Bright Week on Symi

The pink bindweed is one of the last of the spring flowers to appear on Symi, lingering on into May.

An attention-seeking poppy.

The black plastic water pipes that snake along the roads and lanes of Symi are masked, albeit briefly, by verdant verges.

You are probably getting a bit bored with poppy photos but they really are splendid this year and in a few weeks they will be gone, replaced by dusty hillsides and scrubby brown bushes.

This is the first year I have seen taverna chairs being painted along our road but there is a first time for everything!

Petunias lighting up a shady terrace in Chorio.

The massive task of weeding and painting the Kali Strata has begun.

He has a long way to go!

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony today.  Yes, those are rainclouds!

Easter was celebrated with the usual exuberance and a mixture of fireworks and enormous bangs, whether dynamite or fertiliser bombs I don't know.  To the best of my knowledge, everyone's windows survived the weekend.

The weather was lovely - sunny and dry with a cool breeze.  The clouds came back on Monday and we had a lingering thunderstorm with light rain overnight.  This is the time of year when North Africa and the Middle East are heating up and continental Europe remains cold.  The Mediterranean is right between the two so we get thundershowers and occasional storms as the hot and cold air collide over us. Amazingly we haven't had any red rain or dust storms so far this year which is quite unusual.  Temperatures on Symi and in Rhodes are still around the 20 degree mark so not really beach weather yet.

The Panagia Skiadeni is now operating day trips from Rhodes, offering a diversion for early season tourists staying in hotels in Rhodes who are looking for an alternative to shivering on the beach or by the pool.  This is good for the cafes and tourist shops that have opened up along the waterfront in Yialos.

Have a good week!

Regards,
Adriana

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Big Week on Symi

Summer-time visitors to Symi may have problems associating Symi with daisy lawns so here is the proof!

The Pedi valley is still green.  As most of the trees are now leafed over, very little of the earth beneath is visible and the cyclamens are disappearing fast.

Kali mera!

I think I might just make this my desktop wallpaper for the summer.  Green relief for tired eyes!

People are arriving for Easter and shutters are opening all over the island.

Cafes, bars and restaurants are opening for Easter visitors.

Once again the municipality has optimistically placed anti-parking devices along the waterfront at the head of the harbour.  You can see how effective they are from this photograph.

Spring flowers feed happy sheep and goats who produce lots of milk which turns into beautiful artisanal cheeses that in turn become tasty little cheese pies to share with friends on Easter Sunday.  That's the kind of food chain we all aspire to and which is readily traceable in Greek.

Preparing for sunny days.

It is just about warm enough for ice cream.

The Symi Visitor Accommodation balcony rail provides an over-pass for lazy cats making their way across the rooftops.  They don't often linger long enough to be photographed.

Today\s poppy picture

Today marks the start of Big Week, the solemn run-up to Greek Easter.  It is a very busy week in Greek households as the spring-cleaning, whitewashing and preparations for the Easter weekend and its celebratory Sunday feast all have to be completed in addition to attending many church services.  All of this is done on a strict fasting diet of pulses and halvah.  Oil and other fats are not allowed and wine is also not permitted. By Easter Sunday everyone will really deserve their lamb feast!

Good Friday and Easter Monday are both religious holidays here. Good Friday is particularly serious and there are strict taboos on manual labour on both Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Easter Monday is more of an extension of the Easter Sunday celebrations as well as providing time for people to travel home.  By the way, just as this is Big Week (Big as in solemn or momentous), next week is Bright Week and in theory anyway is a week of feasting to celebrate the Resurrection plus any name days that might have been missed due to Lent.

The weather remains mild with little difference between daytime and night-time temperatures.  It is around 20 degrees at midday and around 14 at night.  Once again some rain showers are expected midweek. Lovely in the sun, it is still chilly indoors and in the shade so take an extra layer when venturing forth. There is a distinct cold bite to the north wind.

It will be about a month before the excursion and taxi boats go back in the water and the beach tavernas start packing out sunbeds.  April is the time for walks in the countryside, enjoying the flowers and sparkling clean air.  In the old days, when people used to take several holidays a year, April used to be the month for walking groups, photographers, painting groups and so on.  In recent years the season has shrunk and we no longer see many foreign visitors in April.  Instead the main activity is Greek internal tourism - a combination of family members returning home for the celebrations and people exploring their own country in all its scenic glory. Springtime in Greece is spectacular and is reverting back to being a well-kept secret.  It is just as well there are bloggers like myself and James Collins to share it with you!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Awash with Glorious Poppies

Friday's Dracunculus vulgaris in all its odiferous splendour.  

A donkey, head down among the daisies near the sports facility.  Whoever has that vegetable patch to the left of the donkey has a lot of weeding ahead as the rows of onions, broadbeans and artichokes are awash with glorious wild poppies.

Every old stone wall is a hanging garden at the moment.  Various stone crops, tiny ferns, daisies and figs turn the tumbled down ruins and winding lanes of old Chorio into a wonderful garden at this time of the year.

The grape vines have their new leaves and the housewives use them to make delicious dolmades.  Fresh vine leaves are often picked and frozen or pickled in brine for use later in the year when the leaves on the plants are tough and lack that spring succulence.

