harbour, it is just my little gripe! I might even have a boat in there one day.

AGIOS FANOURIOS - 27 AUGUST

Just a little note to say that yesterday was also the Church Feast of Agios Fanourios. Not much is known about this Saint, but apparently an icon with the grizzly details of his death, was found in an old church, way back. The pictures were so graphic that the church assumed that the man, named Fanourios, died a martre's death. He was therefore made into a Saint and is known as the Saint of lost things.

It is tradition, on this day, to make a special cake to put inside the church. The cake should have 9 ingredients: 1 glass orange juice, 1 glass sugar, 1 glass oil, pinch salt, cinnamon, ground cloves, walnuts, sultanas and flour.

If you have lost something, then you must make a cake and take it into the church where you will ask Agios Fanourios to help you find it. I wrote a little poem when one of my neighbours lost her ring, she made a cake, took it to the church, said a prayer and that night, even though she had turned the house upside down, gone through all the rubish and was about to lift the floorboards, she opened the bread bin to take out some bread for supper, and there was the ring. She said she had washed the bread bin out whilst looking for her ring, and that Agios Fanourios had answered her prayer.

Agios Fanourios if you please
Return to me my ring
And if you do, I promise you
That to the church I'll bring
A cake with nine ingredients
Especially for you
So please Agios Fanourios
Make my wish come true

Ooh! Makes yer wonder doesn't it?