Actually, I’ve never tried to find out where the expression ‘Indian Summer’ comes from, and it doesn’t strictly apply here because we get October/November weather like this virtually every year, but it’s a decent enough title for this post. The above photo was taken on the town beach at 11.00am on Tuesday October 3rd. The one below is exactly the same spot last Tuesday, October 10th, at about the same time of day…

The loungers and umbrellas are being taken in early this year, but no matter, because one or two bars very kindly leave a few out for dedicated swimmers/sunbathers to use for an hour or two and they don’t even bother you. If you want a drink you go into the outdoor seating area behind the beach and order it, since the staff no longer ‘service’ the beach itself now. Talk about nice people, eh? I mean we could if we wanted to simply plonk ourselves down on those loungers, take a swim and dry off, then disappear and they wouldn’t make a cent out of us. Couple that with the fact that we’re now in the habit of always taking our own reusable insulated beakers with us, plus our own metal straws. When we turn up at the café we hand them our beakers and they fix our iced coffees in those, to reduce (albeit by an admittedly infinitesimal amount) wastage of cardboard cups with their domed plastic tops and plastic straws to boot. When we pay them, they ask take-away price instead of ‘drink-in’ price. Instead of €3.30 per coffee, we now pay €2.35. Can’t beat it, right?

Since I wrote three posts about the tragic story of our old neighbours on Rhodes, I’ve amassed quite a backlog of photos, so I just thought that this time I’d post a few of those and comment as and where necessary. Here goes then…

Above: A hoopoe, aren’t they gorgeous? They spend the summer months here and then, about now actually, they head off back to either East Africa or Pakistan (I kid you not) for the winter months. This is actually a few years old, but I found it whilst trawling through my old photos while looking for something else the other day and thought I’d post it here. I took it from our kitchen window at our old home in Kiotari, Rhodes, as it was mooching around very close to the house. It’s very seldom you’ll get as close as this to one normally. They’re about blackbird-sized and the crest on the top of their heads can be opened like a fan when they confront either a predator or a potential rival.

Above: The sleepy village of Kalamafka, high up on the slopes of the Lasithi Plateau, and visible from some ten kilometers away from our village way across a huge valley, well, two actually. We have a friend who lives there and a few of us paid her a well overdue visit on Sunday October 1st.

I’ve got so many more photos that it will be better to spread them over a few separate posts, so I’ll just finish off this one with the photo below. Returning to the ‘Indian summer’ theme, this past few weeks the weather here has been simply perfect. I know we need some rain, and we’ll be glad when it arrives, yet right now we’re waking up to bright sunny days of around 25-27ºC and nights are coming in at about 20ºC. The winds are light and the sea warm when you want to go bathing. It’s my favourite time of year because the weather’s bearable, which isn’t always the case during the months of high summer. So, to sum up what our days are like for the time being, here are my feet for your delectation and delight…

I hope that life is tolerable wherever you are. See you soon.

•

Click HERE to go to my Amazon Author Page. There you can browse all of my written works.