The thermometer is hovering around 40 degrees

The heatwave continues and all over Greece the temperatures are rising. Thunderstorms and rain are forecast for the mainland and Crete for the weekend but it is unlikely that Symi and the other eastern islands will have any relief from the heat. Here on Symi the thermometer is hovering around 40 degrees. Anyone with any choice in the matter is either on the water or in it. Down in the harbour every puddle of shade seems to have something snoozing in it and the cats prefer napping under the skips to rummaging through them in the heat of the day.

This morning I went to see Haralambos, the island's dentist. Today is the first day in his new premises at the bottom of the Kataraktis and he's like a kid whose Christmases have come all at once. This being Symi and Harry being an artist as much as he is a dentist, his new surgery is an interestingly restored old tannery with some intriguing architectural features which should show off his paintings to perfection. The angel's face that I included in my June architecture article is from the exterior of the building. The building may be a restoration project but his equipment is all shiny and new and he is delighted with all his new toys.

Meanwhile, over at the town hall, the performer for the premiere of the Symi Festival is still a 'surprise'. As the date draws closer some anxieties are being voiced as this is the latest ever in the history of the festival. Rabbits have been pulled out of hats before now, but never this late in the day.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Hot summer nights in the islands

After a spell of hot still weather it was a pleasure to hear the wind in the trees this morning and there are white caps romping across the sea from Nimos. The Symi's gangplank is graunching against the quay and the yachts on the horizon are heeled hard over, small snowy wedges against the purple haze. The meltemi is settling in at last. Bad news for yachtsmen thrashing their way northwards in small bouncy boats but a much needed respite from the heat for the islands.

My neighbours have been shearing their sheep the last few evenings, corralling them up against our fence. The animals are quiescent, dozing in whatever shade they can find during the day and only eating at night. We hear the murmur of sheep bells tinkling way up the slopes and terraces behind us. Around 4 a.m our dog strikes up a conversation with another mutt somewhere over the other side of the valley. We don't know what they talk about but the same pattern of woofs, growls and howls has happened at about the same time every night. He sits just inside the doorway to the farmhouse, leaning on the raised threshold very comfortably, all settled in for a natter, and no admonitions from us have any effect. (Can one teach a dog to use a cell phone?) Occasionally a donkey joins in and there are odd squawks from the hen run as someone falls off a perch - the fowl like to sleep with their wings slightly away from their bodies at this time of the year as it is cooler but it does mean that they jostle more for space. Ah those hot summer nights in the islands. There's more to them than just the infernal whine of mosquitoes!

ANES has changed its schedule again and there is now a 9 a.m hydrofoil from Rhodes on Fridays. The last few Wednesdays they have also been using the Proteus instead of the Symi for the evening 18.30 transfers. As ever we advise travellers to check for up to the minute information before setting off, and not to presume that something scheduled in January is cast in stone for August!

Have a good weekend. I'll be spending mine putting the finishing touches to the July edition of the Symi Visitor.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Aromas of grilled fish

The summer heat has rolled back over Symi and we have been sizzling since Saturday night. A steady procession of flushed and dripping visitors has passed through our offices today and we have been handing out bottles of cold water like seconds on a marathon route. What little breeze there is is about as refreshing as opening the door of a convection oven, compounded by the aromas of grilled fish drifting up from the taverna below. Anyone with any sense is either in the sea or in the shade.

The delinquent rodents have once again munched their way through all the black plastic water pipes from the road head junction that serve the small holdings in our area. Obviously the first one to try this stunt was rewarded by a gusher and everyone else is now trying the same trick. The only long term solution will be to lay galvanised pipes and watch the sparks fly! In the meantime we are growing accustomed to replacing the same stretch of pipe work each week...And hope the rat cubes we have been putting out will eventually take effect.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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Oregano and sage in the sunshine

The rain on Tuesday brought a delightful clarity to the air and the shadows have a depth that is almost autumnal. The wild thyme casts a mauve tint across the rocky hillsides and their scent combines with that of oregano and sage in the sunshine. The thyme bushes are the last of the wild flowers until the squills assert themselves in the autumn. Even the most barren seeming crag yields, on closer inspection, an extraordinary variety of lifeforms. Darting lizards with iridescent blue tails, svelte snakes and slowly lumbering tortoises all contribute to the summer landscape of this fragrant island.

The moonrises over Pedi bay have been quite spectacular this week and the owls have been very active in our garden. There is one in particular who sits in the almond tree by the gate, waiting for any harvesting rodent to be so imprudent as to saunter out from under cover. It is just as well that the owls are busy as the cats grow more slothful by the day and are certainly not doing their bit to protect our nut crop.

Speaking of cats and matters rural, not to mention a certain pastoral obsession that has possessed other aspects of this website of late, the following two photographs were taken in a garden on Mavrovouni this week. And not a green wellie in sight.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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The moon waxes and the solstice approaches

The Pentecost bank holiday weekend has provided a good opportunity for many Greeks to take a break and make use of their summer houses and sea side cottages. Many Symiots now live and work on Rhodes or elsewhere but still own family properties on Symi which they make use of whenever they can. The island has been busy all weekend and there is still a great deal of activity in the harbour. The Juliet has been replaced by a large black power yacht, the Excellence ,and a veritable Armada of sailing yachts has descended upon the island. Over in Pedi yesterday houses that have been closed up since Easter were alive with the sounds of happy children, Greek music and the occasional restraining parent. Brightly painted fishing boats are back in the water, agleam in their new livery for the year. The sand at the head of the bay has been raked over, the gravel and sea weed cleared from the road and the fringe laid out with beach umbrellas and sun loungers. The new tamarisk trees are struggling a bit but will probably 'take' - they don't mind having their feet in salty water.



