March Postcards from Symi

Another cyclamen shot - because in a few short weeks they will be gone as though they have never been and the landscape will revert to the baked bare earth of summer. Let us revel in this verdant and fragrant abundance while we may.

Poppies are another spring flower seen in abundance in Greece from late March until early May, depending on the rains.

6 a.m. sunrise over Pedi bay.

One of the ruins on the Kali Strata is now sporting this impressive riveted steel door.

 A delicate fern growing out of an old grape vine on the Kali Strata.

Waiting for tidbits outside the butcher in Yialos.

Good Friday is only a fortnight away and some of the traditional Easter items are for sale in the shops.  Beautifully decorated prcessional candles are popular.  Originally decorated with religious motifs, they now have all sorts of decorations on them, both religious and secular.  

Symi isn't really cycling country unless you are very fit and have a good mountain bike.  These bikers must have arrived on the Blue Star this morning.

31 March and Yialos is still empty.

The water level is very low due to a barometric high over the area and the cats like to hang about on the exposed foundations of the bridge, batting at the fish and hunting for any scraps of bread.

The day's catch, on display at the fish market by the bridge.  There are far too  many fishermen around for the cats to try a smash and grab raid on this bountiful display but the fishermen do toss them the odd fish.

Although the tourist season proper does not really start until May, there is quite a bit of internal tourism over Easter as Greeks go to visit their families.  A lot of the shops and cafes are starting to get ready for the first guests and there is a major spring-clean underway.  the weather is warming up, the plastic 'tents' are disappearing from the cafes and the air is buzzing with power washers and the whiff of detergent.

The Merakles is ready in case anyone drops in for lunch and the boutique behind is having a thorough clean before the new stock is unpacked.

The sea and the land have supported the inhabitants of Symi for at least 3000 years and as tourist arrivals have dwindled in recent years, many Symiots have fallen back on those two resources to sustain their families through hard times.

March is drawing to a close.  The weather is warming up and we have had a few light rain showers, mercifully clean, in the past 24 hours.  Midday temperatures are around 19 degrees, falling to about 11 at night. We have had a couple of days where it has been 20 in the sun but it is still quite chilly in the shade.  There is heavy dew fall at night and anything left out is very damp in the morning.

I shall be in Athens next week and am not sure exactly when I will be back so my next blog is likely to be the following week which is, of course, Big Week, the run up to Greek Easter and a period of serious fasting in Greece.  Lent is not just a matter of giving up treats in Greece.  It requires serious self-discipline but all that abstinence is well rewarded come Easter Sunday!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Solidarity Symi Public Meeting - 16 November 2015

A public meeting will be taking place at the Cultural Centre in Yialos at 2 p.m. today. Everyone who is on the island is invited to attend.  Translators will be available as there will be speakers in both Greek and English.

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Everyday Life on Symi in August

The obligatory early morning view of Pedi bay.  We have had some wind which has helped to clear the haze and extend our horizons. Those hills in the distance are Turkey.

The delicate colours of Symi in late summer.  The hill with the houses is the Milos area of Chorio, so called for the row of 17th century windmills along the crest.  Yialos is just on the other side.  The hill on the left background is Nimborio, the one on the right is the island of Nimos and the one in the far distance is Turkey once again.  Symi is actually surrounded by Turkey on three sides and in the days of the Ottoman Empire, Symi was a major hub for the region. Those windmills were built to mill grain that was grown in  Greek-owned farms across the straits around Datca, Bosburun and Fethiye in what is now modern-day Turkey.

Prickly pears ripening in Chorio.

Picking prickly pears is a delicate business.

Roses in Chorio.  The flowers get smaller in the summer, stressed by the heat, and open very quickly.

Expect the unexpected on Symi.  I passed this enigmatic sign on my way to work this morning but did not have time to take a detour to investigate.

Yachts lying off Harani, seen from the Kali Strata.  That is Nimos in the background.

A typical scene from the balcony of Symi Visitor Accommodation where I work in the mornings during the week.

The nautical museum at the back of the town square in Yialos.  The folk and local history museum up in Chorio has been closed for some years as it is undergoing extensive renovation/restoration.  It is still not clear quite when it will reopen.

Crates of freshly baked bread at one of the bakeries in the harbour.  The early deliveries are the staple white loaves used by the locals and the tavernas.  The fancier breads arrive later and you can get all sorts of interesting types of grains including stone milled and multi-grain.  In a waste-not, want-not society, unsold bread is dried out in the ovens and turned into rusks.

