Symi, Syriza and Solidarity Symi

An interesting sky over Pedi this morning and the church on the corner of my road is sporting freshly whitewashed walls, ready for a name day celebratioin.

It is the calm before the storm today as a big weather front is tracking its way steadily eastwards, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms into Greece from tonight until Wednesday. Fortunately after that the weather is expected  to improve again with more sunshine and temperatures in the high twenties.

Roses, battling bravely on in the heat.

Some hasty work to reseal that roof before the rain arrives tonight.

Mondays aren't too bad if you are a Symi cat.

Architectural details in the harbour.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office today.

The Greek flag, flying high on the rocks above above Yialos.

Well, Syriza has been voted in for another term and we are all waiting to see what happens next.  Voting used to compulsory in Greece and people used to have to take time off work to travel to their home town to vote - quite a business if you work in Athens or Thessalonica and come from a small island like Symi - but these days we have elections so often, that requirement seems to have fallen by the wayside - with the result that for this latest election there was a very poor voter turnout.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms are forecast for the whole of Greece for tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday so it looks as though we will have early rain this year.  As it has been an exceptionally hot summer it will be quite a relief to break the drought a little earlier than usual.  Sunshine, however, will resume from Thursday which is just as well as there is a big wedding at St Nicholas beach this Saturday.

At present we don't have any refugees on Symi but we do have a steady influx of parcels and donations so this is an opportunity to sort things out and do an inventory for the winter so that we can see exactly what we have and what we still need. At present our main requirements are actually monetary in that we need to collect enough money to provide shelter for families and vulnerable people arriving during the winter and also provide them with food if they are stuck on Symi for a few days, waiting for the next boat out.   http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info is the link for on line donations.  You can also find Solidarity Symi on Facebook. We put up regular updates regarding what we need and you will also find our address and contact details there if you want to send parcels or call us.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana