Holiday snaps

A totally random selection of holiday snaps

We begin with... probably the best beach bar in the world...

And this beach wasn't bad either - yes it really was that quiet at around 11am!

 As we sailed past the 'Mamma Mia' church, the boat crew kindly played 'winner takes it all' and we sang along... Well, as they say, when in Skopelos...

Local legend has it that some fishermen came across an icon of St John the Baptist while fishing off this rock. They left the icon on the beach and returned next morning with the necessary kit to move it to safety, but it had gone. They searched everywhere until they found it right at the top of the rock. Believing it was a message from the Saint himself, they founded the church of St John the Baptist on Skopelos.

A little Greek nature

A little Greek insect. (Check out the English girl's pink skin!)

A little Green texture - shower head on beach

Kind of cool eh?

Water creature from the Aegean

Some holiday art - not that I did much. I don't think I've ever done so little on holiday. One day it was all I could do to move from sunbed by the pool to its sister by the beach. Even an annoying bug tickling my knee was too much trouble to flick off.

Luckily for the indolent creature I had become, my son had found himself a friend in the form of a pretty Danish girl. They spent almost the whole week together, playing in the pool, fishing in the sea, running, laughing, drawing, chasing.... and all done without a common language. Just goes to show the power of unspoken communication.

So, back to the sea creature. She came from a splodge of paint that my sketchbook acquired from an overladen palette. Some inspiration from the surrounding seas, pencil sketching and a few bubbles from Photoshop and she is perfect for Inspiration Avenue's 'purple & green' challenge.

Sunday Sketches Greek style

What on earth do you sketch when you are sat poolside and surrounded by incomparable beauty? No, I'm not talking Greek Adonis - I'm thinking outlines of distant mountains, golden beaches, pine trees, flowers. In the end I went for the floral abundance.

As fast as I tried to sketch this Amarylis I was distracted by the shape shifting as the petals began to open as well as the lure of the sunbed and sun-dappled pool.

It was quickly done. The pool won and now I am off to the beach!

Back later for an adventure around the other Sunday Sketchers. I think this is the first piece of art I've managed since I got back from my retreat. I'm missing the sensation of pencil on paper and watching the colour ooze. I am certainly inspired by all that's around me... it's just finding the time!

Bloomin tropical!

As far as I understand, to be officially classed as 'tropical' one should be talking about a location on certain latitudes - those with tropic in the title presumably! However, for the purposed of this creative challenge - and more especially as I'm surrounded by palm trees, turquoise seas and nibbling mosquitoes, I would like to pretend that Skiathos, Greece falls under this category! Certainly if you compare it to where I woke up yesterday morning with its cloudy skies and rubbish-strewn canal, it is definitely tropical!

A beautiful bloom growing on the beach - where I've just returned from covered in sand and salt water and feeling rather fab-u-lous!

Probably the best coffee in the world...

And the view wasn't bad either!

What was it that made an iced coffee go down as one of life's greatest? Was it the perfect mixture of bean, froth and frozen water? Perhaps the soundtrack of Michael Buble and waves lapping on an Aegean shore? Was it the proximity of soft white sand glinting as if sprinkled with grated diamonds? The balmy temperature? This view or just the desperate need for caffeine after being awake since 3.30am in order to fly to this paradise?

Who cares the reason, it was so good I had two. Maybe that's why I'm awake at 2am and using insomnia as the perfect excuse to blog.

Apologies to my blogging friends - both for no doubt making you jealous and not being around much to visit your blogs in the past week or so. What with art retreats, work and 'real life', there has been little time for my  usual global blog-trotting. However, as you may have guessed, I am 'online' and on holiday, so while the little one sleeps at night I shall be visiting you (though hopefully not at 2am every night).

καληνύχτα (if that looks Greek to you - it says Goodnight!)

Exposed

Over-exposed, double-exposure, exposed to sunlight, exposed to the elements, exposed to scrutiny from the ladies (and occasional gent) that visit the Take a Word artistic challenge.

I should point out that this was a perfectly acceptable photograph when first taken. I just exposed it to a few effects in Photoshop.

It was taken in a little alley in Skiathos Town on the Greek isle of the same name. I'm going back there soon... Can you feel the heat from the cobbles and see the deep blues of the sky captured in the paintwork? I'll bet there's a black cat about to amble around the corner and look on with disdain at the tourists that don't leave it a few scraps.

Camera top of the list of essentials to take on this trip. Skin ready to be exposed to Greek sun and Muse laying herself bare for exposure to inspiration. Finally stomach preparing for exposure to lots of tastiness.

Another postcard from Skiathos

With a subject as far-reaching as 'memory' as the prompt for Mixed Media Monday it was certainly difficult to know where to begin - especially when I've got 40 years of the things to sift through!

At first I drifted around conjuring up the world of my Grandmothers', then moved to a maelstrom of memory spiralling out of control from a poor girl's mind but then something just clicked and I simply reached back just a month or two and returned to the sunshine island of Skiathos with my son.

