I find myself sitting looking at the White Mountains. The forecast warned of high winds in the night, so yesterday evening I took the precaution of taking down the entire awning. As I may have mentioned previously, there comes a time when you can no longer take it down safely, so better before, rather than during the event. As it turned out, the forecast was a little premature but right nonetheless: today has been windy. As summer turns to Autumn, even in Crete, the sun loses its power toward the end of the day making it possible to sit out on the decking without any protection. Hence the reason why the chair is facing the mountains as opposed to west, towards the sun. The sun is better behind when looking at a screen.
Many things are cyclic including the women who come to the promontory to collect the leaves of the plants which grow there. I couldn’t understand why the Small Dogs were barking this morning until I came back later with Boris, Luis and Charlie to discover the women picking the plants and carrying large sacks to the path. They come in one car and presumably stuff all the leaves into the boot. It then had to be washed thoroughly and can then be frozen. It’s popular so quite valuable. The women know me now so always enquire as to how many dogs I have and so on.
During the day, I’ve been sitting under the carob trees as its too hot to be on the decking. I’ve moved some of the garden furniture up there so that I can put my laptop on the table and sit on a bench. The bench is a bit hard though. The Brown Dogs have been laying under or around the table leaving me little room for my feet. Every time I look down there’s at least one dog under there. People have wanted me to fix things as I’ve had calls today from LBS, Inter Sport and Lewes Smith. As well as an email from one of my Hindhead customers and the Hindhead Golf Club enquiring if I would like advertising in their new brochure. I mentioned that Crete was a bit far for house calls so the guy didn’t go on with his sales pitch.
Some individual, his car no doubt parked in one of the beach car parks, is treating everybody to some of his music. You can imagine what it’s like. Either that or the Amos beach bar is gearing up for an evening entertainment – on a Thursday when it’s windy – good luck with that!
The Small Dogs have been amusing themselves by seeing which can stand on top of the plastic kennel whilst the others try to get up there. It keeps them amused and reasonably quiet so what’s the harm? They are all so big that they can get their paws almost to the top of the wire fence. Minnie can easily, as she’s the biggest. I slice up the end of my loaf of bread from the previous day and give them a piece each in the morning. The way they go on, you’d think it was caviar. They are all ready as I appear with my plate on my way to wash it up in the bowl which is on the plastic table outside. I’ll have water inside the van before winter but it’s much more pleasant to wash up outside in the sun where everything dries almost instantly.
Out walking this morning, I must have sat on some particularly rough rocks. Sadly my camouflage shorts have got a rip in the backside signalling their end of life. I can get around the missing top button, and also the missing teeth at the top of the zip. A rip in the back is slightly more difficult. Anyway, at that time, there’s no one to see! Things just don’t last the way they used to.
The little LED lights on the decking and the fence posts are coming on, as are the distant street lights. It’s getting light around 06:20 and dark by 20:30, about the same time as UK, ignoring the two hour difference. Better put the Small Dogs to bed, let Obi in the van, and get something for me to eat.
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