CaCo3

Chalk to those that have forgotten their chemistry lessons!
I'm a bit slow getting this post up due to a huge backlog of images I've shot this summer but better late than never.
My chums Fern Alder and Heidi Harvey won silver for their show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show.
Congratulations girls and to all those that helped make a rather dusty field in Surrey whiter than white. They can now officially say 'as seen on TV' as the BBC did a special feature about how and where they got their inspiration from -the Kent countryside of course.
Lots more info on Fern's website www.spacefx.net and on the BBC site for a 360 view
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/flower_shows/hampton_court_2006/hc06gardens_showkent.shtml

But no one got this shot as it meant waiting until dusk, despite having been there since 6am to get the morning light. Thanks to digital capture I managed to get the projection and chalk backdrop. Something that film could never do and most people at the show never saw because the sun bleached everything.

Matchstick visitors

If you are visiting the north west try and go to The Lowry in Manchester's Salford Quays.
Some huge and impressive architecture all round this area.
The Lowry is an emporium of art and entertainment. In addition to the permanent display of LS Lowry's work they also have temporary exhibitions. Currently showing is the Folk Archive: Contemporary Popular Art from the UK
http://www.thelowry.com/WhatsOn/EventDetail.aspx?EventId=2359

'Highlight' of the show are the Blackpool Illuminations which were in the process of being installed when I visited. Out of context they are quite bizarre.













I'm currently doing some consultancy work for a new company that will be staging a major exhibition at The Lowry next summer. Details of which will of course be posted here.

Burning and drinking oil

Taking full advantage of the hire car that had no mileage limit and the fact that petrol is cheaper than in the UK (is there anywhere more expensive than the UK?), I decided to drive to Xania. There are many different ways to spell Crete’s second capital Chania, Hania or as I prefer Xania. It is pronounced from the back of the throat and takes a little practice to sound authentic. Taking the National Road west from Heraklion, the scenery changes to become more Italian with cypress trees and pine forests. Vast swathes of oleander are also a sign that the west is more fertile than the south and east.

The Industrial Harbour

The city curls around a Venetian harbour like Rethymnon. As you enter by road you drive down wide boulevards flanked by large villas built in the thirties when the town was booming. Xania seems to be going through a period of regeneration as several of these large houses have been refurbished but there are many left untouched and it creates such an eerie scene especially when you arrive on a Sunday and no one is around. Motorists be warned this town operates a pay and display system. This is the first I have seen in Greece and I can imagine the opposition there was when it was introduced.

There is a limited choice of good hotels in the centre of Xania. I stayed at the Irida which has nice views of the bay but it is a little far from the town centre unless you have a car. There is a small beach within walking distance. It is infront of several tavernas but I never like to swim near major conurbations as you can never be sure how far out the sewage pipe goes! The best beach I found was in Souda Bay approached from Kaleves. Just a small strip of sand with a few people is perfect for an afternoon.

Souda Bay, Xania

Xania harbour is the classic crescent shape lined with tavernas and cafes with resident customer hawkers boasting about how fresh their food is and made by their mother.

The best time to visit this area is at night. This is when the Mosque of Kioutsouk Hasan (ironically now the Greek tourist police HQ) is lit up and the dome is accentuated by the spotlights. The scene at night reminded me of Kyrínia (Greek) or Girne(Turkish) city on the northern side of Cyprus. Walking away from the main harbour you reach the shipyard area. One of huge renovated buildings houses the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture http://www.kam-arsenali.gr/ Using the original walls as a skin a modern building has been designed inside to house exhibition spaces and conference facilities. The other buildings are still being used for industrial use.

I picked up a free magazine called Frappe named after the iced coffee. Written in German and English there are some good articles and images. It was interesting to read about Cretan olive oil production. The Mihelakis who produce over half a million litres per year, consume as a family 200 litres! The average Cretan consumes 30 litres per year which is excessive but many Greeks live everyday as if it were their last. Considering the way they drive for many it is. In 2000 there were 20.1% of road fatalities per 100,000 of the population of Greece.

Frappe magazine ISSN 1109-8090

More images as part of my Greek Identity project are on my website http://emmapeios.spotfolio.com/greece.html

Sabotage and Cheese Salads

It was too windy to swim today so I decided to visit the Historical Museum. They had a special exhibition called Sabotage, whilst I’m not a huge fan of memorabilia, this has been done very sympathetically. Documents and items connected with the event during the Second World War, tell of the heroic attempts made by a small group of French, Greek and British special soldiers to save lives. Throughout Europe people were saved but it was very moving to read the last written letters from Cretan people executed by the Germans as revenge for the sabotage.

The second exhibition sent me into map heaven. This is an extensive and very well presented display of cartography of Crete during the 16^th and 18^th century. Unfortunately all of the exhibition text is in Greek but the maps are certainly works of art worth seeing.

The exhibition finishes on 31 October 2006.

The mini shop in the museum has some elegant books and printed material for sale. I bought a collection of postcards entitled Crete in 1900. These cards were first published at the end of the 19^th century. Mikros Nautilos Editions in Heraklion have reproduced as four collections; Xania, Everyday Life, Cities and History.

The period from the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th was a time when the island passed from Turkish domination to self-government and subsequently to its long hoped union with Greece. During this crucial time in Cretean history photographers toured the island and recorded aspects of the cities, the costumes of the inhabitants and the way of life. This created an important archive of photographic documents.

These two postcards are from the Everyday Life series (kathimerini zoe).

The first is a group of Turkish whirling dervishes and the second is another posed image, of a woman reclining after smoking from a hookah. One hundred years later and us girls still like the hubbly bubbly!

Historical Museum of Crete
Venizelou 27
Heraklion

Across the road from the museum is a restaurant called Elies, Greek for olives. No matter how ultra modern the interior, Elies along with many other restaurants and bars in Crete’s cities, always has the ubiquitous man in a corner flicking beads and smoking a cigarette. The house salad with a local cheese comes highly recommended. I just wish we could get tomatoes to taste the same in the UK as they do in the Mediterranean. I always buy the most expensive ones and still they taste of water. Does water have a taste?!