A Snip

There’s a new way you can help the cats and population of Symi, and it’s appropriately titled, SNiP – The Symi Neutering Programme. Their FB page reads:

SNiP is a new cat neutering project on Symi. We have been very lucky to have received a generous donation from the Greek Cat Welfare Society [UK]. During 2020, with the support of Symi Animal Welfare, it will be funding cat neutering on Symi.
If you are responsible for the care/feeding of a feral cat on the island and would like it to be neutered, then please contact us.
Symi Animal Welfare should still be contacted for any issues concerning welfare and their feeding programme.

[Facebook Page here]

You can also see what’s going on at Symi Animal Welfare through their website, and if you need the pet shop who also work with a vet from Rhodes to care for animals, you can look up Pet Island, and their Facebook page is here.

The bad weather of last week finally died away on Saturday afternoon after much heavy rain and high winds, and the house is dry again thanks to a calm and warm sunny day yesterday. Warm enough to pop to the Rainbow for a later afternoon drink and to watch the world go by. So far today, Monday, I’ve seen the Blue Star boat come in (5.00 on a Monday), heard of a possible strike on Tuesday (?) that might affect the Wednesday Blue Star, and just remembered I have some work to do before I need to pop down town, get some shopping and help with making a roast dinner for a friend’s birthday. I also have a new pen name book starting a blog tour today, which may generate some emails, and this time in two weeks we will be preparing to head off for a holiday, viruses, weather and technical glitches at airports willing. I’d better get on my bike.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Ten images showing the changing weather we experience at this time of year. The leaf damage was caused by hail. Last week, we had the balcony shutters and doors open (north-facing), today, we’re battened down against wind and rain. It comes, and it goes, but we get some kind of weather here every day.

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Castro

I expect most people who have stayed on Symi for any length of time, certainly if they’ve stayed in the village, will have visited the church at the top of the Castro. Like many of the large churches, it’s not very often open to look around, and the best time to visit is for a service where you will be made welcome – but not if you’re in shorts and flip-flops, of course. Well, you probably would be made welcome, but it wouldn’t be at all correct of you to turn up in summer holiday gear no matter the weather or temperature. Same applies to any church, I expect.

There are stone plaques on the outside of the church, and these are the coats of arms of some of the Grand Masters of Rhodes and the Order of the Knights of St John. If you are in Rhodes, you can see many more around the old town and the palace. There is another built into the wall on the way up to our Castro, and beside this, I was told, the wall is Byzantine in construction and part of the very early fortifications. As you go up the slow slope and steps to the top of the Castro, you can go through the gate into the church courtyard, and see the work done to pattern the courtyard stone.

After that, you’re able to walk all the way around the church (there is more than one up there) where you can see down to Pedi. Across Yialos, across the back of the village and all the way around as you follow the path. It’s unmade in places, but not difficult. There is even a place to sit in a shallow cave and have a rest from the sun. Just make sure you don’t leave any rubbish behind.

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Village walk

We’ve gone from being six degrees to 16 in a matter of a couple of days, which means we’ve been able to open our shutters again and enjoy the views, and it means we’ve been able to go out for a walk without having to wrap up in five layers. I went to Yialos yesterday to check for post and didn’t need a jacket. The walk back up the steps was slow and steady, being the first time for a long time, but I managed it without stopping. (Didn’t need to wear the thermals either, so it was a bit of sauna treatment too.) The wander we had around the village the other day came with some extra added delights. Sheep leading the way to the Castro at one point, a friendly neighbour attending to his tree gave us a lemon each, and we were able to sit outside the café afterwards with a reward. All in a day’s wandering.

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Machine in charge

Having one of those ‘phone’ days. Today, it’s suddenly not being recognised by my laptop, which means I can’t easily download the photos I took yesterday, make them smaller for the web and then upload them to here. I’m currently looking into why my phone or laptop has decided to do this and will try and get some down from cloud storage, so you’ve got something to look at, then I’ll probably waste my morning trying to fix this problem, while also popping down to the post office while Neil has his Greek lesson. If there are photos below this, you’ll know I’ve managed to get some off the phone, which is still unrecognised by the machine that recognised it yesterday… Don’t you just love technology?

[Ps. I managed to download from up there to down here and will now figure out why my phone, apparently, does not exist…]

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