The weather remains unseasonably chilly on Symi for the time of year – it is not usually this cold until well into December – but the sun is shining so the sunny side of the harbour is a popular place to be if one has nothing much else to do. As Symi is so steep the days are very short now – it takes several hours for the sun to climb over the hills to shine down into Yialos and Pedi and it seems as though one has only just warmed up before it slips behind the Vigla again and that is another day done. We saw the first European Robin in our garden this morning and my damask roses which normally bloom in April and May have decided to give us a few deliciously scented blooms before winter sets in for good. The next spell of rainy weather is expected to reach Symi next week end, bringing with it a slight rise in temperatures as wet weather usually comes from the South in the Eastern Mediterranean, picking up some warmth from North Africa before it reaches us.
The ANES car ferry, the Proteus, made a jubilant return to Symi yesterday – hooters tooting triumphantly. Her schedule up to 31 December 2011 is now up on the
ANES website and her crew are very happy to be back in business. Meanwhile there is still no word as to when the schedule for the eagerly anticipated
Dodecanese Seaways ferry, Panagia Skiadeni will be released. In the meantime the selection of goods in the shops has been greatly improved by the twice weekly visits of the Diagoras
Blue Star and there have been reports of parsnip sightings in the fridges at Sotiris’ supermarket in Chorio.
Something else that is sufficiently unseasonable to cause comment is Symi’s Christmas lights. In an unprecedented move, Symi municipality is actually putting them up early this year and we already have cheerful barber pole light tubes up the street lamps in Chorio and Yialos and the little ships and doves of peace are in place on the lamp posts in Yialos. Another municipal initiative that is currently underway is the completion of the crazy paving around the harbour which was started earlier in the summer before the season began. It is a wise move to get this done now, before the exceptionally high tides that flood the harbour during the winter storms begin. Both of these projects make use of materials and labour already to hand and bring an air of optimism to our little community without raising comments about extravagance and expense in these times of austerity.
Have a good week.
Regards,
Adriana
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