Wordless Wednesday-An Autumn walk

Thanks for visiting my Wordless Wednesday! I shall pop over and see what you have been up to, too!
With Thanks to our hosts at the Wordless Wednesday HQs and 5 minutes for mom.
See you next week!

Tuesday Garden Party-Water Mill

For my first post for Tuesday Garden Party I am posting a photo from our Summer holidays. This restaurant is on the island of Thassos in Northern Greece. It is built on the spot of an old water mill which the owners have restored and use to water their home grown vegetables.

Enjoy and appreciate Nature and Man's work.

which flower is this/ The answer

I am amazed at the little details God has put on every thing He created. Every creature has a gift that makes it pop and say "I am unique".
The flower on this post comes from a rather humble little creature, known as the onion. I\ve put some in a pot. Then, after awhile, we enjoyed their strong, straight green stem in our salads, and this is the flower...a promise of a new beginning. Humble, maybe, but also divine.

Which flower is this?

Good morning!
This trespassing from my Happy Turtle blog.
Take a look at this lovely bloom...and tell me what flower it is. Just so...

Bringing the Oscar home

You know how Greek people are. You don't? OK, let me tell you. We are historically quite few in numbers. We never breeded enough, unlike our eastern neighbours, and that accounts for much of our troubles in History. Also, due to the Odysseus particle living inside of us, we are scattered around the globe, always curious for new lands and new adventures, and always nostalgic of our own little piece of dirt to which we want to come back one day.
We thus feel that, when one Greek succeeds in something, we all share in his victory. That is until jealousy gets the better of us and we begin finding flaws in the lucky bastard. But we are not there yet. For now, let us rejoyce in last night's Oscar Awards, when The Cove directed by Louie Psyhoyos won in the Best Documentary Feature category.

The film, narrates the annual slaughter of dolphins inside Japan's Taiji National Park. According to official estimates by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, a total of 13,080 cetaceans were killed throughout Japan in 2007, the year many portions of the film were shot, using underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks, although the numbers are estimated to be closer to 23,000. The migrating dolphins are herded into a hidden cove where they are netted and killed by means of spears and knives over the side of small fishing boats. Quite barbaric by any standards, except perhaps kosher which is less of a hunt, but equally disgusting as the poor victim is left in agony, bleeding to its death.
Hopefully the Oscar Awards will make people more sensitive as to what goes on around them.  

Louie Psihoyos was born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1957, the son of a Greek immigrant who fled communist occupation of the Peloponnesos region near Sparta after World War II. Psihoyos took an interest in photography at the age of fourteen. He attended the University of Missouri, majoring in photojournalism. In 1980, at the age of twenty-three, he was hired by Natioanl Georgraphic and remained with the magazine for seventeen years. During this time he married his wife, who danced ballet with George Balanchine's NY City Ballet and had two children. Psihoyos received multiple awards for his photography, including first place in the World Press Contest and the Hearst Award. In addition, he has worked with magazines such as Smithsonian, Discover, GEO, and Time.

See the official The Cove website here. Read more about Louie Psyhoyos and view his photography here.

P.S. The name Psyhoyos runs in my maternal grand-mother's family. We also come from the same region. And our ancestors were anti-communists. What are the chances of us being related?

Living with the wolves

British naturalist dared to infiltrate a pack of wolves in the wilderness.

All is One.

Read more here.

Drugs in our drinking water

No, not just fluoride, which is bad enough - much of our drinking water, in the U.S., Canada and U.K. at least, is contaminated with Prozac and a "vast array" of other drugs.

And you wonder why everyone around is sleepwalking and/or sick?

Study Finds Traces of Drugs in Drinking Water in 24 Major U.S. Regions. 

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health....

Prozac in Tap Water

Nine different drugs were found in water samples near 20 different water treatment plants across Ontario, Canada. The drugs were "acidic pharmaceuticals", which include ibuprofin and neproxin (painkillers), gemfibrozil (cholesterol-lowering medicine), and prozac (anti-depressant). The area with the highest levels of contamination were from locations near sewage treatment plants, suggesting that the chemicals are getting into our water supply from our own bodily wastes! Areas that tested the lowest were plants whose sourcing water was from groundwater or lakes...

Prozac 'found in drinking water'

Traces of the antidepressant Prozac can be found in the nation's drinking water, it has been revealed. An Environment Agency report suggests so many people are taking the drug nowadays it is building up in rivers and groundwater. A report in Sunday's Observer says the government's environment watchdog has discussed the impact for human health. A spokesman for the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) said the Prozac found was most likely highly diluted....

The following film is not about drugs but about water, per se. A very frightening situation!



RESIST

(source)

Americans Oppose HR875

• Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
• Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.

• Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
• Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
• Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
• Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
• Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
• Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
• There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone's attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Didn't Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply? Didn't Stalin use the food to control the people?

Read more here.

Wordless Wednesday-Vine and Honeysuckle

For more shady, fragrant, beautiful pictures, please visit the WW HQs ans 5 minutes for mom.

May 1st

Let us choose flowers,
roses and liliums,
and come make wreaths with them
for May who appears today on the earth.




Happy May!

Wordless Wednesday-Chemtrails

For more WW pics please visit the WW HQ, "And Miles to Go..." and 5 minutes for mom.

Oh Lord!..

Fires have been destroying the heartland of Greece. Since last night we are stuck in front on the TV as people from Peloponnesus, Southern Greece, are asking for help, trapped in their villages. Peloponnesus is the fertile South of the country, with olive groves, vines and orchards, and some of the most important archaeological sites including Olympia and Mycene.

