John and Juliana were here.

Don't worry...I am here,too!
Simply I have been too busy to blog!
It is the end of the school year and it is always hectic at this time of year at school whether you are a student or a teacher!
My son is having in-school exams to pass to the next grade and I am trying to help him in some subjects he is not very good at.
At the same time at school the two English Department students I have had in my class for a month have finished their practise and as their mentor I had to prepare their portfolio.
Also as a subheadteacher I have to fill in all the students grades reports and at the same time as a teacher I have to finish up as much as I can from my curriculum since schools will be over on June 15th and till then we will definitely miss quite a few classes with school day trips and educational visits.
Spring cleaning is also a chore in both winter and summer houses.And of course I have to finish all my mail before I go on holiday.(That's wishful thinking,I know!)
So all in all I am having quite a busy time.
Thank you for all your comments and your concern with e-mails about my vanishing!
I am glad there are a couple of people who find my blog interesting and read me and miss me!
Today I will only tell you about a meeting I had this weekend.
Ever since I joined the sea glass sites I have made many online friends.Till now I had met three.Neus in Barcelona,and Irene and Frieda who both live in Greece and had visited Thessaloniki.
But this time it was John and Juliana from Scotland who were on holiday in Polychrono in Halkidiki an hour away from my summer house. So since they were so near hubbie and I decided to go and meet them.
It was a great meeting.First we had some coffee at their cozy little hotel called Ammos(that means sand in Greek) and we exchanged gifts. John and Juliana have been very generous with me and they know how much I love sea glass and certain types of it that I don't find here like marbles but also they know my love for cross stitch so they also brought me some cross stitch books and magazines for which I am grateful!
We then went sea glassing at the beach in Polychrono!Funny there wasn't much sea glass there but there were lots of beautiful round stones(I collected some for Margie) and well worn bricks and tiles.We collected for half an hour together and I gave what I found to Juliana keeping only some bigger pieces she couldn't carry in her luggage but thought seriously that I should go back in summer to collect tile pieces as my beach does not give out as many or as various and beautiful.
And then we went for lunch to a beautiful village called Afytos or Athytos pegged on a cliff overlooking the sea.We enjoyed spending time with our sea glass friends and we talked about various things. I tried quite a bit to get used to Juliana's Scottish accent and of course the men talked about sports!Oh well!
Here are photos from this meeting.
At Ammos Hotel.

 Polychrono Beach.

 A boat.

 Sea glassing!

 Oooops,John you just missed this tiny piece!

 Afytos or Athytos village.

 A T-shirt that totally shows how the Greeks feel about the financial crisis here.

 Afytos Square.The Folk Museum.

 The view from the restaurant.

 Two sea glass mermaids!!!!It's a small sea glass world.

 Greek traditional food.Ouzo of course.Grilled bread with olive oil and oregano,Greek salad,grilled aubergine with garlic and red peppers,bouyourdi(feta and yellow cheeses with hot pepper and tomato in a teracotta pan),boiled green leaves,grilled octopus(Maaaaaarabeth!!!!!),soutzoukakia(a type of meatballs not in the photo) and ....

 ....grilled sardines that I am sure vegetarian Juliana hated us for!LOL!

 Hubbie feeding the resident cat.

 The four of us!Yia mas!(Cheers!)

 The weather kept good!
That's the chutch in Afytos.

 John and Juliana generously brought me so much sea glass.The blue and white pottery pieces are from a local pottery manufacturer in Scotland.I loved the stopper and the marbles!But my favourite piece  is the huge green half burnt piece on the right bottom corner.

 Cross stitch books and magazines that I loved!

 Celtic knots how-to book in A handbook of Celtic Ornament by John G. Merne.

 50 Country garden cross stitch designs by Lynda Burgess..

 I was impressed by this passion flower design in Cross Stitcher magazine.

 And more celtic knots.

 But especially of this lovely boat picture by Simon Hart which I definitely want to stitch.

 Making your own cross stitch gifts by Sheila Coulson.

 We were also gifted some fudge and Old Saint Andrew's Scotch whisky. I am not a fan of whisky (hubbie will enjoy it) but this little golf ball is going to be filled with sea glass for sure!

 The pieces Juliana could not take with her along with some lovely agates and stones.

 That's the chess set John and Juliana had sent me some time ago by post as a gift and were so kind to replace a couple of pieces that had broken.

 A celtic cross John made for me!

 Their sea glass rests in Marabeth's milk glass bowl.

 As I have said before I don't usually show the gifts I give but I always make an exception when something is handcrafted by me so this is the lighthouse I stitched for Juliana(sorry John!LOL!). The blue frame was salvaged from my old school and was custom reframed to fit this design.

I am so happy that the sea glass has brought me close to so many people around the world.