The heavy scent of orange blossom

Spring continues to accelerate. In many areas the yellow daisies are already waist high and the poppies are nodding in the barley fields. We had light drizzle this morning and it is still quite chilly but there are no really strong winds forecast for the next few days and the next likely rain will be around Tuesday.

It is quite unusual to have such a long period without dust storms at this time of the year but the air has been clear this week, pollen excluded. We are all sneezing - apart from the daisies, the oaks are also flowering and everywhere there is the heavy scent of orange blossom rolling over garden walls and through courtyards. The bees have so much to do they start long before the sun comes over the hill and the honey should be good this year. (see picture)


The eclipse was noticeable on Symi although we did not experience the complete blackout they had on Kastellorizon. It was more like twilight but from a strange angle and the temperature dropped several degree for the duration. The shadows became very sharp but curved as the angle of the light changed, rather like fish scales. The Proteus did a special trip to Kastellorizon and many of the island's school children went over with their teachers. Those children remaining amused themselves by whizzing up and down the island's roads on their motorbikes, doing wheelies and generally driving everyone nuts... (see picture)

The Symi has just come in, doing her first 'tourist run' of the new season. The twenty or so passengers who have just disembarked all appear to be locals... Maybe next week?

Have a good weekend,
Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Calm seas and balmy breezes

No one can quite believe the spectacular change in the weather in the last few days. We have gone from howling gales to calm seas and balmy breezes as though someone flipped a switch. Quite how long this will last no one knows but we are all making the most of it while it lasts. This is always a tremendously busy month and with Easter coming early this year it did not help anyone's maintenance schedule to have the wettest and windiest March in years pounding the island and adding countless broken windows and flooded rooms to the job list.

Temperatures are in the high teens and low twenties although indoors it is considerably cooler as it takes a while for these old stone buildings to heat up. We wear the usual five layers in the office and start peeling them off on the way home. The combination of late rains and warm weather has the weeds growing before our eyes, much to the enjoyment of the donkeys and mules that carry building materials and rubble up and down the Kali Strata. (See picture.)

Yachtsmen and householders preparing for the season are the first visitors to the island and we had the first day-trippers on Sunday, in the form of a small chartered ferry from Tilos, visiting Symi for, of all things, a stag party excursion! No, I have no idea how they amused themselves but they left mid-afternoon, presumably in search of something a bit more exciting than bean soup (it's Lent so the tavernas and even the gyros bars are on fasting menus).

There are plenty of hawkers around, selling cheerful spring bedlinen, cleaning materials, lace curtains by the metre and light weight children's clothing. They shout their wares through loudhailers as they grind up and down the hills in overloaded vans, stopping at random to allow housewives to inspect the goods.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Well and truly storm-bound

It has been an unsettled and stormy week, fairly typical for the equinox. I went over to Rhodes to help sail our boat back and we were quite fortunate in our gap in the weather. After heavy seas and rolling swells while we were lying in the little bay off the boatyard we hit a lull that lasted just long enough for us to get across to Symi. The island had a cloud pulled down firmly over her head and was looking mysterious indeed (see picture) but the wind only started to pipe up as we reached Pedi. Sorting out our mooring lines and anchors in a brisk south easter was an interesting experience, particularly as the fishing boats are starting to lay their moorings prior to relaunching. Avoiding picking up any lines around the propeller in the process was tricky but the old girl is now neatly trussed up in her usual corner of Pedi bay. Depressingly, the birds were already circling, waiting to resume their interrupted tenancy of our rigging and wheelhouse!

The wind blew all night and by next morning Symi was well and truly storm-bound. I took the accompanying picture from the corner of the Kali Strata. Harani and the clock tower side of the harbour suffered the most damage with a number of broken windows reported, cold drink fridges were blown over and awnings carried away. The storm only blew itself out quite late in the afternoon. The Proteus was held in Tilos until conditions had calmed enough for her to continue south but she still had some difficulty in docking late in the afternoon as the cross wind was knocking her crabwise across the harbour. The Dodecanese Pride could not run at all yesterday and its schedule is still a day in arrears.

