IT is the first day of summer. Dina Iwanski looks out at the leaden sky as rain and wind batter her garden in St Dominick, and talks of bathing under Greek stars.

For Dina is one of those people who followed a whim when circumstances changed at the age of 45 and 'went out and did it instead of dreaming about it'.

'It' is a ruin in five acres of olive trees on the southernmost tip of Greece which the former Plymouth Customs and Excise worker bought when she was offered a 'modest' financial redundancy package five years ago.

With no dependants, Gina sold her Plymouth home and bought a small cottage to get rid of the mortgage, placing her in an ideal position to begin a new life.

Loading up her car with a canoe, bicycle and camping gear she crossed Europe and arrived in Greece four months later.

'I stopped off in rural France and almost considered staying, however the climate is not ideal,' she said. 'I knew Greece and had read about the southern part so headed for the Mani region with the attention of buying a house and staying there. I arrived and it was just heaven — I felt at home.

Home for six months of the year is a ruined tower, which used to house ten people, in the remote and harsh region where the terrain is inhospitable and the people the very opposite — just as well as Dina, who speaks 'peasant' Greek, is the only foreigner for miles around.

It is a ten-minute walk up a steep track to reach her idyll. There is no running water and Dina has to fetch every drop she uses from a 'sterna' — an underground hole carved out of solid rock which catches run-off rain water from the mountain behind her home.

'I bath under the stars summer and winter but first I have to brave the sterna which is home to lizards, snakes, scorpions and other wildlife which enjoy sheltering there from the sun — I haven't got used to that, I am scared stiff.

'There is a hammock under the trees which overlooks a glittering sea and the birdsong is fantastic. I can doze there for hours and not notice the time.'

'Life in Mani is at its most basic and simple and just perfect.'

However, life has taken an unexpected turn for Dina. She started up, in a small way, her own organic olive oil import business which now dictates the number of months she spends in Greece.

'I had intended to rent out my cottage in St Dominick and live on the income. But I started eating olive oil and thought it was nothing like the stuff we have at home. I began to learn more about it and realised I was sitting on a wonderful secret.

'I had discovered the secret of Mani olive oil which is pure gold — in fact, the Greeks think it is more precious than gold,' she said. 'Mani olive oil is the rawest there is, crushed under stones and what oozes out of the bottom is what you get. It is so superior and so good you could go out and conquer the world!

'I realised it was a means of earning a living and started to look for organic growers.'

Dina buys from her neighbours — those who are registered as organic — and fills her sheep trailer with cans of olive oil before driving back to England to sell to West Country restaurants, health shops and private customers.'

Her Oil in the Raw business has taken off and Dina's LandRover can be seen around Tavistock, East Cornwall and Okehampton for she has acquired quite a list of customers.

They include Rick Stein in Padstow, Tavistock's Bill the Baker and Country Cheeses, St Mellion Golf and Country Club, Cellar's Bistro and the Plymouth Inn in Okehampton and Percy's restaurant at Virginstowe.

'I have organic certificates for all my suppliers and regularly check up on them to make sure there are no fertiliser bags lying around,' said Dina.

'Sometimes I help pick the olives and watch them being crushed between huge granite rollers which work around the clock during the picking season.

'My suppliers have a special arrangement and use the rollers first when they are clean and not contaminated and haven't been used all summer. 'There is a clear committment to the organic movement.'

Life is not all olive oil and sunshine for her ruined tower is needing attention.

'I got fed up waiting for local builders to help with the renovations so I have started to do the re-roofing myself,' she said. 'This means carrying 12ft beams up a steep, rocky track from the road to the house.

'I am getting fitter but couldn't button up my blouse the other day because I have built up my shoulders and arms so much.'

She is often accused of being fortunate but she denies her present life-style is all down to luck.

'Anybody could do what I have done — just get out there and do it. Wake up your senses, feel the wind and rain on your face, the sun beating on your skin and warm sea on your body. Your senses don't get hit when you are working in concrete boxes.

'You just have to give up the material life as we know it here and go back to a simpler but definitely more enjoyable way of living.'