September Symi Sunshine

The view from Symi Visitor Accommodation this morning.  The harbour is much quieter with fewer boats now that the Turkish holidays are over.

What the best-dressed yachts are wearing this year - a pink inflatable flamingo!

It takes a long time for the sun to reach the Kali Strata in the morning.  Only 10 days or so to the equinox.

Hello!

The squills are back.  They are the first sign of the approaching rainy season, punching up through the hard-baked earth.  The leaves follow much later. The bulbs are like gigantic onions and are traditionally tied to the front door for good luck at New Year.

Castle walls.

The morning sun reaches Pedi quite late too.

Sunset over the windmills of Chorio.

And on Pedi bay.

The floating crane has gone, revealing the current state of the new commercial harbour.  The streetlights are already up and it looks as though there isn't much left to do before it becomes functional.  The idea is that the big car ferries like the Blue Star will dock here instead of the clock tower, reducing the amount of heavy traffic around the harbour.

Monday morning rush hour on the Kali Strata.

It looks as though this grape vine  near the high school has found a cistern or septic tank.

Spotted on the quay last week. This one is registered in Malta.

The children are back in school. The French, Italians and Turks have gone home.  September is the month for couples who can chose their holiday times and don't have to worry about school terms, either because their children are very young or because they have long since flown the nest.  It is a popular month for British and northern Europeans.  It is also a popular month for weddings on Symi - our congratulations to Neil Gosling and James Collins of Symi Dream who celebrated their civil partnership on Friday and to Mike and Sarah Porretta who are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their wedding on Symi.

The weather is warm without the scorching temperatures that we experienced in late June, July and early August.  When it is still it is quite hazy and humid. When the breeze blows it is from the west and visibility clears for miles.  The sea is as warm as it is going to get and the weather remains fairly settled. The thunderstorms experienced in Spain and Italy at the moment seem to be tracking north as they reach the Adriatic, leaving the Aegean in sunshine.

Have a lovely week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Life on Symi in September

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office at 8 a.m. this morning.

Someone must be celebrating something as one of the yachts is 'dressed over all' with the entire contents of the flag locker.

Who says you have to have a patch of earth to have a flower garden? This collection of pots provides an impressive display of colour and texture throughout the year and most of the plants are growing in painted feta cheese cans and plastic plant pots.

8 a.m. and the day has not yet begun.

12 noon and the first customers of the day are settling in for lunch.  This was taken before the Panagia Skiadeni came in at 12.30. so the lanes were still fairly quiet.

A sure sign of changing seasons - the first display of warm jackets and wind cheaters has hit the shops.

Symi Tours is the place to go for your ferry tickets and excursions.  Then you can pop into the emporium next door for the ingredients for an interesting picnic.

The lanes of Yialos are worth browsing for all sorts of shops, cafes and tavernas - and if you are staying on the island for any length of time, a local SIM card for your telephone.

If you look carefully the balcony on the left hand side of the vine, the one with the light blue doors, has an intriguing metal ladder staircase leading from the balcony to the roof.  A novel way to clean the gutters or a look out post for ferries?  On Symi there is always something unusual to see if you look up!

The spire of St John's church in Yialos, the dome of Lemonitissa on the left and, just visible behind St John's, the church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of the Kastro which was built within the ruins of the old castle of the Knights of St John.

It is still hotter than usual for September on Symi but a brisk breeze from the north west has blown away last week's dust and reduced night time temperatures.  We are still some weeks away from the first rains, although the odd downpour is not totally unheard of in September.

Our office has been busy as our houses are full and we also have many people popping in to say 'hello' and drop off donations for the refugees and the Symi Animal Welfare winter feeding scheme.  There is a wedding this afternoon and then we have another big one at the end of next week.  We know that today's wedding has perfect weather, although slightly warmer than planned, but we hope that the one on the 26th does not coincide with one of those 'odd downpours' mentioned in the previous paragraph.

There were only a few refugee arrivals at the weekend and they were processed promptly and have already left the island.  The incident regarding the French Honorary Consul in Bodrum might have significantly reduced the number of boats available.   No doubt someone else will step in to fill the demand in time for the next full moon as there is always someone to spot a gap in the market and exploit it.  Good progress is being made with the decking in the garden of the coast guard building which will provide a clean dry surface for people to sleep.  It is only a week to the equinox and the nights will soon be chilly for people sleeping out of doors.  We still need more monetary donations to reach our target for the infrastructure improvements that need to be made to provide longer term facilities.  There have been refugees arriving on Symi at intervals throughout the 22 years I have lived here and with Symi being one of the border islands, this situation is likely to continue to varying degrees for a very long time.  The link for on line donations is http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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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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