Calm seas and balmy breezes

No one can quite believe the spectacular change in the weather in the last few days. We have gone from howling gales to calm seas and balmy breezes as though someone flipped a switch. Quite how long this will last no one knows but we are all making the most of it while it lasts. This is always a tremendously busy month and with Easter coming early this year it did not help anyone's maintenance schedule to have the wettest and windiest March in years pounding the island and adding countless broken windows and flooded rooms to the job list.

Temperatures are in the high teens and low twenties although indoors it is considerably cooler as it takes a while for these old stone buildings to heat up. We wear the usual five layers in the office and start peeling them off on the way home. The combination of late rains and warm weather has the weeds growing before our eyes, much to the enjoyment of the donkeys and mules that carry building materials and rubble up and down the Kali Strata. (See picture.)

Yachtsmen and householders preparing for the season are the first visitors to the island and we had the first day-trippers on Sunday, in the form of a small chartered ferry from Tilos, visiting Symi for, of all things, a stag party excursion! No, I have no idea how they amused themselves but they left mid-afternoon, presumably in search of something a bit more exciting than bean soup (it's Lent so the tavernas and even the gyros bars are on fasting menus).

There are plenty of hawkers around, selling cheerful spring bedlinen, cleaning materials, lace curtains by the metre and light weight children's clothing. They shout their wares through loudhailers as they grind up and down the hills in overloaded vans, stopping at random to allow housewives to inspect the goods.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com

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About this Blog

I sailed into Panormitis Bay, Symi, by chance one windy July day in 1993 and have been here ever since. The locals tell me that this is one of the miracles of St Michael of Panormitis. A BA graduate with majors in English, Philosophy and Classical Civilisation, the idea of living in what is to all intents and purposes an archaeological site appeals to me. Not as small as Kastellorizo, not as touristy as Rhodes, Symi is just the right size. I live on a small holding which my husband and I have reclaimed from a ruin of over-grazing and neglect and turned into a small oasis over the course of the past 22 years. I also work part-time for Symi Visitor Accommodation, helping independent travellers discover and enjoy Symi's simple pleasures for themselves.

This page is kindly sponsored by Wendy Wilcox, Symi Visitor Accommodation.


Adriana Shum

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