While the festival continues at Panormitis, let me show you some photos from the southern side of the Pedi Valley, a place that is not much visited, but which is very historic. These are from last Sunday, of course. I’ve hardly been anywhere else since, apart from up to the top of the village and back down the road on my vague nod towards getting some exercise.

It’s typical. I was sitting on the sofa last night watching something with my mind half on what I might scribble here today, and I came up with a great idea for something fun to talk about, and now, in the not-too-cold light of day, I’ve forgotten what that was, and I didn’t write it down. It wasn’t this day in history, although now I’ve mentioned it, it was 17 years ago today that we were at Machu Picchu and had a blessing by a shaman in the cloud forest at night by a fire, all said in a dialect of Quechuan with phrases we had to repeat and were so bad at, Neil is probably still married to a mountain and I’m permanently hitched to shrubbery.

It’s also the day that, back in 1938, my grandfather was ordained in York Minster. He was an interesting chap, my grandfather. Born in Harlow, Essex in 1905 into a Baptist family, he went to the University of London, got married in a Wesleyan church when he was 26 to a woman ten years older than him, attended theological college in Edgbaston, and was a vicar in Hull, then a naval chaplain in WWII, got blown up in the Thames estuary, and can be found in various war records in Alexandria and the Middle East. I have a coin he found in Palestine at this time, a thingy from 440 to 400 BC Athens. I can’t remember its name. Yes I can, it’s a tetradrachm like this one:

Anyway, he was also a highly talented pianist and one of the top five amateur organists in the UK at some point, and I was told he was asked to appear in Romeo and Juliette after Zeffirelli heard him orate in Canterbury Cathedral or something, but he couldn’t go and do the film (as Friar Lawrence) because of his, by then, CofE work. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that he shares a birthday with Neil.

There you go, random thoughts to do with November 8th. Perhaps I should write a biography about him like my biography of Uncle Bob which you can find in this currently running promotion of non-fiction books…

Or which you can find right here, add to your Kindle collection and read over the weekend.

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Some random photos today as I wonder about nothing in particular. I guess we can safely assume the day-tripping season is over, save for the Symi II and any tourists who have broken from the herd and made their own way over for a day. There are, though, plenty of visitors around who have come for the Panormitis festival which is this week. Apparently, one of the Blue Stars brought 500 extra pilgrims to the island, but as far as I can see, they have all soaked into the rocks. Probably staying with families because there are not that many rooms down at the monastery. We may or may not go this year. The weather looks set to be fair enough, and we’re not averse to the four-hour walk… We’ll have to see.

Meanwhile, the arm thing is still restricting my typing time, but I’m getting on with the next book. I know a few people have suggested text-to-speech as a way forward, but I’ve tried that before and it’s not for me. One reason is that it’s virtually impossible to speak as well as I write. I used a text-to-speech once for writing technical reviews and things and that was okay, but for creative writing, it’s like trying to improvise an entire ten-hander play. The other reason I don’t want to invest in such a thing is because, when I was using one before, I wrote too much. I babbled on and spent ages editing the things back to a sensible length. I might as well have typed it in the first place. So, I’ll stick to rationing myself.

Also this week, Sam’s been and cut down our vine for us and cleared up the piece of land in front of the house, which isn’t ours, but which needed doing. Both boys are coming for tea and chat on Saturday night, but otherwise, my dance card is pretty empty. Neil’s away to Scotland next Wednesday, leaving me home alone, the weather is still very decent, the village bars are all still open (save Secret Garden which is having a short break, I believe), as are Georgio’s, Scena, and Niki’s kitchen, where we had our locally reared pork roast last Sunday.

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I have just spent some time going through my Symi guidebooks (one from 1975), and trawling the internet, to find information about Drakou (or Drakos). At first, all I could find was a reference to it being ‘An ancient fortification.’ However, after some skulduggery in my search string, I came across a more informative site from the Aikaterini Laskardis Foundation which sets out to map the history, mythology, and literature of Greece. On one page, I found the following map and info which I have copied and paraphrased from the site.  https://topostext.org/place/366279BDra

On the lower slope of the steep hills that form the south side of the Pedi Valley is an archaeological curiosity, referred to by its popular local name ‘Drakou’ (‘dragon’s lair’). Not easy to find. There are two elements here, both ancient: an unidentified but very cleanly constructed edifice in ashlar masonry; and an area of walling, terracing or fortification, just beyond (east) and further up the hill.

