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Reported by
Adriana Shum from |Read March's news | Read April's news | Read May's news | Read June's news| |Read
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| Monday, December 31st. 2001 |
| The
weekend was glorious, with only occasional showers. Temperatures are
relatively mild. It is 18 C today. The puddles are steaming in the sunny
spells. There is a cold front expected tomorrow with strong winds too but
we'd rather not think about it at the moment!
The Town Hall has been broadcasting carols over the loudspeakers. 'Greensleeves' in Greek sounds a little odd but some of the other 'classics' translate fairly well. On an indigenous note, the local children and students are once again wandering the streets, brandishing bouzoukis, guitars and money boxes. Agias Vassilis, St Basil, is the one who brings Greek children their Christmas presents on his name day tomorrow, the first of January. The Greeks also share a special loaf, Vassilopita, on this day. Various charms are concealed in it, in much the same way as in an English Christmas pudding. The annual New Year party on the Symi II starts at eleven o'clock tonight. It was announced over the tannoy, between rounds of carols. The party usually culminates in a fireworks display at midnight so everyone is hoping that the rain holds off. As today is the last day before the Euro is launched, the banks and post office are closed. Wednesday, the first day of trading in the new currency, could be interesting! Happy holidays! Regards,
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| Friday, December 28th. 2001 |
| After
all that patting on the back, we had a power cut on Christmas Eve,
from 6.30 pm. Fortunately it was short-lived - less than half an hour -
which is more than can be said for the two hour black out which blighted
Christmas Day for much of Athens. And which then dominated Greek
television news broadcasts ad infinitum, along with the snow storms,
floods and mud slides which are still affecting large parts of the
country. There was disconcerting footage of a large new house in Patras
completely engulfed by mud, like a lava flow, and another house which had
floated on its foundations and was at a strange angle sliding off a
cliff... The fact that Symi is a solid lump of rock has its compensations.
Just to be different we woke up on Christmas morning to the eerie muffled feeling that goes with being fog-bound! A southerly wind raised the temperature enough for the rain-sodden island to steam and the island was wrapped in mist all day, until the temperatures dropped sufficiently for the rain to start falling again in the early evening. Boxing Day alternated sunny spells with minor showers. On Thursday we were back to normal - pelting rain with 35 millimetres falling in about 6 hours. Today we have had the whole works: blinding sunshine, drizzle, rainbow, rain, sunshine, rainbow, hail, sunshine, rain... and it's only 1 pm! Have an enjoyable weekend, planning your New Year festivities. More on Monday!
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| Monday, December 24th. 2001 |
| Christmas
Eve started with the familiar pre-dawn thrum of rain on the roof and the
peal of bells across the valley. The rain eased off around 8 am but
the sky remains overcast and more rain is expected. Tribes of children
armed with triangles, fiddles and cash boxes are roaming the streets,
singing little Christmas ditties and collecting coins and sweets.
Shopping on Symi in the run up to Christmas has changed a lot over recent years. It's not that long ago that one had to go to Rhodes to buy turkey and all the other essentials. Now even the ones with the pop-up timers are available locally. Several shops have reopened, selling specific Christmas items - decorations, candles, cards and gifts. And aerosol snow as this is the one corner of Greece that hasn't had snow this winter! The municipal Christmas lights are nearly all up. The workmen dash out between downpours and do another bit. High winds have done curious things to the pretty angel wing lights on the way up the road to Chorio - they are pointing in all directions. So far we have had remarkably few power cuts this winter which would suggest that all the work that has gone into improving the island's infrastructure is paying off. For those of you who are statistically inclined, from 26 October to 24 December 2001 I have recorded a total of 520 mm of rainfall at the top of the Pedi valley - and that does not include the amount not measured when the rain was so hard that the gauge overflowed. Have a cosy Christmas.
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| Friday, December 21st. 2001 |
| Greetings
from one corner of Greece that didn't make the international news...
