My mother called me this morning, to tell me that our village in Crete is all white from the snow. Considering that Crete is at the south of Greece and our village is close to the sea, those are big news! Actually in the nine years that I was living in that area, I remember just three times snowing in the village!
As every rare event (when it isn't disastrous) it was amusing and we had a lot of fun playing with the fresh snow and spending quality time in front of the wood-burning stove :)
But this year I am away so I can't enjoy the snowfall. Instead I opened my hard drive to see what I was doing a few years ago when I was actually there and here is what I have found!
I didn’t find the exact date but I am close enough. Instead of the 30th, I have found what was happening on the 27th of January and the 1st of February, in the year 2018. That is six years ago. The first big difference that I noticed when I opened the folder, is that I was six years younger (obviously) and the second that it wasn’t snowing (far from it).
The almond trees were blooming, the bees were gathering the pollen from the flowers and the sun was shining brilliantly! I haven’t seen any almond trees where I am now. Too bad because they are a wonderful spectacle to see, in the middle of the winter!
The broad beans were started to bloom too. It would be a while before they bear fruits but we used to add the leaves of the plant in our salad. A delicious addition, too :) I kind of miss them. We don’t have a garden right now but I could have planted a few in a pot. They would have been enough for the taste of it!
And of course our cats laying on the garden! Some of our cats :) Now we don’t have any, as we don’t have a garden, but at some point in Crete, there were eleven of them demanding a meal every morning that I was opening the door. In a quite loud way, I might add :)
Here are just four of them!
What else was happening six years ago?
Of course, how could I forget! We were pruning the olive trees and burning the extra branches. The burning part is a practice that we stoped doing in the following years but back then it was our only option.
As for the winter anemones, they can be found in all our olive groves and I am always grateful to see them around :)
And last but not least, the view. Now if you have seen my posts of the last months you know that I live in a place with plenty of spots to watch amazing views, even better than this one. But after looking at this specific one for nine whole years, I have become kind of addicted to it :)
I better call back now, to find out if it is still snowing!
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
Wow that is big new to have snow. Great blossoms too and always cats! :) It looks like you are posting every day. Are you doing it for January or even longer?
Hello Sara, nice hearing from you!
You are right, I am posting almost every day (I missed a couple of days in January) but I hadn't decided it in advance, it just happened. I have the time and it is a nice routine once you start it!
I don't know how long I'll continue in that pace either, we'll see :)
Those are big news then, the snow!
The old folder also gave you some for of snow - the blooming almond trees :D
Oh, those fluffy kitties 😍
Big news indeed but it's always the kitties that attract the most attention, aren't they? 😊
Thank you for stopping by :)
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<table><tr><td><img src="https://images.hive.blog/60x70/http://hivebuzz.me/@fotostef/upvoted.png?202401310348" /><td>You received more than 210000 upvotes.<br />Your next target is to reach 220000 upvotes. <p dir="auto"><sub><em>You can view your badges on <a href="https://hivebuzz.me/@fotostef" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">your board and compare yourself to others in the <a href="https://hivebuzz.me/ranking" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">Ranking<br /> <sub><em>If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word <code>STOP <p dir="auto"><strong>Check out our last posts: <table><tr><td><a href="/hive-122221/@hivebuzz/pum-202402"><img src="https://images.hive.blog/64x128/https://i.imgur.com/M9RD8KS.png" /><td><a href="/hive-122221/@hivebuzz/pum-202402">Be ready for the February edition of the Hive Power Up Month!<tr><td><a href="/hive-122221/@hivebuzz/pud-202402"><img src="https://images.hive.blog/64x128/https://i.imgur.com/805FIIt.jpg" /><td><a href="/hive-122221/@hivebuzz/pud-202402">Hive Power Up Day - February 1st 2024Your photography is always a wonderful treat to my eyes. You capture things so pleasantly and spectacularly. Thank you for sharing them with us.
It is crazy when you think about the past, and with our modern technology, it is such an interesting thing to open your harddrive and see what you did in the past. We are documenting everything in our lives, so to speak!
