Two walks and a tortoise
Two walks in two days, a record for this year. Admittedly, Tuesday’s march wasn’t far, but yesterday I managed to drag myself up to the monastery on the side of the hill, and what’s more, it was at a reasonably early hour. I sent an SMS as we must, but for some reason didn’t receive a reply until half an hour later (usually it’s straight away), so I didn’t leave the house until seven-thirty, but still… I got myself out there and went back to my old route.
Walking uphill from the village, I came across a tortoise crossing the road, and as he/she had narrowly missed being crunched by a passing car and had frozen in fear or lethargy, I gave it a lift across to the verge. There, it carried on its meander among the grasses and colourful weeds. Passing the church of Agia Marina, the air was heavy with the scent of tree bark and later, incense, and just around the corner, with the sound of Persian as some guys were tidying up the area by the bridge. There’s a newly rebuilt wall beneath the cemetery now, and metal railing across the bridge. The ravine is built up with square cages of rocks to aid irrigation, and the piles of sand are being removed along with the machinery. So, maybe that work is nearly complete?
I’ve also seen men fixing grilles to the water channels at the side of the road, and other council services are running as normally as possible. The refuse trucks are out and about from early morning until late, and the street sweepers are about their business, solo-style. Apart from fewer people on the streets, no bars or socialising and fewer people in the shops that are open, everything looks pretty much as usual. Except, of course, we don’t see the concern and frustration of those with businesses which must continue to pay their regular bills and debts with no income and not much chance of the usual income in the coming months. The latest I heard on that was the PM was to make an official speech soon, but there’s talk of some tourism reopening towards the end of May – I may have misread/heard, so don’t quote me on it.
