Wet Paint and White Spirit

Happy Easter to our Catholic and Protestant friends.  Greek Orthodox Easter is still a week away.  This is a display of the traditional decorated candles that Orthodox Christians use to celebrate the Resurrection.  Many people make their own to give as gifts but these brightly coloured ones are designed with children in mind.

Pedi after the rain earlier in the week.

Cars and trucks lined up at the clock tower, waiting for the Blue Star Diagoras on Wednesday morning.

I have often wondered what the story is behind this bad-tempered face on a pediment up in Chorio.

A traditional meander pattern on a house on the Kali Strata. 

An invisible cat in Chorio.  The edge of the building looks a bit nibbled because it has been clipped repeatedly by various small cars and trucks squeezing along the lane on the right.

One of the few remaining overhanging eaves on the island.

Another face. This one reminds me a little of the Green Man motif found in so many old English churches.

April is the month for spring-cleaning, painting and decorating in preparation for the forthcoming tourist season.  Similar scenes to this are to be seen all round the harbour and Chorio.

The excursion boats and water taxis are still out on the hard in Harani and Rhodes so their berths are vacant. 

Poppies and corona daisies provide a natural garden around this house in Chorio.

Pelargoniums in the town square, Yialos.

It is April and down in the harbour there are more people about.  It is a calm dry day, ideal for getting things done.  Although the day boats from Rhodes have not started yet we have some tourists in the form of a school party that came off the big boat from Piraeus this morning.  They would be from one of the islands to the north of us that the Blue Star serves on the Friday route.  They are wandering around the harbour, munching pies from the bakery and taking photos of each other with their telephones.  Presumably they will be heading home when the boat comes through again this evening. None of the tourist businesses in the harbour are open yet - they are still painting, renovating and generally drying out after an extremely wet winter.  The gypsies who specialise in repairing taverna chairs have arrived and everywhere there is the smell of wet paint and white spirit.

Greek Easter is next weekend and we have some visitors arriving during the week but it will be a while yet before the tourist season proper commences.  Greek Easter is very much a Greek holiday and families try to spend it together.  Often it is the last opportunity for everyone to get together until the end of the season.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Easter Countdown

It is a very wet and windy Friday on Symi and it has been raining steadily for hours. This is the view from the office balcony today. I shall have to venture forth into this shortly to catch the bus back up to Chorio.  At least it isn't particularly cold - it is about 17 degrees centigrade.

Luckily there was a break in the rain when it was time for me to walk down to Yialos this morning.  The Blue Star was cancelled due to Force 9 gales in the Aegean.  Instead this big freighter is sheltering in the harbour - a safer option to lying at anchor somewhere in the lee of Rhodes.

Shop doorways, electricity poles and community boards are all ways in which island activities are advertised on Symi.  This weekend there is a children's show on about an unlikely romance between a chicken and a fox. Symiots are good at creating their own amusements - taking the children to a matinee at the cinema is just not an option when the nearest cinema is Rhodes!

The distressed look is easily achieved here - as long as you have the patience to let nature take its course.  I have watched this shutter in Chorio turn from dark blue gloss paint to the interesting effects above over a period of about 15 years.

Those who planted their bulbs in October are now enjoying the sweet scent of freesias.

A Chorio cat complaining about the late appearance of breakfast.

An informal rock garden in Chorio - wild ferns, moss and daisies.  In a few weeks someone will come along and remove the weeds and then whitewash the step fronts so that they look fresh for the summer.

Syringa berries.

Spring in the valonia oaks.

Everywhere one looks, something new is waking up from the winter.

Pedi bay on a clear day earlier this week.  This morning I could not see as far as the entrance of the bay for the rain and low clouds.

A spring storm is rolling across Greece and Turkey at the moment, bringing gale force winds, driving rain, occasional thunderstorms and very occasional patches of brief blinding sunshine.  This kind of turbulent weather can continue until May and only really calms down once continental Europe has warmed up.  The warm air coming from Africa and the cooler air from Europe meet over the Mediterranean, hence the unsettled weather at this time of the year.  Today may be the last significant rain we have until October or, on the other hand, we may have several more downpours before the long summer drought begins.  What we do know is that it is very rare to have rain after 10 May which is why the tourist boats and beach tavernas and many other tourist businesses that depend on good weather for their operation usually regard mid-May as the kicking off point for the season.