While visitors are sleeping off the night before, the locals are up and about and doing their shopping when I come down to the harbour before 8 in the morning.

Whoever owns this one is fully co-ordinated - even the crew and the dog were charcoal grey and black!

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August Postcards from Symi

A typical early morning view of Pedi in August.  Yachts of all shapes and sizes anchor in Pedi bay in the summer as it is much cooler and quieter than Yialos.

The same scene, catching the late afternoon sun.

The Pedi marina is still not finished but yachts tie up to it as best they can.  There are no formal amenities for yachtsmen in Pedi so if you need shore power and water you have to go round to Yialos where it can be arranged on the quay.

The wayside chapel at the end of my road.  Many of the trees in the valley have got die-back at this time of the year.  Deciduous trees handle the summer drought in one of two ways. They either shed leaves uniformly all over or specific branches are literally 'shut down' as can be seen on the tree behind the chapel.

Thistles add interest to a dry landscape.  In a month or so they will start to regreen, even if there has been no rain.

The hot pinks and magentas of the bougainvillea are such an established part of the Mediterranean landscape, one forgets that they were originally a tropical plant.

Off loading supplies at the fuel station. Work seems to be on hold on the new commercial/cruise ship jetty at the moment.

Not your usual shopping - bales of hay heading up the mountain to feed the mule train which is based up there.

The remaining figs are drying out on the trees.  Don't scorn shriveled figs - they are pure sweetness as the natural sugars caramelise in the sun.

An exceptionally elaborate pediment on a small house in Lieni, the area skirted by the motor road at the top of Chorio.   Symi's main claim to fame is its beautifully preserved architecture and the whole town, both up and down, is a tourist attraction in that sense.  When people ask me, 'what is there to see on Symi?' I say, 'look around you!'

That drift of bougainvillea petals on the Kali Strata is getting deeper.

Some visitors arrive on Symi on ferries and in fancy yachts, others arrive as refugees on whatever the people traffickers supply.  All the conundrums of the modern world are here in microcosm.

No, they aren't dead.  These three kittens, all played out, are pretending to be invisible while they nap.

Two of my fans, first time Symi visitors, Kathryn and Robert, came in to the Symi Visitor Accommodation office yesterday to introduce themselves.

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Wedding Bells and Misty Mornings

Neil Gosling, photographer in residence, photographing the happy couple outside the town hall this morning.

'You may now kiss the bride!' - Ken and Trine from Norway tie the knot at Symi's town hall.  They were married by Symi's mayor, Lefteris Papakalodoukas (right).

Neil does his stuff. The celebrations will continue with a ride on the noddy train round to the Tholos restaurant for lunch (too hot to walk!), followed by champagne cocktails at sunset on the Poseidon, a sunset blessing at Agia Marina and then dinner at Mythos roof terrace.  Very romantic and a wonderful experience for the happy couple and their guests, something that they will always remember.

Hawkers selling fresh fruit and vegetables at the back of the town square in Yialos this morning.

A fruit and veg delivery off the Panagia Skiadeni for the supermarkets in our lane.

No fuel shortages either - this is the mini tanker that comes round in the early morning to refuel the taxi boats and yachts.

Gyros are still ridiculously cheap and no one minds the absence of fast food franchises on the island.  Vegetarians can head for one of the bakeries nearby for a spinach or cheese pie.

Do you remember that little boat I photographed being sanded down and repainted a couple of months back? Well it has evidently found its purpose in life, advertising the various water taxi destinations on the quay.

A veritable armada of yachts pulling out of Yialos early this morning.

Early morning mist crowning Nimos in the distance.

A small cruise ship has been coming through twice a week, staying for several hours so that passengers have plenty of time to explore the island.

Sunshine and shadows on a washing line in Chorio.

Symi is sweltering in a heatwave with temperatures over 40 degrees this week.  Humidity is quite high too. July is usually the hottest month and as the days are still quite long, the island does not really cool down much at night. All that rock soaks up the heat during the day so that even at midnight temperatures can still be in the 30s.  In a climate like this it makes sense to have a siesta of some sort in the hottest part of the day and many people work from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. and then start all over again at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., working through until 9 or 10 at night.  A lot of tourist businesses actually stay open right through.  When northern Europeans consider siestas as some sort of indication of indolence and laziness on the part of the Mediterranean peoples, they tend to forget that often the summer working day is considerably longer than that of northern Europeans and the hours that people in seasonal employment have to put in in the summer, in exhausting temperatures, would cause protests and industrial action elsewhere.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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