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Adriana Shum from |Read March's news | Read April's news | Read May's news | Read June's news| |Read
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| Friday, November 30th 2001 |
| Storms
and tempests continue to bedevil us. Yesterday morning was really
exciting - we had 75 mm of rain in about 3 hours. Not only did the Agia
Marina river flow again, carrying away with it my road (only just repaired
since the last lot) but the rush of water from the terraced slopes of the
sheep farm behind my house could not drain away fast enough and blasted
through the stone wall of our bedroom, flooding it and the courtyard
adjoining. Fortunately I was at home at the time and was able to rescue
various items as they came bobbing past. A procession of shoes was what
alerted me to the disaster as I was tipping the water out of the roof of
the greenhouse! Many of the small fields and the sports stadium down in
Pedi are still under standing water now, more than twenty four hours
later, as the ground is completely waterlogged and it has continued to
rain one way or another since this cloudburst so there has been no real
opportunity for things to dry out.
Every balcony on the island is draped with wet carpets and rugs as mine was not the only house to be flooded. The boffins say that there is another depression close on the heels of this one so I suspect mildew is going to be a fact of life for some time! Have a good weekend, and feel consoled by the knowledge that even Symi has its soggy side! Regards,
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| Monday, November 26th 2001 |
| "Wet
Weekend" proved to be an understatement - at sunset on Friday the
first drops of rain came spattering down and by 8 o'clock that evening the
roads and lanes were flowing. The Agia Marina river which forms part of
the boundary to my property came down in spate, rolling boulders before
it. The rain finally tailed off at about 6 the following morning. The
rainwater gauge overflowed during the night so we know we had more than 4
inches of rain, but exactly how much more we can't say.
The waters of Pedi Bay were red with earth and there were rock falls and mud slicks on all the roads. The big excitement down in Yialos was the sinking of a large water taxi boat. It would seem that it had simply filled up with rain until it sank. A JCB was used to refloat it, an exercise which took much of the day. Fortunately the engines were out of it at the time so little serious damage was done. It started to rain again on Saturday afternoon, accompanied by strong gusts of wind down in the harbour and up in Chorio. Another 2 inches were recorded that night. Sunday remained fairly dry but cold with ominous grey clouds passing over at speed. In the early hours of Monday morning it started to rain again and we have had intermittent showers all day. The long term outlook for the rest of the week seems to be more of the same. Temperatures are around 10 C but feel considerably colder as it is quite windy and everything is wet.
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| Friday, November 23rd 2001 |
| It's
Friday afternoon and we are watching the clouds massing overhead.
Another wet weekend? Temperatures have been on the low side all week and
gale force North-Easterly winds had us all looking for our gloves earlier
in the week. Those who use motorcycles and bikes for transport around the
island have become anonymous muffled figures with shrouded in scarves and
balaclavas.
The vegetable sellers from Tilos are doing the rounds, laden with impressive displays of greens and beetroot, and fish vendors have scales on street corners. Despite popular misconceptions to the contrary, this is the time of year for fresh fish in the Mediterranean. Fish are scarce in the summer heat and become much more active in the winter, particularly after stormy weather. As we are entering into a fasting period for the forty days before Christmas, the local diet reflects this with much more emphasis on bloodless foodstuffs such as sea urchins, nuts, pulses and grains as sources of protein. The grocers have big sacks of different kinds of beans and rice which are sold by weight. At the same time there are several popular name days coming up which call for the baking of cakes and biscuits. The new season's nuts are for sale. Walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and not a prepacked vacuum pack or sell-by date in sight. The seasonal nature of life here dictates that November is the time for such things to be harvested and no one would expect anything less than the freshest nuts to be sold. Greek housewives have no qualms about sampling what they are buying and no shopkeeper would endanger his reputation - and his livelihood - selling stale nuts. Have a good weekend. If it's raining I'm going to be testing a few new nut recipes...
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| Monday, November 19th 2001 |
| We
had four seasons in a weekend and it is definitely on the chilly side.
The temperatures started to drop on Friday as the north wind blew up and
all shipping was cancelled on Saturday. On Sunday morning it was only
about 6 C inside my greenhouse but at least the wind had dropped. Today it
is marginally warmer and there are clouds coming in from the south; rain
is forecast.
The fragrance of woodfires fills the valley in the evenings as many Symi houses still have functioning fireplaces. In my own house we have four! There is no shortage of fuel as extensive pruning of olive and oak trees and grapevines takes place at this time of the year and these are all slow burning woods. The small ilex oaks lend themselves well to coppicing and, as the wood is too twisted and winding to use for anything else, is often kept specifically for firewood. And there's nothing so invigorating as swinging an axe... Have a good week!
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| Thursday, November 15th 2001 |
| Yesterday
was stormy and shipping was disrupted but no rain fell on Symi. Today
is warm and sultry as southerly breezes prevail but it will be All Change
at the weekend when the wind swings round to the north and temperatures
drop to around 10C. Have you noticed, reading my reports, how the weather
systems seem to be chugging through on a 7 day cycle? Somehow I think
we'll be lighting fires indoors this weekend rather than BBQs outside.