Greek Easter is a fortnight away and the shops are starting to get in more Easter items - elaborately decorated candles for the procession to celebrate the Resurrection, packets of colourful Easter egg dye, special offer sacks of flour for the baking marathon ahead and some large beribboned chocolate eggs from ION, a Greek chocolate company.  Greek Easter is more about family celebrations than about commerce and much of what is shared and enjoyed at this time is made by the people themselves, not bought.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Another Glorious Spring Day

A spontaneous garden of yellow corona daisies.  By the time the owner returns to open up the house they will have been eaten by donkeys and the stumps browned to dust in the heat but right now they are glorious.

The annual whitewashing of the steps has begun.

The same steps but looking up.  

Spot the yacht!  In a few short weeks it won't be possible to see the opposite quay for yachts and gulets but at the moment we only have random nautical visitors.  The small boat moored in front of the yacht is a very small patrol boat flying a Spanish flag.  Probably the latest contribution to the Frontex border patrols.  As Symi is one of the last outposts of Europe, with Turkey and Asia Minor only a few miles across the water, this area is well policed.  Yachts are advised not to fool about and duck between Turkey and Greece without clearing formalities on both sides as they may well be stopped as suspected people traffickers.

Time to unpack stock, wash down chairs and tables and paint anything that needs it.

The plastic drop cloths are disappearing as the weather warms up and dries off.

The taverna and cafes on the right are all set for the season.  The tourist shops on the left are still procrastinating a bit.

Meanwhile in the Pedi Valley the cyclamens are fading away.  We haven't had rain for several weeks, the days are warming up and the humidity is dropping.  They will soon be gone completely, pale pink ghosts vanishing until the rains resume in November.

Pedi bay was like a mirror this morning. The horizon was lost in the mist.  There was a yacht motoring past in the distance but my camera isn't good enough to pick up so small a blip.  That speck in the middle of the bay isn't a smudge on your screen - it is a little open fishing boat, just sitting in the bay, probably checking nets that have been laid across the bay overnight.

Another glorious spring day - warm in the sun and chilly in the breeze.  The Dodecanese Pride was very full when it came in from Rhodes this morning - the first boat across since Tuesday night.  Many of the passengers were foreigners who own houses on the island and have come over to enjoy the delights of Greek Easter and prepare their houses for the season ahead.  The Blue Star did not come through midweek due to a strike but made up for it by only be one and a half hours late coming through Symi this morning.  As the boats that come from Piraeus stop at many other islands along the way, they can quickly accumulate delays.  It only takes one or two trucks that have difficulty embarking or disembarking or a particularly busy stop with lots of passengers and vehicles, such as Kos, to throw the schedule out.

The weather is expected to break this weekend, with strong winds forecast for Sunday, followed by thunderstorms and rain for Monday and Tuesday.  It will remain fairly windy for the rest of next week.

There is a general strike scheduled for Wednesday 9 April.  At this stage there is no mention of air traffic controllers being involved but there may be some ferry disruptions again and if you are coming through Athens there may be problems with public transport.  Andy on our travel blog is keeping a close watch on the situation as he is travelling to Symi himself that day so please add his blog to your feed.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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A Feeling of Optimism and Endeavour

Happy Easter to all those who celebrated this weekend.  We have another month to go but I noticed on the way to work this morning that the first chocolate Easter Eggs have arrived at Sotiris’ supermarket in Chorio.  The weather remains murky but with the new month there is a feeling of optimism and endeavour in the air and everyone is working hard, preparing for the season ahead.  There is plenty to be done to clean up after a very stormy winter and we still have a few weeks of unsettled weather and mud showers ahead.  Washing windows is always a last minute thing on Symi as 5 minutes of red rain can destroy hours of hard work. 

Every washing line and balcony in Chorio seems to be draped with drying washing, airing blankets and quilts and carpets waiting to be beaten as the island’s housewives get stuck into their spring cleaning.

Down in the harbour the Symi Flower shop has a wonderful display of flowers and vegetable seedlings for sale and we will soon be seeing the hawkers coming off the bigboats, laden with garden supplies, outdoor furniture and baby chicks.  Speaking of boats, the Panagia Skiadeni is now only starting her Symi Rhodes service later this week.  Please check www.12ne.gr/en for updates on the schedules.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana

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