NEWSLETTERS

In chronological order earliest to latest or most recent to earliest.

Hello & Welcome to the Skiathos 2007 Newsletter,

The reason I haven’t written one earlier this year is that I suffered a rather bizarre accident in the spring.
With several friends, I was pushing my catamaran across the parking lot at Koukounaries Harbour, to launch her at the ramp there, when the VHF aerial at the top of the mast made contact with a high tension electricity line above (22,000 volts, I am told) and I & my good friend Jacques suffered electrocution as the electricity grounded itself through us! Fortunately Jacques didn’t get such a large dose as me and was able to stay on the island for treatment but I had to be whisked away to hospital in Athens by helicopter. We suffered burns on our arms and particularly on our feet which are still in the process of healing even now. During my two month stay in Athens, two of my toes were amputated as they were completely dead (rather like frostbite) and I underwent several operations to save the rest of my toes.
All in all, quite a shocking experience!
However, all’s well that ends well and the fact that we are both alive, did not suffer any internal injuries (all the internal organs are very sensitive to electric shock) and are almost back to normal (whatever THAT is) is something to be truly grateful for. We received huge amounts of support and since I have returned to the island I have been kissed, hugged or had my hand shaken by so many residents, Skiathitees and foreigners alike. All the support and good wishes have been quite overwhelming; uplifting & humbling at the same time.
It has been a year! Whilst I was still convalescing in a wheelchair back home, we had a very bad forest fire which came to within 2 metres of one of our houses. I could not walk properly at that point and it was the most frustrating experience of my life to watch the fire come ever closer and not be able to do anything about it. Fortunately, some of our Albanian friends (the ones that have built most of our houses and swimming pool) came to help us and with buckets of water from the pool managed to keep the fire at bay. We are eternally grateful to them and really do not know how to thank them enough. We and our guests had to move out for one night just in case it flared up again and because the electricity and water had been cut off. We stayed with friends & the Caravos Hotel at Koukounaries kindly provided free rooms for our guests for the night. The next day we moved back, replaced the burnt water tank and pipes and carried on (almost) as normal. Looking from our land to the hills everything is black but looking towards the main road, the valley is untouched and still lush and green. We consider ourselves very lucky to have escaped with no serious problems.
So, what has gone well this year? Well, it has been our most successful year letting our villas here with more and more regular guests returning. The Real Estate business continued without my presence and Gigi (who was literally thrown in at the deep end) managed wonderfully and completed several deals while I was away. We had talked about taking on another person to help and we have now been joined by Jacqui, a lovely English lady, who has brought order, continuity and also a good sense of fun to the office.
On the island, we have wonderful new asphalt roads going back up in the hills all the way to the Kastro turn off on the north side. No one can believe it! The main road is still a bit of a mess but (rumour has it) this is going to be asphalted as soon as the season ends next month. We shall see……..
In the town more Pelion stone paving has been laid in some of the older areas and the New Harbour, where the yachts moor, has all been repaved and looks very nice. There are still plans to move the ferry harbour down towards the Alkyon Hotel area to stop the traffic chaos whenever a ferry arrives but whether this will happen or not is anyone’s guess.
While I was in hospital, I day-dreamed about visiting all my favourite places on the island and determined that I would do so this summer whatever the state of my feet was. So, once I was reasonably mobile again, I went to Sklithri, Tsougria Island (courtesy of our Dutch friends’ motor boat), Elias (Mandraki) Beach, Kechria Beach, Small Aselinos Beach, Kastro Beach, Aselinos Beach and drove to all my favourite spots in the hinterland of Skiathos. I haven’t been absolutely everywhere I would like to go to but will leave a bit for next year. Having a near death experience makes one appreciate all the more the beauty of this island and the experiences of clean air, good food, love & nurture, and LIFE in general.
I bought a rowing machine to build up my muscles (I lost some 14 kilos in weight and lots of muscle tissue whilst lying in bed) and spend 20 minutes every morning pretending to row down the Thames in the annual boat race, to get my strength back. I look at the nature all around the house and watch the birds to pass the time (as otherwise it gets pretty boring) and this morning spotted three ravens swooping down the valley. They used to live in the area known as “Korakafolia” (literally, “Raven’s Nest”) on the north east side of Skiathos above the airport but seemed to have moved here for the peace & quiet since the advent of the jet charter flights some 20 years ago.

