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The latest news & weather from Symi, reported by Adriana Shum from 'The Symi Visitor' office. Adriana's Greek Recipe of the Week>> Symi Report, Friday February 27th 2004
The weather has been a bit
bumpy all week. The Symi II was not allowed to leave
on Tuesday so it ran on Wednesday instead. On Thursday it
left much to everyone's amazement, and for the return trip,
according to one passenger, they were all asked to sign a
document that they would not hold the Coastguard responsible
before they were allowed to depart. Apparently it was a
fairly hair-raising trip but nothing came unstuck and the
alternative would have been to be in Rhodes until Saturday as it
is considerably worse out there today. Visibility is down
to about a mile and it is difficult to stand up in the gusts.
The first big sand storm of the year is making quite a
production of it with flurries of mud rain, strong winds and
heavy seas. The wind will change to the north on Sunday,
bringing with it improved visibility and lower temperatures.
Almond blossom is raining
down in the orchards and the warmer temperatures have
accelerated growth among the wild flowers and in the vegetable
gardens. The lambs are using their mothers as convenient
windbreaks and they are all munching lying down out of
the wind, enjoying the first daisies.
Down in the harbour work
continues on the paving outside Pachos and a large and odiferous
hole has appeared in the road near the Symi Visitor office as
they are digging a new septic tank. The flags are tying
themselves in knots on the flagpoles and spray is squirting up
through the gratings. Fortunately the barometer is still
quite high so we have not been subjected to the extraordinary
high tides we had last month.
Symi Report, Tuesday February 24th 2004
Yesterday was Clean Monday*- the day which marks the end of Carnival
and the beginning of Lent. The day dawned overcast and
calm. Drizzle hovered for about an hour at midmorning, as
everyone was scrambling into trucks with kites and picnic
baskets to go up to various family holdings for the day's
celebrations. The drizzle did not last long and the wind
picked up steadily so no problem with getting those kites air
borne. Indeed now, on Tuesday, it is blowing a veritable
gale and the Symi II which was supposed to run today is securely
attached to Yialos quay. Other celebrations were held in
Pedi and the music could be heard drifting up the Pedi Valley
until late afternoon. This morning, walking down the Kali
Strata, there were snakes of carnival streamers blowing about
like seaweed in the tide and dead kites stuck in the cypress
trees.
The rest of the week is
expected to remain windy with slightly warmer temperatures, up
to about 18 degrees, as the wind is coming from the south.
This will probably be followed by mud rain. At the moment
visibility is only a few kilometres due to the combination of
low cloud and dust.
We went up the mountain on
Sunday morning and there was heavy ice on the puddles in the
high and windy places. The high altitude sheep are far
shaggier than their valley sisters and the lambs considerably
smaller. The snow earlier in the month killed off a great
deal of the vegetation so the shepherds are taking hay up to
their flocks. The hairy sage bushes are considerably more
resilient than the thyme.
Down in the harbour the road
is open at last, more than a month after it first closed.
Now the rush is on to catch up on all the jobs delayed by
its closure.
Have a good week.
*Clean
Monday is so called because the house is traditionally cleaned
of all non-fasting food stuffs in anticipation of Lent. Kites
are traditionally flown on Clean Monday, when everyone packs a
picnic and goes up the mountain. Curiously Clean Monday is
referred to as Green Monday in Cyprus where it is celebrated
with a picnic in the country but without the kites. Quite how
the kites come into it we have not been able to
discover. Symi Report, Friday February 20th 2004
After a fairly promising
start a low cloud has drifted over the island and it is
drizzling again. We've had a wintry week, Thursday being
the longest dry period. Everyone is hoping for an
improvement as Sunday marks the end of Carnival, usually
celebrated with a big party in the Town Square, and Monday is
Clean Monday - the day for picnics and kite-flying up the
mountain to mark the beginning of Lent. So far Carnival
has been quite subdued on Symi this year as the combination of
miserable weather and road works has kept people out of the
harbour and tucked up at home. The pizzeria next door has
put up brave paper chains, balloons and masks and the shops in
Chorio are packing out taramasalata, pickles, octopus, prawns
and other traditional Clean Monday picnic ingredients, including
the biggest wheels of chocolate and pistachio halva I have ever
seen.
