Believe it or not, all good things come to an end; that includes our paradise on Paros.  Karin and I have decided that our needs and desires have changed.  So we are moving on to greener pastures literally and figuratively.

Hopefully we can carry on the lessons learned about integrated lifestyle from the previous post as we change the Greek taverna for the Prague pub.  I have initiated a new web site to go along with the change:  www.TravelShepherd.com  Please take a look.

As you will see on the new site we will not be abandoning Paros.  I will continue posting in this blog as items of interest to grecophiles come to my attention.  I will continue to host workshops and market private villa rentals, actually expanding this to include holiday homes around the world.

Our primary “home” will be moved elsewhere but we will return to Paros as often as business dictates. So please help us get back frequently by signing up for art or cooking workshops or hiring a villa by the sea, its cheaper than you think.

Cheers,

Hey, any of you dear readers have Nokia mobile phones?

A while back I discovered this site for adding one’s blog as an App for Nokia.  What the hell, I’ll try anything . . . when it comes to marketing.

Which reminds me, please Like my up-dated Paros Hospitality page on Facebook.

Spending the winter on an island can cause people to do strange things in search of interesting activity.  They may even take up blogging.

This photo is from the newest blog from Paros.  The Parianos is a fun combination of wit and whimsy.  Check it out, but don’t forget to come back here once in a while for that is my posting schedule.

Cheers

One of the motivations for this blog is that we enjoy sharing our Paros paradise.  Last week we stepped out of the virtual realm to share our island with a couple we met through blogging.

Chuck and Claire are an American couple that recently retired and are travelling around Europe in a camper van.  Karin quickly found empathy with their journey and became a pen pal with Claire.  While passing through Greece Chuck and Claire decided to park their van and ferry to Paros for a few days.  We are so glad they did.

I won’t put any excerpts of their visit here.  You must go to their blog to see the photos of Paros in March:  Our Greek Island Idle

Enjoy

Well, dear reader—the few of you left—we are now back on Paros enjoying the slow pace of digging out from under the back log of work.  Here we take a break by gazing out to sea or a short walk through the village.  In Prague our days were filled with hopping on a tram or Metro to some site, museum or shopping centre and we took our breaks in art nouveau coffee shops.

In fact we were so busy that my Prague blog is quite empty.  But Karin did quite a few photo journals that I eventually hope to include there.  So if you are interested in Prague check our CzechMates in another month or so or just watch here for a bulletin.

On Paros the sign of a new year beginning is not the Easter clean-up, which starts in earnest next week, rather it is the Art Appreciation series by IPAC—International Paros Art Circle.  I have written about this before.  To find these just search IPAC in the search bar at the top of the page.

Here is this year’s schedule:

This spring there will be a new series of Round Table Talks,
each one having a different speaker and theme.
They will start at 7.30 pm with a 40minute lead-in Talk
followed by discussion.

We hope you will be able to attend these interesting evenings, with lively conversation and discussion.

There will be cheese and wine to follow.

There is no charge and you do not have to be a member of IPAC,
just someone who enjoys art, creating it – or both.

The Talks and discussion will be in English.
Wednesday 17th March   Ramona Ghika, BA Hons Ceramic Design, Central St. Martins College, University of the Arts London

Subject: Endless Creativity:

Inspiration is everywhere. And if you don't see it, look again!

Wednesday 28th April  Ben Nash, Cartoonist
Subject: Sex, Death, Money & Madness:
Human frailty in the world of cartoons

Wednesday 5th May  Subject: will be announced

Please come and invite your friends. Everybody is very welcome.

at Apothiki Art Center in Parikia, 7.30 pm

Yes, Paros is busy in its own relaxed way.  We are looking forward to a lot of visitors to share it with.

Cheers,

Guest post by my wife, Karin:

A big decision has been in the making over the past few months in our house by the sea. Deliberations going back and forth, with discussions of personal dreams and desires. Which has been fun in a way, because these "meetings" required only my husband and I and usually a couple glasses of ouzo!

It all started last year, in fact, with our 10 day trip to Prague for the Christmas Holidays...and it was Love At First Sight for both of us! When we left, I dragged my feet, cried a few "real" tears, and vowed to come back. Michael, as always, was a bit more quiet about it all, but actually his mind started thinking...slowly at first, but gathering momentum as the year passed. A busy summer came, and fall and winter were before us.