Poppies and figs in the Pedi Valley

Hello!  Is it me you are looking for?  A tagged ewe wants to know who is taking her photograph.  Note the furled dracunculi in the background, to her left. That is a really mean wild thistle to her right.  Those are oregano bushes in the background.

Down in the harbour the Symi and the Panagia Skiadeni have started bringing day trippers over from Rhodes on a regular basis and there are definitely more people around.  Foreign property owners are arriving to prepare their houses for the summer season so there are lots of familiar faces around. They are also surveying the damage from one of the wettest winters anyone can remember so there is plenty of painting and airing out of damp furnishings going on.

It has now been dry for about a fortnight so doors and shutters have shrunk to more normal proportions.  The long range forecast shows lots of wind but no definite rain so we are unlikely to have more than one more downpour between now and October.  Temperatures are still fairly cool, just hovering above the 20 mark and there is not much difference between day time and evening temperatures.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Spring Flowers

Wild chamomile on a bit of wasteland in Chorio.

A tiny garden growing in the crevices of a ruin.

The Pedi valley wearing different shades of spring green.

Wild cyclamens carpet the shady places.

Even the barren hills between Pedi bay and Agia Marina have a green sheen this year.

Spring is now in full bloom on Symi.  If you always visit the island in the summer when it is dry and bare rock wherever you look,  you may find it difficult to imagine what Symi looks like in April. Thanks to digital photography and the internet I can share some of that floral abundance with you before it all disappears into dust of summer.

It is quite a windy day today and there are some shipping disruptions.  The Dodecanese Express which was scheduled to leave Rhodes at 11 this morning to come over to Symi only left at 12 and still hasn't arrived yet.  The last time I checked on Marine Traffic she was still on the Rhodian side of the Crocodile - the rocky peninsular on the coast of Asia Minor that marks the approach to Symi. Squalls and showers of red rain are expected later today and tomorrow and the rest of the week is fairly unsettled.  It should, however, be dry and sunny for the Greek Easter long weekend.

There are many more young people on the island this week as the students have come home from universities and colleges around the country to spend Easter with their families.  Big Week, the run up to Greek Easter, is a mixture of serious fasting, lots of church services, a frenzy of cleaning and whitewashing and lots of baking for the celebrations on Sunday.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Open for Business

One of the two tavernas down in Pedi, now open for business.

Taverna cats are a feature of the Greek taverna dining experience, particularly if you are eating fish.

Wild greens in abundance for feeding chickens and rabbits.

The grass is already running to seed.  In a few weeks all this lush vegetation will be gone.

Chomp!  This pretty little goat is enjoying her breakfast of fresh daisies and thistles.

The wild flowers are reaching the end of their lifespan, flowering profusely with a view to making as much seed as possible before the plants shrivel and die in the summer heat.

The new herb and coffee shop that has opened on the Kali Strata, opposite the Symi Dream Shop.  If you want freshly ground Greek coffee to take home with you, this is the place to buy it.

An early megayacht.

The view from my window is starting to change.  Don't be fooled by that cloudy sky!

The weather has changed with southerly winds bringing sand, warmer temperatures, more sand and the sort of drizzle that leaves a fine dusty coating rather than moisture in its passing.  Temperatures are set for the mid to high twenties this week and in Crete it is expected to reach 30 degrees centigrade today.

The Easter rush has past and many visitors are heading for home once again.  Meanwhile preparations for the season continue with more shops opening up every day, not necessarily for business but to get things cleaned, painted and tidied up.  Windows and shutters need washing, walls painting and the damp of several months of rainy weather dried off and aired out.  The banks and the post office are busy after the 4 day break and the lanes reverberate with random bangs as children use up the last of their Easter arsenal.  The Panagia Skiadeni has just pulled in with day trippers from Rhodes and fresh supplies for the supermarkets.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Seasonal Occupations

Painting chairs - a seasonal occupation.

Symi's iconic clock tower and police station.

Down in the Pedi Valley - a pretty patchwork of tiny terraced fields defined by old dry stone walls.

There are at least 3 Easter chicks in this photograph, progeny of the free range family that hangs around the skip at the end of my road.  So far Mother Hen has managed to keep them safe from the dozen or so cats that are also part of the colony.

Rural chapel with poppies.

The shoe shop and dress shop near the square in Chorio.  

The new Village Cafe in Chorio is now open.

Wild chamomile growing among the flagstones in Chorio

The April showers have caught up with us just as the first tourists and day trippers of the year are arriving.  The photos in today's blog were taken earlier, when the sun was shining.  It is a murky overcast day today and this unsettled weather is expected to continue tomorrow too.  The forecast for the Easter long weekend, however, is for fine sunny weather.

The general strike on Wednesday was not as disruptive as expected and everyone arrived on time.  As I write the Panagia Skiadeni has just come in with day trippers from Rhodes. With the showery weather the shops and cafes should be busy.  Meanwhile the Easter baking marathon has started.  The grocers and supermarkets have great mounds of cheese, sacks of flour, eggs, sugar and all the traditional ingredients. This weekend the lanes of Chorio will be scented with vanilla and mastic.  There are little sachets of red dye for eggs, sachets of ammonia to use as a raising agent and bottles of orange flower water for flavouring traditional short breads.  Most people do their own baking, using recipes that have been passed down from mother to daughter through the generations.  Plates of homemade delicacies are then shared among friends, family and neighbours, always accompanied by traditional red dyed eggs to break for luck.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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