The sounds of morning
Standing on the balcony on a Thursday morning, looking down over Symi harbour, I paid attention to the sounds that you can hear from this side of the village. Why? Well, I’d been out for an early walk up the hill – from Syllogos Square, to Kampos, up through Leoni to Agia Triada and then down through the village and back to home. The first such early walk since last year due to cold and weather.

The sun was still behind the hills as I left at around 6.40 but there were signs of life in the village. Nikitas had already opened his peripteron and Lefteris was already at work at the kafeneion, despite the fact that the sun was not yet up. The bakers had their wood oven open and there was the aniseed-tinted smell of baking in the air. A couple of soldiers in uniform passed me on their mopeds as they set off for work up at the barracks, and the rubbish collection teams were already out and about on the roads.

The usual sounds of the morning greet you at this time of day: the cockerels sounding off, chickens fussing about something vital to survival behind ruin walls, the early birds out looking for worms, and the distant sounds of a motorbike struggling up a hill, or the quiet rumble of one coming down with no engine yet switched on, a common trick around here to save fuel. The road was pretty deserted, only a few army guys and farmers passed in cars and trucks and, by the time I reached the top road to Periotisa, the sun was only just starting to drag itself up over the hilltop.

Later, on the balcony, I was treated to the sight of a flat calm sea and some activity down below. The sound of the navy ship as it started up and prepared to leave port, signalling its leaving with three solid blasts on its claxon. The coastguard launch starting up, churning the flat harbour water into ripples of lighter blue and white, and then speeding off into the bay and beyond where another navy boat could be seen far out; possibly one of the NATO patrols now in the Aegean. And for other sounds: a neighbour’s water pump whizzing into life, a tell-tale sign that someone was doing the washing, or in the shower. The sound of the school below and away to my right, with a bell ringing, soon followed by the sound of teenagers at play in the playground. A hawk of some sort wheeling about over it all, set against the distant white clouds that are the remains of a rainstorm from the night before, and the cats, somewhere nearby, in heated debate over territory rights or food.

And behind all that, a peaceful calm, the sun starting to warm the green hillside where weeds and herbs are now flourishing after only a little winter rain. The calm sea in shades of blue reflecting the sky, and the glare of the low sun on white-painted buildings across the harbour where only a few people were out and about, coming to and fro from work. All very calming and pleasant. My coffee break on the balcony came to its end and it was time to head back to the desk to try and write. The cat was in the courtyard finding the morning snooze spot, the washing was able to go outside in the sun, having spent a day and a night sheltering from the rain, and one hundred and one small jobs needed attending to around the house; tidying up, putting things away, airing the rooms with open windows and doors… and so back to work.

From boats to book reviews
You will be pleased to hear that the wind did die down and the boats were able to come and go. In fact we had two on Wednesday, the Blue Star and the Dodekanisos. I noticed that the Symi Visitor Travel Blog has details about the now published timetables for the ferries; Blue Star up until the end of August and Dodekanisos Seaways for the summer. This is going to be of great use to everyone planning a holiday in Symi this year.

By the way, if you are thinking of a holiday in Greece this year, don’t be put off booking now. We’ve been hearing of some islands expecting a massive drop in tourism this year, those who are at the frontline of the refugee situation. I’ve not heard that about Symi or Rhodes, however. Mind you, I am sure that most, if not all, of my blog readers would not be put off their plans by what they might see on television, or read in the papers. Those islands, more than some, need support.

Anyway, back to Symi and your possible holiday. Here are a couple of books you might like to get hold of before you come. Actually one is a map and it’s good for walkers, being the most like an OS map that you might find. It’s Symi Terrain Maps, one of the Terrain Editions and is well worth ordering in advance so you can look at the terrain and plan your walks. (I love looking at maps. I could sit and read an atlas for hours; which reminds me, I must get an Atlas.)

Another idea for a pre-holiday book would be a guide book, and if you are planning time on Rhodes as well as Symi, then you might find The Rough Guide to the Greek Islands, by Nick Edwards, useful. There are loads of other guide books out there as well of course and you can pick up maps and guide books locally when you arrive. And now we do a quick segue into Amazon reviews via a lilac, plastic loofah found on the shore en route to St Nicks.