To finish, I must write a few lines about Lida, my wife, who probably suffered more in some ways than I did (she thought she had lost me a couple of times!). She has been an absolute rock and never let me think for one second that this was not all going to turn out OK. Her love, & that of my daughters, has been the most significant factor in my swift recovery.

Bye for now,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Christmas/Winter Skiathos Newsletter,

We were sitting in the ouzeri on the Old Port, sipping a tsiporo, listening to the locals stoking each other up over one thing or another, when one of the fishing boats returned to the harbour. It was surrounded by a cloud of gulls making their strange half cat, half baby cries, and was being closely watched by a group of men waiting to see if there would be anything worth buying from the catch. The haul was not large but obviously had some good fish in it because the group grew as the catch was wheeled down to the fish market to be sold. Business was brisk as people vied for the better and bigger fish and then settled down after the first rush. The cats prowled around hoping for an odd fish head or even, if they were lucky, a whole fish or two. The sun, which had been shining brightly all day, dipped down behind the upper church and suddenly the temperature dropped by 5 degrees prompting most of the tables at the ouzeri to call for their bills and head for home. Across the !
 water, in the far distance, the snow covered mountains of Evvia reminded us that we are well and truly into non summer mode and that, Greek island notwithstanding, we get a real winter and it will be a while before we are back in shorts and T shirts weather.
The Greeks do do a lot of sitting around drinking, eating (never taking drink without food and glasses of water) talking, and joshing each other. They do a lot of what we English call, ?taking the piss? or "taking the mickey" out of each other and sometimes it looks like they will come to blows, but it is all done in good heart and is usually designed to create that most beloved of Greek events: DRAMA! If someone, or a group, can get someone else or another group close to anger without it actually spilling over into the real thing, it is considered a job well done. Nothing is sacred and, in a society that is probably as democratic as you can get (i.e. everyone thinks they are the equal of anyone else) any opportunity to poke fun is exploited remorselessly. A lot of foreigners do not understand the Greeks (& I certainly don't profess to understand them fully) but the priorities are just different here. Some think them lazy, but I have seen them working far harder than any other people I know (when it suits them); but they live to a different drum beat and the work ethic and money earning ability of northern Europe and the States comes quite well down on their list of priorities. And that's why we like it here! OK, it's hard and frustrating when you are trying to get something organised (as a real estate agent, I can tell you all about that) but most of us are here because a totally organised life, doesn't have much LIFE in it.
I have quoted the Tourist Ten Commandments on the web pages (as posted by "Shadowfax" on the bulletin board) and will list them again here. They apply almost equally to those of us who live full time or a lot of the time here.
Thou shalt not expect to find things as thou hast left them at home, for thou hast left home to find things different.
Thou shalt not take anything too seriously, for a carefree attitude is the basis for a fine holiday.
Thou shalt not allow other tourists to get on thy nerves, for thou art paying good money to enjoy thyself.
Remember to take only half the clothes thou thinkest thou needest and twice the money.
Know at all times where thy passport is, for a person without a passport is a person without a country.
Remember that if we had been meant to stay in one place, we would have been created with roots.
Thou shalt not worry, for he who worrieth hath no pleasure.
When in Greece thou shalt be prepared to do somewhat as the locals.
Thou shalt not judge the people of a country by one person who hath given thee grief.
Remember, thou art a guest in other lands and he that treateth his host with respect, shall be honoured.

