Symi Saturday Photos
Some shots today from a trip to Yialos on Thursday. New flags, sailing puppy, roadworks, more flags, fresh fish, shops ready and waiting, café time, more flags… Harbour life continues. Have a good weekend.
Symi Saturday Photos
Climb Every Mountain
Climb Every Mountain
Continuing the spring theme, I found some photos from last April, and some from the other day, so I thought I’d show you what Symi looks like in the spring. Or at least, the parts of Symi that I get to see.
If all this greenery is going on around the village and Pedi, imagine what it’s like out on the hills and far away, over towards Marathounda and then to the west beyond Xissos. Wild herbs, trees, birds, wildlife, it’s all out there, you just need to go and find it. Which is what makes Symi so good for walkers, especially at this time of year. You can ramble safely, following the old red or blue dots from the Kalodoukas walking book, or you can buy one of the newer maps of the island which now have contour lines and details. (See below.) You can just follow the road if you want, and take one of the minor roads off it.
Head up through the village, for example, following the main road, so you don’t get lost, and you’ll eventually summit behind the Vigla. You can summit the Vigla itself if you want and my Skai map of Symi tells me it’s 617 metres above sea level. That’s just over half the height of Snowdon if you’re interested (1,085 m). Not as high as Greece’s highest mountain, Mount Olympus which summits at 9,218 meters, I am told, but still, the Vigla is our tallest hill, and we’re rather proud of it.
Carry on the main road and you will see a turn to the left (after the monastery of Ag Konstantinos but before the recycle tip) and that will take you towards St George and the hinterland. Or, keep going and you’ll pass through the pine forest and eventually reach Panormitis. I’ll leave you with a few tips: The walk from Village to the top of the zigzags to Panormitis took me two hours. The shortcuts didn’t make it any shorter or easier. It’s another two hours down the zigzag to Panormitis itself. Make sure you have a lift back organised. Always take water, a hat and a mobile, in case…
Here’s a link to the map I use. I think it’s one of the best around at the moment.
A Bit of Bothersome Blather
A Bit of Bothersome Blather
(And some photos today taken recently.)
Wednesday brought with it a strange dream. For some reason, I woke just before six and, blundering about the house, saw the Blue Star leaving Yialos. Perhaps I’d been woken by its arrival. Not quite ready for the day ahead, I thought I’d sit for a minute… And woke up an hour later after a dream in which all the children of the island were being taken away on a ship. Very odd, but no doubt inspired by the Blue Star I’d seen in my half-awake state. Anyway, I got on with Wednesday which started cooler and with that cloud cover again, but with the thermometer in the garden reading 20 degrees by ten.
I’ve also been watching the day boats coming in and out, and each time they arrive, they seem to be bringing more visitors with them. That can only be a good thing. It feels like we’re in that lull between Easter and the start of the season, and I suppose we are, seeing as how Easter was several days ago now. We have already had visitors coming, staying for a holiday and leaving, but have not yet seen the numbers that we expect to see in the summer, and that’s probably because it’s not quite summer season yet. I’m just blathering on here.
Now there’s a thing. Where does the word Blather come from? I know it as a Scottish word, or rather, being more used in Scotland. I just went and had a look and, no surprise, it is. It comes from the Old Norse word, blathra, meaning ‘talk nonsense’ which is based on the Old Norse word blathr, meaning ‘nonsense.’ So, how about getting yourself a copy of ‘Symi, Stuff & Blathr’? (That link leads to the real book, Symi, Stuff & Nonsense.) The word came from Old Norse to Scottish and Northern English via the Vikings, I imagine. As a bonus, you also have this from an etymology site:
1520s, blether, Scottish, probably from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse blaðra “mutter, wag the tongue,” perhaps of imitative origin, or from Proto-Germanic *blodram “something inflated” (the source of bladder). Related: Blathered; blathering. https://www.etymonline.com/word/blather
On which note, I need to go before I bother you with my bothersome blather.
