Symi Dream

Living on a Greek island

Symi Dream - Living on a Greek island

Random thoughts and Photos

Some random photos today as I wonder about nothing in particular. I guess we can safely assume the day-tripping season is over, save for the Symi II and any tourists who have broken from the herd and made their own way over for a day. There are, though, plenty of visitors around who have come for the Panormitis festival which is this week. Apparently, one of the Blue Stars brought 500 extra pilgrims to the island, but as far as I can see, they have all soaked into the rocks. Probably staying with families because there are not that many rooms down at the monastery. We may or may not go this year. The weather looks set to be fair enough, and we’re not averse to the four-hour walk… We’ll have to see.

Last week.

Last week.

Meanwhile, the arm thing is still restricting my typing time, but I’m getting on with the next book. I know a few people have suggested text-to-speech as a way forward, but I’ve tried that before and it’s not for me. One reason is that it’s virtually impossible to speak as well as I write. I used a text-to-speech once for writing technical reviews and things and that was okay, but for creative writing, it’s like trying to improvise an entire ten-hander play. The other reason I don’t want to invest in such a thing is because, when I was using one before, I wrote too much. I babbled on and spent ages editing the things back to a sensible length. I might as well have typed it in the first place. So, I’ll stick to rationing myself.

Another old ruin.

Another old ruin.

Also this week, Sam’s been and cut down our vine for us and cleared up the piece of land in front of the house, which isn’t ours, but which needed doing. Both boys are coming for tea and chat on Saturday night, but otherwise, my dance card is pretty empty. Neil’s away to Scotland next Wednesday, leaving me home alone, the weather is still very decent, the village bars are all still open (save Secret Garden which is having a short break, I believe), as are Georgio’s, Scena, and Niki’s kitchen, where we had our locally reared pork roast last Sunday.

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Drakos, Drakou Symi

I have just spent some time going through my Symi guidebooks (one from 1975), and trawling the internet, to find information about Drakou (or Drakos). At first, all I could find was a reference to it being ‘An ancient fortification.’ However, after some skulduggery in my search string, I came across a more informative site from the Aikaterini Laskardis Foundation which sets out to map the history, mythology, and literature of Greece. On one page, I found the following map and info which I have copied and paraphrased from the site.  https://topostext.org/place/366279BDra

drakou

On the lower slope of the steep hills that form the south side of the Pedi Valley is an archaeological curiosity, referred to by its popular local name ‘Drakou’ (‘dragon’s lair’). Not easy to find. There are two elements here, both ancient: an unidentified but very cleanly constructed edifice in ashlar masonry; and an area of walling, terracing or fortification, just beyond (east) and further up the hill.

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The latter has been modified by mediaeval and later walling in small irregular stones which has been raised up on top of it. The former—a building of uncertain purpose—is more remarkable because of the very fine cutting and finishing of its large limestone elements.

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Earth has filled so much of the area that it is difficult to get a sense of the whole. What is visible consists of two chambers: one larger, sunk in the ground, and one smaller, above it to the south. The south door of the main chamber is beautifully finished and mounted. On the north wall are two curious, deep rectangular indentations: the whole area is scattered with cleanly cut blocks with architectural elements— protrusions and recesses. The precision with which they are worked would suggest a 4th century BC date for the masonry.

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Although the building’s unusual form, with its sunken elements, overlooking virtually the only fertile area of the island and facing east, brings to mind a place for the cult of Demeter, more plausibly these remains belong to a large, secular building relating to the agricultural work of the valley. The wider area has yielded evidence of Late Bronze Age settlement.

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And that, folks, is about as detailed a description of the area that you’re likely to find.

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Boats ‘n’ Things

Last night we saw something we’ve never seen before. No, it wasn’t the inside of my wallet, nor was it Neil in sensible clothing, not even was it me doing sit-ups, it was, in fact, two boats. I put this distant photo up on Fakebook so you may have seen it, but if you zoom in and look beneath the anrevat* sign, you can see what I’m on about.

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Two Blue Star ferries in the harbour at the same time. Not something you see every day, or even every 22 years. There’s to be at least one per day for the rest of the week because of the festival at Panormitis (7th, 8th, 9th).

Now, that has just annoyed me. Not the festival or the boats, but the way my Word programme changed the large th in 7th to 7th  (superscript). I’m annoyed because I changed that ‘autoformat as you type’ command some time ago because it looks better in book manuscripts to have 7th with a larger th, but the programme has taken on itself to change it back again. It’s like when you copy and paste from one program to another, it changes the font. Or, when you use a Microsoft template, it starts you off in some font that on-one in their right mind would use for anything, ever.

Deep breath…

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Yesterday: we learnt the house is going to be back up for sale, but if/when it’s sold, we can move across the road if we want to (and if that property ever gets its own water supply, gets emptied, restored and cleaned up – it’s not been opened for at least four years). Also, yesterday’s piano lesson: fancy sight-reading this Bach prelude? (Another one, this time in C minor.) Ok. Off you go, and off he went. Blimey and bravo. It’s going to be a week of the two of them as the older one is coming today to clear up the area in front of the house, then the younger one’s back for piano on Thursday, and they’re both coming for a ‘boys’ night’ on Saturday. Neil suggested H and I do the cooking for that, to which H replied, ‘No, we’re the entertainment,’ which made us laugh.

