I was going through my folder of ‘photos to be used on the blog one day’ and chose six at random. Some of these date back a couple of years, and they weren’t all taken at this time of year. They are here to liven up the page, if tortoises and petals can liven things up; I think they can.
While you’re viewing, I will be starting my day which, today, will consist of writing until about eleven in the morning when I may have a siesta (that’s my equivalent of 3 pm to normal people who wake up at seven), followed by a couple of hours for a long lunch break, an hour or so more of writing, an hour at the piano, and then an evening in with a film. Which reminds me, there’s a very interesting film on Netflix called ‘Beckett’…
‘Beckett’ is not about a murdered priest, Irish playwright or Labour politician, but a tourist who gets involved in a kidnapping plot. What you might like about it is that it was filmed entirely in Greece. On the mainland, I believe. Much of the second half of the film was shot in Athens, and what’s nice about that is that you never see the standard sights. Not that there’s anything wrong with them. It’s a thriller/drama, and a bit gritty in places, and there are lots of shots of the ‘real’ Athens; the graffiti, the side streets, the rundown and ordinary neighbourhoods, so it’s not glossy—it’s not horrid either, just truthful.
There are some classic Greek details in this film too. Not only are (most) Greek people the main character meets willing to help a stranger and show classic Greek Filoxenia, but there are some background touches. For example; high in the mountains when the MC is helped by a farmer with a pretty basic way of life and clearly no great income, he’s leaving the house when he passes a brand-new sailing dingy parked up in the yard. It’s as if the farmer thought, ‘I want a boat, I’ll have a boat’ even though he’s nowhere near water. Reminded me of the boats you see up at the cemetery, or near the rubbish tip, or anywhere else in the hinterland, miles from the sea.
Today is predicted to be the hottest so far, but we’ll see. It feels cooler this morning than of late and at 3 am it was only 26 in the courtyard and not the 31 of recent mornings. Afternoons, we’ve reached 42 in the shadiest part of our yard, which gets no sun, but strong winds made it feel a bit cooler. Obviously, those winds haven’t been helping over in Rhodes and elsewhere, where fires continue to burn, and we, like everyone, are hoping for a resolution to all that before more people lose their homes and farms. Look back a couple of posts and you will find links to Greek news in English, which I’d prefer to see for accuracy rather than the over-sensationalised tabloid (and broadsheet) media coming out of the yUK right now.
Winter
