Symi Christmas week update
The last big boat before Christmas comes and goes tomorrow and the last leavers will be leaving on it. They will be leaving behind a quiet island that’s currently in the mid-teens for temperatures and calm.
We are in the ‘Halcyon’ days, as someone pointed out to me the other days; the period of a week either side of the winter solstice (from today the days start growing longer as we head towards summer). Halycion: “From Latin Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus and wife of Ceyx. When her husband died in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the sea whereupon the gods transformed them both into halcyon birds (kingfishers). When Alcyone made her nest on the beach, waves threatened to destroy it. Aeolus restrained his winds and kept them calm during seven days in each year, so she could lay her eggs. These became known as the “halcyon days,” when storms do not occur.”
Another source states: “Fourteen days of calm weather were to be expected when the Halcyon was nesting – around the winter solstice, usually 21st or 22nd of December. The Halcyon days are generally regarded as beginning on the 14th or 15th of December.”
Either way, it’s still pretty calm and it looks like we are going to have a warm Christmas Day, which somehow doesn’t seem right. It also means that, without rain, there will be problems in the fields and the wells, and we can only hope that we get a lot of rain in order to catch up, sometimes in the depths on New Year. Until then, though, it’s still cold in the house and damp in the mornings and the washing is not getting dry; just like a good old fashioned Symi winter.
We attended the first of the weeks’ events last night (thank you for the evening and you know who you are). Tonight there’s a Christmas Quiz going on at the Sunrise, but before that we have another trip to Yialos to collect things and sort a few odd jobs out. Wednesday is so far stacking up as a quiet day at home until the evening when there is a mulled wine and carols evening in the offing, and Thursday will be filled with housework ready for our own party on Saturday and then shopping and peeling, delivering gifts and singing carols as we go.
So, I’ll leave you with today’s photos and briefly report that the Yialos road by the bus stop is open again and the bus is running and so are the taxis. So, Symi transport is back to normal, apart from the rail service which is suspended until the late spring early summer.
