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Today (sometime in mid-October) I've put on a long sleeved top for the first time since maybe May. There's definitely a taste of winter in the air. I went for a walk this evening, hoping to come across a few late figs, to find nothing but branches and leaves. Even the debris of ripe figs under the trees had gone; the fruit had disappeared without trace. I was not ready for this! I think this is just a trailer for winter, not winter itself which shouldn't really begin here until December. But the skies are somewhat cloudy and the wind is from the north.
The fig trees are the most evocative to me of the passing seasons. When we arrived for the first time in Marediana in early March 2018, the fig trees were spectacularly bare. Very soon the tiny but perfectly formed leaves appeared and rapidly grew - here’s March 19th 2018.
Of course we then have to wait a long time until the fruit appears in late summer. Feral figs seem to drop fruit haphazardly and most are not gathered. There is only a short time between becoming edible and the insects making a home in them. On the plus side, the trees keep producing ripe fruit for several weeks. I eat them on our walks out of the front door here. Although Kissamos is a town, there is plenty of infill agriculture in the shape of chickens, goats, cattle, even an occasional horse. Actually, there is a problem with these walks. The rural Greeks are by and large not too good to their animals. It doesn’t appear to be deliberate cruelty, just a sort of traditional carelessness for the animals’ welfare. Kids cry for their mothers, and nanny goats for their kids. The fattening heifers have no outdoor shade. Dogs are too often tied up, used as canine burglar alarms, their only social contact is the barking of other four legged prisoners. We are not their friends. There is recent legislation here to improve animal welfare, but it will take a while to seep through. We might be deterred from walking locally because to see this is upsetting, but we are also aware that far greater cruelty is inflicted on mass produced animal ‘crops’ like pigs, chickens, dairy sheep, goats and cows, in the name of cheap food and profit. I am sorry to say that I find dairy a difficult one to ditch from our diet. I go for vegan alternatives when I can, but cheese is a hard act to follow. On the selfish plus side, my calcium levels are good.
Kissamos is returning to its winter state, although still with a sprinkling of tourists. I think I haven’t much written about Kissamos/Kastelli since 2020. Expect more! This season has been a windfall one for tourists in Greece, and Kissamos ha been busy, but not packed. It looks as though they were just establishing a their tourist summer trade post-crisis when the pandemic happened. So maybe they lost a bit of momentum. The tourism is quite low key - no huge resorts or massive hotels. There is a small run of tavernas along the sea front, barely half a dozen. A few other stony beaches a little further from the town with one or 2 tavernas, a couple of campsites. Our favourites are the ones slightly further away from the town, with reefs and rocks - good places for snorkelling and generally being around the fish. I am hoping to get a few shots before winter. Sometimes it is just so beautiful that I can’t really believe what I am seeing. At Falassarna we see underwater sand ripples that have pink crests. There are arches and caves, like aquaria scaled up. If it’s not too wavy, we swim out around the rocks and see bigger fish. Sometimes I feel a bit scared. I find the mask and snorkel very comforting, also the proximity of the rocks, which weirdly make me feel more secure in the water.
Sometimes we see tiny fish, miniatures of the adults. They look like jewellery. Wrass are painted in tropical colours, with a tracery of neon blue lines. In other places we see nurseries full of clouds of tiny fish. And a few weeks ago, an orgy of mating hermit crabs in a shallow rock pool. The rock pool is next to a set of fossilised pre-human footprints dated to more than 6 million years ago; the exact species is not known.
What I’m reading / listening to
![Lucy by the Sea: From the Booker-shortlisted author of Oh William! by [Elizabeth Strout]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414xyjE7mGL.jpg)
To continue the seaside theme: the new novel by Elizabeth Strout picks up the story of Lucy Barton, one of her previously developed characters, in 2020, in the time of Covid. (For those of you who haven’t read Sprout’s series, it is set in New England; one of them, OLIVE AGAIN, won a Pulitzer Prize). Lucy is practically kidnapped by William, her ex-husband. He removes her from her life in New York, taking her to a rented house in Maine, where he intends them both to stay and wait out the pandemic. William is a scientist, a chemist; Lucy is a writer. This book is especially poignant for me, recalling as it does the early days of the pandemic lockdowns, when protection was paramount, and sickness too often resulted in death. There are many differences between Lucy and me. Lucy and William have several children, I think 4 between them; we have none. Lucy is widowed; I am married. Lucy could walk to the sea; we could not, during the first lockdown. But the point for me is that our lives, my life, Al’s life, are still restricted, allbeit voluntarily.
