Below - Aetos Beach Above & Right - Sortiros church getting painted
Below - Aetos.
Below - Aetos Beach House
Below - Road to Piso Aetos
Below - Small chapel toward Piso Aetos
Below - Vathy
Below - Vathy Bay
Below - Vathy
Below - Lunch
Below - Vathy center
Below - Vathy
Below - Vathy Lane
Below - Adrian Lunney
Below - Diamanto from Odysseia Boutique & Aprilis Apartments in Kioni with husband, Makis
Below - Angela, Lia and Nadia
Below - Ingrid (Itha108 Yoga) and Gillian
Below - Road from Piso Aetos Port
There is definitely a change in the air. October is finally beginning to dictate that Summer is in actual fact over. The smell is different now, so is the light. Although the temperatures are still quite mild through the day, there is a cooler breeze blowing, and at night you do need a jacket. This change has really just been evident over the last couple of days.
Lots of insects around too right now, mosquitos, flies, wasps... Our Indian Summer has confused, not just us, but the world under our feet too. We needed a cold snap to kill off some of the insect colonies, but instead a second hot spell, gave birth to more insects than we saw all of the Summer.
Below - Stavros
Below - An olive branch at Afales
Below - Afales Bay views toward Lefkada
Below - Ag. Sarantas
Below - Walkers behind Frikes at the Kindergarten gates.
Below - Frikes Bay views
Below - A cotton wool sky over Krouvoulia
Below - View to Polis Bay and Cephalonia
We've had an extraordinarily extended Summer this year. Almost mid October and swimming is still part of the daily routine for those on the island. Lots of yachts in the bays taking advantage of this good weather month.
It's been a mixed bag this past Summer, ferry timetables had us all mixed up for awhile, and that will probably continue over the next few months. Personally I miss The Kefalonia ferry and it's twice daily route to and from Patras. The ferry from Lefkada decided that it would start it's route from Vasiliki to Frikes at the end of Summer, and only for a few weeks. Guess some aren't that desperate during this crisis time.
Today I've loaded up the timetable for the Ionian Pelagos which services Astakos - Sami - Ithaki, and that too looks quite confusing. Let's hope the seas over winter won't give us as bumpy a ride as our ferry timetable changes.
Above - Vathy | Below - Ag. Sarantas
The dew falling over the island during the night over this past month, has been enough to turn all the brown and dried up fields, green again. The summer thistles disappear under a green carpet of fresh new grass. Lots of happy sheep and goats on the island.
A new Community Council has been voted in, in Platrithia. After some unrest earlier this year, decisions have been made and conflicts resolved. Platrithia includes many of the northern villages. It's a large community which will only benefit from a Council Group that is united in its ideas for this area of Ithaki.
If you've been to ithaki on holiday and you want to share your experiences, your accommodations, the places you ate and enjoyed yourselves, why don't you drop a line to visitors@ithacagreece.com to tell us about it. If you had some complaints, you can mention those too. We will play fair. Constructive criticism is an ok thing. Let others know what you think about Ithaca. It will help everyone looking to Ithaca for a holiday next year decide through advice given by you yourselves, those who have experienced it from the holiday side of things, to make up their minds. Let's start now so that next year we have another good Season, despite the crisis. Write them in your language. It's ok. People can translate online :)
Above - View to the Mainland from Frikes | Below - View through Frikes from Stavros.
Below - Midday in Stavros
Below - Some more bad weather heading toward ithaki. The rainbow did not mean the end.
October 2012 - Monday 1st - Sortiros church in Stavros is getting a facelift. The entire church is decorated with scaffolding. As Sortiros is not only in the heart of Stavros, but IS the heart of Stavros, it's only fitting that it be kept in great condition.
It's hard to believe we're already nearing the second week of October and we're still heading to the beaches for a swim, but that's exactly how it is. The weather has been just amazing.
Soon it will be olive harvest again. At the end of October|November, locals with olive groves, or even just a few trees, will be getting out their canvas. comb and ladder to start combing
the olives from the branches. Most olives on Ithaca are for oil. They are small black olives, that when processed by one of Ithaki's olive oil presses, ends up on your table at one of the tavernas.
Now it's the end of the season, the museums appear closed, but they are not really closed. Usually there's a phone number on the door to ring if you want to look inside. Just call the number and someone will come running.
Although the north of the island seems very quiet, down south in Ithaki's capital of Vathy, there's still a healthy scattering of both locals and visitors, making the streets alive for a little longer. With Flotilla co's dropping their prices for the end of the season, the yachting traffic is also quite healthy.
It appears to be becoming a welcomed ritual that when journalist/musician, Adrian Lunney is on the island, that there be at least one performance at Yefuri in Platrithia. Yefuri was packed last night, not at all reminiscent of October, but of August, when Adrian played some traditional jazz sets for an enthusiastic dining crowd. Yefuri's ambience is well noted, and with Adrian and his guitar given their own little corner near the fire place, a curtain well hung behind him, lit just like a miniature stage, the mood was heightened even more.
