This post will be heavy on photos, but with just a few comments to begin with about the weather.
I know; sounds very British doesn't it, to be preoccupied with the weather. TBH, I'm not usually that concerned what it's doing outside, except perhaps when it causes us to change our plans, which isn't often.
The reason I wanted to briefly mention it though, is to illustrate yet again the difference between the British ex-pats who live here and the local Greeks. By and large, I find that the Brits whinge perpetually when it's cloudy or raining during the winter months. The Greeks, however, virtually to man (or woman, just to be PC here) never complain, in fact more often than not express gratitude for the rains. I agree with them. Let's face it, we get month after month of dry, arid weather here every summer. The dry season on Rhodes is longer than most other parts of Greece too, thus exacerbating the problems when a dry winter (and we've now had three) leaves the island with a severe water problem during the summer months.
Last summer it came to a head when owing to (as fleetingly mentioned above) several unusually dry winters we were facing water shut-offs all over the island. Several villages and parts of Rhodes town were without water for days on end toward the end of the season. Other areas (including here in Kiotari for a while) had what amounted to sea water coming out of their taps, which killed plants in gardens, including precious vegetables.
So, this winter, thankfully, there appears to be a return to normality, with rains coming frequently and often heavily on a weekly basis at the moment. Even having said that, we had almost three weeks with no rain at the end of January/early February. In fact, as you'll know if you read my drivel with any regularity, I've mentioned one particular walk which me and the better half do in the hills behind the house, which takes us through olive groves and forest and twice crosses the same stream-bed, which in normal years flows like a babbling brook from about now through to some time during April.
It must be three of four years since that stream-bed last flowed continually, as in not simply for a few hours after a rainstorm. At least once a week we do that walk and expectantly approach the spot through the pines as we descend a steep hill and, if it's running, we can hear it even before we see it. In previous years when it had flowed as per usual, it even had frog spawn in it for a while, thus helping the island population of amphibians to survive.
So, this winter we've been making that walk every week and, until yesterday, that stream still hasn't been flowing. Yesterday though, low and behold...
That was at one crossing point. This was at the other...
Good eh? See, it gets me a bit when ex-pats go on about how grotty the weather is when it rains here. Do any of us really want to turn on a tap, or maybe the shower, on a hot, Greek summer's day and have nothing come out of it? I think not!
So I'll always be with the Greeks on this one. Rain? Bring it on. After all, come the summer we'll be lucky to see a cloud for several months.
And so to some photos...
The other day, Thursday morning February 22nd in fact, we had one of the biggest thunder storms we've experienced in over twelve years of living here. Lightning struck our TV antenna and the result?
Tune in for the next exciting episode folks...
I know; sounds very British doesn't it, to be preoccupied with the weather. TBH, I'm not usually that concerned what it's doing outside, except perhaps when it causes us to change our plans, which isn't often.
The reason I wanted to briefly mention it though, is to illustrate yet again the difference between the British ex-pats who live here and the local Greeks. By and large, I find that the Brits whinge perpetually when it's cloudy or raining during the winter months. The Greeks, however, virtually to man (or woman, just to be PC here) never complain, in fact more often than not express gratitude for the rains. I agree with them. Let's face it, we get month after month of dry, arid weather here every summer. The dry season on Rhodes is longer than most other parts of Greece too, thus exacerbating the problems when a dry winter (and we've now had three) leaves the island with a severe water problem during the summer months.
Last summer it came to a head when owing to (as fleetingly mentioned above) several unusually dry winters we were facing water shut-offs all over the island. Several villages and parts of Rhodes town were without water for days on end toward the end of the season. Other areas (including here in Kiotari for a while) had what amounted to sea water coming out of their taps, which killed plants in gardens, including precious vegetables.
So, this winter, thankfully, there appears to be a return to normality, with rains coming frequently and often heavily on a weekly basis at the moment. Even having said that, we had almost three weeks with no rain at the end of January/early February. In fact, as you'll know if you read my drivel with any regularity, I've mentioned one particular walk which me and the better half do in the hills behind the house, which takes us through olive groves and forest and twice crosses the same stream-bed, which in normal years flows like a babbling brook from about now through to some time during April.
It must be three of four years since that stream-bed last flowed continually, as in not simply for a few hours after a rainstorm. At least once a week we do that walk and expectantly approach the spot through the pines as we descend a steep hill and, if it's running, we can hear it even before we see it. In previous years when it had flowed as per usual, it even had frog spawn in it for a while, thus helping the island population of amphibians to survive.
So, this winter we've been making that walk every week and, until yesterday, that stream still hasn't been flowing. Yesterday though, low and behold...
That was at one crossing point. This was at the other...
Good eh? See, it gets me a bit when ex-pats go on about how grotty the weather is when it rains here. Do any of us really want to turn on a tap, or maybe the shower, on a hot, Greek summer's day and have nothing come out of it? I think not!
So I'll always be with the Greeks on this one. Rain? Bring it on. After all, come the summer we'll be lucky to see a cloud for several months.
•
And so to some photos...
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| Come on, have you ever seen a nicer lemon tree? This one (I'm not jealous. I'M NOT JEALOUS!) is in the garden of a friend whose garden we help maintain now and again. |
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| Same again. |
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| Despite the more regular rains this winter, we still get days like this. This was taken during one of our walks, just down the road from us in Kiotari. |
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| Can you spot him? There's a stag in this shot (Don't forget, you can click for a larger view). The rather fetching foreground with the pallets etc. is the former pigpen where the shepherd now keeps his sheep when they're grazing in our valley during January. Just beyond the pallets is a small green patch where the deer love to hang out during the early evening. It's only fifty metres down the lane from our front gate. |
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| A lovely example of a wild French Lavender plant just up the lane behind the house. |
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| Close-up of the French Lavender. |
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The other day, Thursday morning February 22nd in fact, we had one of the biggest thunder storms we've experienced in over twelve years of living here. Lightning struck our TV antenna and the result?
Tune in for the next exciting episode folks...
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