Tomorrow, 25 March is a religious and national holiday in Greece. There will be a parade in the harbour, for which the school children are rehearsing at present. As the holiday falls on a Saturday many businesses and offices will be closed on Monday as well, making it a long weekend. Oh, and the clocks change on Sunday!

Have a warm dry weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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A snail in my coffee mug

After a moist month thus far things are looking up. It hasn't rained for nearly 24 hours which is a good start. Showers are forecast for the weekend but it does look as though it will start to dry off a bit next week. Just as well as I for one am running low on dry firewood and I found a snail in my coffee mug this morning. Fortunately he was spotted before I poured in the coffee and he is now munching his way through the Pedi valley. The resident tortoise, however, has gone back to sleep until things warm up and dry off. One of my resourceful neighbours is using the water from the lake that has formed on our access road to water his animals and to mix cement for the new shed he is building. Wading through this water feature is one of the reasons I have been in wellies even when it isn't actually raining. I must say, though, that tramping up and down the Kali Strata in wellingtons does wonders for the leg muscles, even if it is murder on the knees.

Walking down to work this morning there was wet washing hanging out on every balcony and railing, including the parapet of Lemonitissa church below the Kastro, and the chorus of water pumps suggested washing machines running in unison as housewives took advantage of the first dry morning in weeks to catch up on the backlog of socks and muddy jeans. Few houses on Symi have either the space or the wiring to cope with tumble driers. Unfortunately it is not so easy to catch up on other jobs and the painters, decorators and builders have been seriously set back by the prolonged wet and windy weather as sites are flooded and wood sodden. In comparison with other parts of Greece, however, Symi's problems are few. The Evros, the river that forms the natural border between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey in the north has flooded to the greatest depth in over 40 years, causing extensive damage to farms and villages in the area as 30 000 hectares of countryside are underwater. Farmers struggled to rescue cows from flooded sheds before they were swept away and greenhouses and fields are completely submerged. As this is a main agricultural area in Greece this is going to have a significant impact on the cost of living in Greece this summer as it will be months before the area returns to any kind of normality. On a more positive note, the reservoirs that supply Athens are overflowing and the water company says it has sufficient water to meet Athens' needs for the next five years!

Have a warm dry weekend!

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Right now I am in shawls and mittens

The relentless rain is becoming quite tedious. After what was a fairly dry winter it seems to have done nothing but rain for weeks. The only real variation has been in wind velocity which on Sunday night seemed hell bent on breaking records and there were times when I feared for my roof. There is supposed to be a bit of a dry spell around Wednesday before the next front reaches us but we have had these promises before.

The ground is so water-logged the earthworms seem to prefer travelling over it rather than through it and the snails on the Kali Strata are crunchy under foot. Spring seems to have been put on hold for the moment. March is usually a bustling month of painting, decorating and refurbishing as everyone gets ready for the season but not this year. Anyone with any sense is firmly indoors as when it is not pouring down the wind is so strong it is difficult to stand upright, never mind hold a paintbrush. The weekend's hail has nipped the new buds from the trees and blackened the leaves of many cold sensitive plants.

Our office computer is playing up in the damp and we dare not leave anything plugged in due to lightning strikes. With a bit of luck in a few weeks time we'll all be complaining of the heat but right now I am in shawls and mittens!

Have a good week!

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Daisies growing on the steps

After a turbulent week of storms, gales and torrential downpours, it was a relief to wake up this morning to blue skies and calm seas, even if the dog’s water bowl did have a thin film of ice on it! Temperatures never rose above 10 degrees yesterday and it is still very cold today.

