The Rain in Spain … falls largely on Crete

Well, Crete may have under half the number of days of rain in October, but when it does rain, boy, does it come down in buckets (they don’t use the phase raining cats and dogs, but say it’s raining chair legs!).

With the interspersal of bright sunny periods, it’s rather reminiscent of April in England. However, not quite April showers, when the rain is driven by a force 9 southerly wind, even with the shutters tightly closed, the rain sneaks in under the doors, giving a new lease of life to the redundant summer beach towels.

It’s not too bad really, provided that I can keep the rainwater from coming from the road into the garden. There are no drains to speak of except the occasional huge hole for the rain to disappear, so strategically placed stones to divert the water away from the gates will have to suffice (fingers crossed). The garden took a battering from the driving rain and some of the more exposed larger plants in pots look very much worse for wear, and have been moved to a safer part of the garden. We have lost a lot of olives from the trees, and some of the young fruit trees and palms will need staking or tied up for protection again the wilder winter days. Slightly different from problems from gardening in Hampshire?

Second guessing the weather is an impossibility here and even the TV stations seem to contradict each other, and the poor old BBC is at odds with the Hellenic National Meteorological Service. Maybe it’s because Greece is so spread and diverse with all the islands as well as the mainland.

So it’s wise not to have the wet weather gear too far away and even my English umbrella has come into it’s own. Though there seems to be no answer to muddy paws …. Fortunately Buffy has always intensely disliked the wet, so is not inclined to venture outside unless forcibly “encouraged”.

So I still throw open the shutters to welcome the day every morning, and have the joy of the mountains but now often shrouded in cloud rather than the backdrop of a blue sky …. O lucky Man.

The last of the summer ouzo

I guess that the summer is really drawing to a close at last. Sunrise comes late and cool and the evenings draw in, bringing an end to the dinner on the sun terrace.

The hammock is stored away, the sun umbrella swathed in its plastic coat, sunbeds and chairs stacked, and BBQ tucked away. T-shirts and swimmers neatly piled back into the wardrobe drawers and the start of searching out warmer clothes.

The last cicada screeches at night and our resident praying mantis has disappeared. Small lizards are opting for an indoor life rather than scurry around the garden.

White clouds suddenly cross the ever blue sky and sometimes the mountains now disappear altogether from view as the clouds gather. Yesterday it rained hard for the first time since May but it is just very beautiful here now

Soon the last charter flight full of holidaymakers will wing its way back to Blighty and there will be not direct flights from the island to the UK until next Spring. Our friend Mike will be closing his beach bar in a few weeks for the winter, and there will be a long loud exhausted sigh from those working in the tourist resorts after a hard summer.

We have started to think of winter and build up our stock of logs and kindling for the somba (stove) - having honed my new skills with the chain saw (i.e. I still have all limbs intact at the time of writing). We have no idea what it will be like but look forward to the tranquility of it all, especially the more temperate weather. At least we will have two more hours of daylight every day during the depth of winter.

Following the creation of the new garden paths, we await to see how it effects
the run-off of heavy rainfall. Hopefully the garden will not return to its impression of the Somme, as it appeared last March when we arrived. Next task will be the harvesting of the olives from our trees next month.