Now as wonderful, lovely, etc as life can be here on this beautiful island of Paros, it has one BIG drawback. When the tourists go home, and the island belongs to the locals again everyone sighs a big sigh of relief. For a couple of months we really enjoy the peace and quiet….the empty roads….the empty beaches. Then reality hits us....when the shops close, restaurants close, friends go back to their "other" homes in various places...and we are suddenly left with what feels like: nothing. OK, the scenery is still to die for, but culturally, it is about a 0 on a scale from 1 - 10! We have no TV (long, technical story – others on the island do) and we can only read just so many books. And how many times can you walk around the island….talking to the sheep?

That is the time a person starts dreaming their dreams...of getting off the island and finding some culture that inspires! But where? As everyone knows, the economy this year sucks so it has to be someplace close to home and not so expensive to get there.

Turkey was an option, as we travelled there last year and thought how much we would enjoy going south, to Bodrum perhaps, and stay a month or two. But somehow that did not appeal as it really is not that much different weather wise to here. (Is it possible to admit that we get tired of sun every day? People who live where it is cold and grey would never say yes to that!) Then, in a flash, we both looked at each other and said, "PRAGUE"! It just sounded and felt SO right.

From Michael again:

So this Thursday, Thanksgiving in the US but nothing here, we are on are way off island until March. I will be keeping up this blog as I find Paros and Greece items to write about—probably about the same frequency as I have the last few months. But even better, Karin will be joining me in writing about our Prague adventures. Those readers who have seen her past photo journalism efforts know they are in for a treat.

Please add this link to your readers, RSS, bookmarks, favorites, whatever you use: http://www.parosparadise.com/CzechMates

My To Do list grows ever longer.  So until I get around to updating my blogroll of other Greece blogs here is a link to a Greek island web site that lists a few with the added benefit of edited descriptions.

Until I get my photos better organized here is a blog of Greece Images that are truly terrific.  You don't normally see black and white in this land of blue and gold so I chose this one to show.  Most images on the site are quite colorful.  http://greekimages.blogspot.com/

4 0 0  

This my blog post number 400.  I have not been able to think of anything special to commemorate it.

Then this morning I saw an announcement for embedding Google news.  I decided to give it a trial although I am not a fan of unfiltered news.  I never watch TV news; I select which stories I want to read from the internet or newspapers.  To me TV news is a daily dose of poison dominated by disasters and negative speculation by alarmists.  O.K. moving on . . . check out the news feature near the bottom of this blog.  It is filtered for these key words:  Paros island,Greek islands,Greece,expatriate

For this 400th blog on Blogger I should also comment that as a host Blogger is improving all the time.  I have wanted to change to WordPress because it is more adaptable and has more features available.  Lately I have been composing with Windows Live Writer; it is much better for composing photos and texts than the regular Blogger editor.  So no major changes in the foreseeable future although there are many facets that I am not satisfied with such as the Archives organization.

Next post will be more on Greek island life with photos, I hope.

I just won a bottle of my favourite Scotch from BloggersBase.  Well they said $40, but to me $40 of found money means a bottle of Macallan.

"BloggersBase is a citizen journalism magazine powered by YOU!"  In other words a magazine like format in which bloggers and readers vote on articles and posts--and, of course, win prizes.

It is new and has some growing to do, but I like it.  Check it out by clicking the banner, then we both win.

Cheers,

I am about ready to organize my photos from a recent trip to Delphi.

In the mean time you should check out this free Cowpetition on the John Cow site. Not only does he have over $27,000 in listed prizes--tools and services for internet marketing--you can win by receiving an informative demonstration of how to set up and market a money earning blog.
You can't lose at http://www.johncow.com/cowpetition/

I have been busy so my backlog of posts is stacking up. Please notice that I have added a widget so you can help me choose the best subjects.

Last year a neighbor gave us a few gourds. Karin cleaned out a couple to make pots and tossed the seeds and other innards over our wall.

This year despite a dry, hot summer we had a bumper crop of volunteer gourds. This is just a portion of the harvest.

We picked them early because of the forecast was for extended rain and we did not want them to rot.

Does anyone know what we can do with them besides paint them and shake them? Help please!

This photo is from our veranda after the first night of cloud burst.



Attention bloggers and webmasters: AuctionAds, the eBay affilliate now has a new product, Shopping Ads that pay per click. Please see the sample at the bottom of this page.

A university student blogger temporary living on Paros asked this question. She wrote:

"As September blows into October, the islands are already changing. When we arrived in Greece three weeks ago, the streets were thick with hundreds of tourists. Then they were gone. As suddenly as the season changed from beach weather to sweatshirt temperature, the crowds outside my apartment dissipated. Thank goodness.

I was riding in a taxi last Sunday with three good friends. Our driver was an old Greek man who could speak English fluently. I asked him curiously, what was his favorite time of year on Paros? He didn't hesitate, "When the tourists leave."

Imagine if our campus was an archeological site. Instead of 150 years old, it was 1,500 years old and known throughout the world for its beauty. Every year, millions of tourists would arrive by bus, train, and hot air balloon to snap pictures of buildings where we live. They would need food, water and places to stay. They don't usually recycle, rarely speak our language and typically leave their trash behind.
Prices everywhere would rise because of higher demand, but they would arrive regardless, awed by the beauty of our quaint paradise. And you, dear friend, would either cater to their needs or eventually be forced to leave.

At minimum you would need to speak something besides English. At that point we might understand how the citizens of Greece feel during tourist season."

Complete Original.

I finally have an excuse for not posting.
This update to the new Blogger and a new template is not going well.

It all seems to be misinterpretation of XML code since the same code worked well in the old blogger. But I am plodding away.

Once I get it working then I will fine tune fonts, colors, photo and the like.
Is this fun?

Auction Ads is going from strength to strength. This group allows bloggers and webmasters to harness the power of eBay in a fun and profitable way. Read all about it on their site; it is simple and easy.

Use this link and they will start you out with a $25 credit to your account. There are no charges; they pay you when your commission earnings reach $50.

Sep 16 Update: See sample ad at the foot of this page.






Sep 11 Update: $25 Sign-up Bonus must be the in thing. Now Capital One is offering two for each new credit card--one for you and one for me. So if you would like a Capital One card contact me by Comment or email and I will give you the code that allows each of us to have $25 credited to our accounts.

Sep 17 Update: The blog traffic exchange site Blog Soldiers is running a special offer as well. Take a look!

Cheers,

P.S. Those looking for Greek island content keep reading below.

Blogger has a new feature by which you can "browse profiles". I just used it to find other blogs from Paros.

Here are two:
M in Greece Now! - A young Canadian living on Paros with a Greek boyfriend.

Paros Animal Welfare Society Blog - This group constantly struggles against the tide of homeless cats and dogs on Paros.

On another Paros subject here is an update on the Marion True / Getty Museum / illegal antiquities controversy. This one is more pro-Marion than we have seen: The Human Cost

Don't forget to come back here to see the photos below when you have finished reading these other blogs. Cheers.

I can identify with World Lizard Day. We have as many as five geckos living on our veranda--read about their entertainment value here--and recently a lizard at our front gate.


At least our resident bug population seems to be down this year.

In our part of Greece stone walls are more than common. It is not uncommon to see lizards sunning themselves on the stone walls. This Flickr photo by leslie_NAXOS

On Squidoo there is an excellent lens on lizards at http://www.squidoo.com/world-lizard-day/

Squidoo is fun and can be profitable. Register with this code: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/Paroshep Please.

The other evening we went to Antiparos to enjoy the sunset from a patio bar there. They have a great snack plate at the Sunset Bar and Grill.



On the way I was amazed at how many people can kite board without ending up in a tangled mess.



Attention Bloggers: The blog traffic exchange, Blogazoo, announced they were closing down. An alternative that I am now using is Blog Soldiers. Take a look here: http://www.blogsoldiers.com/splash3.php?rid=7008

Today I was transitioning between chores (read relaxing on the internet) and in my StumbleUpon network discovered a great site showing birds and other wildlife from Greece.

It is by wildlife photographer Panos Oikonomou.

I just recently discovered StumbleUpon and am really enjoying it.

The large photo is one we took of a wierd rock formation in a remote part of Antiparos.

Read about the Aegean Wildlife Hospital on Paros.