this was our first day out on board the "doris"....a new power boat named after a sea nymph of ancient mythology....or so we're told.....

the second table from the left is us, christopher in bright teale, david and barney in the straw fedora...i of course and making nice with the lobsters in the harbor....this is how you decide what's for lunch.....

if you go out for lobster and they ask which one you want....

if the lobster aren't sitting in the ocean with net, you aren't actually getting the freshest seafood of your life....that said, the lobster consumed on this day after taking the boat out of port in kamares and anchoring in couple of little harbors over, was succulent, larger than life and just the right accompaniment to greek salad with sifnos cheese, hummas, house wine and tziki...why don't i eat greek food every single night? this does make me wonder....and now, i've got a hunger that must be sated!!!

this is christopher with the sunsetting over the aegean behind him.....

we were on our way out to dinner and i just happened to think to snap it in passing....the little dome topped chapel is immediately behind Chris to the right (just at the top of the steps) with the house straight back from there to the edge of the earth....

my homage to the sea faring ways of the ancient greeks....little sailboats....

the cliffs around the house were sliding into the Aegean at such a clip that at one point as i was rock climbing and dangling a good 100 or so feet above the jagged waterline below, i felt the rock in my hand above me give way and pummel through me to crash and bounce over everthing in it's path to the sea...luckily, i had firm footing and was able to cling into the rockledge for shelter and dodge the majority of the impact...i did however eat silt, sand, goat-poo and god-only-knows what else as the dirt drifted into my nose, mouth, ears, bathing suit and anywhere else it might fit....oddly the rocks tumble and break into almost uniformly symetrical pieces that i found made lovely sailboats when balanced on themselves....to give you an idea of the size, again, the base of most of these rock boats was about a foot in length and 5 or 6 inches wide....i left a trail of boats from the top of an out cropping down to the edge of the aegean, in all, there were 9 flat surfaces that i put them on, cantilevered and cascading from several hundred feet above the water to just where the waves became petulant....i'm curious to see future pictures from this area so i can see just how stable the arts community is.....

barney, david, christopher and myself in the late afternoon heat....

this photo captures us almost to the top of the kastro....we've had a very rough day of it so far in this shot....without a single complaint from david (it's now 3 or 4 days since the boat incident caused by very high and choppy waves), i found that the on-going pains in his chest around the heart area have slowed him down considerably and find myself insisting that we take him to the doctor for some medical attention...only then do i discover that he's been concerned enough with the discomfort to have already scheduled an appointment for a week later once back in london....why is it men won't stop for directions and seldom can admit they're in pain??? the medical attention here was fantastic - that is once we climbed through the language barrier and got to the second floor of the clinic instead of waiting for another 2 hours with all the village children who were apparantly having their eyes tested....note to self, buy a greek phrase book so i can distinguish between eye exam and chest exam...

david got some lovely pain meds as well as two souvenir (not to be confused with souvlaki, also greek!) xrays of his chest....one broken rib and atleast 2 fractured on either side of it....turns out that doris, the sea nymph (and speed boat) is one with a vengeful take on foreigners on her high seas!

a "small" 3 masted schooner laid anchor on it's way into kamares...later we would get up close and learn it had more than 150 passengers on board....

just to give you a sense of scale between the arches and the distance down to the water and across to the boat...all very grand and very wide open...it's the kind of sight that makes a person fall in love....no matter if it's a boat or a goat....when you're standing right here and watching this day unfold, you know in your heart of hearts it's love like no other!!!

the back terrace, overlooking the swimming hole, far ,far, far below....

the shutters were to one of the front bedrooms....this back terrace opened out from the living room and the bedroom i was staying in on the back of the house....quiet except for the non-stop bleating of the goats as they trekked along the ridge of rocks making up the cliffs...every once in a while, you could hear a lone boulder dislodge and crash it's way from it's pediment to the sea below...the rock scape was something to behold...and every day it offered up subtle changes that only the most observant eye could discern....i tried unsuccessfully to document the shifting landscape through my camera lenses, but even with christopher's new 35 mm digital camera, i was unsuccessful....

a late night view from the house at the monastery looking back down over the harbor to kamares

sunset over the aegean reflecting off the white of the monastery

this is the sun coming up over the chapel at the monastery....bright and early....

some of my favorite folks from sifnos.....

