A Happy Buzz

August is drawing to a close and the days are shorter, if not cooler. Romance is in the air as the Symi wedding season starts this weekend. Wedding guests have been arriving all week from the four corners of the earth and there is a happy buzz in the air. Weddings are often an excuse for people who have never been to Symi before to visit for the first time and discover just what makes this small island so special. We all know how much fun there is to be had in showing friends and family members ones favourite places and sharing experiences. New friendships are being forged at many a taverna table and on the excursion boats and water taxis.

Temperatures are still in the mid thirties and the humidity remains high with very little wind, unlike the central Aegean and Cyclades which are in the cooling blast of a Force 8 northerly at the moment. While high humidity makes us humans wilt many plants love it. The jasmine and geraniums on the balcony of Symi Visitor Accommodation have started to flower enthusiastically now that the edge has gone off the heat.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Raisins in the Sun

Symi is swaddled in a stifling blanket of humidity and tempers are frayed with lack of sleep. The air conditioner in the Symi Visitor Accommodation office is producing a good four buckets of water a day and those visitors who climb the stairs are loathe to leave the relative coolness of our sofa. As I sit at my desk, looking down the stairs and out through the open door, I am aware of the greengrocers next door in the lane, trolleying past endless crates of peaches, nectarines, grapes and melons in one direction and shoppers laden with baskets and bags of the same fruit heading the other way to revive themselves at Pachos before contemplating the hot hike home.

In the Pedi valley the leaves are falling fast, crunching to dust under foot, and the grapes are shrivelling into raisins in the sun. Tipsy wasps and hornets gorge themselves on the fermenting fruit and stagger off to drown in the cats’ water bowls. Every tap has thirsty bees hovering in hope of a drop of moisture. The poor power station is rattling away at maximum capacity, struggling to cope with the load of all those air conditioners and refrigerators.

The Demitroulla has broken down, delaying the departure of many mainlanders and Italians who need the ‘big boat’ to get their vehicles off the island. http://news.ert.gr/en/c/8/34940 It is not uncommon for Italians to ‘drive’ to Symi, making use of the efficient fast ferry system connecting the two countries via Ancona and Brindisi.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Homeric Seas

The clouds are back and the exodus has begun. The outbound ferries are full of Greeks wishing each other a good winter and Italians heading back to Milan and Rome. This does not mean, however, that summer is over. This is the point at which Symi slips into a more mellow mood. The new arrivals now tend to be couples rather than house-parties, honeymooners and those celebrating special anniversaries, couples who are visiting for the first time ever and couples who have been visiting Symi for years. Walkers and photographers are also starting to appear, keen to take advantage of the more moderate temperatures and the subtle play of light and shade across the sage-scented hills and Homeric seas.

The harbour is still full of boats of all shapes and sizes, from gin palaces to sedate gentlemen’s pleasure yachts, from generic fiberglass charter yachts to gleaming wooden gulets and caiques. The anchorages in Harani, Nimborio and Pedi are also full and at night the water becomes a floating city of twinkling lights.

Tonight the famous beach party on the island of Nimos takes place. There are posters up all round the town advertising music, mezzes and wine. The taxi boats will be shuttling party-goers across to Nimos until late in the night.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Helene Ingrand - A Loyal Friend

We are sorry to report the untimely passing of Helene Ingrand, better known as Grand Helene and Megali Eleni to her many friends here on the island of Symi. She passed away in her home at Mavrovouni, Symi at 18.05 on 14 August, 2008 from a massive pulmonary embolism, a complication of the Guillain Barre Syndrome from which she suffered for the last weeks of her life.

A colourful personality, once met and never forgotten, she was an enthusiastic participant in the year-round life of the island, whether it was picking olives and testing lemoncello recipes or packing summer picnics to share with friends on remote beaches. She lived her life with style and aplomb and found great pleasure in the simple things. She was an exceptional hostess and a loyal friend.

We shall miss her.

Our sympathies to her sisters and to her daughter, Iris, as well as all her friends in Paris and around the world.

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The Biggest Holiday Week in Greece

This is it, the biggest holiday week in Greece, and every bed and boat in the country is booked. Symi is brimful with visitors and the water taxis have been wallowing in and out of Yialos all morning, taking the saronged throng to their favourite basking spots. The summer holiday season peaks this weekend. Friday is the Assumption bank holiday so it will be a three day long weekend for many businesses outside the tourist industry so even those who have not shut down for the first fortnight of August are likely to be closed from Thursday until the following Tuesday.