I collaged some ephemera from my holiday as well as a few travel-related bits and bobs I had lying around. Added the colour of the sea and sky using my water-soluble oil pastels (which added further memory since they came on holiday with me!). Then I was going to draw a dreamy girl (me) on top but felt that the piece was missing the real essence of my holiday - the real happy memories - the photos. So we moved indoors and went digital to finish it off.

Nice memories to take me through a Monday :)

Postcards from Greece (2): Stress the Greek way

I was so pleased to be writing this by day 2 of my holiday (by which time the sun had well and truly come out to play!)

***

I'm learning to relax. I'm getting rather good at it. In fact, it's rather easy when you have a few Greek ingredients mixing a magical spell: Nowhere special to be; no reason to rush; no driving; no traffic; no deadlines; no phone ringing... Err, hang on, these aren't ingredients! They're the things missing. Is this perhaps instead a very large Greek takeaway?

OK, let's try again: One large dose of sunshine, trees weighed down with unfathomably large lemons (later destined to dress my dinner); turquoise waters with curious fish swimming around my toes; diamond sparkling softest sand; beer on the balcony; boy bouncing a ball; stretching out on a sun-lounger.... Ahh.... bliss....

We sleep for at least 10 hours a night (without the need for warming socks). We lose the ability and desire to rush and, and, and... think that if we miss the bus, we'll just sit and wait for the next one...

I think we've clearly been infected by 'Skiathos'. As diseases go it's certainly one I could recommend. It shows its symptoms differently by age. Children forgo expensive toys and plastic in return for shiny stones and big rocks that go PLOP when you throw them in the sea and Mums sleep for 10 hours a night and alternate their days between doing a spot of nothing by the pool to the same on the beach...

***

I'm back at work now... stressful traffic jams, plenty of work. When is my next holiday?

Postcards from Greece (1) - Meeting the Greek Gods

I rather missed blogging last week. Well, perhaps not when I was swimming in an azure sea, or twinkling my toes in the sparkling sand, or exploring winding alleys, or tucking into local delicacies... But I did miss it sufficiently that when the small boy was asleep I was lured to pick up my notebook and prepare a few words to share on my return...

A close encounter with Zeus

When on holiday I like to immerse myself in a spot of culture, soak up the atmosphere and imbibe a few local flavours and delicacies. Indeed, on arriving in Skiathos (on a somewhat disappointingly cloudy early evening), I managed immediately to take in a bit of local geography (courtesy of holiday rep on transfer bus), pick up a bit of the lingo (old lady in shop) and fill my belly with clefitiko (Marcos the chef).

What I wasn't expecting however was a close encounter with the ancient Greek Gods - notably those of flood and thunder, Posiedon and Zeus respectively. Who, after all, needs a thunderclap for a wake up call on their first morning in a supposedly sunny holiday destination (especially when the weather back in the UK was apparently glorious)?

Apparently the charming isle of Skiathos (part of the Sporades Group) enjoys a storm like this only once every five years or so. It was natural therefore that the arrival of a Lisa would prompt the long-awaited event. What a spectacle nature, Zeus and Poseidon put on for us on our first morning. Thunderbolt and lightening were very very frightening for about 5 hours. Rain fell not in drips or drops, it flowed like a mighty river from the heavens. Streets became torrents of mud and swathes of the beach were swept out to a churning brown sea that was far in colour from the promised turquoise.
And then... it stopped... and the sun came out! Tourists and locals paddled through the mud to survey the damage and begin the clear up. Diggers put the beach back to its former glory and re-opened the road. We hit the beach.. The Holiday began!

The post-holiday blues

(To be sung on a porch on with a guitar with a missing string and a glass of something alcoholic by your side)

Oooh I took me on holiday to the land of sun

I had such fun just me and my son

Skiathos was the name of the Greek Isle

It was so hot we couldn't walk a mile

Da na da na...

But now I'm back with no sand under my feet

It's raining here on my grey old street

I tried to smile but I said to my Muse

It's no dang good I got the post-holiday blues....

***

Enough of that nonsense!! Well, I came home from my Greek hols yesterday and found the theme I'd missed at Inspiration Ave was 'the blues'. First thought was the azure waters of the Aegean - or were they turquoise? Or perhaps a bit of both? Are you jealous yet? Well, I'm certainly jealous of the folks still there under that blue sky

I didn't drive or touch a computer all week. I slept loads. I discovered a beach that appeared to have been sprinkled in diamond dust. I have so much inspiration and many stories to share of my travels, but will leave you for now with this blue sea to dream upon... a blue door on a blue balcony topped by a blue railing and sky and some blue shoes (not suede, but plastic).

Now I have to catch up on what I missed in Blogland, before decide on which creative idea I brought back with me to act upon first... Hmm... decisions decisions....