Hills, Water, Goats

As you can see from the photos, yesterday was a little bit grey, but at least it was dry. Which is more than can be said for the area around a leaking pipe on the path to To Vrisi. (Perhaps someone else could also share this news to the town hall in case they don’t know yet.)

I took a morning walk, the first time I’ve been able to in about a week. It’s either been raining, or I couldn’t be bothered, but I made the effort yesterday. The highlight was meeting a herd of goats being moved from their pen to a hillside further along the path. The goatdog (I assume that’s what you call them, as in, sheepdog) came bounding up to greet me, and I stood to the side, still so as not to frighten the skittish beasts. On the way home, I called into upper Horio to collect an oil-filled radiator to bring down to the house. Not a light thing to carry, but at least it was downhill. My arms are wobbly now, so if my typing is more off than usual, you will know why.

The view was otherwise unchanged on the path along the side of the hill. I know I do this walk a lot but that’s because I like it, and it’s also a three-mile round trip which is what I aim to do five times per week. A more strenuous one is to follow the main road all the way out of the village and along to the Panormitis turn off and back, that’s just over three miles and constantly uphill. That makes coming back a breeze, and maybe I’ll do that walk later in the week.

I’m just tacking a request on the end of this post in case you don’t see it on Facebook. The talented designer who did my recent covers (The Witchling, The Eastling and others) has a cover entered into a competition. Anjela K lives in Serbia, and I think deserves some attention, so it would be great if my readers could click over to the link below and then click on the vote button. You don’t need to sign up or anything, not until the vote reaches 200; after that, you’d have to register so, if you want to help, it’s better to be quick. There’s no information sharing unless you want your name shown, so it’s quite safe. Just click this link and then hit the orange Vote button. (The book looks good too, he added with a wink.) Thank you!

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Monday morning catch-up

A few photos from Saturday when we were under some cloud. We still were on Sunday morning, but it wasn’t as wet, and it was warmer than Saturday which started off at 10 degrees first thing in the morning. We had guests over for dinner on Saturday night which made for a very pleasant evening.

In fact, every day is pleasant around here right now, maybe not always the weather, but the quiet, relaxed feel of winter. Well, relaxed until you plug the heater in at 6.30 in the morning and it blows the fuses. It was a fairly old one, but a good one, and the wires had been moved so much that where they enter the body of the heater, they had worn through and finally broke. A few sparks, the room plunged into darkness and the sound of the fuse box complaining. Luckily no damage was done, but we are temporarily down to one heater. So, next week, part of the shopping list is another one of them.

There’s another shopping list building up, one that involves a trip to Rhodes, for Neil at least as Christmas is around the corner now, another fun time to look forward to. The decorations have started to go up in the harbour, people are talking about carol singing at parties and elsewhere, and plans are being made. Very often on Christmas Day, we’re able to sit outside for at least part of the day, and I can’t remember a time when it’s rained or been bad weather, not in the last 16 years. Now I’ve said it of course…

Ah well, into the week ahead with only the usual planned: writing, housework, buying a new heater and also keeping an eye on the sterna as even after the heavy rain last week, there’s not as much water in it as I’d expect. We’re hoping we haven’t had roots growing into it and taking the water as sometimes happens. There is a hideous fig tree in front of the house, though a few meters away. I’m hoping that hasn’t reached the sterna and infiltrated it, but either way, that tree needs to go – another job for the winter when it finally sheds its leaves. But still, that’s all ahead. In the meantime, it’s on with the day to day jobs – have a good week.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Kalo mina to you.
A random collection of images to look at over the weekend. Actually, not that random. I just looked through the pile and realised I had quite a few images of food, bars or drinks, so that’s today’s theme.

Please remember to share the Symi Dream blog and Facebook page around; the more who see it, the more visitors we may attract for next year.

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New look Lefteris Kafeneion

Here are a few shots of the new look Lefteris kafeneion. It reopened on Wednesday morning, but we came down after lunch ahead of a birthday party at Rainbow. It’s all looking very neat and chic, the service is still as friendly and the atmosphere still the same but it’s all been done up, the outside too.

The other party started at Rainbow at three and went on until around seven when a few of us went to the taverna for dinner. I’ll just put a couple of shots here, so you get an idea. We started outside but moved inside when it started raining. Today, Thursday has started with some cloud, not cold, and so far, dry, though more rain is forecast – more good news for plants, reservoirs and sternas.

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Make yourself at home

Someone has been making themselves at home in our laundry room. He’s there overnight though yesterday he stayed for the morning even though checkout time is usually 5.30 a.m. He’s not our cat, and we don’t want to encourage him, but when it’s pelting down as it was yesterday, then what can you do? He will have to vacate when I need to get to the washing machine though, and, as you can see, there’s a lot to get through.

Outside, apart from the rain, our road is now reopened. I’m not sure if that’s because they needed to clear the rubbish from the bins or because rain stopped play or if that’s all they’re doing, but the mixer and supplies are still in the square, so maybe they will return at some point. The new section looks great, with the old stones re-laid to be neat and safer. The slippery corner still exists, but hopefully, that will be seen to in time.

The fundraiser on Sunday raised €686 for the island’s football team, so that’s great news! The message from Jean was: “I raised 360 Euro, Eilish, Bev & Mary raised 220 Euro, Irene (Czech) and Marilyn (Philippines) raised a further 106 Euro – making a total amount of 686 Euro for the football team.” Excellent!

Lastly today, just a reminder about giving the gift of a good read for Christmas. I noticed Neil is reading ‘The Eastling’, good for him. You can find all my other books from my author page on any Amazon site. All of them are available in Kindle format, free on Kindle Unlimited and can be bought from any Amazon store as paperbacks. Here’s the link to Amazon UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Collins/e/B005C7HWJI/

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