Symi Views

One of the nice things about having a balcony overlooking Symi harbour and the sea is that you always have something to watch. Even these days when there are no day boats, small yachts or cruise ships coming in and out, there are still others to view. The coastguard and patrols, small fishing boats, the ferries from three companies that continue to bring us supplies and offer a link to the medical centres in Rhodes, and the cargo boats that come into the new harbour to deliver… whatever it is they deliver. Then there’s also the changing sea and sky, the mist and the coast of Turkey.

Meanwhile, also in the view, we currently find swallows and martens (I think) and swallows with long thin tails – are they swifts? I can never remember. Wide-winged seagulls follow the fishing boats or sit and bob on the sea, the collared doves coo from the telegraph pole, and we’ve even got a kestrel family nearby. Recently, we had a hooded crow causing a territorial fuss with the collared doves in the tree next door but one, and I think the doves won the battle as I’ve not seen the crow for a while. Ravens wheel about over the windmills where you can occasionally see eagles and the pigeons rise up in swaths to circle the harbour and land on the clocktower, reminding me of the car from Whacky Races. (That was the Gruesome Twosome, and it was bats that flapped around the tower, but… whatever.) Talking of bats, we sometimes catch a glimpse of them in the early light, as we do the owls.

So, I may be spending more time than usual gazing from the balcony, and times are quiet right now, but there’s still plenty to see.

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Wildlife goes shopping

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned how nature seemed to be encroaching thanks to the lack of humans out and about? Well, the chickens are becoming bolder, and recently, one of the hens from up the road brought her three chicks to explore the front of our house some distance from where they usually hang out. They have discovered a new shopping centre in the walled, ruined garden beside the house and spent some time there in the clutter-free isles, scratching about in unexplored territory.

Meanwhile, yesterday as I was on the balcony having a cup of tea, I happened to notice someone in the long grass and wildflowers directly below. That’s about 15 feet below, so I’m not worried, and I assume our usually shy neighbour fancied an early morning forage. They are usually found in what’s now the chicken supermarket garden, so perhaps the hen and her family took all the special offers, and he was out looking for something else. I’m sure he found much more exciting produce in the Fortnum’s which is the wild garden below than he ever found in the Spar shop next door.

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Monday

Yesterday dawned with a little cloud, but by the time I’d had my cup of tea on the balcony, that cloud had gone leaving a hovering mist across the coast of Turkey, and the sun free to break through, golden, and promising a warm day ahead. We’re told to expect a heatwave later this week with temperatures heading up to the low 30s. Hearing that reminded me of many other years when, often on June 1^st, everyone started saying, ‘Hot, isn’t it?’ as if someone had turned the thermostat up. Of course, there are fewer people around to hear say it these days, and it’s not yet June, but I still had the chance to wave at people and even stop for a distanced chat while on a morning walk yesterday morning.

I did an easy one, only two miles, but it’s a start. From the house, across the square where the bin men were taking a break outside a closed café, along the lane where the bakers have been working every morning as usual, and down past the empty school and new playground. Some classes started back at school yesterday, but I wonder how many teachers we have as, I assume, many headed home a couple of months ago, and inter-island travel is still very restricted.

From there, I wandered along the road being passed by the army officers driving up the hill to work (officers are allowed to live off-base if they want), past the new wall now finished, and to Agia Marina. I had intended to stop at the new bridge, but after the scent of incense wafting from the churchyard morphed into the smell of wild oregano, I carried on a little while to take a few more snaps. Heading home via the same route, there was more waving and tooting. (The mayor tooted and waved at me the other morning, and even gave me one of his rare smiles.) Then, more greetings from the guys at the bus stop waiting for their work pick-ups, and then back along the lane, saying hello to Nikitas at the old peripteron in the square. I was back by seven and ready to start a day at the desk, which is where I am now, writing this up so I can get on with… Well, I’m not sure yet. Something else. The water’s coming in, the garden’s watered, the washing is on, and… What next? Find out in the next scintillating episode…

