Winter approaching

Our first winter on the island and so far so good - that's the weather. We've had a couple of thunderstorms in November but on the whole, its been a lovely month. Sunny and warm. We had a trip out to Zola. As you can see from the photos, it was a lovely sunny day.
Zola is on the North West coast of Kefalonia, not far from Myrtos beach. On the way to Zola we thought we would take another look at Myrtos beach but decided the road down was a little busy!

We hadn't been to Zola before, but it had been on the radar when we were looking at a house to buy.

Zola, from the North, overlooking the bay of Agia Kyriaki

 

Zola, from the South, to show the harbour

Another day and a trip out took us around the headland of Agia Effimia; a very picturesque village and harbour on the eastern coast of Kefalonia. Most of the buildings here, as on most of the island apart from Fiskardo, were destroyed in the 1953 earthquake.

1953 Ionian earthquake

Agia Effimia as seen from the north. The connecting road from Agia Effimia to Sami is just visible along the coastline.

On this side of the island there are great views of Ithaca. In the foreground you can see one long and winding road! It's a great drive and the road is excellent. It leads to two beautiful beaches. One is Horgota beach and the other is Agia Sophia. Horgota beach is famous for the jetty scene in the film "Captain Corelli's Mandolin. They're both gorgeous beaches.

Great view of Ithaca

Another trip out and this time to Lassi - not far from Argostoli. Lassi is very much geared for tourists, but it's lovely and quiet at this time of year - nobody on the beach and it was a gorgeous day.

Lassi......... footprints! - I'm not alone after all!

The deserted beaches around the island remind me of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. This should bring back childhood memories for some. I remember watching this in the school holidays. Robert Hoffmann played Robinson Crusoe. Dammed attractive he was too! Still alive today at the age of 77. Most of the footage was shot mute because of the lack of dialogue and the time it saved on location. I never realised until just recently that Robinson Crusoe's voice was not that of Robert Hoffmann but dubbed on later by a different actor - Lee Payant. The series was filmed in Gran Canaria.

Theme tune to The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Anyway - that was a bit random..... Getting closer to home now and there's something I have to mention, and that's the very unusual set up of seats along the beach in Sami. Readers of my blog who either visit Kefalonia or live here will probably have come across this in Sami or on other parts of the island, but for those who have haven't, let me know what you think of this......

View of Sami bay and Ithaca - note - if you sit here you do not see the view! 

This is the view you would see!

Mark has been fishing recently. We had a trip to Agia Paraskevi beach - again no peeps around. You can just make him out at the end of the beach. Unfortunately fish was not to be on the menu for tea that day.

We always seem to be doing a bit of gardening, even now in November. We have some lovely plants in the garden, some of which are still flowering. There is a lovely white bougainvillea, most of it overhangs onto the track beside our house. I love our painted garden wall - not sure who originally painted it, but my next project is to go over the existing mural as some of it looks a bit faded and blurry now. Look at that blue sky - not bad for November!

The track just beside our house takes you down to an old stone bridge and then over a river and into the mountains. Great walk.

The view of mountains, fields and cypress trees on the right side of the track

The view of mountains, olive groves and cypress trees on the left side of the track

We've been looking after our friends dog, Henry, while they went back to the UK.
Rocky (the Border Collie) was fine with him and Bobby (the Jack Russell) was.......well .......Bobby.
We were informed that Henry liked eating socks, so we made sure not to leave any lying around.  We handed him back after nearly 3 weeks. Our friends returned with a sock that they didn't recognise as being one of theirs! Oops!

Bobby, Rocky and Henry

Wherever we go it's always nice to get home and get the wood burner on. The nights are getting cold enough for the wood burner. Talking of which- my new hobby is collecting wood (well there are no yachts to spot now that summer is over!). The garage has been renamed "The Woodstore". We have bags of eucalyptus bark, bags of olive twigs for kindling, bags of bigger chunks of olive wood and finally olive logs. All cut to the correct length, ready for the wood burner. The only wood we have bought is the olive logs; the rest we have sourced from friends who have cut down the trees in their garden.We even have olive wood and walnut wood drying ready for next winter. 

The view below is the equivalent of the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle Upon Tyne for us now. If we've been out and about, we know we're nearly home when we see the blue water of Sami bay as we approach Sami via the Argostoli road. Simply beautiful!

Going home

Going Home - Mark Knopfler- (Theme from Local Hero)

What will December be like????