A Surprise For Mum Oh, what a day! A couple of weeks ago I decided to organise a small birthday tea party for Mum. To say it was bound to be a surprise was a surety as her birthday was back in June, but we'd not really done anything to mark it. Mum is a busy little bee and has a nice little ... [ Read More ]
Feeling Old
Feeling Old Feeling old must be par for the course when your youngest turns eighteen. Last Friday my not so little anymore girl turned eighteen. I have to pinch myself for it to sink in. Where my little girl with the chubby thigh rolls has gone I'm not really sure. There are some traits she ... [ Read More ]
You Too Can Enjoy A Stress Free Christmas Dinner
You Too Can Enjoy A Stress Free Christmas Dinner I know, cooking Christmas dinner and getting to the end of the day unfrazzled may seem like a pipe dream, but I promise you it's not. A few years ago I started preparing some of Christmas dinner in advance by cooking and freezing roast potatoes, ... [ Read More ]
St. Dennis Firework Display, Zakynthos, 2017
St. Dennis Firework Display 2017 It's been an age since I've published a mid-week post, I have the ideas, just not the time. This post has been on the almost ready list for the past three weeks now and I am so chuffed to have finally put it together. August 24th is the day when Zakynthos ... [ Read More ]
Never Mess With Fireworks Unless…
Never Mess With Fireworks Unless... It's safe. Is there such a thing? I hear you ask! It's been a few weeks and while I have missed taking part in 'My Sunday Photo', I have enjoyed a few weeks of a go-slow on the blog. So much so that I may just go into a rambling overdrive and we aren't talking ... [ Read More ]
Bank Holiday Weather Is Bank Holiday Weather!
Bank Holiday Weather We've all noticed how typically bank holiday weather can be pretty naff. Even here in Greece good bank holiday weather isn't guaranteed. Friday here was a big national holiday. The schools were closed for the day. The shops were all closed. And government buildings ... [ Read More ]
St Dennis Day 2016 Wasn’t Quite A Washout!
St Dennis Day 2016 Every year, on August 24th, the people on Zakynthos celebrate their local Patron Saint, St Dennis (Dionysios). It's a busy few days on the island, with many Greek people heading over here to spend a few days enjoying the atmosphere. The occasion is marked by a market, where ... [ Read More ]
My Multitasking Mum
My Multitasking Mum I know I used this photograph in a recent post about how we celebrated Clean Monday, but it really is one of my recent favourites. My Mum is a bit of a character, is happiest when she is busy and seems to spend most of her time doing more than one thing at a time (like most ... [ Read More ]
Clean Monday At Spiliotissa Monastery, Zakynthos
Clean Monday This year we celebrated Clean Monday at Spiliotissa Monastery with family and friends, which sounds much more religious than it was. There was a short church service at the old Spiliotissa church, where a religious icon was found in the sixteenth century, which we chose to sit out as ... [ Read More ]
Niceness
Niceness This week has undoubtedly been a week full of niceness. Last Saturday we enjoyed a nice walk, when we thought that all hope of getting out to enjoy a walk had gone (black clouds, hailstones and thunder rumbling in the distance can make a person think like that). Clean Monday Last ... [ Read More ]
Greg’s Birthday: It Can’t Be Said, We Didn’t Try
Greg's Birthday Last Friday was Greg's nineteenth Birthday and a day of Birthday celebrations were planned. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we were planning on surprising him with a surprise Zakynthos 'Intrepid Explorers' group walk (the fun name that we use to call a small group of us that ... [ Read More ]
Two Years And Still Blogging
Two Years And Still Blogging Two years ago last week I first started blogging properly; I purchased my blogs' URL, theme and signed up with a self hosting company. I had dabbled with Blogger for a short time before that, but wanted more control and liked the thought of self hosting my blog. The ... [ Read More ]
A Track Clearing, Birthday Celebration
A Track Clearing, Birthday Celebration This week (hanging my head in shame) I realised I've become a camera snob. I honestly never saw it coming, so when I recently decided to leave my big camera at home (for practical reasons) in favour of my Nikon point and shoot (which has always worked well), I ... [ Read More ]
Surprise!
Surprise! This week has been a week of surprises. Greg's will be celebrating his nineteenth birthday next week (scary - where has the time gone?), and a couple of weeks ago he surprised us by saying he wanted to celebrate his birthday by going on a walk with a few people he's got to feel ... [ Read More ]
Sweet Sixteen
Sweet Sixteen This week has been an extremely manic week, but it's not all been serious stuff as my youngest turned sixteen this week (although turning sixteen, is quite serious business, I suppose!). Yes, as of this week my youngest 'child' is now sweet sixteen, although I am sure there will be ... [ Read More ]
How To Cook Christmas Dinner In Advance
Shhhhh... Don't tell anyone, but the only way I manage to get Christmas dinner on the table on Christmas day is with preparation; I cook and freeze the roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings (Mum loves them), pigs-in-blankets and stuffing in advance. In This Post... I am going to show you how to cook ... [ Read More ]
From Boy To Man…
My Son Is Now A Man! I can't believe it. I felt old when my daughter turned fifteen back in January, but Greg's turned eighteen a few weeks back (I know this post is running a little later than planned!) and now I feel really old. Greg's isn't one for fanfare and requested that we spent his ... [ Read More ]
Oh! How Time Passes!
Oh! How Time Passes!... Looking in the mirror I see an older version of the person I used to be. Quite a natural occurrence for most of us, but where the time has gone I am not quite sure. Last week my youngest child turned fifteen (?!?!); no longer a child, but not quite an adult ... [ Read More ]
Spare A Thought This Christmastime…
For Those Less Fortunate Than Ourselves... Christmastime is without a doubt my most favorite time of year. I love the glitz and the twinkle of Christmastime. I love the food. And I have even grown to love the fact that my birthday is very close to Christmas. But for me Christmastime is really all ... [ Read More ]
Vanilla Fudge Recipe
Vanilla Fudge I love making vanilla fudge almost as much as I enjoy eating it and this recipe always goes down well at parties and special occasions. It's not something I make often these days as I can't justify making more than a couple of batches over the festive period and eating too much of ... [ Read More ]
Christmas Jumpers
Christmas Jumpers... Although it's still only November and being a firm believer that Christmas shouldn't really start until December (to prevent Christmas overload), I will admit to feeling more than a little Christmassy. It all started on Monday when I decided that this was the year we were ... [ Read More ]