KALO XRISTOUYENNI! MERRY CHIRSTMAS FROM GREECE! December 2015
This will be our first Christmas spent in
our home here in Skala Polichnitos. Last
Christmas we spent three weeks in the U.K. visiting family, which involved
flying to Heathrow, travelling to Stafford,
Wolverhampton, Manchester, Glasgow, North Wales and Bristol. Never again, we said! So this year we are staying at home, at least
until 27th December when we fly back to the U.K. again.
It’s been an incredible year. First came our decision to move from Thermi
where we enjoyed last winter in Maire’s house (with central heating, needed
when the temperatures plummeted below freezing for several days during
January). We chose instead to buy a
bungalow with land, a few hundred yards from the sea. Skala Polichnitos is a small fishing village
on the Gulf of Kalloni, a very beautiful unspoilt area, popular with migrating
birds – and the twitchers who follow them in springtime.
So we did the same and saw some magical
sights – flamingoes, stilts and avocets on the salt flats, eagles, shrikes, buntings, bee eaters,
flycatchers, all in our garden. Ah, the
“garden”. An ambitious word for the plot
of land we spent our energy clearing in the early part of the year. However, we’ve planted fruit trees and had a
good harvest of fruit from the existing plum and nectarine trees. We had to take down the large almond tree by
the house, to avoid damage to our neighbour’s property. But we still have a fig, some palms and
conifers and a small bottle brush tree that seems to flower
indiscriminately. I’ve planted magenta
and red bougainvillea to train up the walls and there is one enormous vine over
the pergola at the back of the house.
As spring gave way to summer the heat
increased. So did the population of
Skala Polichnitos. It’s a summer holiday
place for people who live in Athens and other cities on the mainland of Greece
and the influx is remarkable. In the
heat of July and August most of the local houses were occupied and traffic
along our narrow concrete roads got quite hectic at times. We retreated indoors during the day when it
was over 30 degrees from early morning until dark.
We made several trips to the UK during the
year so that we can keep close to family particularly my father who had his 93rd
birthday this year. And our visitors
included Emma with Archie, Kundalini
yoga teacher friend Jayne, long-time friends Janet & Phillip. All very welcome here to share our relaxing
environment, and permit us to show them the highlights of Lesvos island.
And we have found it wonderfully relaxing
for the majority of our time. Yes, there
have been some challenges. The Greek
financial situation meant we had to change a few plans during June/July but it
was not a major problem for us. The
economy here is struggling but we feel that we are able to make a contribution
however small, by buying locally and supporting local businesses in any way we
can.
This led us to having a gorgeous fireplace
built by the local stonemason, using Polichnitos stone and local marble. It enhances our living room and means we can
burn olive wood, of which there is a plentiful supply on the island each year
as olive groves are pruned to improve the crop.
We have needed the fire at night for some weeks now because temperatures
really drop at night. Daytime may be
warm and sunny, mainly blue skies, but often with a cold wind from the
north-east.
The family has increased too, in the form
of a little dog who arrived one day, starving hungry, apparently having
recently had puppies, and simply stayed.
We are calling her Lady (the Lady is a tramp?) and she adores Bryn. She follows happily when we walk on the beach
or around the lanes and curls up on any available chair when she can get away
with it.
Stray dogs are common in Greece; many are
abandoned after the summer here and the Greek way of dealing with their animals
seems harsh to us Brits. On the other
hand, the Greeks have welcomed the thousands and thousands of Syrians fleeing their
own country in fear of their lives.
Around 1500 refugees daily have been arriving in small harbours and on
beaches around the north and east of this island, all through this year. That is a phenomenal number of displaced
people for one island to have to handle.
But none have been turned away.
We have seen the masses of small tents covering a huge area around the
ferry port (an area which was used for car parking, so mainly rough ground and
tarmac and no shade from the heat) And we have seen some of the hundreds of
individuals, families and groups, walking from the coast to Mytilene – a
distance of up to 100 kilometres. Piles
of debris can be seen along these roads too, as refugees jettison the
lifejackets and spare clothing in an attempt to lighten their load. What strikes us about these people is, that
they are on their journey to freedom and Lesvos is one of the staging posts in
that journey, so they are passing through with gratitude for any help provided
en route.
Settling into a new place takes time and
when that new place is a new country with a new language and cultural
differences, settling down is a multi-stage process. Here, now, I feel blessed with the fresh air,
sunshine, natural healthy food, the unrushed pace of life and the gentle, kind,
courteous, easy-going Greek folks who have made us welcome here. Who appreciate our efforts to communicate in
stumbling Greek and smile as they answer us in perfect English!!
So we look forward to next year and another
chapter in our voyage of discovering how to live life on a Greek island. Meanwhile we hope that you will keep in touch
and perhaps visit us one day here in Lesvos.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year.
Barbara & Bryn
