Another sighting of the laughing doves yesterday. They were happily investigating the path between the chairs and coming closer, so I could get a better photo on my camera, when this lump of a tourist comes through taking a walk while she’s on the phone and wearing a bathmat or something and scares not only the birds, but me. ‘Don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret…’ she projects into the phone loud enough to be heard in Rhodes. (Only she was doing it in Italian so she could have been saying anything. Italian is not one of my languages.)

Have you noticed how it’s more impressive to say, ‘It’s not one of my languages’, or ‘It’s not a language with which I am familiar’, rather than to say, ‘I don’t speak Ancient Mayan’, or whatever? ‘It’s not one of my languages.’ Oh? What languages to do you know? If you say, ‘English and a few others,’ they’ll see your bluff. Similarly, ‘This and that,’ doesn’t cut it. ‘Music, basic BSL, a smattering of verbal Latin, Greek, of course, and I can read Egyptian hieroglyphics to a degree. Oh, and I’m working on Hieratic.’  I mean, some of that is true, and who’s going to whip out an ancient parchment and ask you to translate it? If they do, you can make up anything because they clearly don’t have a clue either.

I have no idea where that came from… I was thinking vaguely of the ‘Lazy Steps’ which is what many people call the zig-zag path from Gymnasio/Horio to the harbour side below Pitini. I was thinking of them yesterday because I walked down them in the morning, except I didn’t because, as I understand it, the ‘Lazy Steps’ are further along the harbour as you’re leaving it, and are not the slope and zigzag, mainly because there’s nothing lazy about them at all. The real steps got their name because workers used to take time out there in the shade, or hide from work there, or some other possibly apocryphal story I heard from I can’t remember where or whom.

Anyway, the morning trip to collect post was over and done with by 10.00. The afternoon saw one of our last piano lessons where little Mozart (now as tall as me) played the second movement of the sonata well enough to pass grade four at least, and I was more than happy. So was he with the deserved praise he was given, and he went away happy. Probably not so much later when waitering at the ever-busy Kali Strata Restaurant. ‘You looked busy the other night.’ ‘Oh yeah, we had a table of 15 turn up – expected – the same time as a table for 10…’ I have no idea how they do it, but they do.

They do, and I did, so I’m done. Off into a weekend of writing and lazing about (once the chores are seen to). Have a good one, and pop back for more nonsense next week.

Thanks to Christine, I believe we have solved the curious incident of the doves in the day-time… What I thought might have been turtle doves turned out to be laughing doves. See this:

The neat thing about this is, according to Wikipedia, other names for this dove include the laughing turtle dove, so it could be considered a bit of both. I didn’t hear my pair laughing, they were too busy looking for dropped crisps and suchlike. Anyway, good to have found out what they are/were. And now for a random photograph taken from above the ‘mousecastle’ last October.

I was up there for a walk with Harry, so he could show me the ruins of an old settlement or farm he’d found not far from the start of the Ag Marina path. We came across an old gun emplacement and a piece of flattened ground. I assume flattened by man and something to do with the last war. We started talking about field walking and archaeology, and I suggested we walked the flat ground to see if there was anything of interest there, and would you know it? Within a few seconds, he’d found a WWII bullet shell stamped in Greek and with the date, 1944. Just think, that had been lying there all that time, unfound, until that moment. Needless to say, it’s in his special cabinet with the Titanic model and other mementoes of growing up. There’s also this cave up there, but whoever uses it and whatever they use it for… they need to clear up after themselves.

They were back again yesterday, the two doves who have taken to wandering through the village square in the afternoon. Seemingly unbothered by the cats and people (until they come too close) this pair are happy to mill around beneath tables and chairs, seeing what’s been left lying around.

The thing is, I am sure they are turtle doves. I tried to get a decent photo but was unable, so you’ll have to make up your own mind. It’s not that I usually get excited by birds, as I’ve said before, we have all kinds outside the house including a pair of collard doves, and they are not the same as the café pair. The thing is, I’ve not seen turtle doves so close before, and I wondered if they’d always been in the village, but I’d just never noticed, or they had never come close enough to be recognised.

Yeah, I know, not that thrilling, but it helps fill a page when there’s little else to talk about, because I really don’t have anything else to talk about. So, I’ll leave you with a decent picture of the real thing, the European turtle dove.

A bit of a bird day yesterday in that I found two sparrows eating our succulents, and a couple of young doves came to the taverna in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the swallows and suchlike are still whizzing around, I heard the owl in the evening, the chickens continue to fuss around the bins, and the morning chorus has been joined by a thrush and blackbirds. I tried to catch the garden raiders in the act, but they were too fast and all I ended up with was a picture of a window that needs cleaning.

Later in the day, these two doves came wandering down through Lefteris’ Kafeneion, through the Rainbow and were on their way to Georgio’s when they were interrupted. I assume they are young collared doves because their collar wasn’t prominent, and I also assume, they were able to wander so closely to us because there was nobody else around as it’s been quiet in the village of an afternoon.

The same thing happened during Covid, not that I am comparing a quiet afternoon in the village these days with that time. However, when everyone was locked inside their homes and there was very little outside life, no bars, no cafes or socialising, it didn’t take long for nature to start reclaiming the area. We had wildlife around the house that we’d only seen before in the mountains. Hoopoes, for example. I’d only ever seen one or two far from the roads and civilisation up in the hills, but they came calling in 2020.

Anyway, the bother-in-law popped in last night and is on his way this morning, taking the early Blue Star to Rhodes and then onwards. I have the usual on my plate this morning, some piano this afternoon, and still nothing else planned apart from one dinner out, which, with this nose, is probably quite enough. ‘Argh, my nose,’ becomes the June/July mantra in this house with all the dust, pollen, and tamarisk tree right next door. The doctor’s advice when talking about it? Move house. Yeah, right. I’ll invest in Sotiris’ bargain tissues packs and, when I fancy a couple of days off, take a non-drowsy antihistamine and be drowsy for 48 hours. (Sneezes.) Ah well.

Apart from the mule tethered up the road it’s been a quiet weekend for me. A peaceful time of reading, writing, chatting and doing very little else.

In transport news, the bus timetable has changed, and there is now a bus from Yialos every hour, on the hour, from 08.00 until 23.00, except for 15.00 when there is no bus. This will come in handy on Thursday when we are due to go down to treat ourselves for an Indian meal in the evening (Tip: book in advance).

The bother-in-law is due back from Tilos this morning on the Blue Star. He’s reported that he was looking for peace and quiet and has not been disappointed. I look forward to hearing his fuller impression later today. He’s off again tomorrow morning on another Blue Star, so that really will have been a fleeting visit.

Note: Today is one of our three water days, so we must remember to water the plants.

Actually, I did do something else over the weekend. I started serialising a novella on my other website www.jacksonmarsh.com. It’s an old one written under my original name, and I’m going to put it up chapter by chapter over the next couple of months. What was interesting to note was that, although I only put it up yesterday and only the opening chapter, I’ve sold two copies of it online and two copies of the book that came before it, ‘Remotely’, which has the same central character, an enigmatic fix-all lady of indiscernible age but much ability, Miss P.

You can find out more about ‘Honestly’ by clicking this link. That will also lead you to the first chapter.

I’m off back to ‘work’ now, with my nose blocked and itching (it’s that certain time of year again), and the fan beside me ready to go on when the sun comes up, so… Let’s get on with the week ahead.