Although Athens has had summer downpours and showers are forecast in the Ionian, here on Symi it remains relentlessly sunny. The nights, however, are becoming tolerably cooler with the shortening days. Not quite time to dig out the duvet though – it is still around 28 degrees at midnight!

Meanwhile in my corner of the Pedi valley the chillies are turning red and the melons are swelling most promisingly. We are still picking a dish of cherry tomatoes a day and the basil continues to flourish. We have started digging over beds for an early planting of potatoes now that the courgettes have finished. The nuts are maturing on the almond trees and the citrus trees are covered with small immature green fruits.



Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Pedi, Symi, in August

Early morning light in the Pedi Valley.

Figs, ripe for the picking.

Misty morning. Yachts at anchor in Pedi Bay.


Oleanders, rosemary and kermes oaks.

Late summer is a season of golden light and purple shadows, opalescent seas and ripening fruit. Plants start to grow again as the temperatures drop back into the thirties and even though the first rains are still weeks away, a new greenness paints the gardens and terraces with optimism.

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Symi Early on a Summer Morning

I stopped at the Kali Strata corner to take these on the way down to the Symi Visitor Accommodation office yesterday morning. First time visitors to Symi may not be aware of the significance of that long low vessel by the clock tower - it is one of the water ships that comes over from Rhodes several times a week to bring in Symi's water supply.

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A View from the Symi Visitor Real Estate Office

Move!

The Italian power yacht in the foreground was lying at anchor with no crew on board.

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The View from Symi Visitor Accommodation 5 August 2008

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Symi Souvenirs

This morning we awoke to the welcome sight of a waterboat lying alongside the quay in Pedi and another, low in the sea with a full load of fresh water, is gliding into Yialos now. Symi’s aqueous life-line has been restored.

The meltemi is blowing hard out in the central Aegean and it was really windy on Rhodes yesterday but here on Symi, the Camelot of the Dodecanese, we are sheltered from the blow and the harbour is perfectly calm. The water taxis and excursion boats are all out for the day and the remaining day trippers are quaffing cold drinks beneath shady awnings, fanning themselves with Symi Festival programs and comparing Symi souvenirs.

August is always a hazy humid month. The solstice is far behind us now and the days are perceptibly shorter. The winter rains are still months away but nature is already responding to the changing season. Plants that have been marking time for months are starting to look a little greener and tiny new shoots are appearing. The jasmines have a fresh flush of flowers and seeds are germinating wherever the soil is damp. The drip hoses from air conditioners have turned into mini gardens as tufts of grass sprout between the paving in the lanes and the moss turns green.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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A Wonderful Place

The golden days of August have arrived and the island is filling up fast. Every boat, ferry and hydrofoil is packed. Unfortunately we cannot say the same for Symi’s water supply – the island ran dry yesterday and the situation is not much better today with only limited water supply in some areas and none at all in others. While the island’s regular summer visitors remember the water shortages of years gone by and slip into survival mode, for first time visitors it comes as something of a shock not to be able to shower after a day on the beach. Needless to say, sales of bottled water are up!

Meanwhile in my corner of the Pedi valley we are glad that we filled our rainwater cisterns in the winter. While the water in some of the tanks may be a dubious soup of moribund mosquito larvae and drowned lizards, it has none the less enabled us to keep the vegetable garden alive through the summer drought. The cats enjoy snoozing on the damp sawdust mulch among the ripening melons and the kittens chase blue-tailed lizards through the dry leaves under the almond trees. The figs are slowly turning purple and the grapes are plumping on the vines. We still have a dish of fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden with our supper each evening, fragrant with a handful of Genovese basil. The Pedi valley must have been a wonderful place when it was all market gardens, vines and orchards.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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The View from Symi Visitor Accommodation

Now that the new webcam has been installed, everyone knows the view of Yialos from the front balcony window.

This is the view of Lemonitissa church, above the rooftops from the side balcony over the lane containing Dinos' chandlery, Lukas Kakakios' supermarket and Taxas supermarket.

Wherever one is on Symi, the view is always worth looking at.

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