The stormy weather following close on the heels of the holiday weekend meant that the shipping schedules have been in total disarray this week and we have not had any post since last Friday. There is not much in the shops and ‘luxury’ items such as fax rolls and ink for the office printer are unavailable. This is only a brief lull as rain and strong winds are forecast again from tomorrow and the early part of next week is expected to be that particularly unpleasant combination of all three - cold, wet and windy. After a fairly mild start to the winter the season is certainly hanging on with a vengeance. The recent low temperatures and freezing winds have nipped many plants and trees that had been brought precociously into leaf by last week’s abnormally warm spell. At least the daisies and lupins are starting to show themselves in the sunny places but it will be a while yet before the bougainvilleas and other sun lovers start to show any enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of the daisies growing on the steps above the Symi Visitor office...

Have a good weekend. I am taking a gamble and going to Rhodes for the day tomorrow in the hope that I will be able to get back again.

Regards,

Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Daisies blanket the terraces

The weather held for most of the holiday weekend and the carnival parade was a great success (see Out and About). The wind started to pipe up yesterday, just as everyone was heading up the mountain for the traditional picnics and flying of kites. Town was pretty deserted and walking down the Kali Strata at midday the only living creatures I saw were sheep. (see picture)

By this morning the brisk breeze had turned to a gale and all ships were confined to port. The Proteus has just receive permission to head north and has pulled out to go to Kos. It will pass through Symi at 11.30 tonight en route to Rhodes. The Dodecanese Day Parade continued as planned, despite the wind, (see Out and About photos) and the rain is holding off for the moment. It will only start as the wind drops. Judging by the pink tinge to the clouds it will be the mud rain that is typical with a south westerly wind in this part of the world.

The weather is expected to remain unsettled for the rest of the week with strong winds, thunderstorms and rain forecast. This is not unusual for the time of year, but it is a nuisance as this is the month when everyone is trying to get their houses painted and ready for the season. Conditions are less than ideal for perching on a ladder with a whitewashing brush - unless the people next door want to be the same colour scheme...

The combination of steadily lengthening days and rainy spells is sending the weeds skywards. It is not surprising that the sheep have been turned loose in Chorio as every ruin is a mass of nettles and the wild angelica is flourishing on the Kali Strata and outside our office. Daisies blanket the terraces and the first scarlet poppies are nodding in the fields.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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It is a holiday long weekend in Greece

First a message to all you subscribers out there wondering what has happened to your January/February newspapers. The answer is endearingly Greek. The proprietor of the Symi Visitor has asked me to inform you that when he queried the matter with the local post office on Symi he was told that the post master was away on holiday and the stand-in was not authorised to issue receipts and didn't know what to do with the papers. So Nikos approached Rhodes post office to find out if this time we could resend them from Rhodes but the same story applied - the chap in charge was on leave and there was no one else with the authority to do what was necessary. The postmaster finally returned from leave on Wednesday and the papers left the island on Thursday.

Meanwhile the great DEH electricity upgrade has continued and we are still working round power cuts. We wound up finishing the March edition of the Symi Visitor on Wendy's laptop in a hotel room in Rhodes! If you email us and don't get a reply straight away, don't worry - we aren't ignoring you. We are just powerless...

It is a holiday long weekend in Greece as this the climax of carnival and Monday, Clean Monday, marks the start of Lent. This is the day when people pack picnics and head for the hills. The children fly kites and the grown ups drink lots of wine. Tuesday 7 March is Dodecanese Day, the anniversary of the day these islands became part of the modern Greek state. This is a local bank holiday with parades and further consumption of wine... At this stage it looks as though the weather is going to be reasonable for at least the first 3 days of the holiday but it is possible that the rain will catch up with us again on Tuesday, hopefully after rather than during the parade.

We had quite a severe but fortunately short-lived storm last Tuesday afternoon and the sea was still pretty evil when I went over to Rhodes on the hydrofoil on Wednesday morning. For the first time in my experience the captain made straight for half way down Rhodes and hugged the coast from the airport onwards, trying to find flat water as the engines were overheating in the swell. It was not possible for the craft to climb up onto its hydrofoils so we just chugged along in submarine mode only a couple of hundred metres off the breaker line and arrived in Mandraki about 20 minutes late.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

www.symivisitor.com

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