Symi SNiP

Animals were a feature of the weekend. Firstly, SNiP, the Symi Neutering Program was in, er, operation for two days, with people collecting stray cats and taking them to the visiting vet at the pet shop. The shop, at the bottom of the Kali Strata, is also a licenced vet premises, and a veterinary team come from Rhodes to see to the strays as part of an organised programme intent on keeping numbers down. The shop, Pet Island, can also be used as a port of call for animal owners who have concerns for their pets. In that case, Michaelis calls the vet in Rhodes for a discussion and, with his instruction, provides treatment (medicine, etc.). Then, during the monthly visit, the vet can see to any other treatment. This helps owners as it often makes a trip to Rhodes unnecessary. The SNiP programme is only for strays, collected with permission and by those willing to sign to take responsibility for the aftercare. If a domestic cat needs neutering, then that’s a service that must be paid for. As you can see from the photo, one cat can produce a large litter, and each kitten, in turn, can produce large litters of its own, and before long, the stray population becomes widespread and unhealthy.

Then, late on Friday night, we sat and watched a little owl on our telegraph pole. I tried for a photo, but it was too dark. The next day, a family of sparrows were being fed on the balcony rail three feet from where we sat, and on Saturday, I saw this bird on the house next door.

I thought it might be a thrush as it was about the right size, but it had a long beak and feet. I only caught it in silhouette, but it appeared dark brown when it flew closer and with its scraggy neck, looked like a seabird. But, I’m not sure what it was/is, and if I can get a better shot of it one day, I might be able to post that and ask around. We also had goats wandering the village, and that was on top of the usual chickens up at the bins who think they are stray cats and hang out with them, waiting for a free feed.

And so, off into a new week. For me. That means editing and laying out the next story ready for publication, and then moving straight onto the next, which is already a quarter drafted. I’m hoping to get myself into gear and the frame of mind to take a walk each morning and establish a new routine after all these months of laziness. If so, expect more pictures of sunrises and goats.

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Weekend Photos

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A PC morning

I’ve been in the habit of writing a blog post the day before it gets automatically posted, so I don’t have to stumble through writing one first thing in the morning, as I am doing today. The reason for that is I spent most of yesterday morning setting up a new laptop and having only had about three hours sleep due to the heat, it became something of a trial. Because it was bought in Greece (online order from Kotsovolos last Friday, arrived here on Wednesday), the prologue was, naturally, in Greek. By the prologue I mean the ‘welcome, we need to set up a few things…’ That wasn’t so much of a problem, but the OS language was also Greek, and when you want to change that to English but everything on your screen needs translating, it can take time. Still, I managed it, linked it to my OneDrive and other shared programmes, added and synced, downloaded and moved across, and all that and thought I’d better restart it to make sure it was all set…

Sorry about that rude interruption from a photograph. Where was I? Oh yes, a restart to make sure everything was working. On restarting, I saw that, somehow, I had made not one, not two, but three user profiles, one for Neil and two for me. How, I do not know because I hadn’t, but there you are. It must have been something to do with the links to Microsoft as we share the Office 365 thing. So, I clicked on Neil’s profile as it’s his machine and guess what? I had to start the whole thing over from scratch. I don’t know why, and it doesn’t matter. It was easier the second time around, and I was able to delete both my profiles, but no work got done, no writing, no blog, which is why I’m banging this out this morning. I just hope when we turn on the new machine, it does what it’s supposed to do.

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I have a following

There were some beautiful sights to see on Monday morning as there are on many mornings through the summer. For example, the clouds over Turkey looking like snow-capped mountains at dawn…

While I was taking a wander up the hill to To Vrisi at 6.30, I suddenly found myself being a goatherd, which was a moment of unexpected fun. Araby and his assistant, the shepherd who keeps flocks along the path, were up the hill slightly, leaving some goats a-wandering, and presumably, thinking I had come to feed them. Sadly, I didn’t have my emergency bag of goat feed on me at the time, but at least I now have a following.

In other news, the island is coming back to working life gradually, and I hope, cautiously. For anyone interested or concerned, I have heard there is an open meeting at the town hall on Thursday morning (10.00) to discuss the provision made for any virus cases that may emerge here. I’d double-check that if I were you, and I picked it up second hand, but from a reliable source. (He says, covering himself because he’s not a newspaper, as you can tell from the bad grammar in today’s post.) Anyway, can’t stop, I have another chapter to draft, but I hope you enjoy the photos.

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Weddings, walks and words

While I’ve been beavering away writing my usual one chapter a day, the world outside is gradually beginning to turn again. I popped out for an after-work glass of wine on Sunday evening and noted a few visitors in the village. There was a wedding at the weekend, with bells from Agia Triada and other churches, girls dressed in white carrying flowers, and, possibly, visitors over for the day or weekend especially for the event. The Dodecanese catamaran came in on Sunday in the late morning and tied up for a couple of hours, then left, then returned again later before leaving in the evening, and when it first came in, quite a few passengers came off it. I happened to be on the balcony, and feeling like a classic nosey neighbour took a shot through the telegraph wires.

A plane also flew low over the island (on Saturday or Sunday, can’t remember which now). It wasn’t a large plane, more like a Cessna-sized one, and I saw it fly from Nimborio way, across Nimos and off to wherever. I’ve never seen that before. The Blue Star came in early on Monday morning, and there was quite a procession of vehicles heading down to meet it at five. It’s always a majestic sight to see as it glides in relatively quietly on a flat calm. After a hot and humid night, the dawn chorus was already underway with cockerels, owls, and barking dogs.

There are a few more pleasure boats in the harbour, the Poseidon has been running day trips at the weekends with limited numbers but still the same wonderful lunch, stops for swimming and a long, lazy day on offer. At least one taxi boat has been running, but I have no idea what beach tavernas are open. Meanwhile, Neil’s off out to see the sunrise at Pedi, and I intend to do some kind of exercise for half an hour later this morning, either a walk or jumping around like a loon in front of a fan while listening to music. Anything to keep the circulation going and get me away from the ‘typewriter’ for a while. And so, to work, because chapter seven of another story waits to be told.

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