Red, the colour symbolic of passion, love…and anger.
How is that? How can it be both?
“When anger rises, think of the consequences”. Confucius
Κόκκινο, το χρώμα συμβολικό του πάθους, της αγάπης … και του θυμού.
Πώς είναι αυτό? Πώς μπορεί να είναι και τα δύο;
Oh oh there’s a little spider on my Haworthia (zebra) plant. :0
Right after the catastrophic fires in Eastern Athens came heavy torrential rain that brought flooding to the North of the city. This July blood red moon was not a good one. It brought a lot of catastrophes from the fires in California, to the earthquake in Indonesia, flooding in India and Japan. I do believe that God gives us signs in the sky. If you take a close look at the top of the first photo you can see either Jesus or an angel. 🙂
Αμέσως μετά τις καταστροφικές πυρκαγιές στην ανατολική Αθήνα ήρθε βαρύτατη καταρρακτώδης βροχή που έφερε πλημμύρες στα βόρεια της πόλης. Αυτό το κόκκινο φεγγάρι του Ιουλίου δεν ήταν καλό. Έφερε πολλές καταστροφές από τις πυρκαγιές στην Καλιφόρνια, στον σεισμό στην Ινδονησία, πλημμύρες στην Ινδία και την Ιαπωνία. Πιστεύω ότι ο Θεός μας δίνει σημάδια στον ουρανό. Αν κοιτάξετε προσεκτικά την κορυφή της πρώτης φωτογραφίας, μπορείτε να δείτε είτε τον Ιησού είτε έναν άγγελο. 🙂
I took these photos on the terrible day of Monday July 23rd. On Sunday and Monday the temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius. On Monday the howling winds and news of a fire outside of Athens had me worried. I went to the rooftop and I could see some smoke coming from Kineta (30 miles west of Athens) where firefighters were fighting a huge blaze. It was all over the news. Directly across me I could see a huge plume of smoke billowing from Mt Penteli.The whole atmosphere was eerie.. like it was doomsday. These strong winds pushed the flames from the mountain of Penteli down to the seaside resort of Mati and to the port of Rafina. That night the fire would claim the lives of 91people (as of today), with 88 with critical injuries and 25 people still missing. Greece is in a state of shock and is in mourning. Everyone is devastated. This was incredibly shocking and brought back memories of the great fires that raged in Peloponnese in 2007 that took the lives of 63 people.
Smoke from Mount Penteli. The fire that began there would go on to destroy the seaside towns.
Many people were stranded on the beach and had to be rescued by boat. Some good Samaritan fisherman rescued dozens of people. Many people drowned as well as they escaped from the fire to the sea; they were left to swim in the water for up to 5 hours. There are many sad stories and stories about survivors and the courageous firefighters and locals who saved dozens of lives.
Sadness has turned to anger and many people are left wondering why this happened. What mistakes were made and how could have this disaster been prevented? Every summer myself and family members would drive to the beaches of Marathon. We drove by Mati. Last summer we made a stop at Mati but changed our minds at the last-minute. Partly because we couldn’t find the beach and because it was a bit claustrophobic. We found the area a bit confusing and had to ask for directions to get back to the main road.. It was definitely a death trap. I could see how people, could get trapped there. The beach was not easily accessible, there was a cliff and it took a long time to get back to the main road.
If this bad news was not enough, I found out on the same day that the night before, there was yet another shooting in my hometown of Toronto. Gun violence is out of control in the city that was the safest in North America. This time it was in the neighbourhood that I grew up on the Danforth (Greek town) this is the safest and most liveliest area in all of Toronto. Tragically, two young girls an 18-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl were murdered by gunfire and 14 injured others injured by the hands of a lunatic, a most hateful man. I feel zero sympathy or pity for him. It angers me that the Toronto media is trying desperately to garner sympathy for him. He is not the only person who had mental issues in the world and he is certainly not the only one who has suffered in his life. Shooting random innocent people is a deplorable and cowardly thing to do. It’s time to take all the guns away from men. Disarm all psychopaths! No one needs a gun. There isn’t a war going on in the west! Enough!
My thoughts and prayers to all of the innocent lives that were lost this year. Μy deepest condolences to all of the families and friends who have lost their loved ones.
I hope, that after all of these tragedies, that big and drastic changes happen all over the world. It’s wishful thinking, I know, but all we are left with is hope.
A gallery of modern works of art at the Syndagma Metro station in city of Athens.
Πινακοθήκη σύγχρονων έργων τέχνης στο σταθμό του μετρό Σύνταγμα στην πόλη της Αθήνας.
Lottery ticket man
Reading the news in the summer heat.
A ‘Koulouri’ stand.
Greeks and tourists walking a Syndagma Square
Just a few photos of downtown Athens on a very hot July day. As a permanent resident of Athens, I normally avoid going downtown often in July; especially during the daytime, because only Crazy people do that. But, I had to do some summer shopping and there were some good sales, so why not?
Μερικές φωτογραφίες του κέντρου της Αθήνας σε μια πολύ ζεστή μέρα του Ιουλίου. Ως μόνιμος κάτοικος της Αθήνας, συνήθως αποφεύγω να πηγαίνω στο κέντρο συχνά τον Ιούλιο, ειδικά κατά τη διάρκεια της ημέρας επειδή μόνο οι Τρελοί άνθρωποι το κάνουν αυτο. Αλλά, έπρεπε να κάνω μερικές καλοκαιρινές αγορές και υπήρξαν κάποιες καλές προσφορές, οπότε γιατί όχι;
Various shades of blue from the summer skies of Athens.
Διάφορες αποχρώσεις του μπλε από τον καλοκαιρινό ουρανό της Αθήνας.
I have never seen lightning like this before.
I changed the exposure to the already red-violet sky. Love the colour purple.
Some crazy sky and lightning shots from last month. We had a stormy month and it felt more like fall than summer here in Greece. Luckily, I wasn’t hit by a lightning bolt while waiting forever to get a shot of a lightning bolt. I’ll try different techniques in the future and be more prepared.
Μερικές τρελές φωτογραφίες με τον θυμωμένο ουρανό και αστραπές από τον περασμένο μήνα. Είχαμε έναν θυελλώδη μήνα και αισθανόταν περισσότερο σαν φθινόπωρο από το καλοκαίρι εδώ στην Ελλάδα. Ευτυχώς, δεν χτυπημθηκα από ένα αστραπή ενώ περιμένα για πολλη ωρα για να τραβηψω μια φωτογραφια με αστραπες. Θα δοκιμάσω διαφορετικές τεχνικές στο μέλλον και θα είμαι πιο προετοιμασμένη.
Just a rough last-minute sketch in honour of Canada day. I think that the illustration would have been more accurate if I had drawn a box of Kraft Dinner, a Tim Horton’s coffee cup and a Harvey’s Burger 😉
A distant shot of the ‘strawberry moon’ from yesterday. Before this year I had never hear of this phenomena. It is called a strawberry moon because the Algonquin tribes of North America saw the pinkish moon as a sign to harvest the wild strawberries. Strawberry time! 🙂
Μια μακρινή φωτογραφία από το ‘strawberry moon’ δηλαδή φεγγάρι «φράουλα» από χθες. Πριν από αυτό το έτος δεν είχα ακούσει ποτέ για αυτo τo φαινόμενo. Ονομάζεται φεγγάρι «φράουλα» επειδή οι φυλές Algonquin της Βόρειας Αμερικής είδαν το ροζέ φεγγάρι ως σημάδι για τη συγκομιδή των άγριων φραουλών. Ωρα για φράουλες!
