Tzatziki for tea

What's a girl to do while the football is on? Well, she could skillfully get the channel changed so she can watch Greece (my new adopted country) beat Russia, rather than the Poles and the Czechs (first choice of man about the house), and cheer them on during the exciting bits. However, 90 minutes is a long time to watch men running around some grass kicking a ball about, so she had to play with her pencils and pens too.

I doodled on some scraps of paper left over from another project. I think the bottom girl is calling out for a proper portrait. She has a touch of the Greek about her anyway.

My heart is still in Greece. A trip to the supermarket saw me bringing home the ingredients for a Corfu salad, Greek yoghurt in assorted flavours and a vat of Tzatziki. I am pretending that the sound of the wind ruffling through the trees outside is actually waves lapping upon a sandy shore.

These are my Sunday Sketches. I was all set to play last week from my holiday shores. But, despite producing the requisite pieces and having the required technology at my disposal to make it happen, somehow lying by the pool, leaping through the waves with my son and gazing into the blue won out. Sorry folks!

My watch stopped working

It was a sign. Time to switch off, remove oneself from the hamster wheel of 'normal' life and allow a different rhythm to pump through your veins. The Holiday. The golden Corfu beaches. A slower pace.

It was also an opportunity to leave behind the grey skies and persistent rain-soaked (drought-ridden!) England and experience the colour blue in all its glory and shades. Frankly, I'd almost forgotten it existed.

Back again now though to washing, grocery shopping, cooking and the unpacking that seems to take an eternity (though it's always nice to find a little pile of sand at the bottom of the suitcase to remind my toes of what it felt like to scrunch in (or, during the heat of the day, run very fast across...)

I like holidays. I love Corfu. I want to go back there.... right now.... and watch the sun set just like this...



Another postcard from Skiathos

With a subject as far-reaching as 'memory' as the prompt for Mixed Media Monday it was certainly difficult to know where to begin - especially when I've got 40 years of the things to sift through!

At first I drifted around conjuring up the world of my Grandmothers', then moved to a maelstrom of memory spiralling out of control from a poor girl's mind but then something just clicked and I simply reached back just a month or two and returned to the sunshine island of Skiathos with my son.

I collaged some ephemera from my holiday as well as a few travel-related bits and bobs I had lying around. Added the colour of the sea and sky using my water-soluble oil pastels (which added further memory since they came on holiday with me!). Then I was going to draw a dreamy girl (me) on top but felt that the piece was missing the real essence of my holiday - the real happy memories - the photos. So we moved indoors and went digital to finish it off.

Nice memories to take me through a Monday :)

Postcards from Greece (2): Stress the Greek way

I was so pleased to be writing this by day 2 of my holiday (by which time the sun had well and truly come out to play!)

***

I'm learning to relax. I'm getting rather good at it. In fact, it's rather easy when you have a few Greek ingredients mixing a magical spell: Nowhere special to be; no reason to rush; no driving; no traffic; no deadlines; no phone ringing... Err, hang on, these aren't ingredients! They're the things missing. Is this perhaps instead a very large Greek takeaway?

OK, let's try again: One large dose of sunshine, trees weighed down with unfathomably large lemons (later destined to dress my dinner); turquoise waters with curious fish swimming around my toes; diamond sparkling softest sand; beer on the balcony; boy bouncing a ball; stretching out on a sun-lounger.... Ahh.... bliss....

We sleep for at least 10 hours a night (without the need for warming socks). We lose the ability and desire to rush and, and, and... think that if we miss the bus, we'll just sit and wait for the next one...

I think we've clearly been infected by 'Skiathos'. As diseases go it's certainly one I could recommend. It shows its symptoms differently by age. Children forgo expensive toys and plastic in return for shiny stones and big rocks that go PLOP when you throw them in the sea and Mums sleep for 10 hours a night and alternate their days between doing a spot of nothing by the pool to the same on the beach...

***

I'm back at work now... stressful traffic jams, plenty of work. When is my next holiday?

Postcards from Greece (1) - Meeting the Greek Gods

I rather missed blogging last week. Well, perhaps not when I was swimming in an azure sea, or twinkling my toes in the sparkling sand, or exploring winding alleys, or tucking into local delicacies... But I did miss it sufficiently that when the small boy was asleep I was lured to pick up my notebook and prepare a few words to share on my return...

A close encounter with Zeus

When on holiday I like to immerse myself in a spot of culture, soak up the atmosphere and imbibe a few local flavours and delicacies. Indeed, on arriving in Skiathos (on a somewhat disappointingly cloudy early evening), I managed immediately to take in a bit of local geography (courtesy of holiday rep on transfer bus), pick up a bit of the lingo (old lady in shop) and fill my belly with clefitiko (Marcos the chef).

What I wasn't expecting however was a close encounter with the ancient Greek Gods - notably those of flood and thunder, Posiedon and Zeus respectively. Who, after all, needs a thunderclap for a wake up call on their first morning in a supposedly sunny holiday destination (especially when the weather back in the UK was apparently glorious)?

Apparently the charming isle of Skiathos (part of the Sporades Group) enjoys a storm like this only once every five years or so. It was natural therefore that the arrival of a Lisa would prompt the long-awaited event. What a spectacle nature, Zeus and Poseidon put on for us on our first morning. Thunderbolt and lightening were very very frightening for about 5 hours. Rain fell not in drips or drops, it flowed like a mighty river from the heavens. Streets became torrents of mud and swathes of the beach were swept out to a churning brown sea that was far in colour from the promised turquoise.
And then... it stopped... and the sun came out! Tourists and locals paddled through the mud to survey the damage and begin the clear up. Diggers put the beach back to its former glory and re-opened the road. We hit the beach.. The Holiday began!

The post-holiday blues

(To be sung on a porch on with a guitar with a missing string and a glass of something alcoholic by your side)

Oooh I took me on holiday to the land of sun

I had such fun just me and my son

Skiathos was the name of the Greek Isle

It was so hot we couldn't walk a mile

Da na da na...

But now I'm back with no sand under my feet

It's raining here on my grey old street

I tried to smile but I said to my Muse

It's no dang good I got the post-holiday blues....

***

Enough of that nonsense!! Well, I came home from my Greek hols yesterday and found the theme I'd missed at Inspiration Ave was 'the blues'. First thought was the azure waters of the Aegean - or were they turquoise? Or perhaps a bit of both? Are you jealous yet? Well, I'm certainly jealous of the folks still there under that blue sky

I didn't drive or touch a computer all week. I slept loads. I discovered a beach that appeared to have been sprinkled in diamond dust. I have so much inspiration and many stories to share of my travels, but will leave you for now with this blue sea to dream upon... a blue door on a blue balcony topped by a blue railing and sky and some blue shoes (not suede, but plastic).

Now I have to catch up on what I missed in Blogland, before decide on which creative idea I brought back with me to act upon first... Hmm... decisions decisions....