A Month of Holidays and Celebrations

Symi's war memorial is just to the left of the tall white flight of steps.  You can see the flags are up, ready for Monday's Dodecanese Day commemoration and wreath-laying ceremony.

Cheerful bunting on a grey day.  It will stay up until after the Independence Day celebrations on 25 March.

Oranges  in a garden on the Kali Strata.

The oak tree in Lieni, Chorio, is unfurling for a new year.

Breakfast on the hoof in a car park in Chorio.

Clean Monday falls on 14 March this year.  This marks the beginning of Lent in Greece and is celebrated with the flying of kites.  I have never found a satisfactory explanation for why kites are flown on this particular day. As it is pretty much a one-off thing, the kites are simple light-weight constructions made of thin plastic, not unlike supermarket shopping bag plastic and seldom survive longer than a day's use, depending on wind strength.  Football club colours are popular.  Kampos supermarket in Chorio is ahead of the game - I spotted these outside their shop in Chorio on Thursday this week.

This season's 'must have' plastic tablecloth design has pomegranates on it.  I think I might treat myself to a couple of metres to cheer up my kitchen.

An extremely narrow lane in Chorio.  Regulars to the island may be able to identify where it is.  

Bright blue among the ruins. The contraption on the left foreground is an electric winch, presumably used to hoist building materials when the upper floor of the house just off the picture was being finished as the family was already in residence below.

Random colours in Chorio.  

Co-ordinated catwalk.

We have had a few brief thundershowers over the past 48 hours, including a short sharp hailstorm this morning that only lasted about 5 minutes, if that.   There still hasn't been enough rain to make a difference to the island's water supply, unfortunately, and the long range forecast doesn't hold much promise that this will improve.  Looking on the bright side, it seems unlikely that it is going to rain on anybody's parade this month.

Monday, as I have mentioned previously, is Dodecanese Day, a holiday celebrated only in the Dodecanese. The bunting is up around the harbour and now that the rain  has cleared there are dozens of happy, squealing children, practicing their marching skills for the parade on Monday.  Yesterday was Tsiknopempti - Smokey Thursday. This marks the start of the carnival season with lots of grilled meat.  The evening showers held off until the BBQs were over so no one had soggy souvlaki.  Usually the carnival festivities fall in February but Greek Easter is quite late this year, falling at the beginning of May, so March is full of holidays and celebrations. The supermarkets are starting to get in more stock, much of it traditional seasonal fare for the forthcoming holidays such as that staple fasting food - sesame halvah in a wide range of flavours, including a version that is coated with dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has always been called health chocolate here. What with that and the pomegranates, the Greeks have always been ahead of the game when it comes to superfoods!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Spring is in the Air!

The view from room 305 at the Hermes Hotel in Mandraki, Rhodes last Sunday.

A rainbow over the Blue Star in Akandia, taken from room 305 at the Hermes in Mandraki.

The goldfish seem to have made it through the winter in this pond in Mandraki.  Those are old stone cannonballs. Rhodes is littered with them and they are dotted all over the town.

Looking up the Kali Strata on Symi, from near the Old Markets boutique hotel.  In a few weeks the step fronts will be whitewashed but there is no point in doing this annual task until the weather dries up a bit as the moss will return.  The Kali Strata is on the shady side of the harbour and gets very little direct sunlight until about May due to the steep hills behind.

A cat snoozing on a reed mat at the bottom of the Kali Strata. The little boutiques and  gift shops are all still closed for the winter and only essential shops are open.

An almond tree in full bloom near Lemonitissa church.

Bunting ready for Saturday's Dodecanese Day parade.  The Dodecanese islands only became part of the modern Greek state in 1947 as after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire they were awarded to Italy and with the end of the Second World War were administered by Britain who then made the arrangements for the official hand over from Italy to Greece.

A neatly painted fishing boat.  In the summer this is where the excursion boats berth at the head of the harbour.

A French owned traditional Turkish boat visiting Yialos earlier this week.  

Occasionally one has surreal moments on this island.  This is not a pointless photograph of a garbage skip by the bus stop.  It is a photograph of a broom, suspended by fishing line, hanging off the power cable above the garbage skip.  There is a story there, I'm sure, but I am afraid I don't know what it is!

Wild cyclamens in Lieni. They have a very delicate perfume.

Free range and proud of it!

It is a blustery, windy day with gusts rattling the windows and banging the shutters.  The Blue Star managed to dock on her way through this morning by virtue of dropping an anchor to hold her steady, much to everyone's relief as it is a holiday weekend.  The harbour is full of excited children, rushing about and practising their marching for the parade tomorrow.  Rain is forecast but it should hold off until the evening so everyone can enjoy the day.  Dodecanese Day and Independence Day are two holidays that always fall within Lent but fasting is lifted on these two occasions so that they can be celebrated with wine and feasting as appropriate.

