A varied lot this weekend as I was clearing out the ‘to be posted’ folder, so some from Christmas, and some from this week. Woke up to light rain early on Saturday morning, but warm-ish, and not so heavy that the porch is flooded. The plants are getting a decent watering, but I am glad I bought the washing inside.
Yesterday, we managed another morning walk in our attempt to get back into the routine while the weather is good. The day before, I’d gone up through the village, past the museum, out onto the top road and up, and yesterday, I headed off up the hill and out towards To Vrisi. I wasn’t listening to music this time, I was listening to the birds and the natural sounds of the hillside; goats scrambling about, that kind of thing. I was met on the path by Arabi the sheepdog (mainly a goat-dog) and his assistant, and later saw them on the way back. It’s a very sociable path.
I decided to come back through the upper village, so walked up to Periotisa and then down, passing the mules who were already at work, and bumping into Yianni Rainbow who was setting off to visit his mother before his morning walk. We chatted about his neighbour’s new dehumidifier, and his own, and how valuable they are at this time of year due to damp and condensation inside the houses. Our dehumidifier is an open window, but I am reminded that I need to wipe down and bleach the bathroom ceiling again before it gets too bad.
The weather has been good, but at the back of my mind is our trip to Athens in March. The plan is to get on the boat on the Wednesday of the week we go and be in Athens on the morning of our afternoon flight to London. Now, I am wondering if we should go on the Monday of that week and have an extra two days in Athens just in case… At least then we would have a fallback should there be any worries with the weather that week, leaving ourselves time for the Wednesday boat, or to somehow get to Rhodes and fly up if all else fails. Dithering, but might consider it seriously later. As long as we are at Heathrow by a certain time on a certain day to fly to Canada… It’s weeks away yet, so there’s plenty of time to alter the schedule of the European leg.
That’s my early morning thought-clearance process out of the way. Now I must get on with some work.
A few more shots from around the village today. We are waiting for bad weather, though neither Wind Finder or Poseidon forecast any rain here. The news is that storms with ‘red rain’ and Sahara dust are on their way to the south of the country, but there’s no sign of it yet. Let’s hope it misses, I’ve only just been able to start catching up on the washing. It’s not lack of water (makes a change at this house) it’s lack of drying weather and sunshine in the courtyard, but we will get there.
There’s also a lack of news on my part, so I’ll leave you with the photos and get back to my editing.
Just realised I didn’t put up anything on the blog yesterday. I think that was because I was adjusting to a new routine which involved going out for a short walk between work and real work. As you can see from the sky in the photos, it was a wonderful morning for it. The rest of the week looks a bit dodgy with a severe storm warning for the Cyclades and Dodecanese from Wednesday evening onwards, so today might be the ‘second and last walk for a while’ chance I get to go for a ramble for a few days.
I saw that Neil put up a post on the Symi Dream Facebook page recently asking who had booked their holiday to Symi so far, and it is receiving a lot of replies, which is good news. Meanwhile, I read in the Greek news that the government are looking at ways to restrict/limit, etc., tourism on Santorini, which might be an interesting thread to follow. It’s always bugged me that when you see photos of Greece on posters (travel companies, websites etc.), it’s usually of Santorini. Looks like the island has become a victim of its own success with overcrowding in certain places and at certain times. Busloads of people off to see the sunset and only getting to see the back of the person in front, that kind of thing.
We’re off on holiday in a few weeks (beginning of March), so there won’t be any of this blogging business for that month. This trip’s been planned for over a year now, and we’re looking forward to it. Before then, though, there’s the same old routine to get through each day, plus some fun stuff like a quick morning walk when the weather allows.
The first random photo collection of 2020, with some photos taken recently.