Most of the little fields in the Pedi valley have been cultivated now in anticipation of the next rainy spell and the grass is up like hairs on a dog's back. Wild lupins are punching their way through and appear virtually before your eyes in a freshly turned over bed - as you lean on your spade and ruminate, behold! A lupin! Well, this is why they're regarded as weeds - I doubt if the cultivated variety is anything like as vigorous! Angelica is growing in the damp corners on the Lazy Steps and the Kali Strata. Yesterday I saw a local woman sitting on a low wall on one of the bends of the Lazy Steps. She was munching a bag of crisps and looking at the whirlwinds whistling round the harbour in the storm. As she ate she tossed odd crisps in turn to a semi-circle of cats and chickens sitting round her feet. The cats and chickens seemed to get on happily enough and everyone had his share. There's a lesson in there somewhere... Have a good weekend!
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| Monday, November 12th 2001 |
| Yesterday
and today have been like perfect summer's days - the sort of days we
don't actually get here in the summer as it is usually too hot. Sunshine,
blue skies, fluffy white clouds, fresh green stuff coming up all over the
place... Pity that the deluge which has inundated Algiers is heading this
way.
Symi is now VERY VERY QUIET. Down in the harbour there is very little life - a few souls sunning themselves at the two kafeneions that remain open, a gypsy selling baskets, another selling plastic basins. The Kalymnos will be pulling in in a few minutes, at which point the gypsies will disappear. Up in Chorio it is a different story. This is the focus of the community in the winter and the locals are getting stuck into building projects, attending panagias, baking cakes, gathering snails and generally getting on with life. The lanes are humming with radios, TVs, gossiping housewives, babies, church bells, mobile phones and budgies. It's a level of cacophony seldom achieved in the summer when the siesta and the heat keep people indoors. Yesterday afternoon we heard the first rotovator burbling away happily across the terraces below us. Thoughts turn from tourism to turnips and anyone with a patch of turf is planting something, even if it is only onion sets and a clump of spinach. Tethered goats and donkeys in the fields are not an uncommon sight, munching and manuring as they are moved from one end of the vegetable garden to the other. Well, it's a convenient way of clearing the land, manuring it and feeding the family livestock all at the cost of one stout peg and a length of strong cord! Have a good week.
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| Friday, November 9th 2001 |
| Another
rainy Friday - it started raining at 2 am and didn't stop until about
11 am! Just steady penetrating stuff that works its way into every cracked
tile and bit of dodgy 100 year old plaster...
It was a relief when the sun came out at midday and the place started to steam but it is clouding over again and, according to the boffins, we are in for another wet weekend plus a southerly gale on Monday. This doesn't mean it's cold, mind you. Temperatures are around the twenty mark at midday but it does cool off quite quickly once night falls. Apart from a few light sprinkles there was no rain to speak of at Panormitis yesterday. This year there was good turnout at both Panormitis and Roukonioutis. More locals go to the latter than Panormitis which has more of a carnival air and tends to attract visitors from other islands. The improved road surface means that normal vehicles can now get to Panormitis quite easily which encouraged people to go who might otherwise not have risked it in the inclement weather. Crowd control into the Panormitis monastery itself was better than usual. No boats left Kalymnos due to the weather which was a disappointment to many people but generally it was a good Festival. Enjoy the weekend! More on Monday.
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| Monday, November 5th 2001 |
| The
weekend was very stormy for the whole of Greece and parts of the
mainland had quite heavy snowfalls - Greek television was giving us plenty
of footage of snowploughs in Corinth, floods in Athens, fallen trees on
top of cars in rural areas, monster waves breaking over wharves in the
Aegean and children having snowball fights wherever children and snow came
into contact. It was certainly a welcome relief from the Taliban and
anthrax. Shipping was cancelled in Greek waters and Force 10 gusts kept
Piraeus harbour closed. A Chinese aircraft carrier on its way to Istanbul
broke its tow near Mytilene (the crew had to be rescued by helicopter in
appalling conditions). No, I don't know why a Chinese aircraft carrier was
being towed through the Aegean in a gale when all other shipping was
cancelled or if they were able to rescue it before it hit anything but
this seems to mark the beginning of the Maritime Drama Season for which
the Mediterranean has been famous since Noah, Jonah and Odysseus.
Meanwhile, here on Symi we recorded about 30 millimetres of rain over 48 hours, most of it last night. The locals were out on the hillsides gathering snails by torchlight. It is still fairly mild today but will turn colder as the week progresses and there is plenty more rain on the way. As Wednesday and Thursday are the Panormitis Festival we are all hoping for a dry spell mid-week but right now it doesn't look very promising. Have a good week, mulling over those holiday brochures!
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| Friday, November 2nd 2001 |
| Another
rainy weekend lies ahead of us. This time, as it is from the south, it
is quite warm with very little wind. Four millimetres of rain fell this
morning over a period of several hours. Last weekend's rain was sufficient
to start the grass in the sheltered places and daintily painted cyclamen
leaves are poking through between the rocks. The trees have perked up and
look greener as the dust of summer washes away. The lemons are swelling on
the trees.
Only one excursion boat came in today. What they will do to amuse themselves is not clear as the tourist shops have packed away their wares and very few places are open. The Symi II is already lying alongside, mothballed for the winter. Restaurant awnings are being dismantled and folded away until the spring. In Pedi boats are being winched up the beach for painting and the beach at Tolis has reverted to its winter role as a boatyard. Looking out of the office window it is still raining steadily. The cisterns will be filling well. |
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© Adriana Shum 2001 [HOME] |
