The owl was with us again yesterday, this time at around 13.00 and closer to the house than before. The photos again aren’t great, because I currently only have my phone, but if you look closely, you can see him on one of the metal rods that are meant to support a vine in the garden beneath us.

The garden belongs to the house but really to the abandoned apartment beneath us. The last time I went in there was to see why the water was draining from our limited tank up here. The then landlord had some workmen in, and they were noisily doing something in the kitchen (which is beneath ours and has no ventilation or natural light). After an hour of banging around, they left, and our pump started running. Ten minutes later it was still going so I went to have a look only to find they’d left the front door wide open, and there was water spewing from some connection in the kitchen. I had to call in Symi Property Services to disconnect the downstairs water from our tank, else we’d not be able to use and water. That done, I closed up the flat below, and no-one has been in there since. I hate to think what it looks like now. But, the garden looks clear and tidy because Sam did it for us last week.

Last night, we went to Scena for something to eat and for Neil to see Jenine before he jets off to Scotland for two weeks, and I found I was sharing my table with a ghost.

Also yesterday, H came for piano and we’ve arranged to watch a recent dramatization of the life of Mozart that is now on a streaming channel we use. I’ve not seen it, but apparently it’s good, and it’s over three one-hour-long parts, so we’ll start after piano on Thursday. By then, Neil should have sailed to Rhodes, gone by car to the airport early on Wednesday for a 6.30 flight, arrived in Edinburgh by 11.30 (local), used a bus or tram to reach his city centre hotel ahead of catching a bus to Inverness on Friday morning. He’s in for some fun weather. I shall be here, locked in my eternal battle between having to type to earn money and typing paining my bad arm. Hey ho! At least I have Mozart with Little Mozart to look forward to.

That was the weekend that was. I can’t for the life of me remember what I did on Friday. Not very much I expect, but we had the boys around on Saturday night for a roast dinner cooked by Neil, homemade ice cream for afters, and a round of a very inappropriate card game. During all of this, we chatted, and the brothers got along so well that it was charming to see. Even when one left to make a rendezvous, the other stayed and we had a good old long chat about more or less everything.

Rendezvous. Now, there’s a word. In Greek, it looks like this: Ραντεβού. But, in Greek capital letters, it looks like this: PANTEBOY. To our silly minds that reads as ‘Panty Boy’, the new superhero from Marvel, who is the same age as Peter Parker, but who wears only his turbo-charged underpants. It’s all he needs. Here’s an unrelated photo:

I’m not sure what this is going to be, and I assume seating, but it’s been sitting there like this for a while now. It could be the beginning of an unsuccessful outside toilet arrangement, or maybe another waiting area for the train, because that’s never going to get up the hill so there’s no point in rushing to finish the job. It might end up as planters for plants, but I can’t think why, and the bus doesn’t stop there either, so… Maybe it’s a piece of municipal sculpture awaiting the last tranche of funding money so they can cap off the steel bars. Who knows?

What I do know is that the local little owl was out and about again during the day, and this time, he/she/they/it/who/what/etc. was on the house in front and I took that very bad photo of him/her/they/whom/which/etc. I’m sorry, but I don’t know the ‘preferred’ pronoun of an owl. I don’t really get the idea that people can ‘prefer’ to be grammatically incorrect. It rather reminds me of when being gay was a ‘preference.’ That ran for a while along with ‘lifestyle choice’, but ultimately (sensible) people came to realise it was not a choice, because who would choose to be verbally and physically made fun of everywhere from on the street to on TV sitcoms? So, the owl is simply an owl and whether it’s a she or a he, I know not, but as there’s only one, it’s certainly not a ‘them.’

On which note, I will leave you with a view from the top of the village.

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.

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.

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.