But we did have ice on the puddles early yesterday morning as the north
wind brought the wind chill factor down to freezing. The wind has changed
round to the south again so temperatures have risen slightly, to around
8C, but it is raining again. Nick and Wendy are in Rhodes today and they
assure me that not a drop has fallen there whereas it has been raining
steadily on Symi for 8 hours now. Which all goes to show what a difference
25 miles can make.
According to the charts we are in for a wet weekend AGAIN and probably a wet Christmas holiday as well. Whitewash does interesting things when it is wet for long periods of time and some of the houses are developing green and yellow patches as various salts leach out of the walls. I predict a frenzy of house painting in the spring! Right now all those doors and shutters that rattled and kept blowing open in the summer have swollen so much that, once kicked open, it is impossible to close them again without planing a bit of wood off - which means more rattling and gaps in the summer! There were very few boats this week, due to strong winds, but the hawkers from Tilos arrived on Wednesday, selling oranges, lemons and enormous heads of broccoli. The bus, and Lakis, the driver, left the island on the big boat on Wednesday. They are both having their annual overhaul, so it's shank's pony or a taxi for the next fortnight. Have a warm dry weekend.
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| Monday, December 17th. 2001 |
| Saturday
was dry with sunny intervals and every house on the island was
festooned with fluttering laundry. The snow on the Turkish mountains
gleamed and the night sky was dazzling with large stars. In the early
hours of Sunday morning the familiar drumming of raindrops on the tin roof
resumed and most of Sunday morning was alternate drizzle and downpours.
Towards mid afternoon the gaps between showers became longer and the
temperature rose slightly as the wind shifted to the south west.
This morning was a blustery south westerly gale and showers have pelted down in gusts. The Symi I did not run today and conditions were too rough for the Kalymnos to sail either. The depression is just to the north of us, in the central Aegean, and is heading south east. As it moves temperatures will drop again. Parts of the mainland and Crete have had heavy snowfalls and flooding so Symi has been quite fortunate so far. Up in the north the sea has frozen in some sheltered bays - not a normal occurrence in Greek waters! The pharmacy is busy with the usual cold cures and hot water bottles. One local supermarket is doing a brisk trade in caterer's size tins of drinking chocolate. There is very little work going on as it is just too wet. The building sites are a bog and the labourers are huddled in the kafeneions. There is nothing quite so despondent as a damp donkey train trudging through the streaming Chorio lanes, accompanied by even damper minders. The donkey that lives at the bottom of my road is more fortunate - the old couple who own him keep him in a comfortable shed on rainy days and when the sun comes out they take him for sedate walks up to their house in Chorio to graze on a patch of turf up there. Have a warm dry week, wherever you are.
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| Friday, December 14th. 2001 |
| After
a wet week with a hail storm last night and torrential rain, it was a
relief to see a bit of blue sky this morning, albeit liberally dotted with
voluptuous black clouds. So far it hasn't actually rained today. The
island's washing machines are churning away feverishly and now would be a
good time to be selling spin driers and tumble driers on Symi. Most
cisterns are full or very near it and the summer time water restrictions
seem ridiculous now, surveying flooded plant pots and drowned geraniums.
Very much a case of too much of a good thing. The gardens at the bottom
end of the Pedi valley, near the shoreline, look like paddy fields and
there is a fine green bloom of moss over the sports' field.
