Well the warm, blue, windless days have returned. From the start of the month the weather had changed after a couple of months of weather like this, punctuated only occasionally with a little rain. February, though, has seen an unusually long spell of cold weather, even though not particularly wet, but this past couple of days it’s all change yet again and we’re back on the sun-loungers for our morning coffee.

On Friday we went for a long walk up the right hand of the two mountains that face us across the valley, as seen from our veranda. Both are clad in olive groves and both partially obscure our view of the sea about seven kilometres below us to the south. We’ve reached the top of the mountain on the left on several occasions and yet, so far, we’d not made it to the top of the other one. This time we were going to try, armed with a screenshot stored in my phone from Google Earth showing the most likely lanes and pathways we could take in order to succeed.

It was one of those days when you pinch yourself to remind yourself that you’re still in mid-February, and you set out wearing a fleece over a t-shirt, but soon take it off and wrap it around your waist, you get so hot in the sun. We’ve often remarked in the 18 years that we’ve lived in the Southern Aegean that the winter sun here actually has some power in it. Back in the UK the sun, when actually shining in mid-winter, shed light, yes, but you could rarely if ever feel any heat from it. Over here, if there are no clouds to block it, you can still feel it hot on your skin, whether it be December, January or February, and it’s very welcome. On Friday it most definitely warmed us, since the day dawned (and largely remained) completely cloudless.

So, then, here are the rest of the photos taken during that most exhilarating walk of two hours plus, during which I calculated that we’d covered around 10-12 kilometres from the front door and back again…

The last one above shows the edge of the village from across the valley, and our house is clearly visible, it’s the one with the deep shade on the veranda that stretches the length of the front of the property. It’s not the one with the washing on the upper balcony, that’s Maria and Dimitri’s, ours is above and slightly to the left. It’s a single story property.

I was talking to a couple of friends who farm for a living yesterday, Sunday. They both grow vegetables in hot-houses and, whilst both agreeing that the weather is indeed beautiful, both Giorgos and Takis expressed concern that Ierapetra would face a major water shortage problem this coming summer and autumn if there isn’t more rain before the winter’s out. Notwithstanding the fact that the reservoir (clearly visible in some of the photos in the gallery above) is full to the brim, largely due to the deluge that we experienced last October, when Siteia sustained major damage, and a friend of a friend there saw his car float off down the street and end up in the harbour, a complete wreck when finally recovered from the muddy depths, they nevertheless feel that it will soon be depleted once watering gets under way with avengeance as the spring sun warms up the weather and summer comes upon us.

Here in the village we have no such concerns. We’re reliably informed by those local residents ‘in the know’ that our unique water source, which is a gushing spring up in the rocky crag above us, which delivers water that’s ready-filtered by the rocks inside the mountain, never dries up. In the three and a half years that we’ve lived here so far, the village spring, that residents often use to fill up large plastic drums for domestic use (gardens, vegetable plots mainly) has never stopped flowing, even in the height of the arid summer. I don’t know for sure, but I think we’re further aided by the fact that it’s primarily only our village that’s fed by the water piped from that spring, and there are only around 120 inhabitants here. Phew, eh?

Here are a few more recent photos that I hope you’ll like…

The one above is another that I’d forgotten to upload when we were at the village of Kentri a few Sundays back. The one below, believe it or not, is actually in a street in the town, but when isolated by the camera, looks as if it must be in some quiet village somewhere, doesn’t it…

Above: A Red Admiral warms itself in the sunshine on the fence in front of our neighbour’s veranda, 13th February at midday.

Above: Behind the town beach, 16th February at 11.00am. Yvonne was going to check out the sea to decide whether to take a dip or not. On this occasion she decided against it. The idea of sitting out front of The Island Café, in the partial shade against the wall of the building, and sipping a coffee whilst watching the world go by was just a tad more appealing and won the competition hands down.

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