Shaking, scratching, rocking, stuffing and sheltering!

 
September so far has been September-like! Half the days have had wind that is problematic on the beach, and the sea has several times been very high and rough. This has not deterred the usual "more mature" tourists who have been occupying sunbeds at a level unseen through the rest of the summer. Greyrocks has been reduced to early beach visits in order to secure a spot!

There was heated discussion recently about our big earthquake (magnitude 5.3):- data as follows:

Date-Time	Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 03:27:45 UTC
Location	34.811°N, 24.064°E
Depth	27.4 km (17.0 miles)
Distances	58 km (36 miles) SE of Palaiochora, Greece

Half of Greyrocks slept through it completely, but Ruth felt a small tremor(!) and heard three bangs in close  succession which she thought was the boulders we have tied into the bedroom curtains to weigh them down. There was no damage in the village as far we know; but in researching it a more recent and closer quake of 3.1 came to light (that no-one felt!)

 

 One Thursday we went once again to Atoli for their rock night and buffet. This is usually just great recorded music; but it bcame clear as we ate the excellent food - price just gone up to 6 euros per head, but still great value - that something live was being planned. We ended up with an Austrian lead guitarist and a drummer who had last played together 35 years ago, an (Italian?) bassist and a couple of other gutarists plucked from somewhere. It shouldn't have worked, and to start with it didn't, which eased the chair shortage; but after the lead decided - or was advised - not to sing we had a couple of hours of classic instrumental rock.

Next evening it was party time! This was the belated celebration of  the significant birthdays earlier in the summer of Paleo's favourite two half-brothers and men about town - Duke and Jeffri. The model was Greyrocks' party last year at the Limnaki cantina, and the reason for the delay was mostly so that Duke's daughter Michelle - and hubby Mark could attend during their week here. Thus the drink flowed freely from before sunset, great musical oldies from as far back as the 50's had been assembled, and Yiannis and crew brought out the food at just the right pace. This included - as a surprise - 4 kg of sausages. hand-crafted by Barry and helpers according to his own recipe, and tasting like original Lincolnshire bangers. These were his gift to the boys, and by the time twenty or so guests had partaken there was no need for any more food! The souvlaki went back into the fridge.

 

It was then time for Greyrocks' contribution:- a celebration cake from the bakers, carefully commissioned earlier in the week, and transported on foot by Bob. Regular readers will recognise a history here:- just what would the cake deorator come up with this time?Before the festivities Yiannis had opened the box and announced a katastroph! The base icing representing the sea had suffered a tsunami and the lettering had slid down the sides and said nothing! As local hero he raced down to Petrakis and came back with icing. Ruth did her sloppy best of a repair job and here we have it! You may be able to spot the Native Americans apparently surfing. How odd that the bakers should know the Pocahontas - Gravesend connection! And how fortuitous that we had ckosen the Friday rather than later for the "do" because Saturday was a distinctly "unbeachable" day with cloud, wind and rough sea!

By Sunday there was storm brewing. We sat at Tassos' watching black clouds mass to the West. The Kandonites sent a text from their home in the mountains to say it was pouring up there. Thunder and dramatic lightning followed and we looked at the kafenion's palm frond roof and decided it was not fit for purpose. We went speedily down to the Jetee where we encountered - unsurprisingly - all the usual subjects. The beach continued to clear, Tony rushed round putting down parasols, and at 3.20 the rain came. We all settled into the breakfast room, received free drinks and it lasted 40 minutes or so. Apparently there was a glorious shallowly-arced double rainbow, but that was "on the other side" so we missed it.

 

Avian Update Plus

Ever mindful of the importance of accuracy Greyrocks offers the following quick updates:

The lammergeier was neither old nor injured! It was, in fact, a juvenile from Omalos (the top of the Samarian Gorge) which had lost its way. Far from being drowned it was placed in a crate and sent to Chania on a service bus, whence it was hopefully re-homed in the mountains by a conservation organisation.
Bulletin ends!

Meanwhile - down at the cantina - Yiannis has lost his canoe (but perhaps has found his paddle!)



 

Blue Moon!

This August saw a Blue Moon -when two full moons occur in the same month! The first was a very impressive red one too, and we watched it rise on each of the three days as we ate on the stony beach prom.The latter was bright but not particularly red as happens as the season progresses. It was, however, followed by a "strange event"!

On the street where Greyrocks lives

We were enjoying brunch at our local snack bar "Votsalo" when there was a thumping noise above us, followed by evident scuffling around on the lightweight roof. It transpired that there was a Big Bird! The crowds gathered and it moved a bit, finally taking off with great difficulty to reveal an enormous wingspan. Later it was seen elsewhere in the village, and finally in the arms of a fisherman who was taking it to the harbour:- presumably to put it out of its misery. We spent an age trying to identify the species, and it was suggested that we had seen an old and/or injured Lammergeier (this year's third interesting German word!) This was confirmed when we went to look at the birds poster in the bookshop window, and then looked online to discover how rare they are. Read all about by following the link!






Irish Kevin sings at the cantina

Looking back on August as a whole it was a month of flux! Chloe managed a week with us between festivals and starting her Masters in Amsterdam. With the current spiti having only one bedroom we were considering getting her a room - despite it being across the dreaded chaotic 15th - when we got the offer of a friend's newly acquired flat in the block near the old spiti. We decided we would all stay there, so we had a week of peace and quiet. It was a delight to sit on the balcony looking over the lane and encountering old neighbours! The wind was a bit of an issue and on two days we took a taxi up to the Viena bar with a swimming pool to escape some of the force. Otherwise it was a lazy spell with much time spent on the beach, in the sea and at the canitina.

Yiannis now has a canoe and pedalo available for free use by his customers. Unfortunately there is no sign of an oar!  There have been some fish and/or music evenings there, and many an Amstel and krassi has been consumed!


After Chloe's departure and our return to the under-loved spiti we took Ian and Janet up to Azogires in a taxi. Bob led them on a walking tour whist Ruth sat at the Alpha. There we discovered that we had inadvertantly chosen Lucky's name day (Eftiki - 24th August) - and - it is rumoured - also his birthday, so a few freebies were brought forth, and we were subject to some of his (slightly smutty) jokes.We took lunch and went back down the mountain by taxi. Good, clean fun!





And at last we managed a quorate AGM for the Yia-yia Gaga Club. Eva arranged a dinner at The Wave, and here we are - all a bit older but not much wiser!:

Greyrocks' Summary Statistics for August: 16 great days, 8 a bit iffy, and 7 "unbeachable" days. there were two slightly cloudy days more like September, and some very high top temperatures. (The Paleo weather station went down for a week after one of the storms, but our records show about half the days had highs over 38 deg C)

Yiammas!