What else has been happening? Well, we had the municipal elections and the incumbent (who was originally the Deputy Mayor but became Mayor when the previous Mayor had to step down) was elected by an overwhelming majority on the first round of voting. He was the candidate with whom our daughter was standing so we are very pleased with the result. He now has four years to prove what he can do as, in the last few years, he has had to deal with the old guard of councillors who were voted in with the previous Mayor. Our daughter didn't get enough votes to get on the council but would have done if all the foreigners here who are eligible to vote had registered and voted for her. Maybe next time around, who knows?
Concerning the long battle with the Public Power Corporation which wants to pollute the north side of the island with high voltage pylons, we have won the first case in the Council of State (the highest court in Greece) and need to win another one to be (almost) sure to put an end to this awful plan. I say ?almost? because the PPC is virtually a law unto itself (being a government monopoly) and will probably try to do it all over again. We hope that the local motivation to stop them will hold firm.
A bronze statue of Odysseus lashed to the mast (to resist the call of the Sirens) has been unveiled in front of the Bourtzi and dedicated to all the Skiathos seaman who have lost their lives at sea. The Retired Seaman?s Association organized this and funded mostly from the sale of the very nice calendars they produced every year. (Lida doesn't think it is Odysseus, and maybe she is right, but I like to think it is!)
The New Port is finally getting its new paving stones and will look very nice when finished (it's a bit of a tip at the moment!). However, there is no sign of the planned new ferry harbour at the end of the New Port so I assume we will still have trucks driving past the cafes and the Port Police blowing their whistles frantically as they try to manoeuvre the trucks on and off the ferries in the cramped quarters of the present ferry harbour. There are major road works at Megali Ammos where the road keeps subsiding and it is now impossible to drive past so everyone living and working past this point (an awful lot of people) have to drive up the mountain, past Platanos Taverna and Profitis Elias, even higher to Agios Konstatinos and then drop back down the long "scar" road to either Vasilia or Platanias (Ahia Paraskevi) before they get back on the main road again. This adds about 15 minutes (and much cursing) to the journey. As I come in every day to the office, I am not very happy about it, but the work needs doing so, as the Greeks say, "Ti a kanoumai?" ("what can you do?"). Also we have had a large landslide close to Sklithri (incredibly heavy rains in a very short period!) and the road is temporarily half blocked there. At east the council is getting on with these works and not leaving the to the last minute (i.e.just before the first charter flight arrived) as used to happen so often in the past. We just hope they will be finished soon.

We have picked our olives and have a good supply of oil again, hopefully enough to last us for two years until the next harvest. The wine is bubbling away and will probably be broached (far too early!) for Christmas. We have a good stock of logs for the fire so, even if we do get a large dump of snow which could cut us off (and it seems to happen more and more frequently nowadays) we should be able to weather it OK.
Many people have been arriving to complete contracts, or to sign pre contracts for houses still being built, and the office has been tremendously busy. Several old town houses have been bought and renovations are about to start on them. It's really nice to see the town being brought back to what it once was with lots of old stone house being restored rather than pulled down and ugly concrete blocks taking their place. Of course, although they still have the look, character and feel of an old house, they now incorporate all the modern luxuries as well. Our latest Property Newsletter number 4 is now out and can be seen at: http://www.skiathosproperty.com/newsletters.htm
Bookings for our houses in Zorbathes are already very good and we think it will be a much better year than this one where the football World cup more or less killed June off here as far as tourism was concerned. All in all, it wasn't a bad year for the island although you will always hear many Greeks grumbling about how bad it was, just in case the tax man is listening!

OK, I think that's it for the moment. As I look down Papadiamanti Street to the harbour, where a gentle breeze is ruffling the water, I cannot think of any other place in the world where I rather be.
I do hope many of you will be back next year to share it with us again.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the Summer/Autumn Skiathos Newsletter,

Disgustingly late for summer I'm afraid and too early for autumn but, there we go, I just haven't had the time to get anything written down before now.
Ah! You say, he's been having too much fun (again!). Well, there has been a goodly amount of fun but it's really been the pressure of work that has kept me from getting this out to you.

A really good day was the 15th of August which is the height of the summer madness, a very big Greek religious festival and the time when most Greeks go to the islands for a holiday. Also, for us, a break from the office, as we observe all the Greek Bank holidays. We always say that, if we survive past the 15th, we get to live for another year! We took ourselves off to Kastro Beach figuring that most people would be recovering from the late night services and probably wouldn't make it as far as there. We were right. It was very quiet and Apostoli (who runs the lovely beach taverna there) was able to relax and chat in between serving the few customers who had made it down the path. He was also grateful to have a quiet day as he had been extremely busy for the previous month in which the weather had been fine and calm and the many tourist boats came every day to his beach to visit the old town of Kastro. We asked if he had any fresh fish and he produced two different kinds plus a plate of tender calamaries which we washed down with copious drafts of ouzo and wine. I crashed out on the beach for a snooze and was later woken by the laughter of our youngest daughter frolicking in the sea with her boyfriend. I staggered back up to the taverna with the raging thirst that one too many ouzos brings and Apostoli took one look at me and said, "Ella, katsi, kafe, nero?" "Sit, I bring you"  He knew immediately what I needed and, with that great Greek hospitality embedded deep in his bones, told me that it was, "on the house". Sitting there sipping my Greek coffee and drinking my water, I felt so content and happy, and realized, once again, that it is the simple things in life that bring real pleasure.

