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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; Tuesday 30th November
A fat cloud drifted over
Symi early yesterday morning and started to drizzle over
Yialos and Chorio at about half past eight. At half past
six in the evening it finally mooched off. The
streetlights stayed on all day and the rain water gauge
record 20 mm of rain over the 10 hour period. A similar
cloud floated in this morning but seems to be dumping most
of its load somewhere between Nimos and Turkey so we are
only on the fringe of the rain and distant patches of
sunshine are already lighting up the hills towards
Orhaniye.
The rain is from the south west
and temperatures have risen back into double figures.
Partly cloudy weather with occasional showers and higher
than usual temperatures are forecast for the rest of the
week so we can look forward to a day or two in the
twenties.
The snails are out with a
vengeance, gorging themselves on the new greenery. Wild
angelica is coming up between the flagstones below the
Symi Visitor office and every particle of earth seems to
have something sprouting from it. Moss, cyclamens,
dandelions and mixed grasses are rapidly filling in the
blanks and wild lupins are pushing furry fists through
the all-smothering Cape sorrel.
Have a good week.
Regards, Symi report; Friday 26th November
Thank you for your emails.
We are alive and hypothermic out here in the gale-lashed
extremities of the last outpost of the Greek islands.
Actually, it's not as bad as all that. It was 4 degrees
inside my house at 7 am, when I won the short straw to
emerge from under the mound of duvets and light the gas
under the kettle. One thing is for sure - it is a lot
colder than usual for November. Our 'outdoor' cat has
moved quite emphatically indoors - nesting in the
baskets of unshelled almonds I am in the process of
drying out for storage. Well, it is one way of keeping
the mice out of the nut harvest. Usually I have a
shortage of volunteers for rodent repellent duties but I
suppose the prospect of being allowed to sleep on the
job made it more attractive this year.
It should turn a bit warmer
tomorrow when the wind drops. On Sunday we are
expecting westerly winds which may bring some rain and
temperatures will then be within more normal parameters
for the time of year - mid to high teens in the day time
and about 8-9 at night.
Speaking of rain, we had quite
a heavy downpour on Wednesday night and the Agia Marina
river along our boundary flowed for the first time. Not
through our bedroom this time, hoorah, and even our road
remained more or less passable.
Symi report; Monday 22nd November
Brrr. A brisk northerly
wind is whipping across the harbour and the Symi II is
firmly tied to the quay. There is a forlorn huddle of
trucks at the clock tower, waiting for a big boat which,
even if it appears, is unlikely to dock. The thermometer
is struggling to get into double figures and there is
little movement out of doors. We have dug out the heaters
in the Symi Visitor office and are well wrapped up. The
forecast for the rest of the week is for windy days, low
temperatures and a possible rainy spell around Wednesday.
The barometer is very high at the moment so the water
level in the harbour is low and a green fringe of seaweed
is visible all the way round. When the ducks aren't
'riding the wave' on the customs slipway, they are sitting
under the boats around the town square, gossiping about
the dustbin cats. The geese prefer the little patch of
grass outside the police station.
There is a small boat making a
very wet and bouncy trip up wind to Nimborio. The boat
itself is virtually invisible without binoculars but the
spray it is kicking up as it struggles to make headway is
the only consistent patch in a confused sea. The clouds
are moving at great speed, casting quick black shadows on
inky water and the sky is blindingly bright.
Symi report; Friday 19th November Temperatures have dropped throughout Greece and it is expected to become seriously cold even this far south over the next few days. It is deceptively calm over Symi today, despite gale warnings in force for much of the Aegean and more rain is expected. The forecast for the next few days covers every conceivable wind direction and velocity and the ferry schedule is likely to be erratic. Anyone leaving the island is advised to take a toothbrush and be prepared to stay over.
The recent rain has had a
dramatic effect on the landscape. Olives that were
shrivelled on the trees have plumped out and look quite
promising. A verdant bloom has appeared over the
terraces, the sage bushes have uncrinkled and there are
seeds of all kinds germinating everywhere one looks.
The dry stone walls of summer have turned into gardens
of ferns and the quaintly named 'Venus' navel'. Digging
over some beds in the garden yesterday I was turning up
earthworms that summer visitors would not believe could
live in these conditions. The last of the peppers blaze
red and yellow on the bushes, the leaves long gone to
the cold. They will shortly be replaced with rows of
spinach, chicory and lettuce. As soon as the basil seed
is ready to harvest it will be replaced by a bed of
parsley and dill. A few chilli bushes have taken up
winter quarters in the greenhouse, along with some
jasmine cuttings I am trying to root.
Have a good weekend and I will
be back on Tuesday. It is olive harvesting time!
