When to Sow Seeds in Crete

I am often asked: when do you sow the seeds for this or that which is in our garden? Obviously the sowing times frequently differ from the UK as do the harvesting times. Anyway I have acquired a sowing chart for growing food in Crete.
Here it is:
You can make this chart larger by going to
http://tinyurl.com/m8wy8n

where [...]

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Raising Chickens in Crete

Were you to consider raising chickens in Crete, then there is a lot to learn. Keeping chickens in your garden is pretty popular here on the island, especially since there are no foxes here at all, but where do you get your chickens from?
In the UK, chickens come in breeds and you can buy roughly [...]

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Telling dad’s war story took years

This Anzac Day will be especially poignant for one Mt Eden author as he releases his first book about a heroic World War Two battle. Graham Power’s book, The Battle of Pink Hill – Crete, 1941, depicts the 12-day struggle on the Mediterranean island in which more than 670 Kiwis were killed.
He interviewed his [...]

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The Carnival in Crete – Rethymnon

Today is Monday, Clean Monday (Kathara Defteri in Greek), two days before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins. Today, sitting in a beach cafe in warm gentle weather, watching the Greek tradition of flying kites, and there are many, we think of the day before, Sunday the first of March and the Carnival.
And what a carnival [...]

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Potamoi Dam Still Filling

I just had another look at the Potamoi Dam and it is still filling. The winter rains have contributed a lot and we still have the melting snow to come.
This is now the biggest Cretan Lake, and it still has not reached it’s full size. Forget Kournas Lake, once the biggest lake in Crete, Potamoi [...]

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My Sky, Our Problems.

Skywatch
This is my sky, looking west from my house here on the island of Crete.
Beneath this beautiful sky recently have been riots, police guards and tear gas to quell the problems caused by the street shooting of the 15 year old boy Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The riots have been some of the worst in many years. [...]

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Timeless Weather

Skywatch
As we are coming into what seems to be the coldest winter for many years, according to the predictions, let us see the last two winters here in Crete.
Two years ago in October we had terrific storms that often ended up as the picture above.
Last year we had snow, a lot of it. Many olive [...]

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Plan to raise WWII aircraft off Crete

The Hellenic Air Force is going to undertake to retrieve a WWII-era German fighter discovered at the bottom of the sea, off Hania on Crete.
An underwater salvage unit has arrived in the city of Hania to examine the plane’s wreckage, amongst the many WWII remnants discovered in the wider Maleme district, which hosted an important [...]

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The New Windmills of Crete

Skywatch
Round, like a circle in a spiral,
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel.
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon,
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon.
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it’s face,
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space.
Like [...]

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Days That Flow By

Skywatch
Sometimes here on the island of Crete, there are skies that have clouds. But most days, for more than six months of the year, the skies are blue. Just blue. Pale blue on the horizon to a lovely warm deep blue above. It is on days like these that it is good to just sip [...]

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