Kefalonia Part 5.......

Just a short bus ride away from Melissini Lake is The Drogorati Cave in the area of Haliotata.

Situated 120m above sea level, the cave descends to a depth of 95 metres, reached be approximately 170 steps - yes I counted them but was so out of breath on the way up that I may have miscounted! The temperature is a steady 18 degrees Celsius, it is regarded as one of the finest in Greece, the only one with such a large chamber 65m x 45m and about 20m in height and has served as the venue for concerts because the superb acoustics . The cave is a rare geological phenomenon with fantastic examples of huge stalactites and stalgmites, which scientists say grow 1cm every 100 years, giving you some idea of just how old the cave is.

You are allowed to take photos in the cave but without the use of flash, so we had to use the night setting and consequently the photos are a bit shaky.

.

You can see from these two photos

the size of the stalacmites and

stalagtites compared to

MWM and I

standing next to them.














You cannot imagine the size and magnificence of Drogorati Cave just by seeing photographs of it, it is truly awe inspiring and obviously a 'must see' if you visit Kefalonia.

I do hope you've enjoyed hearing/seeing where we spent our holiday.

Just one more thing....


When coming into land at Manchester Airport we had almost touched down when the pilot took off again! You can imagine the look on everyone's faces. Once he'd levelled out he explained that Air Traffic Control had given permission for him to land at the same time another plane was taking off, on the same runway, so he'd had to climb again. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in ATC especially when, just five days later, two planes 'bumped' into each other as they were taxiing on the same runway! Maybe we should fly from somewhere else next year, what do you say?


Now then, where to next year? That's the burning question!

Doodle Week Day 7 (& Portrait of Words).......

Well here we are the last day of Doodle Week.

I hope you've enjoyed my (and the others) doodles. If you haven't seen the others already go here and take a look.

The theme for today is PARTY!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Want to try out your writing talents?

Here's the perfect opportunity.

Jeff (A Word in Edgewise) has started up this monthly challenge, derived from a previous challenge from R.E.H.'s "Picture Fiction Challenge". This month is number 1.


Each month Jeff will give FOUR pictures which represent THE CATEGORIES and THREE pictures which represent THE WILD CARDS.


The object is to:
Write a story of any length or style. Long or short, comedy or tragedy, fact or fiction, etc,etc... it's up to you. Use each of the picture representations in your story. (one from the wild card options)


Go here to get this month's challenge details. Your story doesn't have to be posted until 15th - 17th September so you have a while to get your thinking cap on.


Go on, have a go, you know you want to.

Saturday Wordzzle # 28 (& Doodle Week Day 6)....

Wordzzle first then scroll down for Doodle Week Day 6.

The idea is, every week Raven (View From A Raven's Nest) gives you between 8 and 10 words/phrases and you have to create a small but coherent paragraph using every one of them and the same with the mini challenge. You can do either, both or a megawordzzle using all the words, or even all three, it's up to you, you can post them on your blog or email them to Raven. If you join in go to Raven's and put your name on the Mr. Linky so other participants can come visit you.




Here are my efforts - complete with my doodles.



This Week's Ten Word Challenge is: pogo stick, ant farm, psychic, tin box, wall safe, Waterloo, surge protector, pneumonia, ravages of time, turtle

Mabel Waterloo, was a famous psychic, who had starred at all the big theatres around the country. She was very popular, and a sight to behold bouncing around the stage as though she was on a pogo stick and had an ant farm in her pants. Her psychic abilities were exceptional and quite often when she was delivering messages to the audience the lights would dim to the extent that the theatres installed surge protectors whenever Mabel was appearing. After 40 years of unfailing duty to the spirit world, unfortunately Mabel’s health had now deteriorated, she had been made weak by the ravages of time and pneumonia. No more bouncing about on stage, Mabel was now as slow as a turtle but she still did private readings with her precious tarot cards, which she kept in a tin box because she hadn’t got a wall safe. Despite her failing health Mabel’s powers were still strong, in fact the neighbours often complained about their light bulbs blowing when Mabel was working!




