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:

Sowing Seeds in Crete

You can make this chart larger by going to

http://tinyurl.com/m8wy8n

where I have uploaded it at a decent size. Alternatively you can right-click on the above chart and download it to your computer, but it is much better to click on the link above to see the chart properly.

It contains just about all the vegetables etc that can be grown here on Crete, so I hope that you can grow your own organic food and be better off for it. Good appetite.

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 six month old hens sold as ‘point of lay’ meaning they are about to start producing eggs. Not so here. Here you have to go, after the month of March, to a shop that sells baby chickens. The picture below shows one such shop.

Baby Chick Shop

But how do you know that they are indeed hens, and not, for example, cockerels? The answer is that you don’t know. It is a fifty fifty chance since no-one I have ever met can tell the sexual differences in a tiny chick.

So you pay your Euro or so per chick and are given them in a cardboard box to take home. You have to look after the chicks very carefully. Keep them for the first few months in a secure cage and feed them baby chick food. When they grow older, up to six or so months, you can put them in a chicken run that you have to build out of wire to keep them in. You now feed them chicken food – it comes in a sack – and odd bits of stuff they may like. Make sure they have water. Water and food containers can be bought very cheaply here in Crete. Also never forget to provide some shade and a few little boxes for them to lay their eggs in.

But how do you protect your charges from such things as wandering hungry cats etc? Well here the cretans are very cunning. When you buy your baby chickens it is very strongly advisable to buy a couple of geese as well. The geese are very good protectors of chickens and no predator will come close while they are there.

Around the six month mark, you quickly discover which of your chickens are in fact cockerels. They crow very loudly at dawn and definitely produce no eggs. Now you may be happy with this and love them to bits. On the other hand you may fancy some Coq au Vin.

As your experience grows, and Christmas approaches, you may well dream of fattening up your own turkey, but be warned, they can grow pretty big.

They like to sit on cars too . . .

Anyway, you can always try it out, and you will certainly love the eggs.

In another post on this site I wrote a long article about one of my favourite places on the island of Crete, the Amari Valley. I have had some requests for photographs of the valley so here we are.

These three photographs are taken from the village of Thronos high on the north side of the valley.

The first photograph shows Mount Ida in all it’s glory. This mountain is known in greek as Psiloritis, which means ‘highest’. It is certainly the highest mountain in Crete and this photo was taken in the spring this year capturing the snow on the peak. Mount Ida is the legendary birthplace of the king of the ancient gods, Zeus and it forms the eastern boundary of the Amari Valley.

The second photograph shows Mount Samitos, the mountain that stands in the centre of the valley. Behind Mount Samitos are the Kedros mountains that are the Amari Valley’s boundary to the west.

The third photograph below is looking directly south of Thronos towards the southern end of the Amari. In the foreground is a small village on the floor of the valley. Here is an orthodox christian monastery that has for many years been the local agricultural school for young people learning to build farms in the area and beyond. It has a really splendid church and most of the other buildings are being brought up to date at the moment.

The Amari Valley is truly a most beautiful place. Here exist so many flowers in the spring that it is breathtaking to see. All over the valley are ordered fields with livestock and many forms of agricultural endeavour. From Olives to Apple and Cherry trees as well as the abundance of natural herbs. If you have never been, I hope that you can go there soon.

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 veteran father Leslie Power for the book, agreeing to continue the interview at a later date. But Leslie, who was evacuated from Crete on June 1, 1941, died of a heart attack in 1995 before they finished the story. “We got as far as the landing on Crete. “The interview with my father took over an hour and we only covered the first couple of years.”

Mr Power was determined to tell the story and spent six years working on the book. He visited Crete in 2005. “Going to Crete was the highlight. It was a bit unreal – that people were killing each other left, right and centre. It is extremely peaceful now.” Of the nine veterans Mr Power spoke to during his research, four remain alive. “I concentrate on this battle, my book is hopefully balanced because it shows the German side too,” he says. Mr Power’s wife, Josephine, says her husband has had a unique experience. “He’s befriended all these vets,” she laughs. Mr Power’s daughter Hanna is also enthusiastic about the upcoming book. “Now Dad has all these crazy friends. He has learnt a lot – got a lot out of it personally that he never expected.” Miss Power says her father was humbled by the hospitality shown when he visited Crete and the overwhelming gratitude to New Zealanders who fought alongside the Cretans.