The days are getting longer and the intervals between rainy days are widening.  In a few more weeks preparations will commence for the season but at the moment it is still too windy to do much out of doors and all the doors and shutters are swollen from one of the wettest winters anyone can remember.

Dodecanese Seaways have announced that they are releasing their ferry schedule for the summer today but when I checked it was still only up to 31 March on their website.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Dodecanese Day 2014

The Greek flag, fluttering proudly from a cliff top overlooking the harbour.

Patriotic bunting and children forming up to march to the War Memorial.

Someone who knows what he is doing when it comes to fishing...

Two taxi drivers, contemplating the fishing prospects.  With so little activity in Yialos it is not uncommon to see men setting fish traps or fishing with rod and line around the harbour to pass the time between customers.

Cat against the sky, Stavros church parish in Chorio. During a sunny interval yesterday I went for a walk around the old part of Chorio, up round the huddle of churches at the top of the Kataraktis.

Black cat, Stavros Church parish in Chorio.  The grass on the steps was flattened by torrential rain flowing down the steps the day before.

Little more than the facade remains of this pretty house near the ruined Kastro.  Symi houses are generally not big, particularly up in Chorio where the houses huddle together in what would have been the shelter of the castle.  It was only in the affluent sponge-diving days of the late nineteenth century that substantial mansions were built, on the Kali Strata and down in Yialos.

When I first came to Symi there were lots of small grocery shops in odd corners of Chorio. These have dwindled away as the owners have died and their children look for more exciting ways of earning a living.  This retro display cabinet is outside one of these old shops.  Note the cat snoozing on top.

Cats at the main rubbish collection point in Chorio.  The sign says, quite literally 'rubbish'.   The cats find the derelict old sofas comfortable in the tepid winter sun.  At some point the municipality will send a large truck to collect these sofas and any other items that are too big and awkward for the skip and take them up to the dump but in the meantime Symi's feline population is taking advantage of the facilities.

The day is dark and heavily overcast but it did not rain on the parade.  The cafes around the harbour are now full of happy school children and their parents as it is a day off school.  Now that everyone is under cover, no one minds about the threatening rain and big splats are already dotting the paving.  In fact they are rapidly turning into a downpour as I write and I have had to close the balcony windows. The weather forecast remains unsettled for the next few days although further shipping disruptions seem unlikely as no strong winds are expected.  Temperatures remain around 10 degrees centigrade at night, rising to about 16 degrees centigrade during the day. Although our rain comes from the south, riding on warm air from North Africa, with so many overcast days not much sun is filtering through at the moment and Symi is a lot cooler than it was 10 days ago.

The next holiday is Independence Day which also coincides with the Annunciation on 25 March and that is almost always a sunny day.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Narrow Winding Lanes and Alleys

Waiting patiently for her owner.  

If you look carefully, there is a clump of white freesias growing from the top of the wall in the centre of the photograph.

The rubble filling this ruin turns into a vertical garden at this time of the year.

While Yialos, Symi's harbour, is famously steep with the houses lining the amphitheatre connected by perpendicular flights of stairs, up in Chorio, the old village, approaches are more gentle, along narrow winding alleys and lanes, punctuated by only occasional flights of steps.  Look at those orange trees overhanging the walls.

With so many Symiots reverting to their agrarian roots to weather the economic storm, the agricultural shop next to the town hall in the harbour is doing well.  This is the place to go for mushroom spawn, seed potatoes and commercial quantities of wheat, barley and other field crop seeds. They also stock organic fertiliser.

The locals usually pull their boats out of the water in the winter, parking them wherever they can find a vacant spot.  This one, tethered to a tree in the town square, is providing a sunny conservatory for a local cat to nap in.

A sheep in the Pedi Valley, happily munching among the oregano bushes and wild grasses.

February has come to an end and it looks as though the wet and windy weather we usually have in February is coming to us for March instead.  There has been a marked deterioration in the weather and rain, thunderstorms and strong winds are forecast for the next few days - a bit disappointing as Monday is Clean Monday, a holiday traditionally spent in picnics and kite flying in the mountains.  At the moment the forecast is for 90% rain on Monday - an uninspiring start to Lent.

Apart from Clean Monday there is a second bank holiday next week, 7 March which is Dodecanese Day. This commemorates when the Dodecanese group of islands became part of modern Greece after the Second World War.  Every island has a parade with traditional dancing in local costumes.  Although it is Lent, wine and meat are permitted on Dodecanese Day.

Have a good weekend.  I will be back on Tuesday, after the holiday.

Regards,
Adriana

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