First New Windmill in Over a Century

Symi’s solar powered desalination plant is making conspicuous progress. The Pedi road was closed yesterday while a crane manoeuvred massive components into place. Meanwhile up on the mountain top, the island’s first new windmill in over a century is nearing completion. For photographs of these amazing developments, have a look at symi-photos.com/

The disruptions up on the Vigla due to the windmill construction meant that Terri Baker’s Friday night radio broadcast was off the air (although perfectly accessible on line) and most of the Greek television channels are also down (Turkish soaps are, however, perfectly clear). There have also been some hiccoughs in the mobile phone coverage. Jordan’s podcast on symi-blog-the-symi-podcast is not affected however so you can still keep in touch with Symi that way.

Meanwhile, down in the harbour, it is 32 degrees centigrade and very quiet as anyone with any sense is on the beach. Sales of ice cream, sun hats and sun cream are up and I have just shared a large bottle of water with the petunias on the Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony. The gulls are riding the thermals, waiting for day tripper leftovers and the cats are snoozing under the sandwich boards outside the various cafes. The season of the siesta has arrived.

Off to water my vegetable garden and tie up the tomatoes.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

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Rhapsody in Blue

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Sapphire

As Adriana is having problems blogging photos at the moment, I've put the photo mentioned in the post below on Flickr. You can click on the photo to see an enlarged version.

Mike

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Late Rains

Grey skies in late May? Yes, we have had late rains, a good 7 mm fell yesterday afternoon, and the showery weather is only expected to clear in the course of Saturday. Bemused snails who thought they had closed down for the summer were wandering around the damp leaves in my garden yesterday, looking for snacks. While the thunder storms and sporadic rain have been bad news for ‘round the island’ trips, the inclement weather has been excellent news for the shops and cafes and the day excursion boats from Rhodes are full of would-be beach goers in search of other amusements.

On Tuesday evening Symi Dream celebrated the re-hanging of their shop sign which was mysteriously vandalized at Koukoumas earlier in the month. Gill Bennett repaired her handiwork and the sign is now swinging happily on sturdy new chains welded onto the balcony above. It was a good turn out as Neil and James have a lot of friends on the island, not to mention supporters among regular visitors to Symi, many of whom were visiting the island at the time. Photographs of this party on the steps can be seen on Symi Dream’s website gallery, and on James’ blog .

The Sapphire, a big Louis Lines cruise ship from Cyprus visited Symi yesterday, with the usual run on the island’s taxi service as passengers were shuttled across the island to visit Panormitis monastery. I took a photograph of it from the corner of the Kali Strata as these cruise ships are quite massive relative to the size of the harbour and surrounding houses. However, as www.blogger.com continues to have problems with the uploading of photographs I am unable to post it at present. Speaking of computer problems, there have been various random glitches in the internet service on Symi this week with many people reporting problems including such mysteries as being able to receive messages but not send them, receiving messages days after they were sent or losing connections at odd intervals. Maybe the boffins are right – perhaps we will be driven back to snail mail, telephones and fax as the internet becomes increasingly bogged down under the load of users and thus ineffective. On that optimistic note, I shall now have a go at posting this.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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That Familiar Symi Smell

It is another sunny day on Symi. Down in Yialos the berthing attendants are rushing about, directing cruising yachts to their slots and taking lines. Other boats are circling, awaiting attention. There are a number of American registered yachts in the harbour at the moment as well as Australian and New Zealand ensigns to be seen as those who brave the Red Sea and the Suez Canal finally make it into the gateway to the Aegean. Speaking from experience, it is always a relief for yachtsmen to be dodging ferries instead of super tankers and possible pirate ships and to know that there is a safe anchorage at the end of every day’s sailing.

Speaking of sea farers, the day tripper boats are starting to come in and it is time for visitors staying on the island to vacate Yialos and start the day. Regular visitors and newcomers alike are heading off in all directions, some in search of brunches and lunches in Chorio and Pedi, others in search of beaches, churches, botanical specimens, subjects to photograph or paint and quiet places in which to read a book. The oregano is in full flower now and the warm air is soaking up that familiar Symi smell of hot herbs. The wild thyme bushes are slowing turning mauve with tiny blossom and still there is the heavy perfume of honeysuckle and jasmine in the courtyards and gardens of Chorio.

The weather forecast for the next few days shows a slight drop in temperatures to a more comfortable 28 degrees, with the possibility of occasional thunder showers like the sprinkling of muddy drops that spatter across Symi yesterday afternoon.

Have a pleasant week.

Regards,

Adriana

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Smugly on Symi

It is a hot still day on Symi with only the slightest breeze riffling the leaves on the balcony geraniums. The Nikolaos excursion boat is chugging into the harbour, bright sunshine bouncing off her bridge deck and her wash swishing up over the fuel station jetty at Petalo. The lulls in the conversation drifting up from Pachos are punctuated by the rhythmic thwacking sound of a fisherman beating an octopus against the quay.

For those who have asked, I spoke to Captain Yanni from the Poseidon this morning and he says he is 99% certain he will be going to Datca this Saturday, as will the Symi II which, according the printed schedule from the ANES office, will be running a Saturday trip to Datca every week right through to the end of September.

Lots of Symi’s regular visitors are on the island at the moment, many of whom arrived with Olympic Holidays yesterday. Webcam waves are the order of the day as those who are smugly on Symi wave to those who are enviously elsewhere.

There is a small chance of some showery weather early next week as the remnants of the front passing over Italy finally drift across Greece towards Turkey. It is unlikely to amount to much, however, and may just be a passing cloud.