William kidnapped Lucy. We have kidnapped ourselves. Some of Lucy’s friends in New York die of ‘the virus’; none of our friends and relatives have died, but many, maybe most, have been sick with it, and some have not healed. The statistics are piling up for long Covid, and the true nature of the disease is becoming clearer: it’s not a respiratory disease like flu, but a disease affecting the blood vessels, which goes some way to explaining its very diverse symptoms. Understandably, we don´’t want to catch it.
In Europe, and, so far as we can judge, America, the burden of prevention has been placed firmly on the shoulders of individuals. The advice is still there on public health websites: get vaccinated, wear a mask in crowded indoor spaces, test, stay home etc etc. But the evidence of our own eyes, what we see around us, is that the virus is not worth worrying about. Mask wearing is too restrictive, we need to hug our friends, we have to go out for a drink / a concert, a film, a restaurant meal; for the sake of our mental health we need to get back to ‘normal’. Here’s the thing - of course we realise that not everyone can shelter in the way we do. Because we were in Crete at the start of the lockdown, and chose to stay, it was natural to cultivate our virtual lives. WhatsApp, Zooms, this blog all gained a significance. I even started to write more emails to friends, emails that looked more like letters. Historically many relationships have flourished through the post.
My point is that everyone should be able to work, move freely in their world, have their children attend school in safety. As a society we, in the rich world, have not tolerated such a risk to life and health in modern times. Current UK infections from Covid around 2 or 3 million. Deaths only in the 10s per day, not the hundreds but still far more than we would tolerate in road accidents or plane crashes. There has been a passive acceptance of the lack of public health information , support for self-quarantine, clean, filtered air in public spaces of all kinds, mask wearing as part of daily life where safety can’t be guaranteed. These are normal actions that a society can take, not the ‘draconian’ measures that we have been told to fear. The political parties seem to have no interest in this strategy, preferring to take the easier line that we are in a post-pandemic world.
My point is that everyone should be able to work, move freely in their world, have their children attend school in safety. As a society we, in the rich world, have not tolerated such a risk to life and health in modern times. Current UK infections from Covid around 2 or 3 million. Deaths only in the 10s per day, not the hundreds but still far more than we would tolerate in road accidents or plane crashes. There has been a passive acceptance of the lack of public health information , support for self-quarantine, clean, filtered air in public spaces of all kinds, mask wearing as part of daily life where safety can’t be guaranteed. These are normal actions that a society can take, not the ‘draconian’ measures that we have been told to fear. The political parties seem to have no interest in this strategy, preferring to take the easier line that we are in a post-pandemic world.
For more detail on the research regarding blood vessel damage, you could take a look at Indie SAGE on YouTube October 28, where a couple of serious researchers really unpack the latest findings. You could skip the data summary for the UK, not much change there, so go in ar ound 15 minutes.
More Men than Women, More Goats than Cats
John is the most interesting character to me, seduced by Crete and in love with the place for the rest of his life. He bought a semi-derelict Venetian palazzo overlooking Chania old harbour, where his ashes are scattered.
This blog is long enough, so take a look at the link if you want to know more!!
[https://www.johncraxton.org/charmed-lives-in-greece-exhibition-at-the-british-museum/]
Indie SAGE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZegZXIMpYk
Footprints: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachilos_footprints
Craxton: https://www.johncraxton.org/charmed-lives-in-greece-exhibition-at-the-british-museum/
Lucy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucy-Sea-Booker-shortlisted-author-William/dp/0241606993
Other retailers are available!!
Music: [Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - just because I like the title!]
Music: [Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - just because I like the title!]
COMING SOON: What's happening to the Plot / build ?