These are vital if an author is to sell more books on Amazon. (Reviews, I mean, not plastic loofahs.) The more positive reviews a book gets, the more chance there is of Amazon promoting it. As I understand it, you don’t have to have bought the book from Amazon in order to put up a review (you may need to register), and it’s a quick and easy process and so helpful to the author. (That ‘so’ was meant to be read as ‘sooooooo.’) What’s also good about the set-up is that books that receive more than average bad reviews get reviewed (there’s a revue to be made out of this one day); someone at Amazon looks at them and, if they really are not up to scratch (and the bad reviews were not a vendetta), then they withdraw the book until the publisher can put things right. So, your reviews help us authors sell more books and help protect us readers from badly produced books. And behind this paragraph is the broad hint that if you have one of mine on your shelf – more, if you have one and I’ve signed it – see if you can head to Amazon, search for it and put up a review (if you haven’t already). Thank you!

Symi Spring
I don’t know very much about them, but today we’ve got some photos of Symi flowers, and Symi spring, as that’s what season we are being blown into at the moment. It’s still very windy out there, five to six on the Beaufort Scale, the sites tell me. It feels a bit stronger than that at times, but it’s coming from the south so it’s not cold. Anyway…

Back to the flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la!). Did you know that the season Spring comes from the verb, to spring? Pretty obvious really (plants leaping joyously from the earth, rabbits leaping joyously onto each other, that kind of thing). But did you know where we get the word, the verb, to spring from? There are a few explanations knocking around and it’s interesting to see from these how some words appear in different cultures, written in different alphabets, and spoken in different languages, and yet are remarkably similar. No doubt due to migration and trade routes or something. For example, Spring comes from the Old English Springan, which comes from the Photo-Germanic word Sprengan. Meanwhile, we’ve got the Old Frisian Springa, the Middle Dutch Springhen, Old Saxon and Old High German Springan, Sanskrit gets a look in with Sprhayati and let’s not forget Greece (unlike the rest of Europe) and add in Sperkhasthai.

Sorry to have sprungen that little word investigation on you; I find this kind of thing interesting. It’s also fun. I mean, I’d never heard of Photo-Germanic before. I first thought it had something to do with Helmut Newton or a group of Berliners taking a selfie. And as for Old Frisian, I immediately thought of a wrinkled old cow. (You can picture your own; I take no responsibility for who you consider a wrinkly old cow.) The image of an Old High German hardly bears thinking bout. No offence; the Old Saxon was pretty rough too. It’s also interesting to note how the Dutch add at least one unnecessary h to things so as to get a good hoik-up going, how those writing in Sanskrit used Latin letters (they didn’t), and how the Greeks manage to slip in a tongue-twisting three or four extra syllables, presumably to make sure everyone else runs out of things to say before they get to the end of the word.

But back to the flowers… Like I said, I have no idea what these are called, though I can guess at some. Poppy, is pretty obvious. But if you want to know more about the Symi flora and fauna you should head over to Lyndon’s informative and colourful blog/site which is dedicated to the subject. I’m away to batten down hatches, sweep up leaves, feed cats and do other day-to-day things, and will aim to see you tomorrow when we’ll discover if the wind ever died down.

Leap Day, some personal and interesting facts
But first, yesterday. Sunday morning, 08.30: Waking up early to a fabulous, though damp, morning. The balcony was dripping wet, the windows were slightly misted up and yet the only cloud I could see first thing was hanging low over Nimos, obscuring the top of the hills. It must have been a humid night. Yesterday (Saturday) was hot in the sun, so much so that we even contemplated sunbathing on the roof. The evening felt colder because of it and today, Sunday, morning feels like summer. We are going to walk to St Nicholas later, so there should be some decent images over the next few days; meanwhile, today’s photos were taken on Saturday when we went to Yialos to get some shopping and have a bit of a walk.

But today (Monday) is a special day, being a leap day, February 29^th. It is also (being personal in my blog for a change) the fourth anniversary of the death of my uncle, so for only the third time since 2004, when he died, we are able to celebrate, if that is the word. Remember might be more appropriate. My uncle was a colourful man, something of a celebrity in his own way, once mistaken by the Duke of Edinburgh for Bob Monkhouse, friend of various (Conservative) MPs and celebrities, leader of his local Neighbourhood Watch in South London for many years, and a man who, after only a few months of work at Lloyds, was able to invest his income and live on his capital for the rest of his life. He was very good with money, the stock exchange, languages (he spoke Greek, French, English and bits of others) and ended up living in France where his funeral was held in Saint–Lô cathedral in March 2004. It was my job to carry the family flag with his coat of arms before the coffin as it processed through the nave. There are 101 stories I could tell you about him, but they would be more suited to a book of anecdotes that a quick blog post. Instead, I wondered what else had happened on this unusual date.

