Hoping everyone at home is staying well and safe xx

We finished our August enjoying a wonderful weekend with a few sailors from The Moody Owners Sailing Club. We shared a meal, had a BBQ on the Beach, then the following morning all donned rubber gloves and became Wombles. Not Wimbledon Common, but a Stretch of beach at Varko Bay. We collected over 3 large bags of rubbish, mainly plastic, the odd flip flop and discarded cans - such a shame that so many don't have the mind set to take their rubbish home! Although I hear many creative eco warriors are collecting and recycling things like flip flops. One amazing company in Kenya called 'Ocean Sole' are turning flip flops into pieces of art that are really incredible - check out their work on YouTube.

Thought it was about time I did 'Donnas Wildlife watch'

Sadly during August we were not joined by many dolphins in the Ionian. We did spot a fairly small pod, whilst sailing over from Italy who were inquisitive enough to swim over. They had amongst them the tiniest baby ( sorry calf) we had ever seen. So cute and very jumpy !

We have seen some gorgeous turtles. Many hang around for scraps of fish on town quays, but the joy of seeing them pop their heads up whilst sailing is something very special as it proves they are surviving without tourist and fishermen's handouts. A record number of Loggerhead turtles nests were counted in both 2018 and 2019 by the WWF and The Sea Turtle Protection society of Greece, which is fabulous news.

We have spotted some rather ordinary animals in rather odd places. We stumbled across goats on the beach on the small island of Navros Notos, seabirds with long legs sat in trees, rather than wading in the mud and dragonflies miles out at sea!

We spotted the alien looking beauty in the picture just sat on a wall at Argostoli. I thought she was rather magnificent, but weirdly she kept her black beady eyes on Ricky the whole time I was taking her photo - in view of her unusual palate perhaps she was sizing him up for supper? Apparently Praying mantises are illusive creatures and not very often seen. They are considered by many to be spiritual, perhaps from another world! The word mantis in Ancient Greek means prophet or seer. They believed that they had supernatural powers as a guide for lost travellers to get them home safely. A lovely sentiment! Not so sure, despite their extraterrestrial appearance that they bring ...
'energies from another dimension sending a message to trust your own inner guidance and be patient and wait for the flow of the universe to sort everything out! But you never know?