You asked about winter

From time to time, I get asked what the house is like in winter, does it get cold and other questions about ‘real-life’ on the island. So, now and then over the winter, I thought I’d post some random thoughts about such things, starting today (Tuesday), with my early morning observations the house so far this winter.

As you’ll see from the photos, today is a stay-at-home day, for me at least. Neil has gone out to brave the weather, take a walk, and hopefully call into the post office on the way back to see if anything new came in on the Blue Star boat over the weekend. Me? I’m staying close to the heater that’s close to my desk. I’ve just had a shower and made the two-meter sprint from bathroom to the relative warmth of the bedroom to get dressed, and that’s enough exercise for one day.

I say ‘warmth’… At this time of year, we open the bedroom window every morning to alleviate the condensation that gathers on the glass overnight. If we don’t, the room soon smells of damp, and the walls gradually change colour, particularly in the corners. The window offers a lovely view up the lane, more so now some of the trees have been pollarded, but it doesn’t let in any sunlight. In fact, we hardly see any of that in the house over the winter. The courtyard shutters are closed to stop the rain and cold coming in, and that wall is about the only one that gets any sun.

The summer is a different matter of course, when the sun’s higher and the offices roast as they are basically concrete blocks. The house mainly faces north, with the courtyard facing south. The office rooms are on the east side of our place, with windows to the north and the east end buffets the neighbour’s garden wall. The kitchen and bedroom windows face west, so are fine for late afternoon in the summer, but not so good in the winter. It’s mainly the bathroom that suffers between November and March, as does anyone who uses it. It’s a kind of concrete afterthought into the courtyard with a window (north), and opens directly into the kitchen. So, when things are boiling on the stove, and clouds of condensation are billowing, it’s a case of opening the bathroom door and window and letting the clouds roll out. At least our bathroom, unlike many, is inside.

Later in the winter, it’s a case of wiping the black growth from the bathroom ceiling, airing the kitchen cupboards as the backs are now falling prey to the damp and don’t always smell very nice, keeping the bedroom aired in the mornings, trying to warm it in the evenings, and hardly seeing daylight at all as there are curtains, duvets and towels at the windows to keep the heat in and the rain out. The only room with a wall-to-wall carpet is my office, and even then there’s a six-inch gap all the way around, and the room is above the sterna, a currently empty water chamber willed with cold air.

Still, I’m not complaining, as I love the winter and the challenges it brings; typing in fingerless gloves, worrying about the electricity bill, the celebrations after a rainstorm when the bathroom ceiling hasn’t leaked and hanging the washing to dry indoors for three days at a time. It’s fun. It’s like camping out in the yUK in summer, and this morning, it was 14 degrees at seven o’clock, so it’s not even winter-cold yet.

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Monday morning

Monday morning and I woke up to the sound of rain hammering the roof and δripping from the porch (which needs recovering). For the first time in ages, I slept for a full eight hours, doing a rare (for me) nine to five, and getting up just in time to see the Blue Star leaving in the blustery early morning. I was going to take a walk up the hill, but that will have to wait until it’s dry. I don’t mind walking when it’s cold, but apart from anything else, when it rains here, the lanes can become like rapids, and it’s safer not to venture out.

So, instead, today I’m going to potter around the house finding places for Christmas gifts, and then potter around the web finding paints for my new model, and maybe even tracing the progress of some not yet arrived presents for other people. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been through every film we want to see on Netflix and several we didn’t, having done the standard Christmas Day films like Indian Jones and Home Alone one and two, and are steadily running out of ideas of what to watch of an evening. We don’t have yUK TV anymore, I did have Film On for a year, but when that ran out, they wanted nearly £200.00 to renew it, and as we’d only watched it occasionally for the novelty, I didn’t think it was worth it. Instead, I treated myself to Curiosity Stream, a collection of documentary channels for £10.00 a year, which is far more reasonable.

So, as you can see, there’s a lot of doing nothing much at this time of year, especially when the weather is wet, but that doesn’t mean I’m doing absolutely nothing. I have a target of 3,000 words a day on… well, on something. At the moment, that’s another Clearwater Mystery which is taking me into the world of early photography, or photography from 1889 at any rate. A little research while listening to the rain, a little writing and then, with any luck, another fabulous lunch cooked by my very own MasterChef. He now not only as one of the cookbooks, but also an apron with his name on, and another one from the godsons that, when translated from Greek, reads: ‘Νονέ, you are the godfather of our hearts.” Bless. (Νονέ, btw, is Godfather in the vocative.)

