In the Sunshine on Saturday

The Taxiarchis Hotel surrounded by daisies at the border between Chorio and the Pedi Valley.

Wild Pear Blossom

Waiting for warmth - no new leaves yet on the Valonia oaks.

The Nireus Hotel is still wrapped up for the winter.  As are Sofia's House and Sofia's Apartment next door.
 In May the waterfront here is pretty with umbrellas, cafe tables and sunbeds.

The Proteus lies alongside in Yialos, awaiting her fate.  To the right, the waterfront tavernas have taken their tables outside so that the interiors can be repainted and cleaned for the first visitors in April.

Small boats like theser are used by the locals to go out fishing  on sunny days in the winter.

After a gloriously springlike weekend winter reappeared all over Greece in the course of Sunday. Many parts of Greece have experienced heavy snowfall, not just in mountainous areas but also in Athens and as far south as the Peloponnese. Here on Symi we have had torrential rain since Sunday evening and the usual Clean Monday activities of picnics in the countryside and the flying of kites were a complete wash out. The waterfront cafes in Yialos were relatively busy as locals sought refuge from the weather and the lone taverna open on the waterfront at this time of the year was packed. With gale force winds and a shipping ban we are unlikely to see the Blue Star ferry anytime soon as the weather is not expected to improve before Thursday. Anticipated lows for Rhodes and Symi tonight are in the region of 3 degrees centigrade and it is unlikely to climb much over 6 degrees centigrade tomorrow. There is a good reason why local farmers don't believe winter is over in our corner of the Mediterranean Basin until at least 15 March. Lent is off to a soggy and sombre start.

As I am sure everyone knows what a rainy day looks like at this time of the year I decided to share with you some photographs I took in the sunshine on Saturday - a reminder that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana