on the road (again)

 in the middle of the olive harvest
done as the people of this land have been doing for thousands of years
(image from here)

I am leaving, to play for Gilgamesh and to tell the story of Odysseus in Amsterdam..

this little guy, named Argos, will be waiting for my return, keeping Luka and telemaco company. when he grows up he will look more like a lion than a lamb..he is a greek sheepdog, now little soul, psychoula, as we say

   the country may be falling to pieces, or not, but these dreamers are reading our founding tale aloud in the streets of Athens, to comfort, to dream, to find a way, to not be silent, to continue

nightime storytime dreamtime

This is the ultimate storycloth 

an

unnight cloth

it holds our stories
it holds our dreams

 and then it lets them go

 they escape through the unstars

Luka says hello

we read a book of the Odyssey at a tea shop on Sunday. Aloud, but not too loud..for a while all was quiet, they even stopped the music.

if you are on facebook check out the group mythologue, I post explanations in English..we are organising a reading of the whole Odyssey on the street, in the centre of Athens



I found the sheet on the street, in Athens.dirty but not odious. went through the longest hottest wash twice..it is strong cotton, lovely for storycloth. I do like the moment when it is just a blank screen- it could still be anything...

october

I do not know what the right path is. My mind is foggy. I envy the cypress for its certainty.
Moonrise.


a gentle slope, a young olive grove waiting for the moon to bless it
I've been making inks. Rhamnus, (persian berries), walnut, and the queen: pomegranate
my city looks like this a lot lately

September

September is a bit like the new year..

saying goodbye to the summer

I went to spain for a few days to see this young man who is already taller than his dad. My son Antonio who is now living in Warsaw.

Telemaco, second son, in the blue shirt, on the first day of school. it is his last year in primary school. He is growing fast too.

I am jobhunting, reading ads for childminders. I have made some tentative efforts to actually get a job, but it seems I'm not quite decided yet..but the time is getting close, when I'll absolutely have to find a means for making money..

In the meantime I made a cloth for Leonidas, my cousins son, a cloth which actually got made! I had started a bigger one for him, but it wasn't getting finished any time soon, so i decided to make something that he could hold while still a baby.. it took about 15 hours to make.. with finishing it as the main aim





and I like it.

a little story

we were eating at the fish tavern. A little girl crossed the road, wearing her swimsuit, at eleven o'clock at night and swam in the black sea, happy as a fish, or a mermaid.talking later with her mother..she told me that she is a handfull, drives her (the mum) crazy. And that she is only 4 years old. I was making sympathetic noises, secretly rejoicing in the little one's spirit. (there was a grownup with her, watching from the beach)
as I was being sympathetic, the mother went on: "and do you know what she did? she wanted to take her swimmimg aids off, and I wouldn't let her because she is too young, and the little devil BIT them off with her teeth!!"
I couldn't hold back, a loud HURRRAAAYYY was heard, right there in the fish tavern, after midnight, two nights ago.

update

to all of you who read here and especially those who have left comments in the previous posts..thank you so much, your words of support give me courage and strength, they mean the world to me

we keep on getting austerity measures that are harshe and harsher, taxes piled upon taxes, and it doesn't look as if they are getting any results..

the computer is very uncooperative in the heat, it closes after loading sites and pictures, it gets overheated or just fed up..

I will visit individually, but I wanted to say a collective thank you

the japancloth is travelling with me to spain to be stitched down, and it will be presented to the Embassy in December

in between travelling:

I've made a feather for jude's feather project




I wanted it to be special, so I made the "cloth" first-pomegranate dyed crochet yarn, with a few extra strands of indigo added as an after thought
catching the shadows. It;ll go in the post on Tuesday
I learnt how to twine rags into string, and she got a head of hair, made from the mnemonic device I used while composing the tale I'm telling
and a face, and a name..meet ANNA the raglady
making a book of fabrics .. the Odyssey, part b, of course
abit like a vertical quilt- stacked layerson to the next voyage then.. see you soon!

a small chronicle in pictures

hibernating blogwise-the computer seems to be in a good mood today, it let me upload the cellpics

I've been travelling, storytelling
a storytelling spot on mt.Pelion, home of the centaurs. Built by the Ottomans, used by everyone to access water

coming down from the mountain a ferry took me across
tsipouro, meze and music on Pelion, after the Odyssey. what you can't see in this picture is the sea- astounding view
the same village, on mt Pelion
this is Syros, the port of Ermoupoli, once capital of Greece
a lot of sea travel when touring in Greece
On Crete, Psiloretes, called also mt Ida, birthplace of Zeus.
rusty pump in Amari, Crete
I did tell the Odyssey here, it is in Gerakari, Crete. the best audience I've ever met.
cushions in the school at Amari, the school is not in use
a pile of saints in the same school, and a cloth in need of mending. I did consider nicking that cloth, but only for a moment
marble beast on the church at Agios Georgios, on Pelion
what is this lady doing on the wall of the church, on a mountain??
ripple weaving at sunset at Chania, Crete

turbulence in the port at Syros