Something of interest to me, as one of my favourite plays is Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (a film I must get on DVD – the screenplay was also by Arthur Miller), it was this day in 1692 that Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne & Tituba, a servant, were the first people to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. In 1774 the Marquis de Sade was transferred into the Bastille – there’s another good film there, with Kate Winslet, and Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis, called Quills. In 1932 (and this is strangely topical), TIME magazine featured eccentric American politician William “Alfalfa” Murray on its cover after Murray stated his intention to run for President of the United States. I am thinking of Donald Trump here, who is, surely, some practical joke gone badly wrong.

For those who follow Gilbert and Sullivan storylines, rather Gilbert storylines and Sullivan melody lines, it was on February 29^th 1940 that Frederick would have been finally released from his contract by the Pirate King – his birthday being on February 29^th, one of those devices Gilbert was so keen on. Also in 1940 on this day, Gone With The Wind won eight Oscars. The first Playboy club was opened in Chicago in 1960 on this day, and, in 2004, The Lord Of The Rings (part three) won its Oscars. (So as my uncle was being returned to God, the film, ‘The Return Of The King’ was winning its awards. More appropriate, for Uncle, would have been ‘The Return Of The Queen.’)

As for who else has died on this day in history, my uncle will be in friendly hands as Pope St. Hilarius died in 468 (my uncle converted to Catholicism later in life and liked a good laugh, though I might find Pope Hilarius’ name hilarious, he probably wouldn’t), and an Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift also died, in 1604 – my uncle’s father was a Church of England priest, a friend of a later Archbishop of Canterbury, and Uncle went to school at Kings Canterbury, so he and the Most Reverend Whitgift will have some catching up to do, and Hugh will have some explaining to do too about his conversion.

And that’s enough of that. I’ll hand you back to Symi tomorrow, hopefully with a tale of our walk to St Nicholas and with some more of Neil’s wonderful Symi photos. Enjoy your extra day this year and remember, no day is to be wasted, especially when you have/had a 1-in-1461 chance of being born today.

Don’t miss the boat
Friday morning: I was just out on the balcony (a bit blustery and cool, but not unbearable) and watched the Blue Star coming in, only two hours late. It looks like it was very busy with a students’ football or basketball team heading over to Rhodes in their jackets and with their bags. The late arrival is a knock-on from Thursday’s late departure from Piraeus, which was in itself a late arrival knocked on from Wednesday and Symi – perhaps other islands too.

Neil went down to the boat on Wednesday to help with the taking off of several boxes from Rhodes. The refugee organisation on Rhodes has closed down. I am not too sure why, something to do with bureaucracy or something, sad, but understandable in a country where bureaucracy still rules. They have arranged to send their supplies to other islands that need them, so some came to Symi. I was at home working on The Film, as I have mentioned this week, but had a text saying ‘The boat is here.’ I looked out and sure enough, there it was, blowing its horn and coming in sideways. I went back to the film. About an hour later I had another text, ‘Still not here.’ So I looked out of the window again and saw it just coming around the south headland. What? Déjà vu.

There then followed much horn blowing and manoeuvring as the boat tried to dock and, finally, managed to. Apparently (and I have heard a couple of stories so don’t know which, if any, is true), it had trouble getting in due to either a broken rope, a miss-dropped anchor or two, and the swell, which was definitely a cause. The people on board were waiting in the car deck behind the drop-down to get off, but after a while realised that nothing much was happening. It’s not possible to see where you are from there as the ‘gangplank’ is up so Neil was getting texts from passengers asking where they were. Are we by the clock tower? No, you are somewhere over near Nimos. This was during the in-out manoeuvring where it looked as if the boat would not be able to dock. It finally came in and dropped its back-ramp-thing and people and vehicles were able to get on and off, roughly two hours behind schedule.

Just goes to show you the joys of island living. The boxes were unloaded and stored and all came to a happy end. But it must have been very frustrating for everyone aboard. Imagine; you’re just back from a shopping trip in Rhodes, you’ve spent the day there and spent your money, and suddenly you can’t get home. Next stop is Kos where there is no sheltered harbour to land in, so you might still be worried that you won’t get off. Even if you did it would be late into the evening by then and you’d have to find a place to stay, pay for it and all the other necessary expenses and then wait for the next boat back which would be the same boat coming back on a Friday. Only, at Kos, it’s at something like 02.50 on a Friday morning, not wonderful. Mind you., there is a lot to see on Kos as there’s an ancient ruin around every corner (and I am talking about architecture, not inhabitants), but if you’d not planned and prepared for it, you might not find the place so appealing.

Anyway, a quick aside from the usual day to day to highlight one of the Inland Living problems we sometimes face over here. Have a good weekend and, while you are having it, here’s a fun quiz for regular visitors: Whose menu is this?