Happy New Year!

Snow on the hills behind Athens on the morning of 7 January 2015, as see through the window of our flight to Rhodes.

Rolling  in the deep - Kamiros Skala, the tiny Rhodian port that serves Halki, during a shipping ban on 8 January 2015.

Rough seas between Rhodes and Symi on 8 January 2015.  The visibility, o n the other hand, was fantastic.  This is looking into the entrance of Marmaris harbour in Turkey from a point near Kamiros Skala on Rhodes.  In clear weather like this one can understand the strategic importance of the old citadels on both coasts.  

Ice on the puddles on Symi, 10 January 2015.  After several days of freezing weather and strong northerly winds the ice was still thick on Saturday morning.

Count the legs - mummy makes a convenient windbreak!  The black plastic pipes run from the water metres at the corner to various small holdings in the Pedi valley.

 A more conventional view of a ewe and her lamb.

Little lamb goes exploring in the Agia Marina river.

The cats have grown their thick winter coats as they spend much of their time out of doors.

Pedi bay on Saturday 10 January.  No yachts, just a patrol vessel gliding by.

At New Year, Symiots traditionally tie the giant bulbs of the wild squill to their doors for good luck in the year ahead.

Happy New Year!  I apologise for the delay in posting my first blog of 2015 - the winter weather intervened and the Blue Star Diagoras was unable to dock in Symi on Wednesday.  The next boat to Symi was the Blue Star Diagoras on Friday night.  By this time many people had been stranded in Rhodes since Monday and the majority of people taking the ferry were destined for Symi.

Those of you who follow our Symi Visitor Accommodation Facebook page and other Symi fan pages have no doubt seen the photographs of icicles taken at various locations on Symi during the week 5-10 January.  The cold northerly blast affected Symi far more harshly than it did Rhodes and we were far better off tucked up in the warmth of the Best Western Plaza than would have been the case in the cold stone houses of Symi where heating is rare or, in the case of our farm house and many others, just a wood fire in the kitchen.  Winters on Symi have tended to be quite mild in recent years and the rainy season can be more of a second spring, encouraging a lot of soft new growth.  Many of the more tender plants have been destroyed by several days of unusual frost and we hope that there will be some recovery when the weather starts to warm up.  Meanwhile I will get replacements started in the greenhouse and cold frames, safe from any further frost depredations.

As I write this, the rain is lashing the harbour and we are back to what is normal for Symi in the winter - wet conditions and temperatures around 10-12 degrees.  The forecast for the rest of the week is more of the same.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana