Apokoronas Our Home

Kicking off the Carnival season again. Today was the Children's Carnival at Georgioupolis, ahead of the bigger carnivals in Kalyves, Rethymnon Souda and other towns and villages next week. We were lucky with the weather, after a couple of very bad weeks the day was warm, but not too hot. The children parade around the village Amazing the costumes that can be made from bin liners and a little imagination! The souvlaki stall was soon up and cooking! Crazy foam wars! Zin Zan, the clown entertained the children Along with "Peanut" and the "Pocket Circus" A good time was to be had fishing empty cans out of the fountain with a stick! The prizes for the costumes were awarded "Kai tou xronou" ( and to next year)

Some of you will remember that back in the summer the pupils of Vamos school  held an "Adoption" ceremony at the ancient amphitheatre at Aptera - you can find my blog about it on Cretan Cornucopia If you would like to see the documentary about the history of Aptera made by the students from the 2nd school Hania you can find it here - it has English subtitles Meanwhile back at school: The students have been learning about the work of the Red  Cross ..And helping Volunteers have been cleaning the park across from the school  The students are learning about being part of the community 

The photos that accompany the narrative of the blog are too distressing to feature - so here is a picture of Gingypup instead! Our municipality is of the few in Greece trying to address the problem of stray animals, without much finance. There is a councillor dedicated to the work and a programme of neutering, chipping and vaccinating is in place along with education in the schools to help the children understand how to look after animals. Unfortunately, yesterday there was a serious ( though not uncommon) incident. Here is the narrative from Michele who helps the animal welfare in the municipality. "So, many of you know that I am employed by the Municipality of Apokoronous to care and feed the stray animals in the Apokoronous area. On Saturday I was told by a member of the Municipality of Apokoronous that the puppies we have in Vrisses, in an almost secure and safe area, have to be gone on Monday! I hear this all the time and said my usual, you will have to speak to my