After a while, gazing up at the sheer cliffs of Kastro I started to wonder what it must have been like to live there during the Turkish occupation and with life occasionally threatened by passing pirates. So different from now. Times were hard then and just scraping a bare living from the soil and the sea and trying to feed the family was a constant worry. Also, having to keep your head down so as not to offend the local "Effendi" must have been extremely difficult for a people as proud and independent as the Greeks are. Families were large as that was the only way to have enough hands to feed everyone and look after the old ones who could no longer do the physical labour. Every wild herb and green was utilized to supplement the diet and help heal the sick and olives and olive oil were the main staple of the diet. Meat was kept for special occasions and holidays, when perhaps an old goat or sheep that was no longer producing any milk might be slaughtered. Having started our stay in Skiathos trying to do the "back to the land" thing and striving for self sufficiency, we know just how hard life can be when you are a "peasant" trying to sustain yourself with just what the land can offer.

The Greek Orthodox Church was the mainstay of the Greek culture in those days and kept everything together despite the Turkish occupation. (They say that there were almost as many churches in Kastro as there were houses!) Perhaps that is why the church is still extremely important today in all Greeks lives. Marriages, births and deaths always involve a church service. Even the opening of a new business or venture needs to be blessed by lashings of holy water splashed on everyone with a sprig of basil by the local priest. I stood for the local council 8 years ago and, even though I am not a Greek Orthodox Church member, I had to receive the priest's blessing!

All of this leads me on to the next local elections this October. There will be four candidates standing for mayor this year and one of them has to get 43% of the vote to get in on the first round. If none of them do, then the two with the most votes go on for a second round of voting. Needless to say, all four reckon they will win in the first round (hmmnnn, I don't think so!) During the last election, I made comments (in that particular newsletter) about each candidate, and then was extremely surprised to get a lot of flack from local people (I didn't even know they read the newsletters!) as they were upset about what they took as negative observations about their particular choice (I was pretty negative about all the candidates!). This year, I will just say that our eldest daughter is standing for councillor, so you can be pretty sure where our votes are going!

A quick welcome to all the new people who have signed up for this newsletter since the last one, it is always gratifying that for every 1 person who wants to be removed from the mailing list, some 20 odd sign up.
We are now producing a skiathosproperty.com newsletter with a listing of all the new properties that have come on to the market recently plus information about the process of acquiring property here. If you wish to receive this, you can sign up at www.skiathosproperty.com on the home page.
The property market is very strong with lots of interest from our web site visitors plus the extra new clients coming through the office door. This time of year is when contracts get completed, after people have viewed and chosen their property through the summer. We remain very busy until Christmas when almost everything (& especially the bureaucracies!) closes down for 3 weeks. Lida and I will then take a few weeks holiday ourselves (Holland, as always, and then on to Cuba for a week is the plan this year) but the office will always stay open as Gigi will be there when I am away and I will cover for her when she and her family go to Holland. In March, things pick up again and often this is the time when deals between local Greeks are completed. No one here has much time in the summer to think about buying property as they are far too busy trying to make money from the season.

Good news: for those of you who have not visited this year or for those who came but didn't notice, McDonalds has closed down! Greece has some of the best ?fast food? in the world with its "Gyros pitta" and to have people sitting at McDonalds, filling themselves with crap, was the last thing I (& many others) wanted to see in our beautiful little island.
Other good news: the old (illegal) rubbish dump is being closed down and will be replanted with trees and (in theory) brought back to its original, forested state. It will be replaced by a brand new one which is supposed to follow all the relevant E.U. regulations (including recycling - we will see) & should not pollute the area it is being made in. The bad news is that it can be seen from half the island and by everyone arriving from Volos or Aghios Konstantinos by hydrofoil, Flying Cat or ferry. As usual, they only got it half right!

Well, that's it for now. I am off to Tsoungria on "Merlin" (even though there is no wind and it is overcast) as I need to make the most of my free Sundays. I love to sit, relaxed, with an ouzo in my hand, and look across the water at Skiathos where all the work and worries are (relatively far away).

I leave you with smell of the pines in my nose of the taste of the fresh figs on my tongue. I wish I could share them with you all in person rather than in writing.

