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| Calm seas and clear skies on Tuesday. |
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| Symi neo-classical colours. Symi's palette is quite tightly regulated, particularly in the historic neo-classical amphitheatre harbour. |
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| Walking in Lieni earlier this week I spotted this tree. Each of the plastic bottles is protecting two cuttings which have been grafted onto the trunk. I don't know who did this but it will certainly be interesting to see if they take and what they turn into. |
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| Next to the grafted specimens there is what appears to be a kind of wild pear, now hesitantly in bloom. |
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| Beware of chickens crossing roads for the next 4 kilometres? Who knows. |
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| The valonia oak in Lieni has finally got the message that it should be losing leaves. |
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| Which it is doing with enthusiasm. |
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| Yes, this lush pasture is on Symi. Goat's milk cheese on the hoof. |
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| The Blue Star Delos speeding past Pedi at 8 this morning. Apparently the Patmos will be resuming service in a few weeks. Although externally the two vessels are to all intents and purposes identical, the Delos is configured for short haul trips so she only has 20 cabins and a fast food franchise - not much fun it you are travelling overnight from Pireus to Symi which is about 14 hours, depending on the number of stops. The Patmos, better suited to over night passages from Pireus to Rhodes, Kastellorizon and Karpathos, has more cabins and a proper restaurant for those who don't want burgers and doughnuts for dinner and breakfast. |
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| The lambing season is well under way. This little fellow is only a few days old. |
It is a still dark grey day on Symi. The sky is low and poised to rain upon us at any moment. Or perhaps not. If it does, it may well be the first red rain of the year. The clouds have a pinkish cast, hinting at suspended dust particles from North Africa.
Temperatures are mild, with little difference between day and night - around 14 degrees centigrade at midday to 11 degrees at night. The dew starts to fall very quickly, the moment the sun disappears behind the hills. This is expected to continue for a few more days. There is a 30% chance of rain.
February is always an odd month. It can be extremely cold with ice on the puddles or extremely wet with no dry days or a bit of both. It is the last of the real winter months. The carnival season starts this weekend with events in the square in Yialos, hosted by the local schools. Everyone is hoping for a dry weekend so that the children can show off their fancy dress costumes. While the mainland port city of Patras may have sophisticated samba girls waving feathers and jiggling their bottoms in the cold, here in the remote island of Symi carnival is for children to dress up and have loads of fun. Fairy princesses, ballerinas, super heroes, clowns and wicked witches are always popular, characters that haven't changed much in decades.
The bus is still on 'holiday'. We hope it will be back on the Blue Star tonight.
Have a good weekend.
Regards,
Adriana
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