One of the little known features of Paros is the Aegean Wildlife Hospital, one of two in Greece. Founded in 1995 and funded entirely by donations it has had a very successful history of treating and releasing mammals, reptiles and birds.

Because of Paros’ position on a major bird migratory route between Africa and Europe the hospital receives a large number of wounded or exhausted birds. Of course injured animals are sent here from other Greek and Mediterranean locations as well. Olympic Airlines and the ferry companies have been most cooperative with free shipping.

The hospital depends completely on volunteer help including local veterinarians and the Paros Clinic (people’s hospital) donates the use of some equipment and supplies. There is limited residential accommodation at the hospital for visiting vets and other volunteers.

Animals which are injured too seriously to be released are boarded on the hospital grounds in as close to their natural environment as possible. Euthanasia is only used in extreme cases.

As any charitable and volunteer organization the Aegean Wildlife Hospital is always in needs of funds and volunteers. Please consider this opportunity to give something back to the island that has given “the best holiday ever” to so many people.

For current information e-mail awh@parosweb.com

If you find an injured wild bird

Immobilize it by throwing a large cloth over it
Find an adequately sized cardboard box and poke air holes in it
Keep the animal away from your face, place it carefull in the box and close it well
Place the box in a warm, quiet, dark and safe place. (Never leave it outside the house. Injured animals have a unique ability to escape)
Call the hospital immediately to receive instructions on first aid and ways of sending the animal.
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wildlife volunteer Greece

Well the eclipse was a bit of a bust. First we had the time of day wrong. The official notices were in UT time, whatever that is. We had been told by a friend that it would be 10:47 at it's height; it turned out to be 13:47.

Second, we had a partly cloudy day so that the light was dimming and brightening all day. For 20 minutes or so around the eclipse peak the daylight filtered to a strange color, something like caused by a summer rain cloud. Then it brightened again. So we decided we couldn't tell the difference between an eclipse and a rain cloud.

Ho hum. What does tomorrow bring?

I have not seen anything in the news—not that I see much news—but Paros will be having a near total eclipse on the 29th. The total eclipse is in a narrow band across North Africa and Asia so I assume it is not getting much play in the “Western” media.

I am quite interested because we lie somewhere about 90% eclipse. Athens is 86.4 % and, of course, the rest of Europe substantially less. Here is a quote from the NASA site:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html

On Wednesday, 2006 March 29, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.

Karin and I are not so much interested in building a contraption to look directly at the sun as in observing the changes in light in our environment. It will be so quick I don’t imagine much visual effect or response from the farm animals or wildlife but I will be watching. The 4 minute band is relatively narrow; the 1 minute band is just Southeast of Crete which is just South of us. It is about 200 km wide or 120 miles.

I should do more research ahead of time. We will see. I would like to figure out why the band across the earth appears as an irregular wave. Does anyone know—in layman’s terms?

The NASA site has just too much information, but lots of charts and maps if you want more details.

Friday was a long awaited first: The first day that we did not run a heater. Plus as an added bonus we had the window open after dinner. I don't know what temperature it was because the weather stations all said steady wind yet we did not have any.

Saturday was Independence Day here. Since we didn't want to go in to town for the parade this year the biggest impact on us was having the bakery closed for an extra day. The photo was actually taken on Oxi Day last year--another story for another time.

My newsletter friend Jayne wrote a bit about the Greek prejudices that we experience here. I will repeat here:

Update: The above edited photo was provided by my Art Workshop partner Ron Johnson. See his real paintings on his web site: http://rjart.com/index.htm

On 24 Feb I posted about the covering of dust that the strong South winds brought in:
Paros Paradise: African Dirt

Recently a friend sent me this link for information and NASA photos of the dust storm: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=8386

On my computer the smaller view shows the dust over Africa and the larger view clearly shows Paros North of Crete. Of couse you have to know what Paros looks like. I don't know how to mark the photo to highlight it. When I have time on my hands I do want to learn a photo-manipulation program.

Last night was one of the most stimulating evenings that we have had in a long time.

I have written before about the extensive art community on Paros; the organised members are called IPAC (International Paros Art Circle). They are hosting a discussion series loosely based around art appreciation. The first one was titled The Use of Art in Everyday Life but it quickly became What is Art.

The introductory presentation was given by Peter Seibt, an internationally known painter. I was amazed at how comprehensive his analysis was. I didn’t take notes so I can’t sumarise other than to say art pervades every facet of our lives both as individuals and as groups or societies. My conclusion was that art would have a broader base, less elitist, if we used the phrase joy of beauty in place of the word art.

It was rather humorous that when we arrived a few minutes early the only people present were the hostess and one of her friends. We thought Oh, oh, this is going to be a small, intimate discussion group. But by the time we started by Greek time, many minutes late, the room was almost full and several people arrived after that. I would guess over 50 people—very good for any community event. There are two permanent art schools on the island and several of their students were there..

Next weeks discussion is on Ancient Art and Public Art followed by our leading medical doctor on the intriguing title Renoir and Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I love island life.

How time flies. It is been more than 4 days since I posted. What reminded me was 2 for 1 Day at Blogmad. There I was reading blogs instead of posting. You have probably seen this everywhere but head on over at this link to get two visitors for every blog you read--only 11 hours left as I write this: http://www.blogmad.net/index.php?ref=d7a9e4f3a3ea1c2

Here on Paros I have too many things pulling me too many directions. Whoops, I shouldn't have written that because it is a lot less hectic than real life elsewhere. That was supposed to be a lead into the fact that I had a lot of little comments but nothing to assemble into an interesting blog post. But then I realised that part of my time crunch is due to spending a couple of hours on each of two mornings walking the beach looking for shells. We were told that during the Spring Equinox a certain stretch of beach would have large sea snail shells. Nothing yet.

Also driving home from town yesterday I noted two signs that the season had started. By the time I got home I could only remember one: the moped/motor scooter rental/hire shops were now open.

Better luck next post. --Or go to our web site; everything is more together there: http://ParosParadise.com

I banged out another article for content publishing. You saw it here first.



The standard business incentive is to reward high performers with expense paid travel to some exotic or prestigious location. For normal performers it is to allow a vacation so they can pay their own way to the destination of choice.

Now, however, I am seeing more and more articles and references about companies enabling their workers, both employees and “out sourced” personnel (contractors), to work at home. This article extends that idea of home to include the beach, your boat or any other desirable or “life style” location.
(Insert photo of your dream spot here.)

I live and work in a pleasant villa over looking a sandy beach near a quiet village on the Greek isle of Paros. My wife and I have a relaxed and fun lifestyle but we are not making much money. We do hear of others who are making fortunes with website marketing.

Guess I am just not buying enough “How To” books and programs from the professionals who are now teaching instead of doing. They are all working hard to make you rich, of course. I am sure some have actually done very well with original ideas. I think it takes the perfect combination of personality, program, and timing. Oh yes, a little work never goes amiss.

For instance one guy looked like he had a good thing going selling lottery syndicates. I was interested until I found that 20% of your weekly payments went to the lottery; 80% to the people who recruited you. I want to sell a good value product not promote recruiting. There is always eBay.

Nevertheless modern electronics is making the whole concept more viable. Broadband access is now available nearly everywhere and expanding rapidly in capabilities. You can do whatever you want anywhere you want--as long as it involves computers.

Another factor in relocation to the beach is low cost air flights. They allow the work-at-home while living abroad person to maintain connections to office politics as well as visit family. Oil prices, however, seem to have reversed the trend of ever lower air fares.

So you really do have a choice between frenetic commutes and a year around tan. But is it worth the price?


More on our story at our web site

work-at-home,business incentive,relocation,boat,broadband access,website marketing

A Greece site from the U.K. with the appropriate URL: http://i-love-greece.co.uk/

Gill Tomlinson has created "Evocative illustrations from an artist's sketchbooks of Greece" and turned them into a range of hand-made greetings cards.

Gill spent seven years living and working in Greece and maintains a passion for all things Greek! Having worked in Athens, Corfu, Crete & Zakynthos, she went on to study textile design at the Chelsea College of Art & Design. This led to working as a textile designer for many years in London, before escaping to the peace and beauty of the Herefordshire countryside.