We are experiencing intense wildfires at the moment, destroying so much of our local fauna and flora, so the fire images, even though they are spectacular, almost made me hold my breath! It is such an interesting practice, and I think they still do it here with the vineyards as well from time to time.
Sorry for the long comment! I hope all is well and enjoy!
I am happy to receive long comments, they mean that someone actually cares for what I am doing here :)
Wildfires are terrifying indeed, I hope they stop soon enough. The practice of burning branches is common in Greece too. The Wood Chipper which is the best alternative, is a very expensive solution and in many cases almost impossible to reach the steep farmland. We prefer that solution but I also understand those who don't.
Thank you very much for your compliments!
I do it here for many reasons similar to that. Driving the plants/dead matter away is costly, a wood chipper is also expensive as you said, and I can use the material in two ways: I use it either as kindling for cooking/heating up my pizza oven, or I burn the material to get ash and charcoal for the compost heap. Such valuable additions that we can have for free!
Yes, it is really bad and the wind only relights the fires they successfully put out. Such a shame, but fire is not always bad. Our local flora, the Fynbos (fine bush) needs fire to spread its seeds. So fire, in balance, is good.
I hope you are doing well.
Yes of course, fire is part of the ecosystem as everything else but as you said, in balance.
All is fine here!
Cheers
As I am living in a tropical country, I wish I could see the real snow one day (if the word "One Day" is not only a dream). I want to know how it feels when my food steps on it for real.
Happy February my friend
I wish you with all my heart that you dream will become true very soon! I am not a huge fan of snow but it is nice to feel it at least one time!
Happy new month @el-nailul , although in my country we are still in January for a couple more hours :)
Χιόνια στην Κρήτη; Μπράβο, χαίρομαι 👍🏻 Νόμιζα ότι δεν έπεφτε χιόνι εκεί 🥴🤭🤭
Αυτές οι αμυγδαλιές μου θυμίζουν το δημοτικό σχολείο που πήγαινα στο Χαλάνδρι, δίπλα είχε ένα τεράστιο οικόπεδο γεμάτο αμυγδαλιές 🌸
Είχατε 11 γατιά 😲, και όταν φύγατε από την Κρήτη πού τα αφήσατε;
Στα βουνά της Κρήτης χιονίζει κάθε χρόνο και μάλιστα πολύ. Στο χωριό μου πάλι, που είναι κοντά στη θάλασσα ρίχνει λίγο χιόνι μια φορά στα 3 χρόνια, πάνω κάτω.
Τα γατιά ήταν της γειτονιάς και τα ταΐζαμε όλοι αλλά ήξεραν την ώρα που σηκωνόμουν και είχαν αποφασίσει ότι εγώ θα τους δίνω το πρωϊνό τους :)
Τα 3 τα είχαμε πάει σε κάτι φίλους, σε άλλο χωριό, πριν μεγαλώσουν. Τα υπόλοιπα όταν φύγαμε έμειναν στη γειτονιά. Θέλαμε να πάρουμε ένα ή δύο μαζί μας αλλά σκεφτήκαμε ότι το χωριό ήταν το σπίτι τους κι αν προσπαθούσαν να γυρίσουν μπορεί να πάθαιναν κακό.
Α, δεν το ήξερα, δεν ξέρω γιατί αλλά έχω την ιδέα ότι στα νησιά δεν χιονίζει και ότι πάντα είναι καλοκαίρι και χαρά 😬🤭🤭🤭 🤷🏻♀️.
Α, ok, χαχαχα, έτσι είναι τα γατιά, καλομαθαινουν γρήγορα 🤭🤭🤭, δηλαδή ήταν αδέσποτα που είχαν μάθει να τρώνε στη γειτονιά.
Καλά κάνατε, αυτά είχαν μάθει να ζούνε ελεύθερα και κοντά στη θάλασσα, μπορεί και να χανόντουσαν στο Ναύπλιο 😕.