The latter has been modified by mediaeval and later walling in small irregular stones which has been raised up on top of it. The former—a building of uncertain purpose—is more remarkable because of the very fine cutting and finishing of its large limestone elements.

Earth has filled so much of the area that it is difficult to get a sense of the whole. What is visible consists of two chambers: one larger, sunk in the ground, and one smaller, above it to the south. The south door of the main chamber is beautifully finished and mounted. On the north wall are two curious, deep rectangular indentations: the whole area is scattered with cleanly cut blocks with architectural elements— protrusions and recesses. The precision with which they are worked would suggest a 4th century BC date for the masonry.

Although the building’s unusual form, with its sunken elements, overlooking virtually the only fertile area of the island and facing east, brings to mind a place for the cult of Demeter, more plausibly these remains belong to a large, secular building relating to the agricultural work of the valley. The wider area has yielded evidence of Late Bronze Age settlement.

And that, folks, is about as detailed a description of the area that you’re likely to find.

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Last night we saw something we’ve never seen before. No, it wasn’t the inside of my wallet, nor was it Neil in sensible clothing, not even was it me doing sit-ups, it was, in fact, two boats. I put this distant photo up on Fakebook so you may have seen it, but if you zoom in and look beneath the anrevat* sign, you can see what I’m on about.

Two Blue Star ferries in the harbour at the same time. Not something you see every day, or even every 22 years. There’s to be at least one per day for the rest of the week because of the festival at Panormitis (7^th, 8^th, 9^th).

Now, that has just annoyed me. Not the festival or the boats, but the way my Word programme changed the large th in 7th to 7^{th  (superscript)}. I’m annoyed because I changed that ‘autoformat as you type’ command some time ago because it looks better in book manuscripts to have 7th with a larger th, but the programme has taken on itself to change it back again. It’s like when you copy and paste from one program to another, it changes the font. Or, when you use a Microsoft template, it starts you off in some font that on-one in their right mind would use for anything, ever.

Deep breath…

Yesterday: we learnt the house is going to be back up for sale, but if/when it’s sold, we can move across the road if we want to (and if that property ever gets its own water supply, gets emptied, restored and cleaned up – it’s not been opened for at least four years). Also, yesterday’s piano lesson: fancy sight-reading this Bach prelude? (Another one, this time in C minor.) Ok. Off you go, and off he went. Blimey and bravo. It’s going to be a week of the two of them as the older one is coming today to clear up the area in front of the house, then the younger one’s back for piano on Thursday, and they’re both coming for a ‘boys’ night’ on Saturday. Neil suggested H and I do the cooking for that, to which H replied, ‘No, we’re the entertainment,’ which made us laugh.

And, as you might have seen from the photo above, there are few boats in the harbour now. We still had the Symi II come in yesterday, and it is Panormitis week, so we can expect it to be busy as the week goes on.

What be this?

It be one of these:

*Anrevat is Taverna backwards, and that’s how you see the sign when you are on one side of it.

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We had a very nice weekend thank you, not that I much like the word, ‘nice,’ but you know what I mean. “You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice…” (‘Into the Woods’). We went into the valley, the Pedi Valley, with the family and friends and had a fabulous walk and explore, taking in the ancient fortification Drakos, Pedi, and later, lunch at Niki’s Kitchen. I’ll drop in more photos during the week, but here are a few from yesterday and one of just now.

Our walk started when we all met at Kampos and set off up the hill, dropping down to the left just past the famous Mediterranean oak tree. As we have had no rain to speak of since… May(?, I can’t remember) the ground, grass and scenery is very ochre in colour, with some trees still sporting greenery and others in the autumnal colours of red/brown. Grasses are spindly and have lost their flowers, and the ground is hard underfoot. Overhead, we have a collection of migrating and resident birds including ravens, warblers, and various hawks. We have a couple of robins in front of the house who always turn up at this time of year.

The company was lovely, of course, with some keen jokers among us, a teen interested in shotgun cartridges as well as history, an older brother interested in the plants and wildlife, and some middle-aged people interested in the archaeology, everything else, and the next beer stop. That happened when we reached Pedi and called into Kamaris where Neil went inside to use the loo, and where the owner came out to explain to the rest of us that they were actually closed, oops. So, we had a drink at the Blue Corner and then walked up to have lunch outside the Junior School at Niki’s Kitchen. This included a huge plate of pork reared and slaughtered locally, and served by family. A classic, Sunday afternoon in Greece home-cooked lunch, followed by too much wine with the squares in the bar, I mean at the bars in the square.

And so, a new week begins with writing work, a piano lesson and a quiet night in. I hope.

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