Come back soon.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the (rather late) Autumn 2005 Skiathos Newsletter,

Skiathos has gone into "hibernation" mode. I stood on Papadiamanti Street yesterday (Saturday) afternoon at 16:00, waiting to meet a client, and there was hardly a soul in sight and no shops open. Very strange when I think back to the crowds that move constantly up and down throughout the day and late into the night in the summer. Granted, when the sun is shining, the Old Port waterfront cafes and ouzerias do have people in them enjoying a drink and soaking up a bit of relaxed sunshine, but in general, it is very quiet.

There are many plans, among them paving the road to Kastro; finishing the harbour paving and road; extending the airport parking apron and the runway; opening a new rubbish dump (with recycling even!) and closing and renovating the old one. However, none of these has yet started so maybe none of them will happen (at least not this year). Local elections are coming up next October so the promises are abundant. We will see what happens in fact.

The court case against the DEH (Public Power Corporation) regarding the proposed high tension power line across the north of the island (see previous newsletters at: http://skiathosinfo.com/newsletters2.htm and/or this web page: http://skiathosinfo.com/DEH/powerlines.htm) seems to have ground to a halt with both sides apparently happy with this situation. The DEH?s hope is that our resistance will wither with time, but our hope is that, since the DEH will have to be broken up to comply with EU laws (it is at present a Government monopoly), we may be able to negotiate better with a private company that is not used to riding roughshod over environmental laws and local opinion. Meanwhile, at least, it is not happening.

I have started playing some tennis again (Lida never stopped) and it is a great pleasure but somewhat hard on my ageing, tired, unfit body. This has been stimulated by the presence of a Dutch couple who have moved to the island. Thomas was a tennis coach and Martine a tennis professional and Martine has revived the (once) thriving tennis lessons for the Skiathos children and any adults like us who which to improve their game. They also take pity on us by playing doubles with us and, although we are nowhere near their standard, we still have some interesting games and rallies. I love doubles as I was always fairly good at the net and I can let my partner do most of the running!

The weather, which was not at its best in September and October, has settled into a pattern of high humidity and haziness. The day starts with an overcast sky which by midday clears away for a lovely sunny afternoon (thus the ouzos on the waterfront after midday). There are no real sunsets but the sun is a wonderful glowing red ball for an hour and a half before it finally sinks into the sea. This is quite spectacular from the road above Koukounaries in the Maratha area. The fruit trees, vines and plane trees have all changed into their autumn colours and there is that special smell in the air of wood smoke, mushrooms and slow decay. Not all the island has olives this year but there are about half the olive groves with some and you can see groups of figures crouched over picking the olives from the ground. Our trees have nothing so we will have to get oil from the press this year. Since most islanders now make their living directly or indirectly through tourism, the olive groves have been sadly neglected and this is quite apparent in the lessening of the olive crop. Olive trees (like all living things) thrive on love and attention but if they don't get regular pruning and fertilizing, they start to suffer badly. Given the right treatment, they will produce for hundreds of years. When pruned they are also providers of food for donkeys and goats and olive wood is among the best in the world for burning in the fireplace. All in all a bountiful part of nature.

On the home front, we are renovating a kalivi (small Greek cottage) on our land and turning it into a nice place to live. It is down by one of the stream beds that border the land and which is a lovely, shady, cool spot in the summer. Our houses rented pretty well last summer and bookings are coming in for next year so we must be doing something right. I am looking to open an office in Skiathos Town for next season and take on some help, as both the real estate and web site business are becoming much more than I can handle alone working out of this small office in our house. The web site is growing almost exponentially as more and more rental owners seek to advertise their villas, studios and rooms independently. Businesses are also coming on board and we hope to add a whole Greek section to it shortly. If anyone has any ideas about how we can improve the site, please email me at: geof@skiathosinfo.com
For property details and information, go to: www.skiathosproperty.com

We are still hoping to offer direct flights to Skiathos (at least from Gatwick) for next year and our researches into this are ongoing. We will inform you as soon as we have news and, if it is positive, it will certainly be featured at the top of the www.skiathosinfo.com home page.

