Friday 27 August 2010

Goats, Roosters and Scooters

The windy mountainous roads on the island where my father’s family roots lie are framed with olive groves and air so crisp you can snap it up like celery. The houses are stained with whitewash and embedded with old-style stiff wooden shutters, tailored by the inbred locals to keep the summer swelter out. They are all painted blue, red or green, but occasionally you may come across the odd pink or orange shutters, which are more often than not, inhabited by the eccentric barmy type who are colour blind, or the young and loaded foreigner who believes that they should revolutionize the island.

Goats meander about the streets, head butting each other senselessly, as they try to escape oncoming cars and scooters. The roosters, the chickens and the geese fire up the locals at the first sign of sunrise. In the morning you can hear birds chirping, cicadas jijiging in the olive trees and dogs barking as the bread truck (a little old red beat up Ute) delivers hot bread to each residency.

At midday, the sun gets so hot that you have to wade through the heat rising off the road before you manage to wade through the Mediteranean waves to cool off. The ocean sparkles a deep turquoise and is as flat and as still as oil. It’s very hard to resist going for a swim at least twice a day during the summer as the heat engraves your skin. If you are on holiday you might as well just spend sunrise to sunset lying on a small empty white pebbled beach – one that is situated in a tiny cove at the end of a private dirt walking track – one that not a single postcard illustrates and not a single local will tell you about.


Do you wish you were here? If so, then you'll have to come to Greece ;o)

Don’t forget about my CONTEST!

PS: Holly, (my dog) was missing in the shots yesterday because I had just washed her and she was on the balcony drying off :o)

10 comments:

  1. Sounds a lovely place to live,
    When I first went to Spain it was for my son's wedding and fell in love with it so much so I eventually lived there, I do miss the warmth of the Mediterraean air. Hope to visit him soon,

    Enjoy your week-end.
    Yvonne.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful. I can deal with the heat. I cannot deal with the cold...and it's right around the corner unfortunately.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my, you already know I want to go to Greece. I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Greece and Rome...oh, toss Egypt in there too! Enjoy your weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My God you paint a beautiful picture. That secluded beach ... I'm there ... right now, well in my mind at least.

    That water is freaking gorgeous by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. gorgeous... the Gulf used to look that way around here. Haven't been since Memorial Day, but I've heard rumors it's coming back.

    Do you have the humidity in Greece? That was my "dream vacation" when I was in HS... :o)

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, yes, I want to be there! Sounds divine...
    B

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful! Greece is one of the far-away places I dream about. I love Frappes, too:)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely images. Here in Cyprus, I can relate. :)

    ReplyDelete

“I'm using my art to comment on what I see. You don't have to agree with it.” ~John Mellencamp

“Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without comment is a wonderful social grace” ~Judith S. Marin

“I don't ever try to make a serious social comment.” ~Paul McCartney

“I'd make a comment at a meeting and nobody would even acknowledge me. Then some man would say the same thing and they'd all nod.” ~Charlotte Bunch

“Probably what my comment meant was that I don't care about the circumstances if I can tell the truth.” ~Sally Kirkland

“We're not going to pay attention to the silliness and the petty comments. And quite frankly, women have joined me in this effort, and so it's not about appearances. It's about effectiveness.” ~Katherine Harris