Olive trees

 

I love olive trees!

I love their silver and green leaves and their fruits, olives.

In my summer house, in Evia, I have planted 7 olive trees and each November, we have olives from them.

In Ireland, they are not very popular although Irish weather does not have a negative impact on their longevity.

The photo is the olive tree that I purchased a week ago from a garden center in Ennis. It's full of flower buds but the olive trees in Ireland, because of the lack of dry weather and sun, they do not produce olives. However, I love having one at my house so I can dream away my summer house.

P.S. Olive trees are known to have therapeutic properties (olive oil) and there were the reason that Athens is named after the Goddess Athena.

 

Nea Styra - Akrogiali

This post is about a taverna in Nea Styra, called Akrogiali where George and his family offer views and great dishes...

here are some views from Akrogiali...

 

and this photo below is from the ferry returning to Agia Marina, with views of Nea Sryra...

Summer 2019

it's the end of June 2020 and as we are getting ready to fly again to our beloved Southern Evia, here are some photos of last Summer, 2019.

A starfish, somewhere near Marmari, during our first scuba dive [the 3 boys of the family]

about 6 m deep...amazing feeling...

we were deep while at the surface two younger boys were snorkeling

the port at Nea Styra, looking South...

sunset at our house somewhere in Styra (my personal paradise)

no need to go to Santorini if we have this view from our garden

diving in Lemnionas, Aegean Sea. This beach is 20min drive from the house

Lemnionas Beach. Λημνιώνας 

Dreaming away...

my view right now...15 minutes after the sunset...
at the front balcony of our house...

Dreaming away...

Storms of the past and the future seem so distant!

Styra : Bird's eye view

On 2018 New Year's Day, I flew home...here are some views of Styra region from the plane...
Enjoy!

the little island just under the edge of the wing is the Styra island

 

secret beaches around the world

Today's post is partly about Evia...
Here are some photos of beaches chosen by readers of the Guardian; beaches that offer beauty and seclusion and – sometimes – warm seas.

The point of this posting is that to show that we don't need to travel all these air miles to find a secluded beach!

25 km of the house is Zarakes beach, on the Aegean side of Evia.

Zarakes on the map, is at southern Evia, on the right hand side of the island, just below Lake Dhistos

It is a little bay with sandy beach and a taverna with fresh fish and grilled meat!

February sun

summer view

and on a summer windy day...

One day, last summer, we did spear fishing and at the local taverna, they were so kind and fried our fish! We enjoyed them with ouzo on ice!

Yia mas! Cheers! Sláinte!

Nimporio

The beach village of Nimporio (Νημπορειό in Greek) is between Styra and Porto Lafia, about 10 km from our house. You can see Nimporio on this map. It is less than 15 mins drive from our house.
 
The beach (small pebbles) is kids friendly and there is a very good canteen with sunbeds and umbrellas, all you need to pay is for your drinks! They also serve some good skewers, if you get hungry.

As you can see at the photos, the sea colours are stunning!

We did some spear fishing there last summer; it was great!