This time of year dust that rises from the Sahara desert into the atmosphere can be blown north, across the Mediterranean, and into southern – sometimes northern – Europe. This year we’ve seen our share, some days heavier than others but when we have a north wind the dust blows away and the sea and the mountains stand out in sharp relief.

The size of the mountains and the clarity of the air makes them seem closer than they are — it’s 11 miles to the nearest shore and 13 miles to the peak of the mountain.

This is the house of the last Ottoman bey, Kamil Bey. After Greek Independence in the 1820s it became the property of the Greek state, which has practiced benign neglect ever since. With the roof now gone, it won’t be long until the walls start to crumble.

Sunset tonight. The mountain rises to 2400 feet, and there is a convent on top dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It’s not known when the convent was founded but the church dates to 1767. On the Virgin’s feast day, pilgrims walk up to the convent.

The Little Owl or Athena Owl is a revered symbol of Greece that we only see in Mani. And it really is little – usually 9 in. or less. Apologies for the photo – she was sitting as far from me as she could, and I had to extend my phone’s digital zoom to 30X.

The flowers will be turned to straw by Pascha, May 5, but the boat might stay there until summer.

We took a walk around our village – Sykia – yesterday.

There’s a tremendous profusion of wildflowers in early Spring, with native vegetation taking advantage of cooler weather and moisture in the soil.

The train stopped running through Sykia in 2008, and the tracksides now present wildflowers a place to strut their stuff.

We’re missing the Redbuds in the mountains this year, so we’ve taken to calling these trees Redbuds. Google identifies them as Judas trees.

They can flower directly from the trunk.

Orange blossom. Just as one crop is falling from the trees, another is getting started. There are two crops of oranges and lemons each year.

Walking on pine needles.

This summer, kids and grownups will be playing on the water in these boats. In the spring, they provide a backdrop for the wildflowers pushing through the beach pebbles.

We made a trip to the Skouras winery for essentials and saw early Spring manifest.

When you see new life emerging from a weathered, withered, twisted lump of wood, it’s easy to understand the ancients’ belief that divine intervention was involved.

These are the buds on an olive tree. Almost impossibly tiny, each could be hidden behind the head of a pin.

Lavender. Because Susan is a lavender fetishist.