Camera critters: the great escape

Some time in mid-September, I was in Fournes irrigating our orange trees, a task now being accomplished automatically by nature itself. The field snails had woken up from their summer slumber as the irrigation taps were being turned on. There were hundreds of them walking about; I counted 100 snails in my plastic bag when I turned them into a boiling pot of water (really, they are delicious if you know how to treat and cook them).

We don't usually eat the small ones. Maybe this one didn't catch my attention; it escaped from the bag and climbed up the kitchen curtain. There it curled up and hibernated until I saw it only a few days ago.

"Don't worry", I comforted it, "you're not ready for the cauldron, not just yet anyway", I said to it as I threw it into the garden.

Camera critters: I tort I tor a puddycat

Now you see me...

... now you don't.

My neighbour's cat playing 'koukoutsa' (peekaboo).

Camera critters: swallows

These swallows were caught in the downpour. They must have been migrating from the colder northern climates, making their way to Africa. When they reached my town, where the weather is usually quite good at this time of year, they must have thought they had found a temporary winter home, so they had a little break in the sunshine. Suddenly, the rain began to pour down as if a bucket (a very large one) had been upturned. Their wings soaking wet, they felt too heavy to continue their flight southwards. So they took a break on the electricity cables just above our house, where they remained until the downpour passed, and then they moved on to find another drier spot to hide.

Skywatch Friday: loitering sparrows

One morning, as I took the children to school, these birds stood motionless on the electricity wires (don't they get electrocuted?), enjoying the bright sunny day in the autumn weather. I don't know what they were waiting for, but they hung around there for the next few days too.

Camera critters: goats

Goats will eat anything. They are good climbers, so they can climb up trees and eat the leaves on the top of the trees, once they have eaten the lower-lying leaves and scratched off the bark off the tree trunk. These goats are eating oranges which have been cut into chunks. There is nothing else visible on this field for the goats to eat, which probably hints at the fact that the farmer who owns them has brought them here for a short period of time.

The photo was taken at the end of summer, just over a year ago in Paleohora located on the south coast of Hania.

Camera critters: Buzzy Bees

We recently visited a children's fun park in my town. Imagine my surprise when I noticed a coin-operated buzzy bee in the playground.


Buzzy Bees are a New Zealand trademark. They are now known the world over as one of the best wooden toys especially made with children's motor skills in mind. They decorate my children's bedroom and I keep a few as a souvenir of my homeland.

Camera critters: hungry chooks

Lunchtime in the chicken coop; my uncles' farm in Galatas, Hania.

Photography by Petros Hahladakis

Camera critters: sheep

"Look left, look right, and then walk straight ahead."

Sheep at my uncles' farm in Galatas, Hania.

Photography by Petros Hahladakis

Camera critters: caterpillar

Did you know that caterpillars have eyes?
I didn't know that until I saw this one.
It's got eyes, alright.

They are eyes, aren't they?
Well, that's what they looked like to me.

Huge green caterpillar (with eyes) seen climbing up our grapevine, Hania, Crete.

Camera critters: the brooch

When I saw this bug near the bank of the river in Fournes village, I was confounded as to how something so shiny and beautifully coloured could turn out to be a creepy crawler living in the dirt. It reminds me of something which I read in my all-time favorite novel: Small Island, by Andrea Levy, one of the few books I have taken the time to read twice.

Here is the excerpt from the book, narrating a similar find to my glistening creepy crawler, in the voice of one of the main characters, Gilbert, of Jamaican origin:

"But this old RAF volunteer had seen it all before, during the war. I was looking down, unlike them big-eyed newcomer boys. I just arrive back in England and there on the pavement before me I spy a brooch. What a piece of good fortune, what a little bit of luck. Lying lost, this precious oval jewel shimmered the radiant iridescent green of a humming-bird caught by the sun. My aunt Corinne would have raised her hands to the heavens to call it a sign.

Now these were the thoughts that passed through my head in the three steps it took me to reach that brooch. One: perhaps it fall from a young woman's coat. Cha, so my blessing was another's misfortune. Two: it was an old woman that lost it from her purse; maybe the police station was the proper place to take it. And three: Hortense - this deep-green brooch would look so pretty on her. I conjured up an image in me mind. See me take the sparkling brooch to pin it to her dress, near her neck, against her smooth nut-brown skin. And look, see her touch the pin then tilt her head to charm a smile on me.