left to right: kate mailor, lady jeanne campbell, peter & cusi hirsch, normal mailor....

this is the wedding photo from cusi and peter's wedding about a decade ago. they live in nyc. lady jeanne passed away last year after a long illness....normal mailor, if i'm not mistaken, also died in the last year or so....kate is just huge and makes the bride look slim....this was in a copy of "hello" magazine in lady jeanne's private apartment in sifnos...

we uncovered it while looking for the lease she had signed on behalf of the smallwood family when they took over possession of the monastery we were staying in...we didnt' find the lease but i'll be darned if i don't adore lady jeanne after the search!

this is the front door of her "villa"....i've never in my life walked into a space and felt so immediately and immensely charmed and overwhelmed with wanting it to be my home....i now understand first hand how a person can say they love their home....for someone who doesn't get attached to material possessions generally, this space, on this island, at this time in my life, really threw me for a loop!!!

you can't imagine the scope and size of this cliff and our swimming hole below.....

telling you that we had to hike down 75 steps carved into the cliff's facade (or was it 175?!) to get to a flat-ish rock over an incredibly deep tidal pool where we could dive in and still manage to get back up from the Aegean without stepping on the spiny sea urchins and maybe worse, the poisonous blood red sea anemones...yet somehow i did manage to de-goat-poop the steps upon arrival, over-heat while still dressed and strip to my undies and dive in all without even thinking about the fact that i didn't know how to get back out or what i might be stepping in as i did so....another braniac moment!

the harbor on sifnos....behind the fishing boat and across the inlet is the monastery we were staying in....

you may notice that there is a severe lack of roadway to it...just to the right of the photo frame is wear the chip & oiled roadway runs into a red clay/dirt pathway which in turn becomes a parking lot which has 2 unmarked but easy to find GOAT paths....this is how one treks from the big boat, the small town, the windup car and the glaring sun....at least 1/4 of a mile to the oil lamp lit monastery we called home....

rush hour on the greek island of sifnos...there must have been over 1,000 goats....i was driving....

this is a close up detail of a naked man supporting a corner of the structure's roof...he's probably 15 feet tall....or taller!

these are the lovely ladies of the parthenon....you can't imagine just how grand they are when you're having brunch across the city of athens and enjoying this as the view....then you climb the acropolis, step by step on the time trodden and weather worn marble paths, slick with perspiration from the thousands ahead of you today....all you want to do is take off your shirt and allow some of the still, hot air to wick away your sweat...but alas, the gods would frown on the gesture, so you keep your shirt on and keep to your sticky and stanky self as you climb....ever higher....

at the top of the acropolis....

the acropolis and the parthenon have long been one of my most favorite places on the entire planet...despite the on-going reconstruction and reinforcement of these age old structures, i couldn't help but be moved close to tears as i thought of the human struggle they have witnessed in 4,000+ years....

it's all greek to me.....

i'm pretty sure this was something witty ....but then again, with all the linguistic differences between ancient greek and modern greek, not to mention plain old american english, this may have well said "please deposit 2 euros for access to the ancient grecian temple area..."

oh my god, it's pouring buckets at 4am, my laundry isn't dry and i'm flying to l ondon in a matter of hours....

that said, YEAH!!!!

by saturday night, i'll be destressed and undressed, not to mention tanned and loving life more than ever as i'll have finally arrived in greece....by sunday lunchtime i'll be on sifnos for an entire week of donkeys carrying luggage and people hiking the cliffs to get to the market, not to mention 170 steps carved into the cliff the house is perched on to get down to the rocks and beach area for the boat below us.....

then back to london and home to new york city, life, LOVE!!!, and of course photoshop, blogging and the new horrid reality of finding a new space to live in as well as figuring out how exactly to orchestrate it all as quickly as possible without getting myself into a bad situation of living where i will not be happy as i've had happen once before....

ok, enough idle chatter. time to run to the 24 hour tanning place for 10 minutes before i shower, shave, go to jfk and fly away for some fun, sun and a bit of home cooking (i'm cooking...)

wait until you hear what happened to me and WHO i've met in the last few days....you're going to be so delighted to find out that something wonderful and incredibly beautiful is happening in my life in the most unexpected way and without even having to think about it....but that's enough of that....i don't want to say any more for fear of being giddy and coming off like a 14 year old girl....again!

talk to you all soon!

love you.
xoxo
wadeo