Wiltrud and I decided on an easy day and drove to the Frangokastello area to look at a few old, small churches with frescoes.
The first one we walked to, the church of Profitis Elias, is above the main road near the eastern junction with the Frangokastello road. We approached it up the western slope to look for flowers, finding the usual assortment of small plants such as dwarf iris, white star-shaped ornithogalum, pink silene, yellow crepes and rayless chamomile on the way up to the church. The church looks like it is still used on the saint’s day, and the old frescoes are worth a look, as is the view down to Frangokastello.
We looked around above the church for flowers and found a nice patch of Arum concinnatum - they are common, but the first ones we’ve seen blooming, and they always remind us of candles with a sconce. The flowers appear after the leaves have started to die down. There were also many dragon arums coming into bloom there.
We walked back down following a dirt road, suddenly finding ourselves standing in shallow pools of water from a spring running down the slope. And the pools were filled with tadpoles! Alongside were large patches of blue Echium vulgare and purple and orange pimpernels, and some yellow ranunculus. The small stream followed the dirt track on both sides, so we were accompanied down by the delightful sound of water cascading through the landscape. The stream followed the main road east for a short distance, but then disappeared.
We next parked just above the western exit of the Frangokastello road, before Patsianos, and crossed an olive grove and dry stream bed to reach the ruins of a very small very ruined church. The cracks over the entrance have gotten bigger, the church is tilting visibly, but the north-facing wall which is open to the elements still has brightly coloured frescoes.
There was a fresh westerly wind all evening, and many people chose to eat indoors.