A Monday on Symi in January

Rather a grey Monday on Symi but the little monastery over on Nimos was enjoying a spot of sunshine.

"Hello, is it me you're looking for?"

The old Glafkos hotel on the Kali Strata hasn't been inhabited for many years and is in a sad state of disrepair.  I remember going to a party there in 1996 when it was no longer a hotel but a Swedish artist, Wolfgang Rehbach, was living there for the summer.  It had the most wonderful wall paintings of Arcadian landscapes.  The mansion next door was in far worse condition and walls had actually blown down in a winter storm when it was bought and restored to glory you see on the right.  Perhaps one day the Glafkos will also enjoy a similar renaissance.

This is the route many of the local teenagers follow to get from Yialos to the high school just below the Kali Strata. This short cut runs just below the Kali Strata and cuts out a lot of steps although, as you can see, part of the path is decidly rustic.

It has been a harsh winter so far and many of the palm trees in cold north-facing locations are looking distinctly unhappy.  This one looks as though it is still undecided.

One of the unique things about Symi is this juxtaposition of ruins and restorations and occasional new builds in the traditional style.  Symi is an architectural heritage site so anything built from scratch has to be in keeping with the traditional neo-classical style for which the island is famous.  At the same time all restoration projects are also closely supervised and at the end of the day, if the Archaeologia, the body that supervises this, doesn't approve your paperwork you don't get electricity until you have remedied whatever they are found wrong, including painting the house the wrong colour.

The view from Symi Visitor Accommodation this morning.  As you can see, one of the fishing boats has just come in.

Now is the time to plant potatoes and Symi Flower has Spunta, the most popular seed potato cultivar in the region, in stock.

After a fairly clear and dry weekend the clouds are gathering once again and the rain is expected to reach us in the early hours of the morning.  Strong winds gusting up to 65 km/ph are forecast and the wet weather is only expected to clear again late on Wednesday.  Temperatures are going to drop in the latter part of the week as the wind changes to the north with highs of 9 and a drop to as low as 3 on Friday night.  As this will be accompanied by strong northerly winds we may see ice in exposed areas.  We really are having a proper winter this year!

One piece of good news coming out of Greece this week is that Athens International Airport, Eleftherios Venizelous, has just been accredited as carbon neutral, the 25th airport in the EU to achieve this status. This means that all those solar panels surrounding the airport are doing their job and the airport has successfully reduced its environmental impact.  Considering how hard Greece is struggling at the moment, that is quite an achievement.  

Have a good week - and keep warm!

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Gold - Chronia Polla!

A sumptuous gold and crimson angel peeps through a window in Chorio.  In the Greek Orthodox church, the 12 days of Christmas come to an end with the Epiphany celebrations on 6 January so decorations stay up until then.  We have many name days as well as Independence Day, Carnival and Clean Monday and the whole of Lent before the first Easter egg appears in the shops here. Everything is appropriate to its season in Greece and looked forward to with enjoyment. 

A lovingly painted close of houses on the narrow one way street that passes close to the heart of Chorio.

The gleaming white wash of summer is washing away on the Kali Strata, replaced by a mossy garden between the old paving stones.

The dividing line between town and country is very blurred on Symi and at this time of the year I never know what I will see on my walk down the Kali Strata. These two seem quite happy.  It is not very clear in the photograph but there is a small Christmas tree, complete with baubles, at the bottom of the steps on the left of the picture.

The buildings on the right have been painted the traditional way, with ochre pigment mixed with asvesti (whitewash). The ones on the left have been painted with acrylic paint. Both are  now deteriorating but I find the ones on the right with their diverse damp patterns as the moisture seeps through the pigment much more interesting than the ones on the left where the damp simply builds up behind the paint which then drops off the wall.

A small freighter sheltering in Yialos. The original name is still visible on the stern - The River Dart of London.  She's a long way from home.

The ochre and brown colour scheme is a legacy of the Italian occupation.  Before that, Symi's houses were painted loulaki, a wonderful warm blue made by mixing azure and indigo pigments with whitewash.  Fragments of this can sometimes still be seen on old ruins up in Chorio, around the Kastro.

The vines are turning russet in the cold.

Oranges ripen in an abandoned garden on the Kali Strata.

The Virginia creepers have shed their leaves, revealing a crumbling balcony beneath.