The fires, the work of perfectly organized criminals, for political and economical reasons, have been set ablaze all along the night, making it impossible for the firefighters to be present at all fronts.
There are also fires on the island of Euboea, next to Athens,

and even in the Athens area.

Up to now, 42 people have lost their lives, including 7 children. Particularly moving were the stories of a young hotel owner in the region of Laconia who together with his sister and a female employee went out in search of two customers who were walking on the nearby beautiful forest. All 5 were found burnt.
A young mother with her 4 children, aged 12, 9, 8 and 4, together with their grandmother were burnt alive as they were trying to escape the fire. They were cut off in their car due to the fire. The woman called her husband on her mobile to tell him that that was the end. He advised them to escape through the olive groves. The grandmother couldn't make it out of the car, the mother and children were found in the olive grove, the mother covering her children with her body.
Right now I can see in the news that the toll rose to 47 dead.
Update:the toll rose to 52, including 9 children of which a family of 5, father, mother and three children, who were found hugging each other in their car trapped by the sky high flames. May God rest their souls.

This morning, we were planning to go to the sea for the week end. As we made coffee, C and I looked at each other, and we both agreed that it wasn't ethical for us to have fun while people were dying, and on the other hand, we couldn't have fun while these things were happening.

We took the kids to a bookstore that our flat owner's daughter opened. Before we left, we spoke to the children, urging them to think of the people and especially the children who died such a horrible death within flames reaching up to 100m, and think of them and their dreams and desires as they were preparing for the new school year.
We then stopped at a church and lit a candle for their souls and prayed for their souls.
We are shocked and devastated. We pray that some help will arrive from other EU countries. Remember your summer holidays, the beautiful places you more than once enjoyed, and help us. We pray that God may rain and extinguish the fires. No man can do it.

Please pray for Greece and for the people.

As I write this, another 4 people were found dead.

If you want to read more, click on the BBC, with witness stories, SKYNEWS, and MSNBC.

I think of the stories that my late grandfather used to tell me about his native land.Places I have come to know in my mind. Beloved people who brought me forth.

The villages I hear about on TV, sound so familiar. His stories about the land, the stories about his home and the farmstead, and the life of the people, all come alive as I hear of the places he used to tell me about. C and I were talking about going there sometime so that I could feel my roots and let the children see where mum comes from. Dear God, dear God...

Please, Virgin Mary...

This is so sad. Such a sad day. A large part of the North of Peloponnesus, that's in the South of mainland Greece, is on fire. Two weeks ago we passed through that area on our trip to Athens. C likes that part of Greece alot, and it is beautiful, indeed. The trees roll down the slopes into the sea, and many beautiful houses are built overlooking the crystal blue sea of the Aegean. It very much reminds me of the South of France. Every time we go to Athens C says: "We should stop here and have a swim", but we never did. And now it's gone, it is all gone. All that forest, the oleanders along the national road, it is all burning non stop. I watch the news on TV and it is like a nightmare. I want to shout out like the prophets and the pious people in the Testament, oh Mother, please let it rain! Oh God, please stop this!
How can people do such harm to Beauty? Either through overexploitation and global warming, or through arson, as it is obvious that more than two thousand fires throughout Greece since last June could not have started by themselves.
The island of Cephalonia where we had been a month ago is burning, too. There is no part of Greece that is not on fire one day or another.
There are thousands of homeless people, old people who try to save what they can but they are trapped. The Red Cross tries to save people who did not evacuate the area on time. As I watch and listen to the anguish of the newscasters, the rescue workers and the inhabitants who cling on to their properties, many of them the result of years of hard work for a retirement home, this phrase comes to my mind, although I cannot remember where it is from (I googled it, it is from the Evangelist Matthew):

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

I am posting some "before" pictures that I found on the net. According to the latest news, the fire is approaching the monastery of "Grand Cave" which houses one of four icons of the Virgin by the Apostle Luke. You may read a little about the area here.

Ancient Greek temple in he Derveni-Corinth area.
The monastery of Virgin Mary
...in an idyllic setting.

Beautiful Nature.

It is Hot, Hot,Hot...

It is very hot over here...So strange, knowning that people in Britain, that's just across Europe are drawning in floods. We all know and hear about the distruction human exploitation of our planet brings upon us, but so many choose to ignore the signs and continue to polute for profit, especially in the developped Western world.

I am upset because another two men died today. They were pilots trying to put out a fire, one of the many that ramage throughout Greece. Their death brings the toll to five dead men in ten days. I am angry because so much money is being spent by the uber rich who are unashamedly showing off their wealth in the glossies, while their country burns and fire fighters die of exhaustion. Some 300 fires in less than a month!..

Today the temperature didn't fall below 40 C. The forecast for the next few days til Thursday is for temperatures rising up to 45 degrees and that's under shadow.

Today I am grateful for air conditioning. I try to use it sparingly, thinking of the vast consumption of energy, so I let it work for 15 min, then let it rest, and switch it on when we have customers in.

Our computers are ill, both at work and at home. Probably a nasty virous. We will send them away tomorrow morning. So, no computer this week.

On Sunday we went to our favorite beach. As we immersed ourselves in the familiar waters of the Ionian Sea, taking in the perfume of the sea and the olive trees, it crossed my mind:
Why do we search for the unknown when happiness and contentment is right with us, while we are blessed with being whole right here, right now, in what we already have? I recognise that some of us, including myself, need to make the trip, need to look for alternatives. Then we appreciate more what we knew all along, but resisted acknowledging.
Happily, God is in the little things, and once we find them, we'd better treasure them and let them know we love them oh so much!