Symi report; Tuesday 16th November The stormy season got off to a good start. It is not often that we see both Yialos and Pedi full of large commercial vessels rafted up with warps and anchors in all directions. In comparison with other parts of Greece Symi did pretty well - apart from ferry disruptions and a few cracked tiles nothing much happened here whereas other areas experienced flooding and walls, trees and electricity pylons were blown over. On Sunday morning the ducks were having a great time, riding the surf up the slip way by the customs house. The geese preferred the high ground and set up an aloof camp in the centre of the square. The crews of the water boats and the Dodecanese Express were fishing off the quay on Monday morning, waiting for the shipping ban to be lifted and the crew of one big building ship took the opportunity to touch up the paintwork with rollers on very very long handles. It was also exceptionally foggy on Monday morning, turning hot when the sun broke through.
It is still quite unsettled
today with a succession of showers, squalls, rainbows and
scraps of blue sky. The hydrofoil ran this morning and
everyone who needs to do anything in Rhodes is taking
advantage of the gap in the weather before it closes in
again at the end of the week. It is expected to become
considerably colder as the week progresses with strong
northerly winds.
Tomorrow is 17 November. Those
of you with long memories or an interest in modern Greek
history may remember that this was the day in 1973 when
the students of Athens rose up in protest against
oppression and took control of the Polytechnic. Although
several students lost their lives when the military regime
of the time sent in the tanks to break up the protest,
their brave actions led to the eventual collapse of the
Junta governing Greece and the reinstatement of
democracy. Not surprisingly this is commemorated with
some seriousness in modern Greece and the schools will be
closed tomorrow.
Symi report; Friday 12th November
Partly cloudy and decidedly
damp on Symi today. Paddling around Rhodes yesterday I
discovered why they have all those umbrella shops. When the
heavens open it is not only the rain one has to avoid - the
gutters on most roofs just consist of a couple of spouts
sticking out horizontally from the rims of the flat roofs,
propelling great jets of water out into the street at some
velocity. Occasionally an awning may deflect the blast but
the general effect is similar to gargoyles on a gothic
cathedral. Downpipes seem in short supply, possibly because
there are few drains to lead them too and many buildings are
below street level. Very interesting. We might not have much
by way of drains on Symi either but the rain off our roofs
goes into cisterns and the island is sufficiently steep for
water to flow away quickly. Symi report; Tuesday 9th November
It started to rain at 2.30 pm
on Friday afternoon and was wet and stormy all weekend.
By 7 am this morning (Tuesday) we had had a total of 80 mm
of rain and there are still squalls dancing around the
horizon. Symi fared better than many other places in Greece.
There were some interesting shots on television last night
of cars piled up on top of each other and stuck in trees in
Crete and along the Corinth/Athens highway. When the first
downpour hit us on Friday afternoon it took a lot of people
by surprise. We were amused to see a party of Greek tourists
who had been lunching at a waterfront taverna dashing for
the Panormitis bus wrapped in plastic tablecloths! Symi report; Friday 5th November The weather is starting to change. There have been gale force winds in the central and northern Aegean and the low is moving slowly this way. We can only hope that it blows itself out before the festival on Monday. There are ripples on the water and there is the smell of rain on the air. Light grey clouds are casting shadows on Nimos.
Yesterday I went to Rhodes.
Coming back on the Symi II there was the most bizarre
vehicle I have ever seen. It must have started life as a
short wheel-base white panel van but all identifying marks
had been battered out of it. The front had been crumpled
and then beaten back into some sort of shape. Amazingly
the windscreen and radiator (completely exposed) were
intact. Of bumpers and headlights there were none and a
bit of cardboard in the window had the registration number
scrawled on it in marker pen. The passenger seat was
piled high with, of all things, hundreds of hot dog buns
in plastic bags. The sliding doors at the side were
missing and the interior revealed more bags of buns. The
driver, a weather beaten and wiry looking chap of
indeterminate age coaxed it down the ramp and around the
harbour. We were driving behind it and did notice that
one reverse light was actually working. Our speculations
as to how it would make it over the mountain to Panormitis
were curtailed when it crawled off to the fuel station,
probably to camp for the night, in company with an elderly
sage green/primer grey hatchback of similarly perilous
condition. It's worth taking a trip over the mountain
just to see if they make it...
My next report from Symi will be
on Tuesday as Monday is, of course, the Panormitis
Festival.
Symi
report; Monday 1st November
It is still abnormally warm and
windless. If this weather holds it will be the fairest
Panormitis festival in a long time. The pilgrims are
already arriving to be sure of finding a place to sleep at
the monastery.
Meanwhile the roadworks seem to
be finally drawing to some sort of conclusion. Although
there is a still a big open trench at Kampos corner there
is a lot of tidying up going on elsewhere. A large lorry
with a 10 ton steel water tank on the back proceeds slowly
down the road, hosing it down in sections while labourers
shovel and scrape away the sand. A squad of street
sweepers brings up the rear, picking up the water bottles,
frappe cups and cigarette butts left by the labourers. A
bizarre cavalcade, usually with the bus or similar stuck
behind it all.
The geese have certainly made
themselves at home. This morning when I went round to the
post office before work they were all camped on that
little patch of garden in front of the police station, to
the dismay of the resident cats skulking beneath the
police car. The ducks, on the other hand, still had their
heads firmly under their wings on the pavement outside
Pachos.
©Adriana Shum 2004
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