Unexpected Places

It is a bright blue and white day on Symi. Small wooden fishing boats are puttering out across the bay, flags fluttering in the breeze. Around at Harani there is much scrubbing, scraping and rubbing going on as the water taxis and excursion boats have their bottoms cleaned of a summer’s worth of barnacles. Smaller boats are being hauled out on the customs slipway and it is that time of the year when café tables and chairs give way to boats on crates and cradles along the waterfront and tucked in lanes and unexpected places, often quite remote from the sea.

Temperatures are pleasantly mild with midday peaks in the mid twenties and evenings no lower than 15 degrees centigrade at the moment. The Pedi valley is a luminous patchwork of fresh green grass and the chocolate brown of newly ploughed fields. Little spires of bonfire smoke scent the air as farmers burn kermes oak prunings and clear the land for winter planting. Lupins, cyclamens and the ubiquitous Cape sorrel (Bermuda buttercups) are the most easily identifiable of the wild flowers on the terraces and stony places. On a clear Symi winter’s day one really does feel as though one can see forever.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana