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!