Back on the island

Hello there again.. I have just arrived back on Crete, after spending almost 6 weeks abroad with my parents.. Here a picture of the lovely savory, Satureja thymbra, which is blooming so early this year..




What a strange spring here, we have never seen such a spring before.. It was so warm over the winter, and it has rained so very little. The herbs have been confused, and many of them are blooming almost a month earlier than usually.. We have just collected savory, Satureja thymbra along the south coast.. The places are dry, and the grasses already yellow and withering...


Lets see, what this year will bring, there has been preciously little rain.. the plants are struggling for survival..

Now we are going up to the mountains to see how our other plant populations are doing

We have never seen such a dry spring here in Crete, in all these years..

Yesterday we were at an exhibition of artistic stone work here in Chania..
Our good friend Giorgos Koutroubakis, is showing some of his work here in Chania at the 'Teloneio', the old customs house at the harbour until March 31.
Giorgos works stone in such a beautiful way, combining old techniques, ultra modern ideas and exquisite fine details, combinations of natural pieces and carvings...


Here some of the photos I took at his exhibition.. The one above is one of my favorite pieces, even though its hard for me to say, which one is my favorite.. they all have a beauty of their own..
This is an example of the way Giorgos can combine materials in a single sculpture.. mountain crystal, and soft stone to carve details...

Or simply, or not so simply.. natural formations of stone which inspire him to create images..

Natural formations of stone which just ask to express themselves...

Like this one as well, angelic...

However, also fine works of sculpture, chiselled to perfection...

And working with light as well.. as in this piece called orchid...

Here you see Babis to the left, Giorgos to the right.. at the exhibition yesterday, and seated on the bench they made together.. Idea and stonework by Giorgos, woodwork partly by Babis.. Have a good look at this bench..Sitting there invites for communication, the handrests are formed like hands, sitting here, you are holding hands. In the background part of Giorgos' sculpture... Africa

For much better pictures of his art see http://www.perissios.com/text/enstict1.htm this link should lead you straight to the pictures...

Some pictures from the Lavender distillation..

We essentially only distill wild plants we collect ourselves... with one exception..

Gil and Derek grow organic lavender, the french varieties L. angustifolia and L. spica here in Crete..
They do so with all their heart and soul. Just to see their plantation is a magic sight.. The plants are all cultivated in circles, Gill knows each of them, each individual and cares for them in a very personal and spiritual way.

It is therefor with great pleasure that we do the distillation of the essential oils for them. Just handling the plant material, when they bring it to the distillery, we can feel the love and care that has gone into the caring, planting and harvesting.. when Lavendula angustifolia arrives on the back of their pickup, we open the bags to find, that it only contains blossoms, every leaf and coarser stalks have been removed..



You can see the pictures of last years Lavender distillation at
http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/1769602/

Enjoy...

Just to get a feeling of Cretan music, here another video taken when Giangos Chairetis played with Lampis' brother Giorgos Xylouris just a week after our party in Kallikratis.. its a beautiful piece.. I really love it. Full of magic..

Again I have tried for a long time to post it here, again I have given up, so here's the link to the original...

Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/janinaherb#!/video/video.php?v=102349709799857&ref=mf

Kallikratis february...

Well, its not all and only herbs.. There also is time for getting together, playing music, eating and drinking and sharing time with friends..

We had a few days of party in Kallikratis, shared a wonderful time..

Lampis Xilouris and Giangos Chairetis from Anogia played the lutes, drums were played by Charis and Antonis..and many others were singing, clapping hands.. Dimitri joined the next day on bouzouki and mandolin, Panagiotis brought his guitar..

For two days, the house and our hearts resounded with music and rythms, and the singing of 'mantinades', 15-syllable rhyming couplets in Cretan dialect, often improvised..





Here Lampis Xilouris playing with heart and soul..

Giangos Chairetis

We all had a wonderful time.. I wish I could post some soundtracks here, which we recorded.. but it doesn't seem possible.. To get a feeling of some of the music played, you could visit the website of Lampis' brother Giorgis Xilouris, there are some videos and especially the latest one, where he plays with Giangos at http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=270962486382&share_id=320900997552&comments=1#!/video/video.php?v=367422154337

visiting cypress

Well, its been some time that I have contributed anything new.. These first months of the year are low key, no real collection going on, no distillation.... However, its time for visiting.. human and plant friends.. We set out to visit the cypress trees, in the Sfakian mountains above Anopoli one nice day...admiring the way these trees survive...

The cypress trees here on Crete in the mountains are of the original variety, called horizontalis.. full name is Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis.. Cypress is mostly known in its age-long cultivated form, called C. sempervirens var. pyramidalis... the pyramide shaped Cypress so well known from Italian paintings, so well known as a typical tree in graveyards...

I love this above picture a lot.. when we passed by, the sky and the light was dramatic, and somehow the sun seemed to embrace this cypress tree..

And this is how they live as apopulation.. growing just out of the rocks, side by side...

Here we can see their cones....

Their kids...

Salvia pomifera, Salvia triloba

Now was the time for the collection of sage, or rather the sages... we had been waiting for a few days with beautiful autumny weather, to go down to the hills around Argyroupoli, where our populations of Dalmatian, or Greek sage live.. The scientific name of this sage is Salvia triloba, or S. fruticosa (syn.) and its perfume and essential oil has a truly fruity, round and harmonious aroma... The leaves are soft.. as always, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.. We spent 4 days last week here around Argyroupoli, collecting..

The places where we collect are pretty wild, and far from any road...we set out with our boxes and cut the leaves..

Here Joscha is cutting Sage leaves

Babis is advancing through the 'bush'...

You can see sage leaves quite clear here in the foreground

And maybe get an idea of the unspoiled beauty of this area..

Then we carry the filled boxes back to the car up on the dirt-road

And load the car...

The car was parked just under a carob tree, Ceratonia siliqua, also called St. John's bread.. and we used this circumstance to collect some of its ripe seed pods..
Every day we brought our harvest back to the distillery in Modi, to spread the plants in the drying space.. Now they have to be turned everyday, until they are dry and can be distilled..

Now, we also collect another sage species, Salvia pomifera, albeit only for use as herb or herbal tea. This sage is more similar to the common Salvia officinalis..

We collect Salvia pomifera towards the west of Crete, in the gorge near Agia Sophia, between Topolia and Elos..

Here a picture of this plant, you can clearly see the difference between these to species..

And also their habitats are different.. Below you can just see Babis collecting in the gorge...

A spectacular place...