So all this rumination is taking place as I move closer. I was about to bend my knee so I could reach the brooch when hear this ... it flew away. Black flecks suddenly pitting the air. That jewel was no more than a cluster of flies caught by the light, the radiant iridescent green the movement of their squabbling backs. My eyes no longer believed what they saw. For after the host of flies flew they left me with just the small piece of brown dog's shit they had all gathered on. Was this a sign? Maybe. For one of the big-eyed newcomer boys walk straight along and step right in the muck."

Camera critters: sea snails

These snails seem to be quite cosy stuck onto the rotting wooden post of an unkempt fence at Kalamaki Beach. The owner of the house says that they are edible. They are boiled and extracted out of the shell with a pin, then dipped into an oil-garlic-vinegar dip before they are eaten.

For a completely different perspective of snail meals, click here.

Thodorou Island

Thodorou Island (the large island in the background) is located just a few miles northwest of the coast of the town of Hania. It is used as a wildlife sanctuary, and it is prohibited to enter it under any circumstances, without a special licence. There is one open day in the year, June 8th, when the church on the island - where it gets its name from - celebrates in honour of its patron saints, the Saints of the Theodori (theo= god, dori=gifts). This view of Thodorou (as the locals call it) was taken from Kalamaki Beach.

The animals under protection are the famous Kri-Kri goats, the Cretan ibex. They are an endangered species, suffering mostly at the hands of illegal poachers. Apparently, their meat is very tasty, but I've never tried it, and it's unlikely I ever will, as the animals are hunted by very corrupt people with no sense of law and order. The goats' habitat is the White Mountains (Lefka Ori), near the Omalos Plain. It is highly unlikely that you would get the chance to see one, as they are not human-friendly. This view of the island was taken from Stalos beach, three kilometres west of Kalamaki beach.

You can see another view of Thodorou here; CreteTourNet also has some nice aerial shots of the island.

Camera critters: Turtle in the sand

Turtle in the sand, Kalamaki Beach artwork, Hania.

ABC Wednesday: C for Carriage

It's ABC Wednesday again, and C is for cart or carriage, in the lovely town of Hania which is usually written as Chania.

Everyone loves going for a ride in one of these old-fashioned carriages. These ones are heading towards the old harbour; as relics of older times, they suit the mood of the lovely port lined with the many little cafe bars. They are used mainly by tourists (at 20 euro for a short ride, the price is a bit steep), and they are also hired for weddings. The town is too small and the roads are too narrow for open-top tourist buses, but these are prettier and will stay in your memory for much longer.

If you're wondering what the Christmas lights are doing in the picture (another 'C' word) on a warm summer's day, don't worry: we don't light them until Christmas time; it's just easier to leave them hanging there rather than taking them down and putting them up every year...

Although the name of the town of Hania is most often written with a 'C' ('Chania'), the 'C' is never pronounced. To pronounce the name of the city correctly when you see it written as 'Chania', pretend it's not there, and say 'Hania' instead. That's why I call my blog 'One day in Hania'.

Camera critters: Helicopter

Can you see the blue stick insect sitting on a stone on a dry river bed? We call them helicopters, but I still haven't worked out what they were called in the days before helicopters existed, as I'm sure they were around then too. They fly above rivers just like helicopters. I was very lucky to have the camera ready when this one settled down for a little rest before taking off again.

Fournes village, Hania.

Camera critters: crab

Crab playing peek-a-boo in a hole in a rock, Agious Apostolous beach, Hania.

Camera critters: kids

Some people might call this kid 'cute'; others will think 'delicious'.

Goat and kid in Vamvakopoulo, Hania.

Camera critters: sand beetle

Beetle wandering in the sand at Kalamaki Beach, Hania.

Camera critters: Butterfly

Butterfly on a thyme bush: Fournes village, Hania.

Offal

It's a load of old waffle
that awful is OFFAL.
It may not look good
to treat it as food.

But once you have cut it
and floured it and fried it,
believe me, there's nothing
that tastes quite just like it.

Maybe it's hiding
in that little SAUSAGE
you ate as of late
in your wholemeal bread sandwich.

So next time you're buying
a small spring-born lamb,
you might think of eating
what you thought was spam.

It's liver and kidney
and sweetbreads and heart,
the kind of things chucked
in a steak-kidney tart.

Let it all cook until it is crunchy;
just think of it then as a squidgy BIFTEKI.
And when it's all done, it needs very little:
some lemon juice, salt and horta to fill you!

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