On a Lighter Note

Whilst like the next person, well, the next Grecophile, I'm a sucker for a whitewashed Greek village or pretty little harbour with bobbing boats, but when it comes to where we live, well, I must say give me the countryside any time.

Today is a glorious spring day, with the temperature anywhere between 22º and 26ºC, depending on where you stand, and the sky is totally cloudless. I've been out for an hour or two with a few friends and, as I made the ten-minute walk back up our lane just now, I found myself revelling in the natural environment that surrounds us here.

Ok, so there are a couple of rather large hotels under construction not too far down the road, but when I look around at what we live amongst up this one-kilometre of dirt road, I give thanks. So, I snapped these few shots just to try and illustrate what I mean. The natural environment here in the South of Rhodes this spring is displaying its wares very persuasively...

OK, so this fella was in Kalathos, as I was on my way to meet the friends.

And this is a novel way of dealing with a tree that's died in my friends' garden.

This one, and the rest below, I took whilst walking back up the lane. After a decent amount of rain this winter (even so, not really enough, but better than for some years), the lushness is apparent. It'll only last a few weeks though.

It's not often the hillsides look good enough to roll in, but today...

Yeah, that's our place up top.

Beside the lane it's a riot of flowers.

Hope you like those. They certainly gave me that 'good to be alive' feeling!