Walking down the Kali Strata
early on Wednesday morning in a typical Symi downpour, I passed
streams of children heading for school. Their umbrellas
caught my attention. The little ones heading for the
primary school were brightly equipped, many with co-coordinated
satchel and umbrella sets demonstrating the global appeal of
Barbie, Sindy, My Little Pony and the usual Disney pantheon.
The middling ones off to the junior school were more
self-conscious of demonstrating any allegiance that might be
construed as 'silly' and although still colourful, avoided brand
names other than football clubs and sportswear manufacturers.
The teenagers completed the transition - basic black brollies
for the boys and ersatz Burberry for the girls to go with
equally conservative clothes. So much for adolescent
rebellion and statements of individuality!
The enduring saga of the
roadworks continues. The concreting was finished last
night and, according to the latest burbled announcement over the
tannoy, we may be allowed to drive through this afternoon -
after they have filled in the grooves and footprints of those
who went over the wet cement. We'll all be glad when
refuse collection in the harbour area is back to normal.
Mind you, the cats are doing quite well and every overflowing
skip has a family of six or more rummaging through it at any one
time. The paving at the head of the harbour proceeds in
fits and starts, weather permitting. At least the workmen
can duck into Pachos for fortification while waiting out the
rainy spells.
Have a warm dry weekend.
Symi Report, Monday February 16th 2004 It is the first time I have stood in my garden and watched snowflakes drift gently down and melt as they touched the lemon trees but that was the scene yesterday afternoon. The magic moment passed quickly enough when the next cloud brought hail followed shortly thereafter by heavy rain. After three days of extremely low temperatures and ice everywhere it's amazing how warm 10 degrees can feel!
The catastrophic weather
conditions have had devastating effects on the agricultural
sector as winter, being the rainy season and usually fairly
mild, is the main period for growing crops in Greece and the
Middle East. Many farmers have been literally wiped out in
places like Crete and the plains of Thessaly. It takes
years for orchards to recover and many of the vegetable crops
were killed off when areas were first flooded and then
froze over. It's not only Greek farmers who are wringing
their hands - the Turks, Cypriots, Lebanese and Israelis have
all been hit by the same weather system with similarly dire
effects.
By the way, all you cynics
out there, although Athens airport was shut down by the
blizzard, the railways continued to function and they laid on an
extra nine trains to cope with increased volume to keep
motorists off the roads...! It was the heaviest snowfall
recorded in Athens since 1911.
Have a warm week, planning
your summer holidays. We're looking forward to the summer
too after all this cold stuff.
Symi Report, Friday February 13th 2004 Temperatures have fallen and so has quite a lot of rain. The snow ploughs are out in many parts of the country and there is the very real possibility of snow this weekend. Crete and Karpathos have already reported heavy falls and snow is forecast for the whole country including the south east and the Dodecanese tonight and tomorrow. I'll let you know about that one on Monday! The barometer is dropping and the sea is sneaking up on us again, sloshing up the customs slipway and splashing through the gratings. The wind forecast for the Aegean is Beaufort Force 8 to 9 from the north and the school children I passed on the Kali Strata this morning were muffled up like Technicolor Eskimos.
It is carnival time and the
children have fancy dress parties. Last night I saw a
golden queen, complete with a tall golden crown, rushing about
with Batman in the Chorio Car Park. Batman was alright in
his all-in-one suit but the princess had track suit bottoms on
under her skirts and mittens on her regal hands. She
was quite a bossy queen and chased timorous Batman into a
corner, brandishing her sceptre at him in a menacing
fashion. The matriarchal tradition has not quite died away
in the islands...
The road is sort of open at
the moment - the trenches are filled with sand which has sunk
somewhat in the rain. Once the weather improves they will
pour the concrete surface which will take a couple of days.
Meanwhile those with enough clearance are negotiating the dips
and ruts with caution and even the bus gave it a whirl
yesterday, Lakis leaning out of the window and inching
the bus along, avoiding bits of reinforcing rod and other
hazards.
Have a warm weekend, planning
your summer holidays.
Symi Report, Monday February 9th 2004
The weather this weekend
was remarkable fine with the thermometer reaching 20 degrees
in the sun on Saturday. The southerly wind responsible for
these unseasonably high temperatures is bringing rain later this
week and temperatures are already starting to drop. The
dewfall at night is heavy and the Kali Strata was dripping wet
this morning.