The next big event on the island is the celebration on November 20^th at the Monastery of Kounistria, just up the road from us, past the Dog Shelter. Here follows information taken from Betsy Barnard?s Skiathos Calendar about the event:
On the morning of the 20^th the miraculous icon is brought up to the top church and taken out from the town about 2:30. The bells ring in town about 1. People follow on foot on the old road to Kounistria. At the monastery of Kounistria there is an evening service and an all night vigil. Large bonfires are made and there is much feasting. Buses run to the monastery all evening. Early next morning, about 5, the icon is taken back along the old road to town, people following on foot. To Ayia Triada about 8, down the old paved road to the Kalo Pigadi and along the main road to the church, Tries Hierches. Service 9-10:30.
They say she smiles (the icon that is) as she is taken back to her own church at the monastery, in tears when brought back to town again.
The miraculous icon was probably discovered sometime in the 1690s. A Hermit who was living near Kounistria then, saw a light shining in one of the pine trees. He sent a message to Kastro (where everyone was living at the time) for the chief Priest and people to come, and they found the icon there.

We have the idea that this hermit lived in the kalivi we are now renovating on our land as you can see exactly where the icon was found from this spot. However, maybe this is just wishful thinking.

Well, that?s it for now. I will leave you with thought of the sea lapping at the scores of perfectly empty beaches.

Regards,

Geof.
 

Hello & welcome to the Skiathos summer 2005 newsletter,

It’s the weekend of the 15th August and suddenly, unexpectedly, I find I have a free day and enough spare time to get this newsletter written.

This weekend is always the pinnacle of the tourist season. The 15th is the second biggest religious festival in the Greek calendar and traditionally, the cities empty and everyone heads for the islands. I have not seen Skiathos so full for several years and, at the moment, I doubt if there is a spare bed on the island. We say to ourselves every year, if we manage to survive the 15th, we get to live for another year. By next weekend, most of the Greek and Italian tourists will have returned to their homes and we will settle back to the (comparative) slower pace of the charter tourism. Thank goodness we have the tranquilly of our green and peaceful valley of Zorbathes where we are always away from the hustle & bustle whatever time of the season it is. There’s no avoiding the roads though and extra care is needed with so much traffic.

We have had many old friends staying with us this year, one of whom I haven’t seen for 23 years, and it has been wonderful to renew the bonds of friendship and realise that time and distance will never break a true fellowship. Lida’s sister, her man (my partner for many years in our market garden times) and their children are coming from New Zealand in September and Lida’s father will be here for five weeks in the same period. It promises a busy but rewarding time.

Our houses have been full for most of the season and we are already getting several enquiries for next summer. Having the swimming pool has made all the difference. Our guests enjoyed the peace and quiet but now that they can have a swim at any time, it has made everything perfect. We have made many more acquaintanceships that we hope will turn into friendships over the coming years.

Apart from a couple of days of rain (one day it was very heavy with a spectacular thunderstorm) it has been hot, hot, hot. Of course the tourists are loving it but when you are working and don’t have the luxury of falling into the sea or swimming pool every so often, it can start to get bothersome. The island, however, has stayed amazingly green for the time of year. Here in Zorbathes, admittedly one of the greenest places on the island, we usually expect everything to have browned off and be waiting for the late October rains but it is still incredibly verdant. Perhaps that thunderstorm and downpour put enough water into the earth to support a lot more new growth.

Our new mayor has put a lot of emphasis on keeping the island clean this year and has managed very successfully. He has taken on extra workers for the season and one can see the difference. He, and the local council, have also been doing much to bring the village up to a better standard. Stone walls have been laid where before was just rough concrete or a pile of rubble, more green and garden areas have been created, the old port is completely rejuvenated and this winter, the new port (yacht harbour) is due to follow. I must give him a “bravo” and raise a glass (never a problem) to his efforts. One thing that hasn’t been sorted properly is the situation of the beach tavernas. This is because the local council is stuck between the law (which says they are totally illegal) and the desire of all of the tourists and many of us residents to be able to continue to enjoy a Greek salad, a plate of fresh fish and a wine or ouzo next to the sea. Of course, in Greece, “legal” and “illegal” are extremely blurred areas (what! how is that possible you may ask, but this is the Greek way) so there is a lot of wiggle room and mostly the beach tavernas have been allowed to continue. One problem is the taverna and bar at Vromolimnos Beach, which is incredibly popular with youngsters and a huge attraction for them on the island. This has been open, closed, open again and now looks closed for the rest of the season. Why?….who knows? In Greece it is often difficult to get to the bottom of things even in an island this small and there are as many theories as there are people!

