August Fire Flies

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!