Brian Duncan, a family friend, helped to proof-read Mr Power’s book and says it is an unusual version of the battle that was neglected by media. “Graham has carefully gone about finding veterans and recording their remembrances. It is a really interesting view of the Battle of Pink Hill by the people who were there.” Mr Duncan says the author has been absolutely meticulous in his research.

Source

Skywatch

The tourists are beginning to come now, though not as many as before. Sure there will be more problems as we have already had with the olive harvest. It was a bad year. Excellent Cretan extra virgin olive oil was priced here at Euros 1.70 per kilo, more than a litre.

But the beaches are superb and wild.

And here is another. Perhaps it helps you see why I love this island.

The ancient village of Argiropoli is nearby, the ancient city here was called Lappa, built by the Mycaneans and the Dorians and even the Romans this place lived on until today based on its wonderful springs and unique location.

Here in the foothills of the Lefka Ori (the White Mountains) these villages live on with a deep traditions based on the past but with an acute eye on the future.

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 it was. Probably the best Carnival on Crete. I must have taken a hundred pictures, but today I tell the story.

It starts with the first float, just drfting by . . .

The Watchers

But just before it came, I took this quick snap of some of the audience, just to get the feel of the carnival – which is huge – but the watchers are just a part of the celebration and they dress up in local village clothes or even spiderman look-alikes to be a part of it too.

The Start of the Carnival

So then it began, the old Amstel wagon followed by the incredible ra-ra dancers . . .

The chaos is patrolled by young policemen

Then, of course, the transvestites, or at least the men dressed as women, that for fun stole the policeman’s caps. They seemed to enjoy the moment though.

The Start of the Frog

Of the many floats and hundreds of people that went by, I loved this float. The frog even seemed to breathe, superb.

Fish consuming man

Again one of the many fine floats. This was a fish consuming a man. Think what you will.

And LouLou of course, the tinned milk of Greece - better known as Nou Nou . . .

But this was fun, especially with a girl at the front drinking fresh milk.

Love the Clothes

And so it goes on, not just the floats but the thousands of people having fun. The costumes are really great.

Float after wonderful float

As each float goes by it is accompanied by several hundred of the wonderfully costumed members of the carnival/float club. Each float in the carnival has so many members who work hard each year to produce the float, the costumes and the essence of what their float is based upon as well as doing it in the utmost secrecy that it beggars belief.

Float with barbecue on tap

So many floats, but this one was unique. On the back was a real barbecue with pork souflakis available. (Pork Kebabs for the uneducated . . .)

King of the Carnival

So who was King of the Carnival? Well it was the one that I liked as well. Our friend the frog. He was elected as the supreme float and pulled down to the beach here on Rethymnon for his fate.

Burn to Glory

At just after 6.30 pm, as the sky got dark, following a speech from the master of the frog club, the frog was burned. And so, apart from the continuing discos, it was the end of yet another year of work, but enormous fun.

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.

The Filling New Dam of Crete

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 Lake is bigger than anything on the island already.

Now The Biggest Lake on Crete

So there we are, Crete has now a huge water resource for agricultural water, thanks to a grant from the European Union.

Skywatch

This is my sky, looking west from my house here on the island of Crete.

The winter sky above 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. What is at the root of it? It is so many things. A weak government, the credit crunch, unemployment and much more.

It has calmed a little now, but we wait to see what happens next. Soon it will be Xristogenna – Christmas and we prepare for that with open minds. But problems are problems, let us hope that we can cope with them.

Merry Christmas,

Ray

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.

Cars Washed Out To Sea

Two years ago in October we had terrific storms that often ended up as the picture above.

Snow Hits Crete

Last year we had snow, a lot of it. Many olive trees were damaged and the orange trees were hit by frost. I guess we have to wait and see what will happen this winter. Let us hope that the elements are kinder to us.

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 airstrip during the Nazi airborne invasion of Crete in May 1941.

The submerged aircraft, identified as a Messerschmitt Bf 109, is one of the 1,280 warplanes dispatched by the Luftwaffe to fight in the “Battle of Crete”, and one of the 210 shot down by the Allies or disabled during the operation. A total of 4,465 German paratroopers were also killed during the invasion.

The specific aircraft was found lying upside down at the bottom of the sea, with a large part of it covered by sand. Its propeller blade and wings are intact and despite the passing of 68 years, its fuselage is in good condition. The plane’s wheels are folded under its wings with its manufacturer’s insignia still clearly visible. Most impressive is the fact that the engine’s rubber collars remain unaffected, while certain aluminium parts of the fuselage are still shiny.

The goal is to have the plane exhibited with other WWII artifacts at an Air Force Museum in Maleme.