Carnival is over

The only participation of mine at Carnival this year was at school where on Tsiknopempti we had a short celebration with traditional dances and some English songs too.
Head and Shoulders...and Hockey Pockey....

 Gaitanaki

 For teachers too.

Today a long weekend is over.
On Saturday we walked Barca at the sea front. The weather was very cold and windy but sunny.

She can run free there and play with other dogs. So far she has played very well and bigger dogs respect her.
Sunday the weather kept sunny although very cold but we decided we should go to the beach house after so many months.
We enjoyed the last meat of the time as Lent begins on Clean Monday.

 Barca had her first time at the beach and she looooved it.

 I collected some beautiful sea glass but very little.

 And Barca helped. See that lovely bag Marabeth sent me to collect sea glass in?

 And I found that plant or sponge whatever it is.

 Flowers were blooming.

 But it seems the cold destroyed them on our trees.

 Today was different, very cold and rainy.
The open market in my street had very few vendors. Isn't it great to have the florist opposite your balcony?

The Queen of Sheba, aka Barca, was waiting patiently for her walk.

 We took our coffee and snack, lagana bread and halva, which are traditional for the day and went to picnic at the sea front.

We watched the kites fly or try to.

And of course Barca played with friends.

Frieda was here.

I have so much fun when my friend Frieda from Skiathos is here. We do things together and I have an excuse for hubby that Frieda will just stay for a couple of days and we have to do things and see things. So I am away from home all the time!LOL!Not that I need an excuse for that!
So Frieda came on Wednesday and we had some coffee and caught up. Then on Thursday which was Tsiknopempti we went for a shopping walk at the city centre. I bought some licorice tea and some felt to try my hands on wet felting.

Then we had lunch at a small tavern. It is customary to eat meat on that day and so we did.

Frieda had introduced me to this etsy shop dutchsisters and here our bags met each other.Aren't they lovely? I hold mine every day and it has kept its shape so well.

Then on Saturday we went again for a walk.
We saw some lovely tops decorating Koperti, a friend's school in the neighbourhood.

Then we walked more and we saw a new antique store.We had to pay a visit although it wasn't filled  with merchandise yet.

We loved the ceilings and frescos on the walls.

We did a little bit of shopping too.

Here is what I bought at very good prices.
A big hand embroidered vintage tablecloth. I loved the colours and the patterns on it.

 And this 40-year-old Russian book. It is Alexander Pushkin's Poems and Tales and although I cannot read Russian I love its beautiful illustrations.

Then we went to Vafopouleion Institute where we visited an exhibition of realia from the 1821 war of independence.
We had a guided tour by one of the collectors who were presenting their beautiful items there and we very much enjoyed it.One could see paintings, jewelry, traditional clothes, guns and my favourite various types of embroideries.Like this golden work.Isn't it magical?All this handstitched!

 And I loved the portrait of beautiful Katerina Botsari.

 And the vignette about Lord Byron.

 I adored this piece of embroidery too.

Of course such a great walk had to finish with some tsipouro at our favourite Volos restaurant and a walk at the sea front.

It was fun Frieda, let's do this again.
By the way I have probably told you again that Frieda and other talented ladies on Skiathos island are working hard for their "child" the Green Fox Project. They are collecting and recycling all the plastic bottles and tin cans of the island all by themselves voluntarily. They need a car to do this job and they have started a pledge to gather some money to get one. So if anyone wants to help (every little bit helps) you can go here or on the button of the Green Fox project on my side bar and donate as much as you would like to.