And for the Mini Challenge: Swollen ankles, opera singer, toothy grin, oil paints, potter’s wheel

Carla picked up the hairbrush and sitting in front of her bedroom mirror, smiled her toothy grin and began to sing. In her mind she was an opera singer, a film star – she thought of her favourite film ‘Ghost’, she was Demi Moore sitting at a potter’s wheel with Patrick Swayze whispering in her ear, artists clamoured to capture her beauty on canvas in oil paints. Unfortunately none of her dreams were likely to happen, she was a middle aged woman about 20lbs overweight with swollen ankles and a voice that sounded like a cat on a hot tin roof.



Megawordzzle

Dame Marjorie Forsythe, the opera singer, took her place on the stage playing the part of Lady Hamilton in the new Opera ‘Waterloo’. Her mind wasn’t really on the part she was playing today, she just couldn’t stop thinking about the veritable ant farm that seemed to have developed in the kitchen of her house, first thing tomorrow she would phone the pest control people and have them send someone over.

Angus, the pest control man, had arrived like a whirlwind, displaying a toothy grin and a face that only a mother could love. Showing him into the kitchen she pointed out the problem, an army of ants marching relentless across her kitchen floor. Angus proceeded to tell her some story about him having been in hospital for six months with pneumonia but Marjorie wasn’t interested so she said

“Will this take long?”
Opening his tin box Angus pulled out a device which he plugged into the nearest socket.

“What are you going to do, electrocute them?” enquired Marjorie.



“Of course not” replied Angus “this is like a minature vacuum cleaner, I’m going to suck them all up and take them away.”

Hopping from one foot to the other because of her swollen ankles, Marjorie looked on as the ants disappeared up the tube. Suddenly there was an almighty bang and all the lights went out.

“Oops” said Angus “I think I should have used a surge protector.”

“Oh good grief, how old is that contraption, it’s certainly showing evidence of the ravages of time?” said Marjorie.

“I’m going to the summer house until you sort this lot out, let me know when you’re done” Marjorie told Angus.

In the summerhouse Marjorie fed the turtle in the aquarium and pondered whether to get out her oil paints and finish the self portrait she’d been working on, or rest her feet by sitting at the potter’s wheel, instead she chose to meditate.



Once Marjorie was out of the way Angus went on a search of the house, he guessed Marjorie was well off living in such a big house so there must be cash somewhere. Up in the bedroom Angus discovered a wall safe, which had been left open, behind a painting on the wall, what luck he thought as he busily filled his pockets with the contents. Suddenly he felt a crack on the back of the head and everything went black. Marjorie had walloped him with a pogo stick. What Angus didn’t know was Marjorie wasn’t just an opera singer, she was also a psychic!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ooooh Day 6 of Doodle Week already.

Are you playing? You can, it's really easy. Doodle something on TODAY'S theme of YELLOW and post it on your blog, then go here and put your name on Mr. Linky so others can visit you. Don't forget to visit other participants to see their doodles.

Here's my YELLOW doodle. It's a yellow capsicum, just in case you don't recognise it!

A Special Birthday......

Today would have been Reece's (our eldest grandson's) 18th birthday.

REECE

You are in our thoughts every day

but especially today.

The party would have been the best.

We love you sweetheart

Nanna and Granddad

xxxx

Friday 55 Flash Fiction # 41 Fountain of Youth (& Doodle Week Day 5)

Fountain of Youth

The layers were peeled away,

white shiny skin underneath glistened seductively.

Sliding into the cool, pale liquid.

A liquid which would preserve the beauty keep it succulent and juicy.

Others were already in there, swimming around lazily,

Soaking up the liquid specifically designed for this very purpose.

Their life extended,

Pickled Onions in a jar.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Have you been taking part in Doodle Week?

You still can.

All you have to do is post your doodle on today's theme of AIR, go here and put your name on Mr. Linky (so people can come look) and visit the other participants.