Happy New Year and Chronia Polla to all my readers and fans around the world.  It is hard to believe that I first started writing this blog in March, 2001, long before broadband, digital cameras and blogging services.  I used to write up my two or three paragraphs - no pictures in those days - and email them by dial up to Mike Gadd,  our webmaster in the UK, who used to paste them onto a webpage for me.  When the page got too full, he would archive it and start another. Blogging has become a lot easier since then and I am also on my fourth camera but I still find things that catch my eye that I want to share with you. Symi is that sort of place. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Symi is experiencing a proper winter this year.  Rainy and stormy days have outnumbered dry ones and temperatures are low.  Those of you who follow Symi Visitor Accommodation on Facebook will know that it snowed on the mountain on Friday. The long range forecast is rain for the next few days with gale force winds on Thursday and Friday followed by very low temperatures over the weekend and early next week so we may well see more of the white stuff on the mountains. Today is a high of 11 and a low of 8 but by Saturday it is likely to be 9 and 4 and on Sunday a decidedly chilly high of 6 and low of 2.  Symi's glorious neo-classical architecture with its high ceilings and inward opening windows does not lend itself well to heating and the 'Symi layered look' owes more to practicality than sartorial style.  Hats, scarves and gloves are often worn indoors and are considerably cheaper than turning the air conditioner on to 'heat' and watching the electricity meter whiz round.  Many people have wood burning stoves these days - even the Stani patisserie next to our office has one glowing away in the corner of the shop, the chimney routed out of the top window and up onto the roof.

Friday is the Epiphany and a serious holiday in Greece. In Yialos, Harani and Pedi booths decorated with oranges are set up for the service and the priests cast crucifixes into the freezing waters for young men to recover.  With a gale warning and torrential rain expected, they will be brave young men indeed.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

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Blossom Time on Symi

Look carefully and you will see the bees, busy doing their thing.

Almond trees

The upper reaches of the Pedi valley.  The white patch of trees centre right in this picture are the almond trees in detail at the beginning of this blog.  The other deciduous trees are still leafless.  Look at how luminous the grass is on the terraces - a far cry from the dusty brown of summer.

In the summer this area off the square in Chorio is humming with people.  In the winter only one of the bars is open and everyone is sitting inside, around the heater, drinking strong Greek coffee and discussing the economy, or lack thereof.  The majority of people do not have any regular work in the winter as much of the island's income is dependent on summer tourism.  Unless one is a teacher or working in the bank, post office, town hall or the forces, there is little employment in the winter and by February things are looking quite bleak.  In a few weeks, when the weather improves, it will be time to get started on preparations for the season and the island starts to hum with activity but at the moment there is little to be done.

The sun came out for a while on Saturday and every balcony seemed draped with bedding, out to air in the sunshine.  We don't have central heating in Symi and the houses become very damp in the winter.  People rely on small halogen heaters or, if they can afford it, their air conditioners set on heat - an expensive way of heating drafty high-ceilinged stone houses as the units are mounted high on the walls for maximum cooling efficiency in the summer.  

Even the family bird is out on the line for a spot of sunshine and fresh air.

Not to mention the Chorio cats.

The Kampos supermarket at the main bus stop in Chorio.  Yes, one of those 3 men on the left has a large bundle of hay slung across his back, destined for the family donkey. The stacks of tins outside the supermarket are crates of dog food.  As Symi's crime rate is negligible shop keepers don't really worry too much about packing away all their stock inside, particularly if they live in the flat above the shop.

Windy skies over Pedi on Saturday morning.

It is another stormy February Monday on Symi.  We had some sunshine on Saturday, which is when I grabbed the opportunity to go out and take some photographs of something other than breaking waves in a flooded harbour!  It has been raining steadily all day today and strong winds are expected to move in again tomorrow, with a drop in temperature and, surprise, more rain!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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A Cold and Blustery Day on Symi

It is a cold and blustery day on Symi.  Gale force winds are lashing the whole country and pounding against my balcony door.  The fire brigade has been called out to rescue people trapped by flood waters in Athens and to pump out flooded basements. The Blue Star Diagoras is stuck in Patmos, waiting for the wind to abate, so the hawkers selling black polyester garments will have to hang about Symi for another day.  Heavy rain is expected to reach us as the wind starts to drop.  We will all be glad when February has finally passed and we can really start looking forward to spring.

Meanwhile the first tentative attempts at getting the island ready for the season have commenced.  The municipality is digging a trench around the harbour, from the bus stop to the taxi rank.  Rumours abound regarding what new businesses may be coming this summer. The one arousing a lot of interest is the possibility of a pet shop in Yialos.  It sounds as though it may not be the sort that sells goldfish and hamsters but rather a stockist of pet products and accessories.  Does this portend a glamorous future for the dogs and cats of Symi?  A new traditional-style kafeneion has opened up next to the chandlery in the lane below our office, with its entrance in the next lane.  There is a lot of renovation activity in the old spice and herb shop at the corner by the Vapori Bar and the greengrocer in the alley has had to move his display stand so that the side door can be accessed.  Whenever there is a gap in the weather the chipping of plaster and clatter of jack hammers can be heard, echoing round the harbour.

Meanwhile, in the Pedi valley the wild lupins are flowering and the sheep are enjoying whatever patches of sunshine they can find.  The island is now so waterlogged that little springs and rivulets are dribbling out of the rocks and seeping through the terrace walls. Snails, slugs and earthworms are in evidence everywhere.  A far cry from the baked earth of summer.  I sometimes wonder how far down the earthworms in my garden have to go to find somewhere to survive the summer drought when nothing short of a pick can penetrate the surface. 

Have a good weekend.  Looking at the long range forecast, I think I will be spending most of mine either indoors or in the greenhouse!

Regards,

Adriana

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