Monday, January 28th 2002

There is a big high pressure system over the area - unusual by virtue of the fact that it is the first 'normal' phenomenon for the season that we have experienced this winter! Temperatures are in the mid teens. There is very little wind. The clouds are high wisps. It is delicious in the sun and even better in the greenhouse. The almond trees are exploding with pink and white confetti. Purple mandrakes are flowering in the rocky crevices and the tiny monk's hood orchids are popping up in Pedi. And it looks as though all my broccoli is going to erupt simultaneously so I'd better get out there and find some broccoli enthusiasts.

The islanders have been in a frenzy of perpetual motion since the rain stopped, making the most of the improved conditions to catch up on their work. The pavers are paving, the concrete mixers are churning; the carpenters have spilled out into the roads and lanes with tablesaws and sanders. In the madness the town hall hasn't got round to retrieving the last remnants of the storm tossed Christmas decorations which are still wrapped round lamp posts and pointing every which way for the length of the Yialos Chorio road.

Every house is being scrubbed and aired and the peripatetic carpet sellers are doing very well. At last spring is in the air, shutters can be opened and wellies can be tossed aside.

Long may it last...

Regards,
Adriana
The Symi Visitor
www.SymiVisitor.com

Friday, January 25th 2002

Friday afternoon and a black cloud has been playing cat and mouse over the Vigla all day. We had 15 millimetres of rain in the course of last night. It is tolerably warm if a bit damp all round and I shall be watching the Farmers' Forecast with interest this evening.

The almond trees are starting to flower and there is a definite whiff of spring in the air. In Rhodes earlier this week I was amused to see Mildew Remover prominently displayed in the hardware stores. On a less flippant note, it was sad to see the hail-shredded greenhouses and broken trees on the northern coast of the island, driving down to Kamiros Scala. The farmers we spoke to said they could not remember such a bad winter. We can only hope that things improve soon.

Have a good weekend!

Monday, January 21st 2002

From Friday afternoon to Sunday morning we had 48 millimetres of rain, most of it to the percussion accompaniment of thunder, lightning and pelting hailstones. After that son et lumière, Sunday developed into a pleasant day of balmy breezes, fluffy clouds and soporific warmth in sheltered places such as inside the greenhouse. Today wasn't too bad either - a bit chilly until the sun came over the hill but very pleasant thereon after. The forecast is for more of the same for the rest of the week - sunny with possible intermittent showers. As there are no gales forecast I am taking the plunge and going to Rhodes tomorrow for two days - for the first time since last August! If you don't hear from me again, you'll know the forecast was wrong...

Speculation regarding the rumoured Spielberg Symi movie is rife but there doesn't seem to be much substance to it all at the moment. One can only hope that such a project if it is to come to pass is adequately researched and sensitively handled so that it does not offend local sensibilities and that the local community benefits from the enterprise. We will keep you updated on the subject as it develops. It certainly seems to be stimulating some lively debate on the Noticeboard.

Meanwhile those who went away for the festive season are starting to return and those who have had enough of the rain and ice on the puddles are heading south in pursuit of elusive sunshine. The local artisans are working round the clock in every dry moment to try to catch up with their schedules which have been thrown seriously into arrears by the endless rainy days. Before we know it, the Season will be upon us once again.

Have a good week.

Friday, January 18th 2002

This week has been relatively mild and all the ferries have run to schedule for a change. It is still raining, a state of affairs likely to continue for the next few days as one front is following close on the heels of another.

Early this morning we saw a typical Symi winter sky with clouds scudding in three different directions, a dark blue downpour pelting Bosburun, a rainbow over Nimos, mist wrapped round the radio beacons on the Vigla and a patch of sunshine focussed on Chorio. Right now, however, the rain is pelting down and the Vigla has vanished altogether in the deluge. A webcam snap now would show water streaming down the office window. The overflow pipes are gushing into the back alleys and what little traffic there is is crawling along the harbour front, Symi windscreen wipers being about as common as Symi headlights and wing mirrors.

With the warmer temperatures, more ewes have been put out to pasture with their lambs and various picture postcard family scenes can be spotted along the road to Chorio. Recumbent mums make convenient windbreaks for the infants to shelter behind and watch the traffic go by. It is extraordinary how many ewes produce twins. I don't know if this is the case with sheep of other breeds and climates but Symi ewes seem more likely to have multiple births than otherwise.

Have a warm dry weekend!