As well as the musical interlude, there were also many fairwells being said. Holiday time is over and for many it's back to the real world, the cold (or heat) of somewhere other than Ithaki.
Pete and Karen from Fiorendino will also be heading off to Australia this month, but don't despair, Dini will be running things in his little corner of Frikes as he does every winter.
For those of you into the Yoga phenomenon that has hit Ithaki this year under Ingrid's (Itha108) instruction, you'll be pleased to know that her Yoga center currently under construction in Ag. Ioannis, is progressing nicely.
All going to plan, Ingrid will be starting her sessions there next year.
Monday 8th - With Strintzi ferry not docking at Piso Aetos port anymore, continuing to improve the port is hoping that Strintzis will change it's mind again in the future. The company ATOMO, previously responsible for the port improvements and construction, has now subcontracted the project to POLYTROPOS SA. The company is to start construction on Piso Aetos port immediately.
The EU is funding proposals for rural areas in Greece to become 'Green', reducing energy consumption and pollution. Ithaca has proposed Perahori as a candidate with plans for wind turbines, photovoltaic street lighting and much more. If approved, the Council will receive 4.2 million euro to see the proposal through. I hope there's an accountant in that package. (yes, that comment is a little syncical)
For many years there has been a call for an old people's home on the island, and although that hasn't happened, the Council does have a home help program which is very useful to the elderly on the island. The 3 women running the program are angels of hope and light to the elderly who have little to no contact with the outside world apart from their visits.
1.Drakopoulou Anastasia-Family Assistant
2. Natasha Livani - Social Worker
3. Manesi Niki - Nurse
have despite difficulties, managed to make a huge difference to the lives of these people and deserve the island's support of their endeavours.
Left - Vathy Bayside | Above - A tree in Ag. Sarantas.
Ingrid Gottshalk from itha108 Yoga Classes is opening a Pre-Loved Clothing Boutique in her Yurt in Lahos to raise money for the Argos Foundation and the Stavros Primary School. Boutique is open every Saturday starting on the 13th Ocotober and will continue through to at least Easter. Reasonable prices are promised. Opening hours are 10am - 5pm each Saturday.
Wednesday 10th - When Summer ends, there's always a little sadness in the changing colours, the quiet streets and the Autumn smell. The Autumn light brings out details in our surroundings that are usually misted over in Summer. Ithaca takes on an altogether different persona. The skies are blue, but the horizon is crisp as it lines up under the sky, cloud formations shape the landscape around us differently as the shadows they cast, highlight the sunny patches with such vibrance.
Ithaca's choir is made up of many beautiful voices, if you too, would like to be part of the choir, you can head along to the Cultural Center each Wednesday at 18.30 h for choir practice.
Another beautiful day today. There's been no rain and the skies are blue, despite the gathering clouds yesterday. The temperature is dropping a little day by day however, soon it'll be cardies and coats again.
Friday 12th - Some rain is expected overnight, but the winds are blowing from the south so by lunchtime the temperature is expected to reach 25C again...another mild day.
Saturday 13th - A mixed bag of heavy and blue skies yesterday. While in Vathy, the first rain drops were falling, in the north of the island, in Ag. Sarantas, the sun was shining and quite warm. As the afternoon continued, both sides of the island were draped in a threatening sky, although rain seemed to evaporate before it hit the ground.
Sunday 14th - A couple of miserable weather days have plummeted us right into deep Autumn. Storms with enough lightning to give all of Greece power without the need of DEH (Greece's electricity provider/or not). The electricity (crossing my fingers) has dipped a little now and then, but so far no outage. When the thunder starts roaring overhead however, many on the island unplug their appliances, especially now with the crisis, we can't actually afford to replace all the electrical and computer stuff everytime it gets fried by a lightning strike. At dusk, the wind began to blow and a tidal wave of sky came rolling toward us.
Above - Lefkada view from Stavros | Below - Midday
It's been raining nearly all day, and now as we head into night, it's still raining. A few lonely yachts down in the bayside villages dared to sail under stormy conditions, but if they were expecting some excitement on this end, they may have been disapointed. The streets were all but empty with all the rain.
Ok, I know I've mentioned this many, many times before, but what the heck are they doing in the skies? Chemtrails for about 1 week now, even this morning, above the heavy clouds, streaks, cris-crossed the sky. There are many conspiracy theories abound about this, but all that aside, doesn't anyone want to know what they are doing? Is it safe? Is it weather control testing? Is it joy-riding (flying)? What the heck is it?
If it's harmless, why are there never any explainations?
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but this is a good second place when you
want the card to arrive before you do.
ithacagreece.com Mobile/Cellphone App
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mobile/cell phone. Covering many
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made into virtual postcards for you to send
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but this is a good second place when you
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