Shipping schedules are still in disarray and the big boat that should have come through from Piraeus yesterday afternoon only finally reached Symi at midday today. At this time of the year, getting on and off Symi can be quite a fraught business. Most of the municipal Christmas lights are now up and have all the charm of the miniature. We hope to put some pictures up of these quite soon - if we can catch them on without teeming rain and puddles. The small local children are a delight in their various winter ensembles. Someone is doing a line in brightly patterned coats with Cossack hats to match. I saw a little girl tricked out in one of these, waiting for the bus with her mother in Chorio and she was pirouetting all over the place in her wellies, beaming at the admiring old ladies. The crane departed more than a week ago and the stone masons are hard at work, completing the harbour front. It is going to look very good when it is finished. I can't say I envy the workmen, laying stones in cold salt water with rain pouring down their necks. It is a difficult job even in ideal conditions.* Have a warm dry weekend in front of the heater! Quack! * Editor's note: if you'd like to see some photos of the harbour front works taken today, please click here
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| Monday, December 10th. 2001 |
| There's
something wrong here but I regret to report that it is STILL GREY AND
DRIZZLY on Symi! At least some of the Christmas lights are now
up which cheers the place a bit. An unexpected decorative touch is the
shorts in some of the streetlights, arcing away merrily on rainy evenings.
Coming down the Kali Strata this morning, I noticed not just moss but FERNS growing in the corners! And there are sheep grazing among the ruins, chickens pecking between their feet. The lambing season has started and farmers are experiencing losses caused by the wet conditions which is very sad. Normal winter weather conditions here are such that few farmers have shelter for their animals more sophisticated than lean to's so there was quite a lot of hammering going on in the valley yesterday. A van completely swathed in plastic sheeting is going round the island, a crackling loudhailer advertising carpets, buckets and plastic basins. There is a truck in the town square selling leeks and beetroot from Tilos. The woodpile for the baker downstairs from the office is completely sodden. A truly amazing formica and chipboard kitchen dresser in lime green mother-of-pearl is slowly dissolving into sog. By the time whoever is meant to collect it turns up it will just be a heap of bits of lime green mother-of-pearl formica. Anyone who has ever seen a chipboard kitchen unit after a pipeburst will know what I mean! Enjoy your week and appreciate your central heating - we could use some of that here!
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| Friday, December 7th. 2001 |
| (Editor's Note-sorry this
report is a bit late!)
Yet another wet weekend looms. We had a few cold dry days in the middle of the week with plenty of ferry disruptions as there were severe gales in the Aegean so Piraeus harbour was closed. Crete and Samos have both suffered extensive flooding. Yesterday was showery and by three o'clock in the afternoon the drizzles had become continuous steady rain which lasted until about 4 this morning. Mid morning brought another thundershower and the place is now steaming gently in the winter sunshine. As there is a deep depression just southeast of Rhodes and another over southern Italy/north Africa, further wet weather is expected and gales are once again forecast for the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. It is very difficult to plan trips to Rhodes - or anywhere else - when the weather is like this as the ferry schedule is so erratic. Wednesday saw the first Symi I shuttle in nearly a week. It was heavily laden with every conceivable item, from brooms and bathtubs to cauliflowers and Christmas trees, not to mention innumerable passengers who had been trying to get back onto the island for days. Have a good weekend.
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| Monday, December 3rd. 2001 |
| I wish I could tell all you
Symi fans out there that we had a glorious sunny weekend. Well, parts
of it weren't too bad - like tossing another log in the fire in the
kitchen, glass of local vin rouge in hand, while listening to the rain
pinging on the tin roof (and ignoring the drips in the darker corners) -
but we logged another 68 mm of rain in total over 48 hours. The only time
I take my wellies off is to get into bed! The Symi I didn't go this
morning as there is a Force 9 northerly gale forecast. The change to
northerly winds will dry things off a bit, even if it does drop the
temperatures (we're expecting to hit 0C in some of the Aegean islands
tonight and parts of the mainland have had heavy snow.)
The gale hasn't actually reached Symi yet so the sea is like glass and the air is crystalline. The snow on the Turkish mountains is clearly visible and it is possible to see the houses along the shore in Bosburun. Further north people haven't been so lucky - a boat load of refugees went down in the storm off Lesbos yesterday and very few bodies have been recovered. In those freezing waters chances of survival are minimal. Have a good week. I'm off to procure another bottle of vin rouge. |
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© Adriana Shum 2001 [HOME] |