As the moon waxes and the solstice approaches the tides are becoming more extreme. Although the Mediterranean does not have much of a tidal range to speak of, when the houses are built practically at sea level and the quays are so low, a difference of 50 cm can make all the difference between afloat and aground in the shallower parts. Interesting when coming alongside in a small dinghy! We can expect continued unsettled weather until after the summer solstice. Most of Greece has experienced quite heavy downpours and thundery weather. Here on Symi it is quite breezy with temperatures in the mid twenties and a lot of high cloud cover.

The first truckloads of melons have arrived and hawkers with fragrant heaps of honeydew and Ogen melons are parked in Chorio and the harbour. A few more weeks and the watermelons will come into season. At the moment they are still a bit on the small side and it is the sweet melons that dominate.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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It is Greek Pentecost this weekend

It is another golden summer's day on Symi. The figs are ripening in the gardens and grapes grow plump on the vines. The cool breezy conditions are continuing with temperatures still in the comfortable mid to high twenties. The leaves have started to fall early this year after the dry winter and in the Pedi valley die-back is noticeable in a number of the trees as they shut down branches to cope with the drought. A certain amount of natural thinning is also taking place on the nut and fruit trees for the same reason.

Down in Yialos the harbour has been very busy. This week's Cypriot cruise boat was the Princess Marissa - well known to anyone who took one of the three day mini-cruises from Cyprus to Israel and then Egypt in the early nineties. It is indicative of how regional politics have changed that such cruises no longer stop in Israel, it now being regarded as unsafe, and favour Lebanon instead which 15 years ago was still in ruins after the civil war. But I digress. A sleek white ketch, Juliet, flying a red ensign has been lying off Harani for a few days. Apart from the usual rubber ducks and tenders she has a delightful little gunter rigged wooden sailing dinghy. After the day boats left yesterday afternoon someone took advantage of the brisk breeze to tack up and down the harbour in her. Much more fun than thrashing around on a wet bike and considerably prettier.



It is Greek Pentecost this weekend and the banks will be closed on Monday. Travellers need to remember that as this is quite a significant religious holiday in the region ferries are likely to be busy and many businesses will be closed until Tuesday.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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The olives are plumping on the trees

It's a great day for sailing. Flat water and a brisk breeze don't often happen in combination around here as the Mediterranean whips up into short steep seas quite quickly. Several of the yachts pulling out of Yialos this morning did so under sail and there is a reliable sprinkling of small white triangles on the horizon over towards Orhaniye. Now that fuel is so expensive, the old Med cruising tactic of motoring like mad first thing in the morning when the sea is calm and making sure that one is in a safe anchorage by lunchtime is losing favour and people are actually spending their days furling and reefing. They still set off early but they come in late, wringing the spray out of their hair after a day's brisk tacking to windward.

Still on a maritime theme, Captain Yanni's collection of little hire boats is about to hit the water over by the clock tower. The red launch that they use to put down the moorings is bobbing brightly in the afternoon sun and the first buoys are already in place.

The breeze has also perceptibly lowered the temperature and everyone is feeling much more energetic. Just as well really as we are already very busy and the season is well under way. Lots of regular Danish visitors arrived this morning - the changes to the Scandanavian flight schedules mean that many Danish visitors arrive too late to get across to Symi and have to spend their first night in Rhodes.

In the Pedi valley the olives are plumping on the trees and the grass has all but vanished. One of my neighbours is building himself a small shed, about 3 metres square, to accommodate bits and pieces from his fishing boat. He has been hard at work, doing everything himself, for several months now, and started putting on the tiled roof this weekend. To give you an idea of how long he has been working on this project, when he first started he was using the great pool of rainwater in the middle of the dirt track to mix his cement! In a corner of his plot he has set up a big old Stella Artois sunshade and a director's chair and there he sits, between mixing batches of cement by hand, admiring his handiwork. Various other old boys come along and offer comments and encouragement and every day he does a bit more. In another time and place he would probably be plonked in front of a television set, waiting for his number to come up in God's waiting room, but Symiots do not subscribe readily to the concept of retirement.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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The June regulars arrive

Rumours of rain are just that, a whispering promise in the air that the mounting thunder clouds over Asia minor might treat us to at least a lightning show over the mountains tonight. The thin high wisps of daybreak have thickened into a continuous sheet of light grey cloud. The water has a metallic oily gleam to it that owes nothing to any nautical mishap. The same cannot, alas, be said for the waters around Hydra. Following only a week after last week's air crash, a Panamanian registered iron carrier en route to Casablanca collided with a Greek tanker and sank. According to Kathimerini it would appear that the iron carrier failed to give way to the Greek vessel and although an air sea rescue mission is still under way and all the Greek crewmembers have been rescued and accounted for, at least one Turkish sailor is known to be dead and five are still missing. Although the ship was Panamanian registered, the crew was indeed Turkish.

Back on Symi the island is filling up steadily with familiar faces as the June regulars arrive. It is going to be quite an interesting month as the President of Greece will be visiting the island during the middle of the month and preparations are already underway. If you see mysterious men in lumpy suits scuttling around and helicopters whizzing about, that is the reason.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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