Janne called from his summer house just outside Stockholm to tell me he and Erica will be flying out to Grammeno on 25 September for three weeks. They would have come earlier just that his daughter is having a wedding in Sweden earlier in the month. He attended her actual wedding in France last year but, because of restrictions, those who wished to attend from Sweden couldn’t come. The plan this year is for the French contingent to come to Sweden for the Swedish part of the wedding. I hope it all goes well for them.

Supper was a little later due to the call; I found myself sitting down around 21:00 to eat. I was watching an episode of Death in Paradise but fell asleep. Once I woke up I went immediately to bed as it was getting late.

There was some wind during the night and it was windy enough in the morning not to rush around with no shirt on. That didn’t apply to Kostas who was in just shorts when I saw him on the rocks filling up the pools. He arrived as we were heading to Azzurro and Plakaki so we caught up when we came back.

There was a motorhome parked in the beach car park as well as a couple of cars and a caravan remaining from the group from yesterday. The motorhome contained a small, fluffy, white dog which was being exercised as we came back to the car park. I think both the dog and the owner were surprised to find so many dogs all of a sudden. The event unfolded undramatically so we continued on to the Big Beach for some swimming.

We noticed that the maggot and tent were no longer present as we walked towards the rocks for a few more biscuits before finding Kostas watering the rocks.

Back at the van, I made some tea, transferred the dough to the bread tin and made up the Doggy Dinners to go into the pot to cook whilst I was out on my bike. I briefly checked that the updated server had started properly as sometimes not all of the services start automatically in a timely manner.

It was a windy ride into Paleochora via Panorama past EKO and the departing ferry. There were no puppies to be seen so I sped on past Petrakis and back towards Grammeno. My next stop was Alonaki Beach for a quick swim in the lumpy sea. I spent much of my time just keeping in one place against the wind and the waves. The swimming equivalent of running on a treadmill I suppose but not so hard on the knees. The guy with the caravan looks like he’s preparing for the jump into hyperspace as he was busily cleaning is sparkly, black 4×4 as I swam slowly past against nature.

It was around 09:15 when I released the dogs, changed out of my soggy shorts and fed them, not the shorts, the dogs. The DDs were cooked but still under pressure and anyway, they continue to cook if allowed to rest in the pot for a while. I was in no hurry to complete the process.

The morning passed harmlessly by without a support call only a request from Michael in the office to print a holiday application in French for a customer. I deduce that it is likely there is at least one French person present. I amused myself with lots of other important activities and finally got down to processing the DDs.

It is still windy and it seems there’s going to be quite a bit of air around for the next few days. It means it will not be very hot and the present temperature is fine albeit with a windy accompaniment.

The large carob tree seems to be constantly moving and it’s surprising how much the other carobs have grown back since I chopped them right back in the spring. They will receive a further prune in the autumn once the sun approaches its nadir in December.