Ho Hum. Drizzling again... But it is a bit warmer. About 14 degrees at midday today which is considerably cosier than last week's finger-numbing single digits. I'd send you all another web cam shot (Nick is in Rhodes at the moment which is why there wasn't one yesterday) but the dismal grey sky and puddles out there today would not cheer you at all. Anonymous bundles of drab rainwear, hats pulled down over eyes and ears, shuffle over the bridge at intervals and negotiate the swampy bits on bikes, shoulders hunched and spray flying. Like the ubiquitous black attire of Greek women all year round (excluding Greek female television presenters who seem to be an exotic breed apart), the winter kit for adults is similarly funereal and indistinguishable. As the men stop shaving the minute the last tourist leaves, it can be quite difficult to recognise some of the locals in their winter disguises. A bit like trying to work out who is who in down town Kabul when all the women were still covered in blue blankets with a bit of lace to peer through.

Here we are in the middle of January and the almond trees still haven't produced more than a petal or two. The nasturtiums germinated too early in the rainy conditions of November and promptly turned black in the frost last week. My lettuce seedlings, 'All Year Round' it said optimistically on the packet, are turning purple whereas the 'Red Salad Bowl' didn't bother to germinate at all. An astonishing variety of birds can be seen on the island this winter. The robin red-breast of the English Christmas card is a regular visitor in my garden at the moment and other less readily identifiable specimens are picking off the last of the Cape Gooseberries and stripping the mange tout. The days are becoming perceptibly longer so things should start growing again soon. I spoke to one of the local market gardeners on Saturday, as we were waiting in the supermarket while two matrons deliberated over how many olives one can buy with a Euro, and he said that his place down in Pedi is still a lake, even though at that stage we hadn't had rain for 5 days. The tomatoes for sale are completely green - the producers had to harvest their crops long before they were ripe as few greenhouses in Greece are heated and most are plastic and simply collapsed under the snow. The farmers in Crete have been really badly hit with 100 year old olive trees breaking under the weight of the snowfall and orange trees killed off by frosts. Perhaps it was no bad thing that Rhodes and Symi escaped the snowstorms.

Off to chop firewood - with the chainsaw

Hoorah! The sun is out, the wind has dropped and the Symi I left for the first time since the 3rd January. Visibility is fantastic. We are all hoping that the weather will hold for a while now as the lack of boats has really been a nuisance. Right now there is no building sand left on the island and other building materials are in short supply. The local doctors can only prescribe what is left in the pharmacy and the only shops with any perishables left are the ones with cold storage facilities. The price of vegetables in Greece generally has shot up due to the severe weather as the main agricultural areas have been affected. There's a Futures Market in potatoes and onions!

We've had quite a week with sub-zero temperatures every night and one of the worst gales in years pounding into Symi harbour and Pedi on Wednesday. The Clock Tower looked a bit like one of those lighthouses on a rock in the middle of no-where with waves crashing against the sides and spray flying. The waves were breaking over the harbour right up to Pachos' door and several excursion boats had to be moved to as they were in danger of being pounded to splinters against the quay.

The strong cold winds caused water to freeze, turning the puddles into skating rinks. My animals were not impressed when their drinking water bowl froze solid for two days. The frost has really nailed the gardens - it looks as though we'll all be planting new geraniums etc this spring.

Will it snow on Symi this weekend?  Why is this report a day late?  Well, I'm sure you've all seen the pictures of the Acropolis in a blizzard and the icicles hanging from the wings of the planes at the new airport in Athens.  Symi did not escape yesterday's storm entirely unscathed.  We had lashing rain and gale force winds which brought down a tree on the Pedi road, right next to the power station.  This knocked out the power lines for the whole island for several hours.  Late yesterday afternoon Pedi was still in the cold although power was restored to Yialos after about 2 hours.  Meanwhile, just for the record, 83 millimetres of rain fell in 8 hours.

Meanwhile the Kalymnos came in alongside in the harbour at midday yesterday - and was still sitting there at 11 o'clock this morning.  All ports in Greece are closed as a Force 10 northerly is raging in the Aegean and will hit us later today.  Today's forecast maximum is 5 and the anticipated minimum on Rhodes today is around minus 4.  The long range forecast for farmers on television last night had solid snow icons for the whole of Greece, including Rhodes, for today, tomorrow and Monday.  The temperature has been falling steadily all morning so they may be right.