I was reading a post just yesterday from someone who lives on Crete and he was saying how dreary January was and how it seems to go on forever and oh, how he longed for the spring to come. I can only assume that he lives in the Chania area, because they get a lot worse weather during the wintertime than we do here in Southern Lasithi. Now, I don’t want to start arguments or take issue with anyone, but in the almost twenty years (this coming August will be our 20th anniversary of moving to Greece) that we’ve now lived in the Southern Aegean, we’ve consistently said that a Rhodean/Cretan winter well resembles a UK summer, and I still stick by that comparison by and large.

The post to which I’m referring also bemoaned the fact that the kafeneia were sparsely patronised and the streets were devoid of people, presumably because they were sheltering from the weather, I don’t know. Back in the south of Rhodes, where we spent 14 years, and here on our hillside above Ierapetra, nothing could be further from the truth. On the ‘promenade’ in Ierapetra at around midday on Sundays in January, owing to the fact that the locals are all out for a leisurely stroll along the front, you’re hard-put to find a table to sit down at the Plaz Café, where we frequently find ourselves, along with a couple of friends, late on Sunday mornings, in order to enjoy the winter sunshine, the twinkling surface of the sea and some good people-watching.

Right from the get-go, during our first ever winter in Greece, which was the winter of 2005-6, we’ve fallen in love with this time of the year. You can do some serious DIY, because it’s not so hot that you simply melt and have to take refuge indoors from the fierce sun, which is how things are in June through September here. You can take long rural walks, because it’s not so oppressive out in the sun that three steps along the veranda would send you gasping for a cold beer and the dark shade of the house interior, with the shutters closed. You can sit out on your terrace or veranda at 11.30am and enjoy your morning coffee, whilst studying the Griffon Vultures soaring hundreds of feet right above you. There’s just so much you can do during the winter months here that it makes life a joy, pure and simple. I would never want to wish my life away anyway, but for us January is sublime and the summer months will come soon enough.

Also, the garden at this time of year seems to be much happier. The plants can endure the midday sun without wanting to shrivel up, and many of them are in bloom now, whilst during July they just about cling on to life if watered regularly. So, with that thought, I scooted out into the garden yesterday to take the photos below. All of the photos here were taken late morning yesterday, January 28th…

And, yes, we can scarcely believe it ourselves, but our strawberries (See also photo at top of this post) are fattening up nicely and ripening fast, and thus will be gracing our breakfast muesli with effect from tomorrow morning and onwards!

Also, we have a few lettuce that we shoved into the ground among the pelargoniums recently, and we’re now pulling leaves to make the basis of our lunchtime salads. It’s the first time we’ve had anything edible in the garden since we arrived here in September 2019, when we made futile attempts with lettuce, courgettes and onions, only to give it up as a bad job. Oh, and what about THAT for a poinsettia eh? –

I should add that the poinsettia isn’t ours, I snapped it in someone’s garden down in the town the other day. Can’t claim credit for that one. I did, however take these below, the next batch from the archive…

Above: What about that then? It’s our old garden back on Rhodes, all of which, house and all, was totally destroyed in the fires of ’23.

Above: At To Tsipouradiko Mas restaurant, Patmos, in May 2019. And, finally, below, Santorini, April 2019…

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