Greece's Green and Pleasant Land?

The photo above was taken gazing out of our French windows earlier this morning. I don't know how much of the landscape down the valley you can discern, but frankly, it's looking as 'green and pleasant' as the countryside where I was brought up, in North East Somerset, England.

We've just been working out the statistics regarding rain during the winters here on Rhodes and there's no doubt about it, this has been the rainiest since well before we came here in 2005. On the plus side, it's probably solved the water shortage problem for Rhodes for the time being. On the negative, there have been places in Greece (not so much here on Rhodes, generally) that have suffered major damage and disruption from the torrential downpours and flooding that's ensued from the extreme weather.

The results of all the rain are reflected in the landscape all around us. I've already mentioned how there are babbling brooks in the forested valleys up behind our house, and the absolute explosion of flowers blooming everywhere you walk is verging on the miraculous. In fact, walking down the valley yesterday we found ourselves thinking that the whole wild environment around the area where we live is like a garden this year.

Here are a couple of shots taken during yesterday evening's walk. Sorry the quality's not so good, these were taken with my rather inadequate mobile phone...

In the first of the two above, you'd never guess that where my wife is walking is actually a dirt-road through the forest. We've never ever seen it so taken over by wild flowers as it is this year. The second, if you look really carefully, shows a Painted Lady butterfly at rest on the flower of a pink rock rose. If you click for the larger view you'll just about make it out. There were literally clouds of Painted Ladies fluttering around us as we walked. Yvonne (Maria) actually remarked, "Who needs butterfly valley?"

As I've also mentioned many times before on this blog, my wife keeps an accurate record of rain or shower days during our winter periods, so we can make pretty good comparisons. She notes on her MacBook's iCal any day from the beginning of September through to the end of April when it either rains or even showers for more than five minutes. Here's what the statistics for the last three winters reveal:

Winter of 2016-17 (September through April inclusive): 40 days when it rained/showered
Winter of 2017-18 (September through April inclusive): 39 days when it rained/showered

You can see from the above that both of those winters were pretty similar. Both too, incidentally, were below the average expected rainfall. Now look at this past winter (which we're still just about living in, owing to the figures including April):

Winter of 2018-19 (September through April inclusive): 71 days when it rained/showered
...and April still has 21 days to go, including today. 

Thus, our island has been transformed into a fairly passable impersonation of the UK when it comes to greenery and lush vegetation. The Spring has put in an appearance, as you'll have seen from other recent posts, plus from photos I've posted on my "John Manuel - The Published Works" Facebook page, but each time it has done so, it's retreated again and the rains have returned, as they have done this past couple of days.

There are even a few early tourists about already, with a few hotels having opened their doors and started up their water slides, but I don't think they're getting much use just now.

I wouldn't worry, though, if you're coming to Rhodes for your holidays, it has a habit of sorting itself out before the larger crowds turn up. If you're coming early in the season this year, though, you do stand the chance of seeing a much lusher countryside scene than has been seen on this island for many a long year.