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Sunday Morning Chat

A quick catch-up with what’s been going on with us over the weekend. I’m writing this yesterday morning when it’s sunny, warm and the sea is calm. The only sounds from below the balcony are the cockerels up the road and a cat scratching about in the abandoned garden next door. There are trees in there, an orange and a pomegranate, both of which are difficult for humans to access for their fruit, but easy for the wildlife. The Sparrows like to hide in the branches, and I sometimes see and hear rats scurrying up and down the trunk in the early hours. Don’t worry, they keep themselves to themselves, and we’ve only had one in our house once. It stayed for a while in our laundry room and spare bathroom, but it was reasonably house-proud. As well as finding its ‘evidence’ around the washing machine, I also found it in the spare bathroom, and, interestingly, actually in the WC. I was about to leave it a note on how to flush when it vanished.

We’re coming into tax season here, and my accountant was after the paperwork so she could put my return in for me. This, for me, involves a trip to the bank to get the ‘pink slips.’ That’s proof of money coming into the country from abroad on which one must pay tax – and that’s about as far as my knowledge of the system goes. It means, for me, that I have to make an annual trip to the bank and ask for the papers in person, and last Thursday was that day. I was slightly nervous, tbh. The last time I was in Yialos was in February, and I have only been into Sotiris’ supermarket a couple of times, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the bank. There’s a button outside for you to press and then you wait until you are called in; that’s been there for some time as a general security measure, and it’s really coming into its own now. I pressed the button and was admitted.

There were two members of staff working that morning, one at the manager’s desk on the phone, and one behind the counter. We were all distanced, separated by screens, and I’d sanitised and so on, and it didn’t take long to explain my business to the teller. When the assistant manager came off the phone, we all had a chat while the teller was doing his thing, and Neil came in to ask about his online banking, which was sorted out in seconds. All very civilised as usual, but quitter, obviously, and there was no waiting around, but more importantly, the attitude of everyone we encountered was positive and friendly.

The other day, while on a walk in the village, I came to a narrow lane. If you’ve wandered around the older parts of Horio you will know that some of these lanes get down to only a couple of feet wide, as was the case here, and houses are built right up to the edge of them. Well, I was taking one of them on my way home when another walker came around the corner. We stopped, looked at each other as if to say ‘How are we going to manage this?’ Faced the wall away from each other, and sidled sideways, back to back, while sniggering. The unavoidable closeness of being, or something.

There, that’s my Sunday morning ramble. I can’t promise to have anything interesting to tell you during the week, but I’ll try and find some photos at least.

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Thoughts on writing

I was wondering why I haven’t done as much writing this year as I did last year. I was starting to worry that I’d lost the enthusiasm, but that’s not the case. Then I thought I t as prehaps because I had become lazy (more likely), and then I realised what was going on. I am working on a series of Victorian mysteries, as you may know. I reached the end of book six and decided that was enough of the through-line begun in part one, and the characters had gone as far as they could go in an on-going battle with two enemies. However, the characters still had a lot more to give, and so I have carried them forward into a new series…

It’s still Victorian England in 1889, but now I am writing what you might call pure detective stories. Before, the threat to my ‘crew’ was personal, now they are being asked to investigate other people’s problems, and that’s given me a problem of my own. Mainly constructing the evidence and getting into detail. Before, a story would flow from the top of my head, and apart from some scribbled notes, I could more or less keep all the information up there and pull it down when the need arose. Now, though, I have to know where certain people were on certain days and make sure everything is deduced logically as they would do it, without giving too much away but while also keeping the story moving. The problem is, I change things as I go, have better ideas and stray from my detailed plot outline because something better comes along. And that means, having to go back and make sure what I have written is changed accordingly and ties in with what I’ve decided now, and that’s what’s taking the time.

Anyway, it’s still fun, and my routine hasn’t changed, and another benefit is that I am doing more research. I was in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette for October 1877 yesterday reading some fascinating articles and news while looking around for actual events I could mix with my fabricated story. It’s easy to spend an hour reading and being distracted when I should be writing furiously, but it keeps me away from the TV and biscuits, so I can’t complain. And that was my thought this morning.

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