Go on you know you want to.

Here's my AIR doodle.

Doodle Week Day 4.........

Day four already of Doodle Week.

If you want to join in post your doodle on today's theme of FIRE and go here and put your name on Mr. Linky so folk can come visit you. Don't forget to visit the other participants.

Here's my doodle for FIRE.

Body Worlds (& Doodle Week Day 3).......

On 15th August MWM and I went into Manchester to the Science and Industry Museum to see an exhibition called Body Worlds, by Gunther von Hagen, the anatomist/physician, which is an exhibition of Real Human Bodies preserved by a process called plastination which was developed by Gunther von Hagen in Germany. The process makes it possible to lend rigidity to soft body parts e.g. individual muscles, organs such as the lungs, or a single nerve. This means specimens of entire bodies can be inherently stabilized and posed in such a way that they are actually capable of standing, which was formerly restricted to skeletons.

Now you may think that this exhibition would be gruesome, or resemble a circus sideshow but I can assure you it is not, it's absolutely fascintating and incredible to say the least. It enables you to see all aspects of the human body in situ and I feel priviledged to have seen what was, before von Hagen's plastinates, restricted to the closed order of physicians. Plastinates reveal the inner structure and function of the human body from the human skeleton and its interplay with the muscles, to the functions of the inner organs of the respiratory tract and the digestive organs, to the nervous and cardiovascular systems to the beginning of life in the womb. The functions of the individual organ systems are explained in accompanying texts. Disease based organ transformations, such as degenerative joint disease, myocardial infarction, or the damage caused by many years of smoking are shown as well. Having had a knee replacement I was particularly interested in an exhibit of a knee showing degeneration due to arthritis.

Obviously taking photographs was prohibited and although I bought a catalogue showing photographs of many of the exhibits there is the question of copyright, so I am unable to scan any of the photographs to show you. You can, however, see examples here.

The Manchester exhibition finished on the 17th August but there is a permanent exhibition in Guben, Germany and also exhibitions in Edmonton, Baltimore and Los Angeles. If you are anywhere near any of these exhibitions I would encourage you to go and see for yourself (if you haven't already) - you'll be amazed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Day three of Doodle Week and todays theme is WATER.



If you want to join in post your doodle then click here and sign Mr. Linky to let others know you're playing. Don't forget to go visit the other participants.



Here's my WATER doodle.

Doodle Week Day 1 & 2.....

Doodle Week started yesterday and I forgot.

You get a different theme every day. If you want to take part click on the link and put your name on Mr. Linky so folks will know you joined in and visit the other Doodle Week participants.

Yesterday's theme was SUNFLOWER, here's mine.

Today's theme is EARTH, here's mine.

Kefalonia Part 4....

Continuing the bus tour we left Fiskardo and travelled south to the district of Sami to visit Melissani Lake.

Melissani Lake or 'Cave of the Nymphs' is located at Karavomlos, just 2km from the town of Sami. It is a unique cave structure, with a lake whose waters reach a depth of 39 meteres. To reach the cave one has to descend a sloping ramp down to the boats waiting on the lake. The cave is 160m long and 40m wide. Its stalactites date back 16,000 to 20,000 years in age. In the centre of the lake, where the covered section begins, there is a small island 30m in length on the surface of which are two small elevatioins, 8m and 9m in height.

A narrow channel between this little island and the walls of the lake leads to the rest of the cave. We were expertely ferried through the channel, 12 to a rowing boat, by one of the four boatmen who work at the lake.

Melissani has been the site of several excavations which have brought to light a number of finds, most of them from the 3rd and 4th centrues BC, and attesting to a cult of the god Pan. A number of female figures have also been found the famous Nymphs. The visitor can tour the lake on a boat and admire the wonderful colours to be seen in the water constantly changing as the sunlight falls on it ghrough the apeture in the roof above.

