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Category Archives: in Greece
how plants become weeds (and vice versa)
Here’s Euphorbia rigida, on neglected ground near olive trees in the Peleponnese. Actually, you can’t see it very clearly. I’ll see if I can come up with a cropped version. It’s April, and this early euphorbia has nearly finished flowering. … Continue reading
Posted in gardens, going round in circles, in Greece, mountains, flowers, landscapes
Tagged Anavriti, euphorbia, phlomis, weeds
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Into the past again, awkwardly: inside the tulip
I’d never seen such a creature before, but I knew in a vague sort of way that something called a pollen beetle existed, and this has to be it. It could be a cue for thoughts of corruption and decay, … Continue reading
Posted in in Greece, mountains, flowers, landscapes
Tagged fire, greece, tulipa orphanidea
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Easy Pieces on Easy Mountains in Order of Easiness no 2, Falakro
I know this isn’t a very helpful map. It shows the mountains which are visible from Pangaeo (see Easy Pieces on Easy Mountain Walks in order of easiness, No1, Pangaeo). I’ve written in Drama, a nice place to stay, between Falakro … Continue reading
Posted in diary, in Greece, mountains, flowers, landscapes, walks
Tagged Falakro, haberlea
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Maria and the museum in Exochori
April 18, as scribbled in my notebook: a story which she will never forget – not any detail of it – and which I cannot remember. as it rolled and swelled I did a kind of orchestration by saying, every … Continue reading
Posted in history, politics, in Greece, mountains, flowers, landscapes
Tagged greece, moments in time, water
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Blue(s)
Here they’ve taken the sky for a colour chart. The sky fills in the ruins. Brand new shutters. I cheated a little – pulled the chairs forward a couple of feet into the light. The can is labelled ‘crinos’, which … Continue reading
A litany of praise, and searching for plants
A slide show litany might be a way to overcome or avoid altogether the difficulties I’m having writing this piece, which is to follow on from my embarrassment at getting lost and being stuck in a little red car when … Continue reading
Posted in diary, going round in circles, in Greece, language, mountains, flowers, landscapes, walks
Tagged France, greece, lizard orchid, Olympus
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Olympus 5 – getting lost on the way to Ano Skotina, of walking and fairies
My journey to the ‘sweet little cabin in the woods’ started well, I took Campanula incurva as a good omen. The road up into the hills leaves the coast here. Agamemnon is advertised. I was about to leave my guides … Continue reading
Drama
But it’s not what you think. But it is another diversion before I finally confront my embarrassing and revealing little adventure at the back of Olympus. After staying for a few days in Litochoro and walking in the Papa Rema … Continue reading
Olympos 2 – and garden notes
When I wrote that last post, about the Papa Rema valley, how could I have forgotten this? It might have been suddenly discovering again the Italians and their search for Albania that drove it out of my head, even though … Continue reading
A day on Olympus
I have been struggling to write about this mountain for more than a year and a half now. I spent a week on and around it in 2019. For now I will spare you my mental strife which is hard … Continue reading
like a little black book 