And, as you might have seen from the photo above, there are few boats in the harbour now. We still had the Symi II come in yesterday, and it is Panormitis week, so we can expect it to be busy as the week goes on.

What be this?

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It be one of these:

A little owl at 10.30 in the morning.

A little owl at 10.30 in the morning.

*Anrevat is Taverna backwards, and that’s how you see the sign when you are on one side of it.

A Little Stroll

We had a very nice weekend thank you, not that I much like the word, ‘nice,’ but you know what I mean. “You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice…” (‘Into the Woods’). We went into the valley, the Pedi Valley, with the family and friends and had a fabulous walk and explore, taking in the ancient fortification Drakos, Pedi, and later, lunch at Niki’s Kitchen. I’ll drop in more photos during the week, but here are a few from yesterday and one of just now.

This morning (by Neil)

This morning (by Neil)

Into the woods...

Into the woods…

Our walk started when we all met at Kampos and set off up the hill, dropping down to the left just past the famous Mediterranean oak tree. As we have had no rain to speak of since… May(?, I can’t remember) the ground, grass and scenery is very ochre in colour, with some trees still sporting greenery and others in the autumnal colours of red/brown. Grasses are spindly and have lost their flowers, and the ground is hard underfoot. Overhead, we have a collection of migrating and resident birds including ravens, warblers, and various hawks. We have a couple of robins in front of the house who always turn up at this time of year.

Our next album cover?

Our next album cover?

The company was lovely, of course, with some keen jokers among us, a teen interested in shotgun cartridges as well as history, an older brother interested in the plants and wildlife, and some middle-aged people interested in the archaeology, everything else, and the next beer stop. That happened when we reached Pedi and called into Kamaris where Neil went inside to use the loo, and where the owner came out to explain to the rest of us that they were actually closed, oops. So, we had a drink at the Blue Corner and then walked up to have lunch outside the Junior School at Niki’s Kitchen. This included a huge plate of pork reared and slaughtered locally, and served by family. A classic, Sunday afternoon in Greece home-cooked lunch, followed by too much wine with the squares in the bar, I mean at the bars in the square.

Yes, Pedi still looks like this and yes, yuo can still go swimming.

Yes, Pedi still looks like this and yes, you can still go swimming.

And so, a new week begins with writing work, a piano lesson and a quiet night in. I hope.

Some of the lunch feast,

Some of the lunch feast,

Spooky Little Mozart

Yesterday was Halloween as I am sure you are aware. We don’t have so much of that trick or treating around here, although it sometimes takes place. There were a few younger people out and about in costume yesterday, maybe heading to a private party or just dressing up for fun, but no great big American style street decorations and all that spam. We did, however, have a treat and it concerned this piece of music…

FireShot Pro Webpage Screenshot #3639 - 'Halloween Theme Sheet Music by John Carpenter for Piano_Keyboard I Noteflight' - www.noteflight.com

My pupil came for his Thursday lesson at the appointed hour, and after the usual, Hi, how are you? Ola good. Sure? Yes. Any news? No… kind of overture that usually precedes an hour’s concentration, we got on with it. Scales: A major, A harmonic minor, A melodic minor, arpeggios of A major and A minor, and on to the next sex in the key of E flat… Then, a look through Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues to identify keys from the key signature and first/last notes of a piece. Then, on to the pieces. We started out five years ago by meeting once per week for around 15 minutes. Now, we meet twice a week for an hour at a time. One day we do the usual warm-up scales etc., followed by work from the course book, duets (for a Boxing Day concert we’re planning), and other random pieces for sight reading practice. The other day of the week, we start in the same way and then move on to the grade four examination pieces. Soon, we’ll concentrate more on the exam pieces and technical stuff, anyway…

Still fishing

Still fishing

After a quick break to admire that random photo… Yesterday we worked through a Chopin piece which focuses on playing in octaves, dexterity and speed, and then moved on to the exam pieces, blah blah, and after fifty-five minutes, I decided that was that, so we sat at the piano and chatted. Oh, then he played through the Bach prelude we’d opened on Monday (Neil had joined us by then) and which he’d played by himself for the fun of it (there’s your first result right there). We started chatting about Halloween, and it turned out H and his mates had recently watched the last Halloween film. In fact, he said, ‘We watched this…’

FireShot Pro Webpage Screenshot #3639 - 'Halloween Theme Sheet Music by John Carpenter for Piano_Keyboard I Noteflight' - www.noteflight.com

… and played the theme from the film score. It is in moments such as that one that you realise you have made a difference. It might look simple, but have you tried playing in five/four time? Have you heard and then transcribed a piece of music? I’d not taught him how to do this, there had been no music, he’d heard it and gone to his piano and worked it out. Heard it, replayed it, and (and this was the most stunning thing for me who can play nothing by ear not even Happy Birthday), he’d done it in the same key as the original. Hearing/playing is not something you can easily teach, and I don’t think I have, but needless to say, my gob was more than a little smacked. You might think it’s only one line of music, but it went on, the bass came in after the repeat, and that was accurate too.

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Anyway… Enough about spooky Little Mozart, and back to the island. We’ve been promised a weekend with temperatures into the early 30s, it’s sunny out there, and I’m currently in here about to work on chapter 18 of the next release. Neil’s weighting next door before heading out, the washing machine is already churning, the water tank is filling, and we’re out to dinner with Miss P tonight, so there’s that to look forward to. Have a great weekend!