The fine weather being
conducive to agricultural pursuits, we ordered 50 kilos of seed
potatoes from the agricultural supplier and these were put on
the Symi II on Saturday afternoon. When we went down to
fetch our purchases it became apparent just why the road works
were taking so long... Divers were frantically nailing up
shuttering along a stretch where the road had evidently
collapsed into the sea! As this was at the narrowest part
all that was left was a narrow ledge along which one could inch
a motorbike or, in our case, a wheelbarrow.
The big green and white concrete mixer was manoeuvering
delicately at a discreet remove, on the last chunk of road-width
quay while workers were arranging the chute for pouring.
The fish farm lighter is
running a sort of shuttle across the harbour from the Symi II,
which currently docks on the sunny side, to the fuel station.
This quickly filled up with people returning from their day in
Rhodes leaving little room for goods. We were glad of our
wheelbarrow, with which we made the trip round the harbour in
rather less time than it took for the fish farm boat, with what
appeared to be about 100 people standing in it, to chug across
to the other side.
Will the road be open in time
for Easter? Watch this space for the next gripping
instalment in the Symi Road Saga.
Symi Report, Friday February 6th 2004 Hoorah, hoorah! The weather is dry and so is the washing. Pity about the road which is STILL closed. At some interval during the course of the week they got the dump truck out and that is now rumbling around Chorio as usual. The harbour is very very quiet as few people live down here and no one really fancies lugging shopping up the Kali Strata when it can be done in Chorio anyway. What is really inconvenient, however, is bringing goods onto the island as it is not possible to get cars or trucks round to the boats to off load, nor is it possible to put a vehicle on the boat to Rhodes. Bad luck if your new bathroom suite or chest freezer has arrived and you live in Chorio!
We had some windy weather mid
week and the big boats failed to materialise on Wednesday but
one came through yesterday afternoon. Apparently there was
some drama in Rhodes harbour on Tuesday afternoon when three
hundred students from the University of the Aegean took
possession of a ferry in protest at Strintzis lines dropping its
student discount on fares. Eventually the crowd departed
peacefully and the passengers were able to embark. The
shipping line in question says it will look into the
matter. As the students attending the campuses on
Rhodes and Kos come from many other islands and live in hostels
while on campus, ferry fares to visit family are an unavoidable
expense. Hitch hiking isn't really an option for
islanders!
It is quite warm at the
moment - about 15 degrees - which is unusual given the wind
direction (North). Rain and cloud are forecast for Monday
followed by cold windy conditions for the rest of next week,
with temperatures back in single figures.
Meanwhile it is pleasant to
enjoy the winter sunshine while it lasts. Many of the
almond trees are flowering, as are the cyclamens and wild mauve
anemones. A lot of gardens suffered in the recent storms
and in some cold areas where ice lay on the ground for days, it
is difficult to tell what is going to pull through. As
November and December were abnormally warm many trees, shrubs
and vines started to put on new growth instead of becoming
dormant and all this new growth has been nipped off by the hail
and sleet. Out with the secateurs!
Have a good weekend.
Symi
Report, Monday February 2nd 2004
It is a bright crisp
winter's day. Washing is steaming gently on every
balcony and windows and shutters are open for the first time in
weeks.
One of the small churches in
the Pedi Valley is celebrating its name day today and from early
morning a steady stream of ladies in black was heading down the
foot path at the bottom of my garden. Some carried bunches
of narcissus and cyclamens, others the huge wheels of 'prosphera',
the round embossed loaves of bread ordered from the local
bakeries and taken to the priest to be blessed. After
blessing it is divided up and shared with everyone, including
passers by. If you are ever out walking on Symi in the
summer and you are offered a chunk of slightly fragrant (it is
usually flavoured with mastic) bread, accept it - it is a
blessing. You may also be given loukomades, sticky
honey doughnuts, but these have no religious significance!
As the weather is set to stay
dry for at least two days (!!!) the builders are all dashing
around - with a bit of luck some concreting and brick-laying
projects might actually see some progress before the next
anticipated rainy spell hits us on Wednesday. Of course,
this is assuming one has been able to get the materials
required...The road around the harbour is still closed.
Apparently this stage of affairs will continue for at least
another five days. Shop keepers whose warehouses are at
the wrong side of the road works mutter evil thoughts as they
wheelbarrow their stock round the harbour and the dump truck has
been marooned in the town for weeks (don't ask - somebody's head
is probably on a block for lack of foresight!). Refuse
collection is currently dependent on the small Vespa tipper
which fills a lorry - a tedious business.
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