Have a peaceful weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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Chamomile Underfoot

The lush green of the rainy season has faded away. The spring corona daisies have turned to dust and tangles of pink bindweed light up the dry hillsides. Wobbly wild hollyhocks are a magnet for bees now that the poppies are virtually all gone. The oregano bushes have started to flower on the terraces and the sandy verges of Pedi bay are scented with chamomile underfoot. Summer has arrived on Symi and the thermometer is at 30 degrees making Symi one of the warmest places in Greece at the moment. Humidity has dropped to below 40% and washing dries in minutes. Symi’s elaborately carved doors and shutters are all creaking and clicking as they contract in the dry air after a wetter than usual winter. A cool breeze is blowing across the harbour today, bringing some relief from what has been a very hot few days.

Municipal employees are out with pots of white wash, painting benches, barriers and bollards. The concrete kerbs and crash barriers along the motor road through Chorio have been painstakingly painted in white and pale Hellenic blue – a real labour of love. The oleanders are starting to flower in various shades of pink, salmon and crimson, forming ribbons of cheerful colour. Hawkers selling cheap Chinese power tools, Russian generators and gaudy plastic garden furniture are staking out their territory in the Chorio car park.

Down in the harbour charter gulets with fanciful rigs are chugging in from Datca while over in Pedi cruising boats on tight budgets continue to swing to anchor. There seem to be more privately owned cruising yachts than ever around this year and judging by those to whom we have spoken, saving on marina fees by starting the cruising season early has been a major factor.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

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Clear Skies, Blue Seas

It is VE Day on Symi and the island is full of men in uniforms, politicians in suits and school children in unfamiliar skirts and flannels. Symi loves a good parade and the whole community has turned out to commemorate what was a significant moment in the island’s turbulent recent history. The soldiers are forming up outside our window at Symi Visitor Accommodation as I write this. See Out and About for photographs.

After the rain earlier in the week Greece’s long range weather forecast seems to be sunshine all the way and here on Symi we are enjoying clear skies, blue seas and moderate temperatures in the mid to high twenties. We can see distant thunderheads building up over the Turkish mountains in the midday heat.

Visiting dignitaries aside, quite a lot of the island’s familiar faces are starting to appear for their annual Symi ‘fix’. May and June are good for those who want to avoid the heat and the crowds and still enjoy all the amenities that the island has to offer. Although the Triton and Agios Nikolaos are still on the hard at Harani the Poseidon is in the water and the excursions will soon be starting. The beach tavernas are busy with preparations for the season and the water taxis will soon start their summer service to the various outlying beaches. I was down in Pedi yesterday and it is slowly making the transition from winter isolation to summer activity. The beach at Tolis is still a line up of boats with owners and labourers scraping and painting as though their lives depend on it. Rumour has it that the crane may be disappearing soon, off to do another job somewhere else while Symi waits for the funds to arrive for the work on the marina to resume. Interestingly the Minister of the Aegean, Mr Pavlides, is currently on Symi and was seen yesterday in Chorio and Yialos in the company of Symi’s mayor, Lefteris Papakaloudoukas. As Mr Pavlides is currently all over the Greek national press in connection with a corruption scandal this may be as much a PR exercise as his usual VE Day appearance.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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A Glorious Weekend

After a glorious weekend the drizzle crept in this morning and it has been dripping light mud rain all morning. As regular visitors to Symi will know this weather is typical in Greece during April and early May so we have been remarkably lucky thus far this year. This spell of unsettled weather is expected to clear around Thursday when a brisk north wind should blow it all away.

Symi harbour is humming with activity as the Proteus was chartered to bring hundreds of children over from Rhodes today on a school outing and the Symi is also in, berthed over by the clock tower. A lot of overnight visitors also came in on the Symi II last night and weather aside, Symi is becoming more like her usual summer persona with more shops opening every day. The Poseidon was full for the Saturday excursion to Datca.

Well known Greek male model Alexandros Parthenis was persuaded to do the honours for the Annual Symi Visitor Accommodation Iapetos Village Holiday Competition and the lucky winners are Mick Poulter and Nancy Cliff. They will be letting us know in due course when they want to take up their prize of a week’s accommodation at Iapetos Village on Symi.

Friday is VE Day, traditionally celebrated on Symi with a parade and wreath laying ceremonies at the war memorial as this is where the peace treaty was signed for the Dodecanese at the end of the Second World War.

Have a peaceful week.

Regards,

Adriana

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May Day on Symi

Today is May Day in Greece, celebrated with picnics and flowers. It is traditional to go out into the countryside and gather a posy or wreath of spring flowers with which to decorate the front door of each house and business. As I was walking to work this morning I passed many Symiots heading off into the Pedi valley to do just that. This is quite an important bank holiday long weekend in Greece and many of the hotels and tourist resorts are full, particularly down here in the south. Up in the north of Greece rain and thunderstorms are still a daily event and even here on Symi it is quite overcast today with the possibility of some showers.

Temperatures on Symi at the moment are in the mid-twenties at midday, dropping to about 18 degrees at night. The harbour is quite busy. Cloudy days always mean lots of visitors from Rhodes on the day boats so the shops and tavernas along the waterfront in Yialos are busy.

I have just had two surprise visitors in my office, Howard and Ellen Christensen all the way from Southern California. They have been to Greece many times but had never been to Symi before. Their mission? To ask me personally if I could please include more Greek vegetable recipes on my recipe blog, but this time without onions. This could be an interesting challenge. I see a weekend in the kitchen ahead.

Have a good bank holiday weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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