Cretan flowers

Hello everyone. I'm back from hols and now I need another to get over the trip. Got frisked at Gatwick by a lady who really enjoys her work and then shared the flight out with a crowd of Barbary apes on their way to Malia (lucky old Malia). On the way back, as usual our bags were last onto the carousel and we spent anxious hours watching an unclaimed sock and a packet of Imodium going round and round. At times like these I always begin to wish that I'd packed things a little better; just imagine the shame if your case exploded and your dirty linen was left to circle the carousel like some perverted version of the Generation Game. 'A Marks and Sparks shirt that's seen better days, a half used tube of Bonjela and some dodgy looking underwear, Brucie'.

Anyway, we had a lovely time in Crete, so here are some sunny pictures for a change and some nice flowers.

Bougainvillea, white walls and sunshine are always a winning mixture. Hmm. Might photoshop that fire extinguisher later.




I've grown lantanas but they never look quite like this in England.




Lovely old olive trees outside my window.




A very lush fig tree.




Cannas and an air conditioning unit.




The flowers of this plant look and smell like a jumbo version of jasmine but I've no idea what it's called. No doubt our exotic gardeners will know (you're all exotic really, but you know what I mean). Sorry it's a bit out of focus. That's the trouble with all inclusives.




Some fearsomely toothed succulents on the terrace.

 

You got searched on the way out of the UK again? I thought that was just me they did that to?

 

It always seems to happen to me. I think I must have a suspicious face or something. I'd removed every last bit of jewellery and I wasn't wearing a belt, but I still seemed to trigger the alarm. I have heard that wired bras can set the thing off, but to judge from the size of some of my fellow passengers they must have been carrying a lot more underwear ironmongery around than me. I think they just spot someone they don't like the look of and set the bleeper off so they can have a bit of fun. Had a bit of a sense of humour failure at the time and got lectured by OH about how they're only doing their jobs, essential work etc etc. This very nearly resulted in my bringing about a close encounter involving his backside and a large duty free bottle of O de Lancome.

 

Lovely photos ClaraLou .. I recognise all the plants ... :WINK1:

Your unknown scented plant is a Jasminium polyanthum that I have blooming at the moment, lovely heady scent.

Beautiful views over some Aloes I would say ... bet you are pleased to be back in good ole damp, cool, windy Britain ... sorry!

 

Thank you for identifying my plant, Victoria. Does your Jasminium polyanthum have large flowers? On the specimens we buy as house plants I think of it as having small ones but maybe it just doesn't like the British climate or maybe I've got the wrong plant!

No, coming into dreary Gatwick wasn't good. And just to compound things, the snails have eaten rather a lot of my plants.

 

Beautiful pics Clare!! And you managed to crack me up again too!!

 

Nice picture of the plants , but much more impressive are the picture of a sunny summer day , didn`t see a day like that from months .

 

Sadly, I don't have to imagine that. I remember it like it was yesterday, the whole family frantically running around collecting stuff while everyone else watched.

And me. Although once I did seem to confuse the security staff when I made my star shape ready to be frisked just because one of them happened to glance at me. The worst one was on the way out of Spain when a load of burly arms suddenly whacked my chest. I'm sure there were more than twice as many arms as people, and most embarrassingly a woman who was wider than she was tall, who I guess was best at English, told me 'hacket, off, please'. So I took my jacket off and saw it get whisked away quite swiftly into a corner where burly men waved metal detectors at it and poked it with sticks.

 

Thank you very much for those lovely sunny pictures. Even the fire extinguisher looks handsome against a bright, sunbleached white wall.
Do you wish you were still there or are you happy to be back?

 

Hello Jenny. Well, it's always nice to catch up with things at home but, whereas sometimes I am really ready to come home at the end of a holiday, this time I could have stayed for months! It was a lovely hotel and the staff were brilliant; it was their friendliness and hospitality which made the holiday for us. We had never been on an all inclusive holiday before and it seemed, well, wrong to begin with. But I must say I got used to having meals and drinks all day long frighteningly quickly! I'm already plotting a longer return trip to the same hotel. Next time I think we'll hire a car and see a bit more of the island. This trip was really just about vege-ing out and we did that very well indeed. We did do one excursion, out to the island of Spinalonga. I'm glad I did the trip but unfortunately the place has got ridiculously popular because of Victoria Hislop's book 'The Island', which is set partly in Spinalonga. I'm not good with heaving, hot crowds - we get enough of that on the London Underground!

 

Sounds like a dream location Claralou. We were all desperate for a "fix" yesterday and you came along just in time.
I read "The Island" a couple of years ago - very fascinating story I recall.
Anyway, enough of this Sunday morning still in dressing gown and slippers. JOBS TO DO IN THE GARDEN,

 

Good morning Clare. I just went out and measured and mine are 4cm across (I think standard is about 2cm) and I have six petals for some reason.

My J beesianum (red Jasmine) that Mel kindly sent me is still alive but has never flowered and I am wondering if it is too hot and dry for it here ... but I live in hope.

 

Thanks, Vicky. I'm surprised that the J. beesianum is struggling. But now that I come to think of it, my pot-grown plant is amongst the first to wilt in dry spells if I'm late watering it. So maybe it is a bit picky. The common old J. officinale seems to survive more or less anything.

While in Crete, I noticed a tiny rural cottage (little more than a shack, really) which had the most beautiful, luxuriant stephanotis that I have ever seen winding its way around the porch. I don't suppose it receives any attention at all from its owner. Can you grow it in the Algarve?

 

ClaraLou, lovely photos and the place looks a real haven, which bit of Crete? Lantana always makes me think of the med ...

p.s. I'm with Jenny on this one, leave the poor fire extinguisher alone :WINK1:

GG