Regarding the high-tension electricity pylons that the PPC is threatening to despoil the north of the island with, there is to be some (final????) decision this October and we are reasonably confident that we will be able to stop them. Of course, in Greece, nothing is sure, so we will have to wait and see.

The web site is growing by leaps and bounds and more and more people are booking their holidays via our pages. We tried to offer a source of flight only tickets to be able to help further this growing trend but our contacts, unfortunately, could not deliver the promised tickets. My apologies to all who tried to get flights this way. We are researching other possibilities for next year and, if this comes together, there will immediately be a link near the top of my main page for this service.

Well, that’s it for now. A nice breeze has just started and, if I get a chance, I will sail over to Tsoungria with some good friends for an ouzo or two and a snack.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Spring 2005 Skiathos Newsletter.

Monday 14th March was Katharo Theftera (Clean Monday) when most of Greece goes for picnics and to fly kites for the beginning or the Lent fasting period. Traditionally only seafood and anything that doesn’t bleed may be eaten but there is such a wealth of good food within this range that there is always an abundance of things to sample. We go to Koukounaries every year where we meet up with many friends, attempt to get kites up and consume far too much wine and food. Conversation is non-stop and we usually endeavour to be the last to stagger home where we collapse on to the sofa and wonder why we do this to ourselves every year. Actually it is always a great day and the weather is hardly ever bad. This year we had blue skies and sun but very little wind.

Several Sundays ago, the local council organised a Carnival Parade on the newly paved Old Port. The new paving and the destruction of the plastic tents that used to dominate the Old Port has bought it back to life and it is so nice to have so much space to stroll around in, meet friends and enjoy the spring weather. The Carnival Parade started with a clown entertaining the kids for an hour or so and then the school classes and various local organisations paraded past dressed as everything from drunken Greek farmers through pussycats to witches. Free wine, sausages and souvlaki were on offer and we also contributed lots of money to the local ouzeris. A very good time was had by all.

The week before, on a very blustery Sunday, we decided to visit the north side and try to find the last two places we had never visited Aghios Panteleimon and the Church of the Panayia Glykosfilousa. We set off with our good fiends Becky & Phil having driven towards the Kechria area from the top of Skiathos near Profitis Ilias, and followed the road that was signposted for Panteleimon. The wind was cold but the sun was out so the walking was very enjoyable. As we approached the olive grove where the church of Aghios Panteleimon is situated we noticed several cars and a pickup truck. Next to the church is a small kalivi, barely 3 metres by 2 in which we found 6 local men sitting around a large table covered in food and wine. With typical Greek hospitality and generosity (they were not so sure about inviting women into the party) they insisted we came in, made space and plied us with food and locally made wine, both of which were delicious. One of them had been out picking fresh “Horta” (literally “grass” but actually wild greens such as young dandelions, etc.) and this had been boiled up and then drenched in olive oil. The bitterness of the greens combined with the sweetness of the olive oil and washed down with draughts of the wine made for one of the best meals I have ever had. Also on offer were stuffed calamaries, fish charcoaled on the outside grill, fresh shrimps and several other snacks all prepared by the men themselves. It was their day to get away from their families, get well and truly “happy” on the wine and enjoy themselves with arguments about anything and everything. For some reason they decided that, as a “neutral” party, I had to adjudicate on differences of opinion (of which there were as many as there were people!) and it took all my tact (and a few glasses more wine) not to offend anyone and keep the “discussions” rolling along. Actually, when Greeks are arguing, it looks as if they are going to kill each other but we have rarely seen anyone come to blows. Everything is taken in good heart and even vast differences of political stances are eventually accepted on the Greek principle that everyone is entitled to his opinion (however wrong they may be). What looks like war is mostly piss taking (friendly sarcasm). We eventually beat a retreat and pressed on (rather unsteadily) to Glykofilousa where we unpacked our own picnic but had room only for a cup of coffee. Both these churches are small and sweet and are lovely havens of peace and quiet. On the way back, we stopped at “Pyrgi” and the Church of Anastasia, which is close to where the road dips down towards Kastro. The church is minute and is dedicated to Saint Anastasia who used herbs and natural remedies to cure people of illnesses. The “Pyrgi” is the remains of an old watchtower that was manned in the days of the Persian invasions, several centuries B.C. From this tower, all the Northern Aegean was visible and, should enemies be sighted, a beacon was lit which could be seen from above Koukounaries. They in turn lit a beacon and other beacons were lit going across Evvia Island until the last one was sighted in Athens thus giving the Athenian League several days’ notice of the approach of trouble. The base of the tower was formed from large shaped black stones that would take many men to lift and which can still be seen today.