Now she and her husband are looking at buying property in Greece. Let's encourage her by visiting her site and maybe drop her a note.

When we walk along the beach Karin goes for the rocks and shells while I search through the assorted flotsam & jetsam paying special attention to the lines and gullies where the windblown debri ends up.

Monday I was rewarded with finding some unusually large floating rocks. It is quite common to find little finger nail size pieces of pumice-like stone along the tide line. These were big toe size pieces.



Aha, thought I. A new business endeavor: we can paint them in the shapes and colours of fish and sell pet rocks that swim! Write me if you are interested in being in on the ground floor of this business opportunity.

(The big, reddish one is a little low in the water but still floating.)

We did find something yesterday. Photos in a future post . . . so you have to come back!

Clean Monday was a bit of a bust for kite flying due to the high winds but the parties all went well. These boys were doing some practicing the day before.

New Scientist Premium- Sunken treasures of the Mediterranean - Features

I don't think this is a very good feature, but it did work for this short article--you have to pay to read the whole thing--.

This is the part relevant to my previous post:
Traces of Bronze Age merchants, ancient heroes and doomed civilisations lie across the sea floor, and we now have the tools to uncover them.

Monday Scattered Clouds. High: 60° F / 16° C Wind South 31 mph / 50 km/h

Bit windy today but we are going on a ride--picnic--hike anyway. Just to get away and hopefully see some kites flying.

Aah yes, hope springs eternal. Did you hear about this:

Greek hiker finds rare prehistoric pendant
By Costas Kantouris, Associated Press February 17, 2006
THESSALONIKI, Greece -- A Greek hiker found a 6,500-year-old gold pendant in a field and handed it over to authorities, an archeologist said yesterday.

Only three such gold artifacts have been discovered during organized digs, archeologist Georgia Karamitrou-Mendesidi, head of the Greek archeological service in the northern region where the discovery was made, said.
''It belongs to the Neolithic period, about which we know very little regarding the use of metals, particularly gold," she said. ''The fact that it is made of gold indicates that these people were highly advanced, producing significant works of art."
She said the pendant, measuring rough 1 1/2-by-1 1/2 inches, was picked up last year near the town of Ptolemaida, about 90 miles southwest of the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Of course this is a long way from us but whenever we walk along the beaches or across the countryside we have our eyes peeled for treasure. We even bring some home on occasion(we are not like the above woman who unselfishly and according to the law turned hers in). Just last week we found two bricks mortared together with the brick worn away so it looks like a bakery dessert. Karin has a huge collection of bottle glass. I have a piece of driftwood that looks like a bird. Today we find gold?

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Karin took these yesterday. The variety of blooms is steadily increasing. Even the weeds are pretty this time of year.

As you may have seen elsewhere, BlogMad is now open for business. It is getting mixed reviews. I find it a bit juvenile but like the one to one surfing ratio plus there are plentiful free credits floating around. For the shake down cruise registration is by invitation only. If you comment here and ask for one I will send it to you.

A comfortable, down home community style blog exchange is Blogazoo. Click here to check it out. Blogazoo

Blog Explosion is the biggest and is working hard to stay ahead of the competition. Click on their button in the right column.

An all purpose source of targeted traffic is Link referral. I enjoy searching through the categories.
Link Referral button:


I am currently researching places for effective publication of travel articles. If anyone knows of top notch sites, please let me know.

Cheers

Today I had a flashback to my childhood. In the semi-rural/semi-suburban area in which we lived we left our car keys in the ignition and never locked the back door. We only locked the front because it was rarely used. By the time I left the area as a young adult that was no longer the case.

Here on Paros we try to remember to lock the door at night or if we are gone for more than a couple hours, but this morning I noticed my motorscooter keys were in the ignition and the house key was there too. No worry.

Security is not an issue here. Children play on the main streets and beaches well into the night--even in Parikia, the main city. Women can walk anywhere, anytime without expecting trouble. It is not that all of our citizens are upstanding; it is that they have no where to go. We have heard there is crime here, but we have seen no evidence of it. Touch wood.

Sunday evening is family night. This is a photo of grandparents on the Aliki quay.