If you're in the north of the island and interested in getting fit or improving your physical well being, you can head along to the Community center in Stavros every Tuesday evening at 5.30pm for Yoga and Pilates. It starts this week.

Monday 1st - Kalo Mina everyone. November is here and the skies are blue...for now. Let's hope November will be all about olives, blue skies and greener pastures.

Wednesday 3rd - The long term forecast was for possible rain today, but by the blue of our skies, it doesn't seem likely, at least for now. Yesterday, chemtrails crisscrossed the sky.

Now that Ithaki is in Slow Gear, Vathy climbs the scale of importance. Ithakis heart still pumps while the northern villages hibernate, that's not to say that Vathy is throbbing with life, but there is definately more to do and more places to go there, than in the north.

Dimitris Danis, one of Ithakis well-known, is in Turkey currently with another performing arts agenda. News from one of his fans is that he's doing very well.

Speeches and rallies mark this pre-election week. When I say rallies, I mean more like small crowds gathered inside a Cafenion speaking in louder voices than usual. Guess it keeps them off the streets. Caution: political aspirations ahead.

Friday 5th - So far, November hasn't been disappointing. The weather has been great! Many locals are out in their olive groves raking in the harvest, others go about their daily chores, some are still swimming and taking walks around the hills and valleys while the sun shines. Ithaca is green.

While winter begins to close in, in the north, we here, are looking over calm waters and blue skies to the horizon.

Picking olives looks idyllic, but it's actually hard work. Not everyone is cut out to spend their day in amongst the trees, combing the olives from the branches.

Saturday 6th - Another fine weather day (we barely believe it's winter). Afales Bay in the north of Ithaca has some wonderful shapes darting from the waterline and on a clear day, Lefkada to the north, seems in touching distance.

Monday 8th - November means burning off. The 'OK' went up on the first, so now locals are burning off their scrub and olive cuttings while there is no fire ban.

Yes, people are still swimming. Apparently the water isn't that cold yet. We have a couple of days yet of sunshine, so why not make the most of it.

Council Elections tomorrow. As there are so many smaller parties all wanting to achieve the 51% majority which is mandatory to win an election, it's a pretty sure bet that this Sundays election will only determine who is out of the running. The election will carry through to next week when only the 2 strongest parties compete. Woopee! 2 weeks of elections coming up.

Above - Uli and Werner from Kolieri, aren't here to vote, but they are here to process their olives for oil. They've had a good season and a good crop on which they have worked hard over the past couple of weeks. They along with others on the island, will be heading to the olive oil factories to process their harvest this week.

7th November Election Results

Local Council

A. Livitsanis - 761 votes
I. Kassianos - 592 votes
C. Skliros - 543 votes
E. Mavrokefalos - 328 votes

Thursday 11th - We had a couple of days of wind and rain, but the temperatures have been unusually high for this time of year. T-shirt weather and still ideal for swimming. The locals are deeply into olive picking and talking politics.

Above - Spyros Paxinos, who has had the occasional opportunity to pass by Ithaki on the vessel he Captains, is here feeling Ithaki ground under his feet and discussing the ways of the future with friends at the local cafe in Stavros. It's always a pleasure to meet the people who look at the website and take time to write me.

Above - Homers School has put Ithaca on the map archeologically. As expected, the elections have been carried over to next Sunday. Both candidates have an airport on their agenda. It was a busy Sunday morning with locals congregating around the voting booths and Cafes, talking over the impending result.

It appears our brilliant weather days have been interrupted. Today it's windy and raining with a grey, grey sky hanging low.