A great Photographer

My dearest friend Chryssi, died last June and on another blog I paid tribute to her qualities as a friend,and person. Here I would like to remember some of the wonderful photographs she took in her short career.

One of her first exhibitions was portraits of a small village in Northern Greece; seeing the faces one is struck by the emotions protrayed. Old faces can say so much!The exhibition was held in this semi deserted village and helped to revive interest in it.

The photograph below was of a series she did of Istanbul, very atmospheric.I went there with her for the wedding of her brother.The family orignally hailed from the Pondos area of Turkey but came to Greece in the 1920's,and so was still closely linked to Istanbul.

For me her sensitive nature ennabled her to be open to atmospher and people,a great gift. If you want to see more pictures by her go to Flickr and look up Chryssi Patrona.

end of holidays in ancient arcadia

 

Dear fellow bloggers and readers,after an extended holiday, am back in the harness of real life!

archeological site of Olimpia


This year like the previous 15 summers spent it in Greece as my other half is Greek. We have a house there in the hills near to ancient Olimpia. The photo above is the original olimpic stadium nestled in a forest of pine, cypress and eucaliptus trees. The Peloponnesos is very green, contrary to what most people expect from the Greek countryside. It is often compared to Italy's Umbria. although a huge fire in 2007 destroyed alot of trees in the area coming very close to the archeological site, it is recuperating quickly.

This part of the Peloponnesos is well wort a visit as nearby in the mountains (40 kms) is the old temple of Bassae dedicated to Apollo and constructed by the architect of the Parthenon, Ipecterion!The temple is now covered by a tent structure but still worth visiting.

My favourite beach this summer is a small beach visited by locals and with green around and only one small bar which has had the foresight to provide some shade! Cold frappé coffee in the morning as you arrive and lovely swimming.

Have a good start in September everybody

Money, Money does it really make the world go round?

Monopoly game

As Greece and most of Europe is in deep social unrest and a severe crisis has hit us which will last a generation, my thoughts went to our attitudes to money.  Who hasnt played the famous Monopoly game, where winning is all about amassing properties and money! So it seems our real lives are also dominated by the desire to amass and mass consumerism has increased our almost pathetic dependence on money. I include myself in this, by the way, but I am not proud of it. More and more as I look to the next generation of our children, I am convinced we need to turn our actions and thoughts away from money as the panacea, and use it instead to fruitfulness and not let it use us! Let us teach children that to be in a community means helping each other, nurturing human relationships and look to the greater good. We seem to regress to regard highly egotistical behaviour and those who strive without regard for others, as admirable; If we follow that course as we live in a global society we are on the road to destruction faster than we will create a path for the future.
sorry todays column is more serious but am touched by the plight of those countires like Greece which will see a generation pass before they can recover!