Weekend Thoughts

I’m reminded of that famous line from Downton Abbey, ‘What’s a weekend?’ Every day is very similar these days, and the concept of a weekend doesn’t apply to me any longer. There is no need to have a lie-in on a Sunday because I don’t have to be up for work during the week, but I usually wake at 4.30 anyway. This Sunday, it was 3.30, so I have an extra hour to my day. I can’t count the number of times I’ve asked, ‘What day is it?’ just out of interest, or because I wanted to go to the post office, or, more importantly, because two days of the week I have a video call with Harry for his piano tutoring. Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard routine no matter what day it is.

Did you know that the word ‘weekend’ didn’t exist until the early 20^th century? I expect you did, but apparently, some writers of historical fiction didn’t. I’ve read some stories set in the late 19^th century where the characters refer to a ‘weekend’ and use words like okay. When writing, if I am in doubt about a word’ usage, I refer to an online dictionary which tells me when that word was used in print. It’s a bit American-centred, and I can’t guarantee its accuracy, but it’s a help. Here’s the entry for ‘weekend’ for example.

I’m very much in writing mode at the moment, being a few chapters away from the end of the first draft of a new Clearwater, and my Saturday blog on www.jacksonmarsh.com spoke a little about my writing process under the title How I Write a Novel. Other than that, I’ve been beavering away on my Phantom of the Opera model kit, wrestling with the fine detail, trying to find realistic flesh tones and wishing I had better brushes. I particularly like building these in the winter when the rain is lashing, and the thunder is rumbling, as it was on Saturday. The wind was also buffeting the house, as it was at 3.30 on Sunday, giving me hope that I will have to stay in and write and build, and won’t expect myself to go for a walk. (Lazy.)

Although I feel guilty as I don’t go out tramping the hillside as much as I used to, I do go out occasionally, as in last Thursday, when I tried to make it to To Vrisi but got caught up in a sheep-jam on the hillside. I think I disrupted feeding time, which has moved to 7.30 now that it’s winter, so for my next walk, I think I’ll just carry on up the road instead.

But that’s for the new week. It’s still the weekend as I write. I have left my character in peril and must go and rescue Silas before he and his assailant get bored hanging around waiting for their author to continue the scene…

Thursday

With the rain sweeping in on a cold wind, all walks have been cancelled this morning. It’s one of those days for staying in, closing the shutters and turning on the lights, and only yesterday, I opened the shutters and windows to air the house in a warm breeze. Ah well, we get some kind of weather here every day.

As we can’t go walking today, here are some photos that Neil took on his recent strolls around parts of the island. Hopefully, this will see you through the weekend. Have a good one!

Village, Tests and Wind

A few shots of the village today. It’s often quiet when walking around the lanes in winter, but especially so these days, and particularly in the early morning. The air was mildly damp, and so I could smell the wet stones, of which there must be millions, and the weeds growing among them. One of the churches was lit up, the street lights were still on, and there was an atmosphere of calm only interrupted by birdsong and the occasional, distant bell.

The high winds of Monday and Tuesday had dissipated by Wednesday, though the day started with rolling grey clouds and some flashes of lightning over Turkey. In local news, the medical centre had received 600 quick Covid tests, and I read in a Greek-wide forum that it is now possible to register for the vaccine either online or at the local pharmacy and/or KEP. I’m not sure if our registering at the town hall the other week was just for gathering numbers, or whether that was an official registration. As it was done via KEP (I think), I am assuming it was official, and we are now on the list for… Whenever. I am sure we’ll find out. Either way, we’re still case-free here and obeying strict lockdown laws.

That aside, the week so far is going smoothly, apart from having to tie down the washing, and we’re still enjoying unseasonably warm weather. That, apparently, is set to change when the wind turns to blow from the north-west any day now. We shall see.

Wander, Wonder

I took a wander on Monday morning, up through the village to the main road and down again, just for some fresh air. It was windy and cloudy but not cold, and not unpleasant at all. Among the things of interest I saw were cats, walls and greenery, so here are a few photos highlighting what Symi is like right now. At least, what parts of it are like along the route I took.

First of all, the cats at the bins. We have feed from Symi Animal Welfare now, so our bin cats will get more regular supplies of biscuits. Meanwhile, they seem quite happy to play with an old toy car that’s been left there for collection.

If you look closely, you’ll see someone has already called shotgun on the front seat.

Up at the top of the village, the road to and from Periotisa and Agia Triada is being improved. It’s now concreted flat, and the retaining wall is being built along with safety railings on the other side of the road. What’s interesting here is that the wall is being built around a shrine that’s been there for longer than I’ve lived here. These are usually set up to mark the scenes of an accident, death or perhaps a close call, and it’s good to see the personally erected shrine respected and the wall built around it.

Then there’s the workmanship that goes into the stonework, also to be admired.

Then, from the top road, there was the view of the valley where you can see how green it is at this time of year.

The sea was grey and a bit choppy, the clouds hung around for most of the day and were back on Tuesday morning along with the strong-ish winds, though the temperature in the courtyard was still reading 17 degrees.

Weekend, Behind Nimborio, Photos

Over the weekend, we spent about 15 hours watching the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed them. They don’t feel that long, and, let’s face it, there’s not much else to do of an evening right now. Had the bars been open and things running as they were a year ago, we might have gone to Rainbow to watch a football match, or rather, just be in the company of other people while they did, by way of something to do. We might also have had the god-boys and family for lunch, a film and a bit of mayhem, but we still can’t do that, of course. So it was something of a stay-at-home weekend for me. The weather was a bit blowy too. (Any excuse to stay in and write.)

Which is what I did, write, I mean, and I managed to knock off several thousand words of a new story. I work along the lines of ‘don’t get it right, get it written,’ and then, after it’s written, I work on getting it right, so at the moment, I am simply telling myself the story through my keyboard. The writing process for me is a bit like carpentry. Finding the piece of wood is the first draft, shaving it down to a basic shape is the second when dead bits are cut away, you decide which way to work it, where the grain goes and so no, and the third draft is when I cut it into shape. Further drafts could be thought of as the turning, carving, polishing, depending on what you’re making out of this metaphorical piece of wood. Then, when it’s done, you’ve got a finished piece which needs to be looked after through its life. I’ve recently gone back to a couple of my Jackson Marsh novels and been through them again to give them another polish and ‘treat’ them for those niggly errors no-one spotted before the first publication. (Like the use of the word ‘Okay’ in 1888, long before the word existed.)

That was all very interesting, wasn’t it? Of more interest, I suspect, are Neil’s photos, which show us a property and area behind Nimborio. There is a shot of it on yesterday’s blog, at the top. If you walk to that bay and along the shoreline at the head of the bay (where you might have to walk in the sea depending on tide and moon), you will come across a wide opening heading into the hills. This, I guess, is an old riverbed or natural water channel, and if you walk along it, taking care as it’s rubbly, you will find this property which was abandoned some time ago. I don’t know anything about its history except that is used to be more colourful and is now very atmospheric, but if you’re ever that way, it’s well worth taking a look. What with the palm trees and other plant life, to me, it all looks rather exotic, Arabian almost or at least tropical.

So, it’s Monday as I write, early morning, of course, the wind is buffeting the house a little, and as it’s still dark, I’ve not yet seen whether the weather will allow me to go for a short walk or not. Rather, whether I want to face the weather and take one. We do, however, need some money, so one of us will have to go to the harbour, but I think Neil might be walking that way. Great news! Not only will I not have to, but he’s bound to get more wonderful photos to put up on this blog.