Making the best of the weather is a
little tricky and we have been taking precautions not to get
de-hydrated and sunstroke by limiting our exits to early morning or
late afternoon. We look carefully at the cooker or oven before
contemplating cooking anything hot and all too often decide to forgo
cordon bleu and make a sandwich. Panormo is absolutely heaving with
people … all good news … and the business owners are working flat
out, but we are finding it a bit much and keeping at home for much of
the time, which means we miss out on our swims. As we are feeding
neighbours cats, we have a bonus of using their pool whilst keeping
an eye on the house and watering their tomatoes!
Huge watermelons have started appearing
in the porch when we are not looking because as they all ripen at
once and are generally too enormous for even a large family. Eventually, nobody
knows quite how to get rid of them all. I seem to be taking ours
into the town centre for people without gardens to share. They are
really heavy, but cool, sweet and delicious.
However this week, my travelling
companion (who enjoys a good, long walk) suggested a new area to
explore and we set off on Monday to a small bay about 8 miles away.
We set off early and arrived in time to park easily and explore a
small fishing hamlet and some back tracks through the olive and
citrus groves. It was a fabulous morning. When we arrived back to
the waterside, we found a way to swim in the small sandy harbour –
the nicest and most welcome swim – and once dry, sat down at a
little Kantina where Poppy, the Proprietor waited, cooked and served
home made food. A souvlaki, salad and bread slipped down easily with
some local white wine and lots of glasses of water and we arrived
home just in good time for an afternoon siesta. What an idyllic
jolly holiday!
Later in the week, I retraced my steps
with K in tow to the same place. The wind was stronger but it was a
wonderful, quiet place to spend some time cooling off, doing some
painting, swimming and enjoying watching the different moods of the
sea. K looked enviously as it is a favourite spot for local
fishermen and he did not have his gear with him.
Saturday was the highlight of the week
when the Russian Ballet came to Crete and performed at the Fortezza
in Rethymnon under a very nearly full moon. The setting was very
special with an ancient Greek style amphitheatre on the mount which
overlooks Rethymnon from a considerable height with the dome of the
Fortezza lit up in the background. What an evening and quite an
experience for seasoned ballet goers to see how it pans out in
Greece. First of all, we had a lovely muddle over our seat
allocation as the lady officiating did not realise that our party was
altogether and that we would be happy to work out the allocation
amongst ourselves (bearing in mind dodgy hips, bad legs and so on!)
After a hilarious interval of musical chairs and when at one point my neighbour was holding three tickets in her hand and looking
completely confused, we managed to shuffle about and sit down
quietly. Then we took bets as to when the performance (advertised to
start at 9.00 pm) would actually start. Eventually, when all the
Greek ladies, small girls, teenage girls and various people dawdled
in, chatted to old acquaintances and had long conversations on mobile
phones - which stayed in their hands lit up for most of the evening -
the performance began at 9.35 pm. Etiquette has obviously not quite
got here yet!
The dancers were superb and how they
managed to perform with layers of costume, tights and point shoes in
such heat just went to show their professionalism. It was BOILING!
The Ballet, Sleeping Beauty, was a treat and the audience appreciated
it all. An appearance by the Witch/Bad Fairy had us intrigued as he
was incredibly tall, played the part amazingly well and I kept
looking at his legs and feet wondering if he was wearing stilts
underneath layers of dark fabric! There were appearances by pupils
from local dance schools to add to the experience. We were
especially mystified by small elves filing up along
the back of the audience hand in hand in the semi darkness during the
first act. What a delight when they appeared later in the
performance as little mice doing their number in a kitchen scene.
They had to negotiate the rocky surface at the back of the
amphitheatre in virtually no light by holding on to one another's tails! With the twinkling lights of the city in the background, it
was one of those magical images which will stay in my mind long
afterwards.
Meanwhile in the moonlit sky, fire
flies were circling above the heads of the audience underneath
enormous pine trees. It really was an evening to remember.
After the weekend, on the night of full moon and the promise of a lunar eclipse, we drove up to Thronos in the
Amari Valley for a Cretan Evening by moonlight. We had visited the
mountain retreat Aravenes before and arrived just as the musicians
and dancers set up and rehearsed their dance steps. We fell into the
company of a couple from Norway who, having sampled the home made
wine, home made raki and home made ouzo were up for having a go at
all the Greek dance steps (which are much more complicated than they
look with odd, unsymmetrical rhythms and balance changes which leave
the unwary tripping over themselves to keep up!) They did amazingly well! The party and
panorama were worth the drive and the temperature up in the mountains
just a bit cooler to refresh us.
We await the celebration of Panagyri on
15 August with a little trepidation because of the heat and crowds
for the busiest bank holiday of the summer. We will be relieved
when the cooler nights of September get here!
