Cats and the Kastro

Please sir, may we have some more? Foraging in bins is a way of life for the Symi cats and even those that have homes tend to go exploring to see if pickings are more interesting down at the skip.  Symi Animal Welfare also puts out dried food and containers of water at selected locations around the community.

Symi's golden citadel - or rather, what is left of it! The area around the Kastro is slowly being rebuilt, largely by foreigners who have bought ruins on Symi to fix up as holiday homes and summer houses.

The castle itself was already largely in ruins by the time the Germans decided to use it as a munitions store during the Second World War.  The churches within the fortifications have been rebuilt and sections of the walls survived the explosion.

Crocuses share space with a Virginia creeper in a planter in Chorio.

The canary is well out of reach, even if Ginger felt so inclined.  He does so well on deli counter scraps he seldom ventures further than the supermarket store room!

We don't have much by way of tides in this part of the world but the water level does reflect changes in barometric pressure. The abnormally warm mild weather we are experiencing on Symi at the moment is caused by a high pressure system over the Southern Aegean, hence the current low water level in the harbour.

Shoals of small fish sometimes gather at the head of the harbour, by the bridge. This harbour cat is keeping an eye open for an unsuspecting pawful.

Symi really seems to glow at this time of the year.  Autumnal sunshine on old stone and ochre-tinted lime wash are a delightful combination.

The summer tourist season is drawing to a close.  No Dodecanese Seaways boats today - only the Sea Dream and the Nikolaos X excursion boats.  Blue Star ferries have put up their schedules for November to January with a seriously early start on Wednesday mornings as the Paros has to fit in a day return to the distant island of Karpathos, between Rhodes and Crete, once a week.  5 a.m. in the dark chill of  a Greek winter's morning is not an attractive prospect, whichever way one looks at it!  As the Paros has far fewer cabins than the Patmos, anyone planning an overnight trip to Athens will have to book very far ahead to be sure of getting a bunk. The Wednesday schedule remains as is, leaving Symi at 7.45 a.m. and leaving Rhodes at 7 p.m. (give or take half an hour or so as the boat does a trip to Kastellorizon in between).

The weather is marvellous. Sunny and mild with little wind.  If the long range forecast is to be believed, this is all set to change on Tuesday next week when we can expect three days of rain, wind and thunderstorms.  About time really as the ground is too hard to plough at the moment and those first deep rains are crucial for softening the crust, as well as washing the dust off the rooftops.  As Symi does not have a natural water supply, harvesting winter rains off the roof into big cisterns is an important part of the island's infrastructure. The first rains clean the roof and then when the flow is clear, the pipes are diverted to the cisterns. 

Symi's lack of easily accessible water is one of the factors that has saved the island from mass tourism and the culture of 'villa holiday with pool' that puts pressure on the infrastructure of Rhodes and many other places in Greece. Symi's steep and mountainous terrain has also kept the developers at bay.  It would literally take a seismic event for Symi to ever have a golf course or airport!  People visit Symi for a totally authentic Greek island experience, staying in quirky old neo-classical houses accessed by dozens of steep steps and swimming in the warm waters of the Aegean.  It is a place where time literally seems to stand still.

I am off to Rhodes for the day tomorrow - the first time off the island since May so the list of errands and shopping is long!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Adriana

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October Postcards from Symi

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning.

We have a side balcony as well, overlooking the lane. The tinsmith's building at the end of the lane is nearing completion.  A tremendous amount of work is going into the restoration.

Dino the chandler, working on a fishing net. If you look very carefully, you will see that he also sells rugs and agricultural implements.

Hello!

Some Symi kittens are luckier than others.

This one may have to sleep on the balcony but that looks like a very comfy cushion.

His Chorio cousins are not so lucky.  If you are on Symi and still have some change, please pop into the Symi Visitor office as I have a collection box for the Symi Animal Welfare winter feeding scheme.

October skies.

Hawking melons and pumpkins in the backstreets of Yialos.

Hidden behind St John's church, next to the basketball court, there is Symi's new private museum of traditional musical instruments - well worth a visit if you are on Symi in the summer.  

No cats on this balcony overlooking St John's yard.

The heavenly blue of plumbago on the Kali Strata.

Late season sailors.

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Rosy Fingered Dawn

A bustling morning in Yialos.  There is a cruise ship lying off Nimborio at the moment and the guests are being brought ashore in the lighters such as the one on the right.

Taxi boats heading for the beaches.

The downstairs of this building is a carpenter's workshop but upstairs, which was a merchant's office, has been boarded up for years since the old man died.

Before the advent of modern paints the houses were repainted every year with whitewash (asvesti), tinted with different pigments at the whim of the householder.  As the years weather it away again, a kaleidoscope of different colours emerges, creating this lovely effect.  Much more picturesque than peeling emulsion!

Most of the ruins on the Kali Strata have been restored in recent years but these two remain to capture the imagination.

A scrap of a kitten in Lieni.  Symi, like many places in Greece, has a flourishing feral cat population.  In the summer there is plenty of food around but pickings are leaner in the winter and that is when Symi Animal Welfare's admirable feeding scheme comes into play.  If you have any loose change when you pop into our office, please put it into the collection box on my desk.  Volunteers feed the cats several times a week at various feeding stations around the island throughout the winter so even when there is nothing to be found in the bins there is still something to keep them going.

The early morning sun creeping over hill at Milos.  That is the vast roof of the new undercover sports'facility in the foreground.

Homer's rosy-fingered dawn touching Pedi bay.

The equinox has passed and in theory it is now autumn.  Temperatures are still mild as the wind has now swung to the south, the direction from which our rain comes, and thunder showers are forecast for the weekend.  The hunting season has started and men on bikes with dogs riding pillion are heading up the mountain in droves to shoot partridge and quail.

The Panagia Skiadeni is still out of commission and Dodecanese Seaways are issuing schedules on a weekly basis at the moment. The on line schedule is not often updated to reflect new developments which can be very confusing but the on line ticket sales system seems to be up to date so it is best to check there.  If you prebook your tickets on line and there is any change the shipping company will then notify you.  Andy is doing his best to post regular updates on his travel blog whenever new information becomes available and we also post updates on our Symi Visitor Accommodation Facebook page.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Cats and Flowers

Thomas, a fine figure of a Symi cat, surveys his domain.  He has his humans well trained and is fed through out the year.  Other Symi cats are not so fortunate so if you are on the island in the next few weeks, please put your coins in the Symi Animal Welfare collection tins for the winter cat feeding program.

It will be a while before the new Chorio clinic is completed - the foundations have yet to be poured - but it is easy enough to find the old one now that it has a bright new sign with the doctor's telephone numbers prominently displayed.

Symi Flower Shop is reminding us that it is time to plant our bulbs if we want daffodils, freesias, tulips and the like.  Our winters are not cold enough for long enough for bulbs to naturalise here and flower successive years so we have to plant new ones every year.

The entrance to St John's church yard, enhanced by another Symi cat who has the well fed look of good owners.

Another reminder that the first rains are round the corner and it will soon be time to start planting again. Dino, the chandler in the lane below our office carries an amazing array of goods, including basic agricultural implements.  A good pick is essential for breaking the ground after it has baked hard in the summer drought. The grey plastic object to the right is a manual lift pump, used by local fishermen to pump rain water out of their open boats.

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