Well, I am not a photographer and even worse, till very recently, I only used my very old mobile phone to take some pictures.
They are not wow, but they represent important moments for me and sum up quite well the feeling of this year and... what a year! Interesting times for sure!
This year found me a bit week physically and emotionally. Let's just say that my body was out of balance and life seemed difficult. All these work as a vicious cycle, one feeding the other.
For many months I was going out of the house just for the dog walk.
During these dog walks at the mountain first thing in the morning, I could see that the mountains were still in their place and the sun was still rising. That feeling of harmony and security was in absolute contradiction to the daily news of pure terror. It was not just covid, there was terror and ugliness everywhere. While I was surrounded by all this beauty, a pure medicine for the soul.
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One day, I saw this. It was a nice cloudy day, but not a day that you would expect it to rain. However, I noticed that it was raining in the sea, just in one specific spot. Can you see the white dot on the left of the rain? When I realised there was a small sailing boat going straight to the rain (or maybe running away from it?), it ringed a bell. It felt so similar to the present situation of the mankind and myself. Peace all around, trying to run away from the storm and loosing the bigger picture.
The sailor must have felt like the cartoon character that has a cloud over his head...
It didn't rain that day.
There was a moment during this year when I thought that I have made all the wrong decisions I could possibly make. And then, I realized that all I had done all these years were my tools to help me become a better version of me. Moving to a small village, connecting with the Earth, having seminars on herbalism or more woohoo ones, weaving, every little piece started making sense. When I saw this rose (looking as if it is) coming out of the broken door of an abandoned house, I felt a big relation with it and a big relief. Everything is fine. A flower will always find its way to bloom and so can I and so can everybody.
Herbalism, re-connection with nature and re-connection with my intuition and trust in life. Flowers and stones. Going out and collecting them, thanking the plants, creating the altar. This one is by far my favorite one. I love rituals and I think that we miss them a lot as modern people. Rituals have a purpose to make us feel present to the moment, to connect us with our wider self, to ground us, to create connections. This photo makes me feel good just by looking at it, like taking in energy from the awakening springtime.
The intense look of the Masai warrior through the printed page turned this photo into something mystical. I like drying flowers in books. I never look at the page, I just put them in and wait. These flowers were quite juicy, so i thought that it would be a good idea to use a big heavy book. It turned out not to be such a good idea, it worked well for a successful drying, but it also ruffled this beautiful page of the photo book Africa by Leni Riefenstahl. The photo is rewarding though.
By June, I was a different person. Recharged although not fully as my eyes can tell. But I am pretty well motivated. Here we are finally ready for an adventure! The van is fully loaded so I travel with Markos sitting on my lap till we make the first stop and leave some of our stuff. This guy makes my day! I can't describe by words how grateful I am that he is into my life. He is my great master teaching me what unconditional love means every moment. He is also quite stubborn and drives me crazy, but that's the price and I am willing to pay whatever is needed.
The printed labels of our olive oil bottles are here and I couldn't wait to unfold them!
Which means that this year wasn't only nature and healing and tralala... We have to live somehow, so we decided to create our own business with 
I feel pretty proud of this baby! The whole project hasn't been profitable yet, but it feels so good sharing the fruits of our hands with other people. And one thing I trust is that with love and consistency it can go well, and if not, we have enjoyed it a lot so far! What's life without risks anyway?
And just when I started having back my flow and a life full of colors and new projects, a white lady appears to make it all black and white in the dog community of the house. Driving late at night from the capital of the island back to our village, the front car suddenly braked and avoided to hit an exhausted, dehydrated dog that got lost, or more likely abandoned. We stopped, took her with us and then an adventure of trying to find her owners started while another adventure of living with two super energetic dogs was taking place in the house and on the mountains. It was a lot of fun. Luckily her
ideal forever home was found. I miss her, but I know she has the best time and all the love she deserves.
The other big project of the year, the preparation of the herb garden, couldn't be missing from the photo review of the year. Working on a rocky infertile soil with your hands and not giving up is madness. And that's what we did. We have done so many crazy things these last years, some out of ignorance and some out of inexplicable optimism.
Right or wrong, we'll see...In this case, hopefully the herbs will appreciate the hard work and will have a happy life there!
The photo is from one of the last days of phase one, unbelievable how far we managed to come.
Olive harvesting is an integrand part of our lives these last years. It takes place early in November. When all our friends have already forgotten about the summer and have returned for good to their offices, we get red chicks from the sun and lovely picnics. I wish I had better photos, but this is the only one I took this year, so it is the precious unique one :)
It's been years since the last time I grabbed the camera, the real one. When you live with a photographer you kind of relax and live the pro do his job :) Now with HIVE I needed to express my self though photography again.
This shooting was my first for HIVE and it might sound childish but meant a lot to me. It reminded me a forgotten part of myself. And since I always try to find new ways of expression, it was nice to remember an old one for a change. After that, I just take photos all the time!
And I wanted to pay tribute to these precious herbs, too.
Saying goodbye to this year with this monumental cloud at the sunset. I felt so small, and yet so alive that evening. The beauty of nature can blow up your mind, but there are some specific moments that motivate something in your heart.
Wishing everyone a very photogenic and a very happy new year!
If you would like to know more about me this is my introduction post!