Quick weekend catchup

We had a lovely weekend, thank you for asking. We had the godboys to lunch on Saturday as mum was helping with the SNiP programme, collecting stray cats and taking them to the visiting vet for treatments before releasing them safely later in the day. All helping to keep the strays healthy. I finished off a first draft of a story which has more or less written itself. Now I have to go back and rewrite it to make it make sense, which is always the fun part. Out in the courtyard, the plants are doing fine, though the bougainvillaea could do with a pep talk. The house in front of us is being decorated, so we have something to watch from the balcony other than the occasional boat, and village life in the square trundles on with people gearing up for the reopening of flights this week and in early July. Whether we will see many visitors remains to be seen. Here’s wishing you a good week ahead.

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It’s mosquito season in our house right now. Woken the other morning at four with an itchy foot, and attacked under the desk yesterday. We have a plug-in deterrent in the bedroom which seems to work, and as I wear earplugs, I’m not disturbed by the buzzing, only by the scratching which always seems to be on my feet. Now the weather is warmer, the duvet is half-on and half-off, but I’m not sleeping with the window open, not until after spider season. Mind you, I think they live above the bedroom in the mousandra, but if that’s where they are, we could do with them below, catching the mosquitoes, not that I want either in my bedroom while I am asleep. Anyway…

That was yesterday’s sunrise. A few clouds around as you can see, but more or less gone by seven. You might also be able to see there are two private boats in the harbour. The catamaran has been in and out for a few days now, but the other one is, I think, a new arrival. We can only see this part of the harbour from the house, so can’t see what’s going on at the busier end. Apart from there being no boats out in the bay, the scene doesn’t look very different from other years. Sometimes, even when the island is busy, boats go out early, leaving this end of the harbour deceptively empty, though I am pretty sure there aren’t any other boats lurking out of sight right now.

Everyone’s talking about ‘after the 15^th‘ a date which may or may not see tourists returning to the country, and therefore, eventually, to the islands. Tbh, I can’t keep up with the changes. What’s happening on the 15^th, when this is going to ease, when that is coming into force, what’s happening with tests and when we can expect…? And all that. I’m keeping my head down over my ‘typewriter’ apart from the occasional walk or afternoon drink at the bar. The photo, by the way, was the bar view on Wednesday, and I took it not to show the lack of tables, but the newly painted steps. Yes, I didn’t notice at first either, not until Yiannis pointed them out to me.

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The rest of the walk

The last part of my morning stroll took me down from the main road and along to Agia Triada on the track to Periotisa, although now, it is no longer a track. I’d not been along this way for a while, so was surprised to see the amount of work that had been done. Over the past few months, I’d followed the water channel improvement works at Ag Marina on the way to the Pedi hillside, and see the work done on the main road where it turns off there. I’d also seen the building of the new wall along the main road, and the way the new house near the cantina is coming on and looking very impressive, but I’d not seen this road.

It’s now concrete and flat, wider than it was, but still within the natural boundary, and a new wall is being constructed to guard against the drop on one side. It’s much easier underfoot and wheel, though I liked the rural track that was there before, but the steps that lead from it to my village path are still as rickety and rough. They were also inhabited by wandering goats when I passed, another sight I like to see; farm animals roaming the village and checking out who lives where and what’s not yet been eaten.

Meanwhile, back at home, I’m ploughing on through the first draft of the 7^th Clearwater story and am up to 90k words with three chapters still to do before I rewrite and edit. I’m also pleased to report that the Symi books are having something of a revival. Maybe, because people can’t get here, they are bringing Symi into their homes with the ‘as it happened’ accounts contained in Symi 85600 and the others, all listed on the right with a few other ideas for my Symi related reading. So, life trundles on, we have water again, the weather is mainly settling down, and you never know, I may take another early walk soon and come back with more of the same kind of photos.

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Morning wander

I finally got back to it yesterday, having a walk before I start my day, I mean. Up at five, out by quarter past as it was getting light, through the empty village and along the road. I only saw one truck, but I was deafened by the cockerels and birds in the Pedi valley and around the village. Back at home, I had to set about the day’s work in a slightly smelly fashion as we ran out of water on Monday. It usually comes in and fills our tank three days per week, but we’d missed days due to the bank holiday weekend. Luckily, there was a flush left in each of the toilets, and we had plenty of bottled water for cleaning teeth and making tea, but it’s amazing how quickly the washing up backs up, and how much we take water for granted until we don’t have it. It was on again on Tuesday, so the tank was filled, and we watered the garden as it was coming in, had showers and washed up so that when the town hall supply stopped, we still had a full tank. It should be in again today, and we should be back to normal. Meanwhile, here are some photos from yesterday.

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Busy weekend

We had fireworks and dynamite on Sunday night as celebrations of Pentecost continued, and we had a pleasant couple of hours with Yiannis at the bar for his birthday. There were visitors about, quite a few actually, all from other islands or the mainland, and on Monday morning, I even saw a yacht in the harbour. The new ferry, the Stavros, the Blue Star and the Dodecanese Seaways catamarans have been coming and going, so the island is being well served for deliveries. I heard that several tavernas were open and doing good weekend business in Yialos, including Pantelis and the International. Up in the village, Noufris tells me that Georgio’s is opening again on Saturday, and Katsaras down in Pedi has been open for a while.

One of the first things I read on Monday morning concerned a beach bar on Mykonos that has been heavily fined and shut for 60 days because it flounced distancing rules on its beach and had sunbeds too close together, so that’s something for seafront tavernas, bars and beaches to look out for. We’ve not had the usual hordes of tax inspectors or IKA officials visit yet, that I know of, but that’s hardly surprising as nothing has been open. I doubt many people have been taken on for the seasonal work a lot of people rely on for income. But, with the weather finally warming up again, but not as hot as that flush we had a few weeks ago, and with visitors from other islands calling in, perhaps some people will be able to make a living or part of one. Of course, it was a special weekend, so we can’t expect every day to be like this from now on, but it was good to see, late on Sunday evening, that the village cafes were in use and there was a bit of a buzz, if not yet the sound of a whole swarm.

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