The flowers of the Cabbage Palm attract several types of bees, beetles and other insects. They clearly know what they are doing – honey made from these blossoms is highly regarded! Enjoy this short video of the cabbage palm blossom in our garden and its many visitors!
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Invasion of the Painted Ladies
Not an invasion actually, more of a fly-by. For the past two days, we have seen literally thousands of Painted Lady butterflies going past our house in Glossa. We calculated that there were on average one a second, sometimes in groups of four or five, sometimes fluttering along alone. So if there are 60 every […]
Read MoreLovely lantana and its beautiful butterflies
In Glossa, on the island of Skopelos, the multi-coloured flowers of Lantana are a common sight. This vigorous shrub needs cutting back hard to stop it outgrowing its space with prickly colonising runners. We have three clumps in the garden and by cutting back each in succession, we have the red, yellow and pink flowers […]
Read MoreA nightingale sang …
If you follow Chris Packham, you may know that a pop-up conservation event is planned for Berkeley Square on the evening of 9th May. Its purpose is to celebrate the immortal nightingale and raise awareness about its increasing scarcity in the UK. The song to be heard in London will, sadly, be a recording. We […]
Read MoreSpring Orchids in Glossa
May is bursting out all over, and in Glossa we’re well into Spring with all that it brings. The wild flowers have been glorious since the first delicate pink of wild anemone, the wind flower, braved the chilly air back in February. Since then, the gallery of colours that accompanies your walk along the lanes […]
Read MoreCelebrating 10 Years of Glossa Houses!
On the 17th of May 2018 we celebrated our ten year anniversary of the opening of Glossa Houses! What a decade it’s been! We’d like to say a huge thanks to all our lovely guests whose enthusiasm for our cottages and for Glossa makes it all worthwhile, and of course to our friends and family […]
Read MoreOrchids, roses and the golden oriel – updates from springtime in Glossa
Spring is in full swing in Glossa and with it wild orchids have arrived in swathes around the countryside and the rose arbour is in full bloom. The song of the Eurasian golden oriole can be heard now, while it’s visiting from Africa. Here’s a video taken a couple of years ago of a golden […]
Read MoreMay Day in Glossa
What happened on May Day where you live? Was it brass bands and fireworks for ‘Labour Day’, or huge fires and dancing around a Maypole? Or, just a long relaxing bank holiday weekend … In Greece it’s celebrated as Protomagia and has been since ancient times. Maios (May) took its name from the Goddess Maia, […]
Read MoreWild Flowers in Skopelos – April
For those who want to explore much more than the beaches of Skopelos, spring is the ideal time to visit the island. After the winter rains the land bursts into life, with meadows carpeted with wild flowers and fruit and the orchards covered in blossom. It’s sunny but the temperatures are just breaking into the […]
Read MoreBlack-Crowned Night Heron in Skopelos
Bird spotters rejoice! Jo and Roger reported their first sighting of a black-crowned night heron on their way back from Skopelos at dusk, in the Loutsa area, on the 14th of April. The genus name, Nycticorax, comes from the Greek (of course) for night raven, so named for their nocturnal feeding habits and the crow-like […]
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