Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Where do you get your spiritual light from, Lesvos....?

Light keeps us going, darkness often only for sleep. Of all the imprints of this remarkable island, I feel the light strikes me like a lightning. It is spiritual in it's deepest sense to me and changes with the times of the year. Always some new light to look for and look forward to...


450 mm lens from my terrace to the tip of a well known island

Daytime from Molivos village. A little playing around with colors. But the same light is there

To me extraordinary backlight on a sea like velvet

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Always open and close....

I can very well remember the first imprints I had of this island, in many villages I have been to and where I have stayed. There have always been open tavernas, practically round the clock. You never know when hunger sets in, do you? In this village, you pass by the taverna and it sure looks like it is closed for the season. But that is just an image. Inside, it is warm and plenty of people and a pig´s knee for dinner.....


Closed for the season

But no, just open the door...

Monday, November 28, 2011

Good friends do not grow on trees...

My relationship with Vangelis is a long and good story. Lots of people know this guy as the former owner of Alonia and great evenings with eating and dancing out in the street among the cars passing by....It is terrific to have the privilege of being one of his friends. Like it is with genuine friends we hopefully all have. Welcome back, Vangelis, when you return from your trip.....


Sunday, November 27, 2011

Help to selfhelp...

She is incredibly kind to others, one of my dear neighbors. It is not that I meet them that often in a real sense, but they are, so to speak, a bit of comfort knowing they are there and they are my part of "my alley". The blond lady had been on fancy shopping, wherever you do that during this part of the year, but she might have come from Kalloni or Mytilini, who knows? And she carried a businessman's or busineswoman's briefcase behind the shopping bag.... It went very slowly, but steadily down the long stairs of the pedestrian. A normal, sunny day in a small alley in a fairly small and quiet village on Lesvos in late November. Thinking, "yes, we neeed to help each other more, even with the simplest thing and for some it is a natural thing to do...



Balancing for the next step

Stop to breathe for a while

Saturday, November 26, 2011

All these colors and a lemon for a GT...

The orange trees are hanging down by the heavy and juicy fruits and there is a visitor on my lemon, supposed to end up in glass with GT. When some colors go, this treasure island always has new ones coming out of everywhere. - It is weekend, and the backbreakers are out with their nets and their pain that they pretend not to have after 6 hours of hard work. All over the island, everywhere...




Friday, November 25, 2011

Resting for a while...

I feel it often here, as one of the major imprints of this island, that resting is necessary, for something new to come up. The islands helps me and others and other things to do so. No doubt this car needs a bit of help, like the elderly lady who had to stop on the way and lean a bit to the wall, heavily breathing after the many steps from the main road and up the alley beside me...




Thursday, November 24, 2011

Pure delight...


I cannot ask for more! A morning sun on the terrace, coffee and that colorful street outside. Mild in colors, mild in an Autumn's day. My heart beat slows down on a day like this in late November...









Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Súntoma, sto spíti...


Not exactly the right date but almost. Early morning up and a long flight, but that does not matter when you know your goal...See you tomorrow , friends and I will be writing and shooting pictures most of the time.




Monday, November 21, 2011

November, party time and silence...

November is a bit of a party time to me.  Just before the real Winter work takes place. The harbor in Molivos, dancing and total piety and two friends, with an occasional cigar....



Blues Brothers

Recognize?

Velvet Sea

Sunday, November 20, 2011

To each and everyone...


a fantastic week of joy and good work and camaraderie, with a rose from the neighbor's....

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Makes me feel very modest...

Every time the moon is out like a glowing bulb, it makes me feel very small. Not insignificant, but a bit modest with the distances above me, with that "endless" Universe and nowhere does it have such an influence on me like in Lesvos, even if it is the same moon I am looking at, wherever it appears... 






Vafios, like a string of emeralds

Friday, November 18, 2011

Alonia, here I come...

Had a terrific dinner tonight but was all the time thinking of the food I crave for most of the time, and it is close now, I am creeping up to the table, digging into the delicasies of the Lesvos cuisine....


Photos by Ioanna




Thursday, November 17, 2011

Coffee in the morning and a candle for Mixalis...

I have a candle lit for him most of the hours of the day. Not because of any special christian belief, but like Timolis says, "you believe in what you believe in and it does not really matter what"! It feels pretty comfortable and very undramatic to light it up each time....


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

More of Nostalgia...

I just found this photo of my friend Antonis. The guy with the curlylooking hair! I smiled this early morning and remember again how many things that are happening to us and that we can forget too early! A time with a long time friend, when he was different in many ways from who he is today! And the text on his T shirt. Well, we all grow up sooner or later...


At least the same colors as Olympiakos!!!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Vatousa's precious jewel...


I had seen this bus before, on my way to Sigri. When I started my coach hunting all over the island, I decided to take my motorbike and go there. It was a long ride back and forth for a bus! But worth it! I looked at the front and thought it was worth the trip. A beautiful Volvo bus ending up as a shelter for sheep, goats, chicken and dogs! This the third bus I that I found on the island and many wonder if I have had too much ouzo when I start talking about them. But they used to be carrying people around in style and somebody can now use it for other purposes! I smile each time I look at it....

What i face, like a shining lightning in silver and gold!! 



The tenants!

A goat with a necklace, fitting a beautiful limo!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Vangelis, so close a friend of friends....

I remember the cat that did not want to leave your shoulder, but tried to dig her claws into you, for you never to let go! I am happy to be called your friend for real and how much you have always made our island a place for real meetings between people. Perhaps it is to be a bit idealistic, but since I have so many profound experiences with real people from Lesvos, why should I think otherwise?.......


Saturday, November 12, 2011

Gia sou Ellada....

Yesterday the new coalition government was sworn in and kept the clergy busy for a while. Noone knows what will happen, a new election to result in what? Whatever, something that sounds like progress is going on, in between all those tough moments for so many. Hopefully more than a breather and I do not doubt about a good final outcome, one of these days and noone can say when! What I know though, is that you do not have to look Greek or be Greek by origin to feel a brotherhood in love. I do and have done for a very long time.... 




Friday, November 11, 2011

A harbor has many faces...

These incredibly peaceful moments in the harbor, an early coffee or two at Aigeon, loads of fresh fish and colors I never thought were possible to see. I try to approach it with humility. Then I can feel how far away from the maddening crowd I am. Go there, our roads might cross....





Thursday, November 10, 2011

Nostalgia, a reminder of how fast our time is passing....

I never stop getting surprised over how many years I have been to the island, and Ioanna as well. I just found those two artistic drawings of someone who later became a photographer. It is a very strange mixture of feelings that I experience when I look at the Castro in Molivos, the pool at Hotel Delphinia or the Sunflowers just beside. It swings from laughter to a pounding heart. It also gives me the real meaning of what an imprint is to me..... 

The tanning bodies to the right, the feet to the left and the parasolls. The pool at Delphinia.

The Sunflowers by the Delphinia pool and that authentic drawing of the Castro that would have made even the Venetians a bit surprised. But it looks like a home with flower pots and smoke out of the chimney.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

In this messy world, I needed to look at....


somebody really nice and sweet. I woke up this morning and was thinking about how chaotic the world is, how many greedy so called leaders there are, making it a mess for normal people like most of us. I needed to think about somebody nice and kind and smiling, sort of hope-giving human being. I know so many that I could mention, but Anastasía popped up in my mind and immidiately, it felt a bit better. I will make it a habit always to think about somebody I am fond of, when things are dark out there....

Nice to know on chaotic days