The lake is fed from the sea but by the time the water reaches the lake it has lost 90% of its salinity, this almost clear water is fed back into the sea. It was cool on the lake but not cold, though one could certainly feel the change in temperature ascending to the exit.

Melissini Lake is a beautiful natural phenomenon, well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Kefalonia.

Tune in for Kefalonia Part 5 and our visit to Drogorati Cave.

Saturday Wordzzle #27

The idea is, every week Raven (View From A Raven's Nest) gives you between 8 and 10 words/phrases and you have to create a small but coherent paragraph using every one of them and the same with the mini challenge. You can do either, both or a megawordzzle using all the words, or even all three, it's up to you, you can post them on your blog or email them to Raven. If you join in go to Raven's and put your name on the Mr. Linky so other participants can come visit you.




Here are my efforts - complete with my doodles.


This Week's Ten Word Challenge is: tiramisu, transfixed, evacuation, Queen of the Nile, pillowcase, grammatical, voice inflection, pacified, microclimate, swami

Dressed in a Cleopatra style dress Jolene felt like the queen of the nile. Charlie stared at her transfixed then asked

“What are you wearing, it looks like a pillowcase?”

“I look better than you” said Jolene, with a rather sarcastic voice inflection “you look more like a Swami than a sheikh!”

“Don’t be upset my little tiramisu, I was only joking” cajoled Charlie

But Jolene wouldn’t be pacified, she told him

“You’ll be too warm at the fancy dress party with that teatowel on your head, you know the Carter’s house has it’s own microclimate since they got that new central heating boiler.”

“Yeah but when they start the evacuation into the garden I’ll be the only one that’s warm!” said Charlie, flicking the teatowel back over his shoulder.

“Oh don’t be so grammatical” hissed Jolene.

“Don’t you mean dramatic?” asked Charlie laughing at the disgusted look on her face.



And for the Mini Challenge: maggots, thermal pocket, industrial, bovine, feminized

The makeover was supposed to have feminized her bovine features but the industrial make-up did nothing apart from causing her face to feel as though it was encased in a thermal pocket and the false eyelashes felt like maggots on her eyes!



Megawordzzle

Petunia delicately spooned the tiramisu into her mouth whilst enjoying the sunshine on the deck of the ‘Queen of the Nile’. She had booked the Nile cruise as a way of meeting people with the same interests, now she was a widow, and up to now she hadn’t been disappointed. Everyone on board was enthusiastic about the things they saw on their daily excursions to the ancient temples and she was transfixed watching the daily life of the people living on the banks of the river, even the bovine carcass full of maggots floating in the river hadn’t put her off. Today’s excursion to the magnificent temple of Hapsetshut had totally tired her out, it had been excruciatingly hot and even the bottle of water she’d taken in the thermal pocket to keep it cool had been boiling!


The cabins on board weren’t huge but were ample and the cabin boys (she laughed to herself – they were hardly boys) kept them immaculate, making sure the beds were turned down, a different towel animal sitting on the end of the bed and a chocolate and flower petals adorning the pillowcase each night.


She enjoyed the evenings on board most of all. There was entertainment laid on, but she found the after dinner conversations with her fellow sailors most interesting, their lives were diverse, teachers, shopkeepers, administrators, all walks of life.

The swami was the one person on board who had captured Petunia’s attention more than the others. She loved his gentle voice inflection and the occasional grammatical errors in his English, though he spoke it well, and she always felt pacified after a conversation with him. He was travelling with his assistant, Cedric, a young man who seemed somewhat feminized but was affable and had superb manners. Petunia was fascinated with the Swami’s tales of the orphanage he had founded in an area of Wales that seemed to have it’s own microclimate and was dismayed to hear there were plans by the local council for the evacuation of the place unless he could raise enough money to bring it up to health and safety standards. He showed her photographs of the children, all happy and smiling, and told her of the army of volunteers who helped him make their lives bearable since they lost their parents.

