The peach trees are starting to flower

It is a calm grey drizzly day on Symi. The whole of Greece is currently experiencing rain and thunderstorms. There are strong winds in the Ionian but nothing stronger than 6-7 on the Beaufort scale is expected in the Aegean. The weather should start to clear and warm up from tomorrow afternoon with temperatures reaching 22 degrees in the south of the country.

It is that curious period in the ferry schedules where some the fleet is still out of commission and the rest is tied up with doing summer schedule stuff, so when the Dodecanese Pride broke down yesterday quite a few people were stranded as the Aegli doesn't start until next week, the Proteus was doing the Kos, Nissyros, Tilos, Rhodes run without stopping in Symi and the Symi is on its summer tourist schedule and was therefore only leaving Symi late in the afternoon. This is the sort of thing that adds an element of the unexpected to even the most banal activities such as paying the telephone bill, which can only be done in Rhodes at the moment as the OTE office on Symi is still closed...

Meanwhile, in the Pedi valley, the peach trees are starting to flower. It is rare to actually have much of a crop as the island is far too dry and few of us have the water to spare to keep them adequately irrigated, but the blossom is pretty while it lasts. (see picture)


The warmer weather following a mild winter has meant that the insect population has hardly missed a beat. The new season's crop of baby locusts is already munching its way through the wild hollyhocks and every time the wind blows aphids fall like rain from the almond trees. While it is nice to think that ladybirds will take care of the aphid problem, in 12 years on Symi I don't think I have seen a dozen ladybirds.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com