Turtle Watching in Argostoli Harbour

I am back with my 2nd holiday post from our recent trip to Kephalonia. Thanks for all your lovely comments from my first post and yes it really was Paradise out there.
We hired a car after a couple of days to visit some other parts of this beautiful island. These photos are from our trip to the capital of the island, Argostoli. It was a really steaming day and temperature in the shade nudged up to 39c so we had to duck in and out of the sun and hats were obligatory. We knew that the Loggerhead Turtles live in the waters around  Kephonia and that there is also a family of 8 turtles who live in and around the harbour at Argostoli. Unless you want to stay up all night you would not catch a glimpse of these creatures on the beach as they only come onto the beaches in the middle of the night to lay their eggs during the nesting season. The group that live around the harbour though are often sighted and we kept our fingers crossed that we might see them on the day of our visit.

This is the harbour wall and further round we found the fishermen selling their mornings catches.

Some people ask for their fish to be gutted and the men oblige and then throw the remains into the harbour. The turtles love to come and eat this and we waited for about 10 minutes with no sighting. Then, just as we were about to leave we saw this wonderful sight.

Around the boat came this graceful beauty. She made us gasp as they seem to "fly" in the water.

Then a second smaller turtle appeared, we think they were mother and baby. The Mum was enormous, at least 3 feet across and the baby was about half of her size.

Soon after this off they "flew" again, it was a wonderful sight to see these creatures completely free in the wild. We had a lovely afternoon in Argostoli and had a relaxing drink over looking the harbour before we headed back to our hotel. We got back in time to have a swim in our pool in the late afternoon when no one else was around...perfect.

and after showering and changing we headed out for a wonderful meal up on the beach road towards Poros.

Mousakka , fish pie and of course a glass or two of ice cold Mythos...sheer bliss.
The restaurant  (Called Old Times) had a wonderful poem printed onto the table clothes which read

Welcome to our Place.
You are the source of our strength and inspiration of our new tasty creations.
You can enjoy the spectacular view of the moon and of the Ionian Sea from our balcony
And have the opportunity to relax and travel back to "Old Times".
We hope that it will not be just a typical meal but a memorable experience for you 
To take back Home.


How good is that and yes the view was spectacular and the food memorable!

From our table we were able to gaze out across the idyllic Ionian sea as the sun set.

To remember our fantastic day seeing the turtles I manged to find the perfect new charm for my holiday charm bracelet.

Isn't he cute and he will be added to all my other holiday memory charms that are on my bracelet.

Today's challenge card is another mermaid related card as I just love my new Sylvia Zet digital stamp. Here she is

This time I have coloured her hair blonde using my Promarker pens. Do you prefer the dark mermaid in my last post or this one? As always I have used my Prismacolor pencils to highlight my image. I have also made the bubble more realistic using Dimensional Magic again

I also added some more of my sweet shells I collected from the beach at Kaminia. I have also added some sea related card charms as well as some hand cut bunting, finished off with Baker's Twine.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;
Cupcake Inspirations Beach scene cupcake photo inspiration #166
Joanna Sheen Summer Daze
2 sisters Anything goes #97
Make it Monday Linky Party #95
Creative Mondays  fairies and mermaids #10
Bearly-Mine #41 anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays anything goes #74
Sassy Cheryl's Challenge blog Summer #121








There is one last bit of sunshine I would like share in my post and that is the very kind award that my dear friend Mia has awarded me. Thank you my dear, you always bring me some sunshine.

                                                 
I am supposed to pass this onto 10 other blogs but would struggle to choose as I think everyone deserves it -so please take it if your would like to. I also think that lots of people have this one and some people really don't have the time to participate. One person though I KNOW absolutely loves to receive awards is my artist blogging friend Linda out in the USA. So I will nomimate her by name...here's to you Linda! There are 10  questions I have to answer so here goes.
1.Favourite animal. I am sure everyone knows that...cat and my Billy features on here lots. My other favourites though are pigs...I love those critters.
2. Favourite number. Hmm that's a funny question as I really don't have one at all but I like the shape of a number 8 if that helps!
3. Favourite non alcoholic drink; Tea, I drink far too much.
4. Facebook or Twitter; Facebook as I really cannot get my head around why anyone needs to Tweet!
5.My passion; My family......I would never be who I am without them.
6. Getting or giving; easy..giving... as everyone knows how much I adore Christmas and my biggest pleasure is chosing and wrapping gifts. Sheer magic.
7. Favourite pattern; Anything really but I do like florals and anything inspired by the 1920s.
8. Favourite day of the week; Friday....once I have finished work I have the weekend to look forward to.
9.Favourite flower; daffodil. I love the colour, shape and the promise of spring they hold.
10. Favourite country; England.....I never get bored of living here and being so near to London is really special

The sunshine has decided to start making an appearance this week and we are promised 24c by Thursday so I am looking forward to that too. This morning is my last silversmithing class for the year...how quickly that has gone? Summer will certainly be in full swing then! Have a great week everyone and I hope there is a little sunshine for you too in your little spot of Blogland. And for those of you who are counting down with me.....32 days to go....;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x