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Welcome back

I thought I’d fill in this week between Christmas and New Year with a couple of short posts and some random photos, just to get my mind back in the blog game. I left you on the 22^nd, and now it’s the 28^th, and over the last six days, I’ve done… well, not a lot.

On Christmas Eve, we went down to Yialos for those last-minute bits and pieces and a check of the post and various couriers, picking up a couple of things but not the star Christmas present for godson #1, which is still delayed by the overloaded post. Not to worry, it will get here at some point. The weather, as you can see, was calm, clear and not too cold, in fact, it was very warm on the north side of the harbour when I went to raid the bank. The municipality speakers were playing carols, and there was a festive air.

Here in Greece, we were allowed two days of mingling of up to nine people from only two households which meant we were able to spend Christmas day in more or less usual fashion with the good boys and their mum. There were many highlights, but for me, a concert by godson #2 was up there as the top moment.

I’d been teaching him (by video), and he wanted to specific play a carol for his mum, and once the keyboard was set up in the kitchen, that piece was duly played as a surprise and played very well. But then there was a surprise for me as he’d also taught himself four more carols which I knew nothing about. Apart from anything else, this reinforced to me his interest in and ability to read music and perform it, so I was very chuffed, and more than a little proud. After that, it was a day of fun and feasting before we had to leave and be home before the curfew.

Now, we’re back to the usual lockdown, into our 50^th day, or 51^st by now, of what in the uk they call a tier four. Except here, we have to have permission to go to the shop, bank, doctor, for a walk and so on, as there’s a track and trace system in place as there has been when necessary since late March or Early April.

All that aside, it’s now time to get back to the usual routine. It’s Sunday as I prepare this note, and I’m about to head back into another novel while resisting the temptation to continue my way through the box of Celebrations and other chocolates and the homemade selection box Neil made for me. I must get back online and order some more modelling paints as there’s a new Phantom waiting to be constructed and I need more colours (mainly black), which I can only get from Germany. At least, I’ve not found an outlet for Revel paint in Greece as yet, though there may well be one. That search could be a New Year project along with walking off the chocolate overload and writing more stories. Let’s see how the week goes.

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Off for a break – but where to?

I’m going to be off for a few days now, the only question is, where will I go? I may travel as far as the balcony, or if I can afford it, up to the roof to look at the view. For a change, I might spend some time with the vacuum cleaner. Then there is always the possibility of investigating the cupboard under the laundry sink. That would be a new and as yet unexplored region. (Actually, I do need to get under there and see where the smell is coming from, but as long as I do it before the summer when it gets evil, it can wait.) There is the allure of the exotic climbs of the bathroom and its exciting growth of black mould spots. Apparently, visitors are invited to join the eco programme and help eradicate it from the ceiling, so I can be environmentally friendly while I’m at it. Perhaps I’ll go further afield, to say, the butcher’s, or the supermarket and its all-inclusive attractions of humour, gossip and assault course. If I take my ropes and harness, I could descend to the harbour for one last check of the post later in the week and scale the steps back up, that could be an adventure. Or maybe I’ll just hang out at the desk and work on this idea I have for a story involving a charter called Barbary Fleet set somewhere in the 1880s, and see what happens.

Whatever I do, I will be back now and then, maybe more then than now, so don’t panic if you don’t hear from me until next weekend or the year after. Have a good one, and here’s wishing you seasonal good tidings and all that from over here in Symi.

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Winter Solstice – Win a Signed Book

It’s Winter Solstice today, so happy solstice to those who celebrate it. I wrote a post on my other blog about the solstice and the part it plays in one of my novels. A quick look at my Amazon page and the blurbs for my books there will make it obvious which one. I mention that because all this month I have been running a competition on my other author Facebook page, giving quotes from my novels and inviting people to guess or say which book that quote is from. There is a prize on offer, a signed paperback copy of ‘Banyak & Fecks’ my historical novel about life in the East End in the 1880s. Every correct answer to the 23-day quiz will go into a virtual hat and one drawn at random will win the book and be announced on Christmas Eve. Anyone can enter, and today’s quote is drawn from one of my James Collins books. I know that many Symi Dream readers have read some of these books, for which I am internally grateful, and so you might recognise today’s quote from the description on Amazon. If you do, head to my Facebook page and comment with your answer. Feel free to like and share the page too if you would.

So, from what novel (or its description) does this quote come?

“…finds himself the unwitting hero in a struggle between superstition and sense, denial and love, with no escape from either.”

There, that done, I can now return you to our regular programming and show you some of Neil’s recent photos of Symi.

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