Snufkin

This post was supposed to show you my coat (new) but as I was editing the photos I found I was blurry in nearly all of them. My camera had decided instead to focus on the trees around me. I think this may have been a conspiracy between the trees and the camera; I was using another tree branch as a camera stand so there was plenty of time for them to plot whilst I had my back turned). At first I was a bit annoyed, but then I realised my camera had the right idea as focusing on the immense natural beauty in these photos is far more interesting than my coat. Just look in the first photo – the irregular pattern of the cracks in the tree closest to the camera and the myriad shades of green are far more exciting and dramatic than an item of clothing could ever be!

Recently I’ve spent lots of time outdoors marvelling at the beauty of nature (especially at this time of year) and it makes me think how impossible it is to capture those moments. You can’t paint those colours, or photograph the crisp feeling of a leaf under your shoe, or sketch the smell of the rotting conkers and leaves in the wet grass. The colours on my computer seem so dull and uninspiring in comparison. If you read this post, go for a walk today and admire the leaves. Tell me what your trees are like.

So, this is my new coat from Greece – leave it to me to go on a beach holiday and return with a winter coat! I wore it on the plane home along with a wide-brimmed black hat; when James collected me from the airport he just said “Hello Snufkin“. I was so happy; as I child I always felt a sense of kinship with Snufkin as he was an outdoorsy, rebellious, loner musician like me. I much prefer owning clothing that looks like it belongs to my favourite characters rather than just featuring them! I love my Moomin skirt but if I wore it in Moominvalley, I’d just look weird whereas with this I would fit in. I’ve got lots of coats, but I spend so much time running around between rehearsals and gigs in the cold I feel it’s justified!

Facebook/Twitter/Bloglovin

Old Town

This will be my last post on Rhodes and I’m sharing my pictures of the old city with you. My travel companion Philly and I were so enchanted by the old city that we spent our last evening there, getting lost amongst the cobbled street and staring wistfully at the beautiful displays in all the shops. Most of the roads are nameless and the city doesn’t follow any kind of grid structure so it’s very easy to lose your way. Philly and I soon gave up trying to use the maps dotted around the city and just followed our noses until we arrived at a gate.

The city was warm and welcoming in the daytime despite the imposing stone wall, but by nighttime the old town was magically lit up with strings of fairy lights. The maze-like quality of the streets was enhanced by the darkness and it almost gave the impression that the minute you turned a corner the rest of the town was shuffling itself around behind you! Most of the shop in the old town are open front, with huge archways leading directly into the display area. As we walked past we could gaze in to the colourful, meticulously laid out displays inside with shops selling all manner of items: lace, carpets, swords, honey, ceramics, gold chains, sandals, postcards, stationary, musical instruments, statues and traditional wood and leather crafts. The best way to spend our final evening in Rhodes!

Thank you to Philly for all the photos of me in this post (and my last two Rhodes posts here and here) and for being such an awesome travel companion! You can read her blog here, and follow mine on Facebook, bloglovin and twitter.

Port of Rhodes

 On the very first day we were in Greece I found a very old postcard which featured the beautiful arcades above, flooded in golden light. The postcard was dated 1972 and didn’t credit a photographer or include any information about where the picture was taken. I was completely enchanted by the photo, and I imagined that the photographer who had probably spent a huge amount of time waiting to get the perfect shot of the arcades. I fancied that even if we managed to locate and visit the same unknown place on our trip in 2013, it would likely be some sort of built up tourist attraction hell, forever to be remembered by the golden 1972 picture.

Four days later Philly and I visited Rhodes and stumbled across the exact same arches drenched in the later afternoon sun. It was amazing discovering this secret place simply by chance when wandering around. The Prefecture is literally next to the harbour so admittedly it wasn’t exactly out of the way, but this kind of miraculous discovery does seem to happen more on holiday. I often think when I’m travelling I feel a bit more connected to the world, and I wonder if this is simply because of the technological cut-off. Had I been able to immediately identify the area on the postcard (google image search), read the caption (dictionary translate) and direct myself to the location (apple maps), I wouldn’t have been able to chance upon this place in a moment of complete serendipity and bask in the warm sunlight that drew me there. Dress – vintage, £12. Hat – Monki, £3 (sale. Flip-flops – Aldo, £12.

Lindos

Hello! Today it’s really rainy and gloomy in London but you can see how hot it was in Greece! I spent a week in Rhodes with my good friend Philly and we had amazing sunshine every day. I got back last week but have been recovering from food poisoning, hence the delay in posts! These photos are taken in Lindos, a picturesque town on the south east coast of the island. Philly and I travelled to Lindos via boat which was a 4 hour round trip from the village where we stayed in the north west.

Lindos is notable for the huge Acropolis which sits at the top of the mountain above the modern village. I’d normally consider myself more interested in science than anything else, but my week in Rhodes has sparked a nascent interest in history. It was fantastic wandering around the ruins and looking for traces of the people who had built them. My favourite bit was a huge discarded slab which somebody had trodden in whilst the concrete was drying. Seeing a huge footprint in the block somehow enabled my mind to leap back thousands of years and I felt immediately able to imagine the ancient Greeks walking around on the same patches of dirt that we were, moaning about the same heat and looking out at the same sea.

Lindos is also notable for using donkey taxis. Donkeys, like horses, have been domesticated over thousands of years to carry all of our rubbish but donkeys are much smaller than horses and their knees often buckle in old age due to a lifetime of transporting heavy loads. Donkeys are quite independent and if they don’t perceive a threat they won’t do something (unlike horses who can easily be scared into things using noises). I feel very passionately about animal welfare and whilst I enjoyed playing with the donkeys, it was really upsetting to see these poor animals transporting tourists up and down a steep hill in such hot weather. One of the donkey owners told me it’s ok because the donkeys are used to it, which is insane. If you smack somebody in the face every day for a year they’ll get used to it, does that mean that’s ok? It was nice to spend some time bonding with this 1 year old donkey anyway; he kept licking the flowers on my dress.

Facebook/Twitter/Bloglovin