Category: Nature

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Fodele’s nature

When I woke up this morning my mood wasn’t in a very good condition….. or maybe I can say that I did not have any mood at all, not to get up or make breakfast, not to work in the garden as I had planed to…. the only thing I did do was sit on the sofa …. doing nothing, so I thought that today was going to be a very lazy, lazy day. And as I knew that a friend would come by to go find a waterfall close to my village, I decided to call it off.

Luckily she arrived just as I was dialing her number, she also brought some sandwiches so we could have a pick-nick, so calling of was not an option.

We didn’t really know where to start as our direction and google maps were not very clear, so we decided to start walking where the river flows as the water of the fall falls into the river.

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We were told that we could reach it through the water, but after a while we saw that that was not an option.

Some off these bushes need to be pruned

Back at our start point we took the car and drove up, for about 3km, where we saw a mud road going to the right, an off road with lots off stones and holes and small waterflows, BEAUTIFULL!!!!!

You beter use a jeep to take this road!!

After driving for about 10 minutes over this road we decided to park the car and continue by foot, that’s what google maps adviced us. Believing in G maps again we started walking…… Wrong way!!! We returned to the car and started listening to the sounds around us, we both thought we heard water falling so we took the other direction, and then we came up to this small “waterfall”

After shooting this little one we followed the river further up and……….. there it was!!! a larger waterfall, probably not yet The One but the place we found was amazing beautiful, take a look yourself

  • view from above
  • front view
  • the surroundings
  • the lake

We did not find the right waterfall yet but this place is also a pearl in Crete.

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Stressloze winter

Hehe, eindelijk een vrije dag om van te genieten, het is bewolkt en het regent een beetje, je kan de herfst eindelijk ruiken en al het stof wordt weggewassen!!

Tijd om aan mijn tuin te denken, want JA ik blijf thuis deze winter, thuis in Kreta, bij mijn kinderen, in mijn huis met tuin, ik kan eindelijk weer eens groenten kweken en appelsienen oogsten, heerlijk.

Ik had er zoveel zin in vandaag dat ik naar de ‘boerewinkel’ in het dorp gegaan ben en mijn eerste plantjes gekocht heb.

Broccoli, bloemkool, slaatjes, peterselie, rode biet, selder en venkel.

Daar is natuurlijk niets raars aan, alleen is mijn tuin nog niet klaar….. Maar voor alles is een oplossing, kijk maar.

Ik had nog veel waterflessen liggen, daar heb ik potjes van gemaakt en de plantjes verplant zodat ze al een beetje meer ‘voetruimte’ hebben voor ze de grond ingaan.

Zo kunnen ze nog een week of twee op mijn balkon in het zonnetje staan totdat de tuin klaar is.

Alleen zal ik de slaatjes binnen moeten zetten, anders zijn ze morgen allemaal opgegeten door de slakken ☚ī¸, eens ze groter zijn mogen ze ook naar buiten. Natuurlijk staan ze in de tuin ook blootgesteld aan slakken maar dan strooi ik as rond de plantjes, slakken houden daar niet van en blijven uit de buurt.

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The hermit crab

At one of my visits to the island Gramvousa, I went for a swim with my college Irina, she loves snorkeling and always finds something. This time she found this little hermit crab

As I am always looking for new things to learn I opened my browser to find some more information about this little creature. Little did I know….. I looked it up by the shape and form of the shell 😁, wrong!!

They don’t come with the shell, they have to find a fitting shell by themselves, any shell will do, as long as it is big enough.

As finding the right shell is not always easy, these little crabs work together and have figured out a second hand shell exchange system. Here is what they do : One crab finds a shell that is bigger than her current one and that she thinks might suit her, so she gets out of her current shell to try the new one. When she sees that it doesn’t fit her she goes back in her own shell and waits for another crab to come. The second crab also tries out the shell and when it doesn’t fit she also goes back into her current shell and waits for the next crab to come. They do this until a crab is satisfied with the shell and keeps it. In the meantime the crabs are in line from the largest to the smallest crab. Now the first crab in line will take the empty shell of the satisfied crab and leave hers behind for the next crab in line. So in the end every crab has got a larger shell to fit in.

Pretty clever isn’t it!!

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The Loquat fruit

When you’re in Crete at the beginning of May you see this kind of tree with it’s yellow fruit everywhere. It has a yellow fruit that has a sweet taste when it’s ripe.

It’s one of the few fruit trees that cary ripe fruit at that time of the year and it is very easy to eat. You should peel the fruit and eat its flesh, it has some dark brown seeds inside that you should not eat.

The video below shows you more about these loquats.

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Having lunch with sheppard Andrea

Yesterday I went on a trip up on the Psiloritis mountain to have lunch with sheppard Andreas. He lives in the village Livadia in the Idi mountains and he has been a sheppard for his whole life. He loves being out there in the nature high up in the mountains

with his sheep and goats. Together with his brothers they have around 3000 animals to take care of. Today 200 of them are already up on the mountain where Andreas milks all 200 of them twice a day and they give him each time around 100 liter of good quality milk. The other animals are still on the land they have further down the mountain and they will be brought up until the end of April.

Andreas will be milking the animals twice a day until the end of May and then for about one more month he will milk them once a day. From the month of July on the animals will mate, so they won’t give any milk until they give birth about 5 months later.

During the months that the animals don’t give milk Andreas still goes up to give them extra food and water but also because he loves being up there.

His family also built a chapel there, a saint George chapel.

Close to the chapel there stands a very large Stone Oak tree where you can enjoy the real sheppard’s lunch called antichristo. Which is lamb that is cooked next to the fire instead of on the fire. No herbs are needed during the preparation of the meat as his animals eat lots of herbs during their time in the mountains. Andreas is a very good cook and also very good company, he likes to talk about his life and work up there on the Psiloritis.

The road up to his mitato is not an easy road as it lays on a hight of 1200 meter but it really is worth the trip.

If this looks like something you would like to do during your stay in Crete than don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Fodele relax

02 Mai 2022

Covid19 is nearly gone and also here in Crete life is nearly bavk to normal , so for those who want to escape for a while and enjoy the sun, sea, mountains and our private pool Fodele Relax is still open.

I’m totally prepared to welcome you again in our beautiful villa.

Fodele is a typical Cretan village and my house is built outside of the village with great view over it.  The house is also surrounded by orange trees which give me every spring a great view and a lovely blossom smell every time I open my balcony door. 

What is amazing here during summer time is that twice a day swallows come to the pool to drink water or to bath here.  Even while you are swimming in the pool, they come along to have their bath.

https://youtu.be/Vd8b0a-O1lA

A holiday to relax to the full and swimm with the swallows is possible you just have to contact me on 0030/6951522456 or 0032/493611949.

Below are some more pictures of the holiday villa where you can stay.