Spring Springing, Swallows Swallowing
Spring Springing, Swallows Swallowing
I was sitting at my desk the other day when I looked out of the window and thought, ‘What’s that?’ Then I realised. A little later, I was in the courtyard, and I saw the same thing overhead; a massive flock of swallows. Where had they come from? Well, I guess they are migrating, and we get them here every year about this time, but I’d never seen so many turn up on one day. A few minutes later and they were gone, leaving only the usual few. Then I realised what was going on. The flying ants (or whatever they are) had hatched, and the swallows were up there living up to their name and swallowing them all. We were invaded by little lack bugs for a while, they dropped their wings and crawled off, or were eaten, and then that, too, was over.
That used to happen at the old house where we had a couple of families of them living in the roof. One or two days a year, in April, I would have to leave the saloni where I worked and keep the doors and windows open while the things descended from the ceiling and took over the room. An hour later and they were gone, leaving behind a covering of tiny wings. So, the dots you see in these photos are actually swallows (or martins) on their way to somewhere, stopping off for lunch on or above Symi. There are still some around mixing with our usual neighbours, the sparrows, pigeons, a few seagulls, some ravens from time to time and, again at this time of year, a few hawks.
Monday’s breeze blew into a wind in the evening but calmed during Tuesday morning to once again leave us warm and calm. The sun came out and the sky, although not yet the painted blue of summer, was reasonably cloudless though a bit pale. Spring flowers are out still, even the weeds are attractive at this time of year and our courtyard plants, such as they are, are coming along. The chilli is growing, and now I’ve separated some other plants and thinned them out a bit, they are also doing well, and the vine is growing at the rate of about two inches per day. Spring is still springing here on Symi.
Meanwhile, On Symi…
Meanwhile, On Symi…
Okay, so we’re back to the more usual blog for now. What’s been going on here while we’ve been looking at holiday snaps? Well, the temperature last week reached 28 degrees in our courtyard in the shade, but Monday was slightly cooler, with a breeze and some thin cloud. It’s all still wonderfully spring-like and flowering, warm enough for no jackets, and my legs have had an outing. The startling news there is that my last year’s shorts still fit me. If anything, they were slightly loose. I did drop a belt hole while on holiday, that is, take an inch off the waist, but that was soon back on once we returned.
One of the great dilemmas of Symi living in the summer is to bar or not to bar, that is the question. For my part, I tend to work from early in the morning up until lunchtime, taking a brief walk when I can, or slipping out for an hour for shopping or necessities in Yialos. Then I have an hour off for lunch and then work again usually until half four or five, sometimes I sneak away from the boss (me) at four and say, ‘That’s enough for one day.’ Trouble is, when you know there’s the bar, and Neil is working there, and that’s where our friends gather, and you’re not there, you might be missing out on something, but you really should stay home and avoid temptation… Well, you can get the picture.
I don’t go every day, though it must seem like it to people who pass and see us sitting in the same seats nearly every time. And all that has nothing to do with what’s been going on recently, except that with returning friends offering dinners and drinks and a soiree, it’s hard to say no, especially when you’ve not seen them for months. Meanwhile, other things have been going on. A quick visit to Yialos on Friday to fetch the rent money showed me the Poseidon coming into its morning place for the summer, just about every business open or putting the finishing touches, the day boats (Sea Dreams and The Panagia, plus the Spanos) unloading day-trippers, and more of the tavernas set up ready to welcome guests. It also offered us a drink at Pacho’s, a quick lunch at Meraklis, a taxi home… All the usual summer temptations that are irresistible. They also included an afternoon with people we’d not seen for a while, and before you know it, whoops, there goes the rest of the day.
You, of course, can do all this while on holiday here without the need to stop for work or get involved in any of that kind of thing. Basically, life is the same here now as it was last year, and it’s warming up after the winter and Symi is preparing for another season of sun, sea and siesta. And so am I.
