The Weather

The heat wave has broken, thank goodness. 3 days of very high temps, sweaty nights, what France and Italy had last week.

I had to go down into the town today.  I thought it would be fine on the quad bike with the cool air blowing in my face.  It was fine at 11am, didn't even break a sweat under my helmet.  Ye gods and little fishes, 2 hours later it was a completely different story.   
The road was like a fire breathing dragon sending waves of searing heat up my legs and burning my arms, hot air sizzling the eyebrows.   I kept on waiting for the tar to melt or the tyres to explode.

I made a quick dash inside to turn on the aircon, and then close doors and windows.  You'd think I would be used to scorching heat by now.  But, no.  It affects me phsically now and I really do turn into a zombie.  

By 5pm we'd had enough being stuck in one cool room, one room at a time so we save on the electricity.  Time to literally take the plunge.  Togs on (bathers, swimwear, whatever you call them in your lingo) and down to the sea.   Our first swim of the summer.



Cool, clear waters, a few familiar faces and only the happy sounds of cooling humans

Except for this git on his quad bike who decided it might be fun, for him, to do endless wheelies up and down the beach.  Finally someone in the water yelled at him and he came to a dust swirling standstill.

We always swim down at one end of the beach, away from the foreigners

The overhanging tree gives shade and there is a bench and a low wall to lay your towel.  As you enter the water there are sharp stones and spiny sea urchins.  NOT this year!  The north wind did a terrific job all winter blowing in tons of sand which has completely covered rocks and urchins.  Oh what a delight to wade straight into the water without having to do that dance to protect the tootsies.  The sand is soft, the water shallow and warm, so easy to go straight into the sea.  

I swim out to the other side of the bay through a cold stream which must come off the hills. Glorious.  Across the bay a colony of seagulls have settled in and a young goat bleats for his mother somewhere up the on a rocky crag.  I miss the coffee and the chairs of the canteen, closed by the archealogical authorities, but it is still a delightful place for a summer dip.

By the time we left the weather had started its change.  Black clouds over towards Athens, a drop in temperature and thunder rumbling round us.  It didn't rain here but somewhere close by had a doozy of a summer storm.  

We woke next morning to find that 7 people, tourists, had been killed after a mega-storm hit a holiday area in Northern Greece.

Today there is cool air blowing through the house and a ton of dust with it.  Climate change!

I can hear the seagulls squawking as they fly on the air currents.  Sounds as though they're having fun.