Ten years older than Petunia her husband had been an industrial giant, who hadn’t really had time to enjoy the money he’d made before he died from a heart attack at the age of forty-six, before they’d had a chance to have children. Her heart went out to the children Swami talked of and by the time the cruise was over she already written a cheque for the £100,000 he needed to complete the necessary work at the orphanage. Petunia said goodbye to the new friends she had made and made a firm promise to visit the orphanage to see the fruits of her generous donation in a few months time.

Back home in London Albert smiled at his growing bank balance. Looking at his companion he said


“Well that should keep us going for a while Cedric."


“It sure will Swami, I still can’t believe these rich women fall for the Orphanage story!” laughed Cedric.

+++++++++++++++++++

Next weeks 10 word challenge will be: pogo stick, ant farm, psychic, tin box, wall safe, Waterloo, surge protector, pneumonia, ravages of time, turtle.

And for the mini: swollen ankles, opera singer, toothy grin, oil paints, potters wheel.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction #40 Hobo

Hobo

Underneath the unkemptness you could see she had something.

With love she could become the beauty she'd once been.

Greg decided he would take her home, if she'd let him.

She went willingly, he made her comfortable, gave her food, she seemed to trust him.

They would be great friends

he and this little dog.

Well she had to have a happy ending didn't she after being dumped a few weeks ago?

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.

Kefalonia Part 3......

We got a day's rest after the boat trip and had to be in bed early on the Saturday because we were being picked up at 7.30 a.m. ( I know, we're gluttons for punishment)on the middle Sunday for a coach tour of the island (Kefalonia).

Still half asleep we climbed aboard the coach with Julie and Dave, a couple who were staying at our hotel with whom we had struck up a friendship. We drove NorthWest past the capital Argostoli stopping to view the most photographed beach on Kefalonia, Myrtos Bay. (see slide show). Although beautiful it is not safe to swim in the bay because of the currents, but you can sunbathe on the beach, however the extremely steep, winding road down to the beach is not for the faint hearted and certainly not designed for coaches so we could only take photographs.

Travelling North to the beautiful little fishing village of Assos a small and charming village 36 kilometres from the capital of Kefalonia. It has about a hundred inhabitants and is one of the most picturesque and beautiful villages of the island. Dominated by the ruins of a 16th century Venetian castle, the village of Assos was built on a small peninsula that has the same name. Its traditional and charming atmosphere is created by the hospitality of its inhabitants, the traditional architecture, the narrow alleys and the excellent little taverns perched on the quayside that overlook the bay. This unspoilt village is a must for photographers, with its pretty white washed and pastel houses surrounded by a picturesque stone-terraced hilly terrain. Assos sits on the west coast of the peninsular on Kefalonia, sadly damaged by the 1953 earthquake, but beautifully restored with the help of a donation from Paris,which is why the square is officially known as Paris Square with a marble inscription acknowledging the assistance received from France in rebuilding the village. There are remnants of houses from the earthquake for sale at 100,00Euros, if you buy one you have to restore it in keeping with the architecture keeping the original as it stands. Everyone on the bus agreed that if they won the Lottery they would be returning to Assos, purchasing a ruin to restore and retiring there it was so beautiful.


Continuing our journey we skirted the northern tip of the island then took the road south to the harbour town of Fiskardo - the Marbella of Kefalonia. The rich and famous moor up there and consequently the restaurants and cafes think that everyone who visits is rich. Fiskardo was not affected by the earthquake so consequently most of the original buildings have survived. We had lunch at the Cafe Tselenti which has been owned by the Tselentis family since 1893 . We were given the picture below with our bill and the text on it reads:

In 1900 all of the inhabitants of Fiskardo assembled in front of the

building which has been owned by the Tselentis family since 1893 for what we presume was a celebration for a Greek National Holiday.

Fiskardo 1900

Apparently at the end of the holiday season there are only 100 inhabitants in Fiskardo.

Tune in for Kefalonia Part 4 and the rest of the Bus Tour, visiting Melissani Lake.