You may get the impression from all the above that all the Greeks (and ourselves) do is eat, drink and talk. Well, of course that isn’t what happens all the time but it is the essence of Greek life. Good food, washed down with wine or ouzo (tsipouro for me) and, above all, good company (with lots of different opinions) is what makes this society tick. “Parayia”, company, is all important. I have had locals take pity on me because I was reading a book on the hydrofoil to Volos and come a sit and chat with me for the rest of the journey. Obviously, I would only be reading because I didn’t have anyone to talk to!

We hope the Supreme Court will finally decide on the problem with the high-tension pylons from the Public Power Corporation at the end of March (if the case is not put off again) and we have every indication that the decision will be positive for the island. Hopefully the PPC will cease to lobby to put these pylons across the northeast of the island but will go for the undersea cable option instead. However, in Greece, you never know. I will keep you all informed.

Spring has definitely sprung and many fruit trees are in blossom. There are lots of migrating birds and it is a delight to wake up to their birdsong every morning. The townsfolk are starting to stir from the winter somnambulism and mix up their buckets of whitewash to refresh the town again. Businesses are going through renovations or upgrades and the energy is definitely starting to flow. We are putting our villas in order and cleaning the swimming pool area, the land and pruning the trees and vines. (BTW. The wine was less in quantity this year but tastes better than ever!) Greek Easter will be on the 1st of May this year so it may be interesting for some of you to come and experience this best of Greek holidays. If you ever wish to know when Greek Easter is (or Northern Europe’s Easter) go to this web page where a neat bit of Javascript I found will work it out for you. http//skiathosinfo.com/easter-dates.htm

Again a reminder for anyone owning property in Greece. By May, all property owners in Greece must make a tax declaration. Even if you have made the statutory tax declaration the year after you purchased the property, you will still have to make another one next year. If you have NOT ever made a tax declaration you MUST get your affairs in order this year. Contact your accountant for more information. If you do not have an accountant, I can recommend one.

Email me at geof@skiathosinfo.com

For those looking for property, go to my property web site http//skiathosproperty.com

There are quite a lot of new properties listed this year so if you haven’t had a look recently, go and check them out.

Also lots more accommodation is listed on my Accommodation Index http//skiathosinfo.com/accomm/ As more and more locals realise that the Internet offers them a great way to sell their accommodation directly to their guests (& more & more of you are booking through the Internet) these pages have grown and grown. There is now a wealth of choice from very upmarket villas to simple, but clean, self-catering apartments and studios. For flights to Skiathos, check the link at the top of my home page http//skiathosinfo.com

Well, that’s it for now. I will leave you with the buzz of the bees in the fruit tree blossoms and that indefinable smell in the air that tells us winter is over.

Regards,

Geof.

 Click here for the 2004 Christmas newsletter.

Hello and welcome to the Skiathos summer newsletter.

Greetings to all the new subscribers since the last newsletter and, of course, hello again to all you regulars.

The most recent excitement in Skiathos was the arrival of the Olympic Flame. It was flown in on a military helicopter and was passed from hand to hand as it was ran from the airport, along the seashore, around the ring road and down Papadiamanti Street to the Bourtzi. There were vast crowds there to greet it and fireworks were let off. This was then followed by a concert in the open-air theatre. The crowds were a bit too much for us so we chose to go to a nice quiet taverna near the Plakes where we could watch the full moon come up over Arkos and Skopelos. We did hear the fireworks but couldn't see them. However, shortly afterwards, from the beach at Arkos, more fireworks were set off which we could see but not hear. Very beautiful at such a distance. With the full moon coming up a bit later and some glasses of tsipouro and wine under our belts, it was voted a fine evening by all.

We watched the opening ceremony last night and thoroughly enjoyed that. How they created some of the special effects, I still don't know. I wish, for Greece's sake, that it will be a great Olympics. They certainly got off to a good start.

The other huge Greek celebration was of course winning the Euro 2004 Football Championship. All of Greece broke into one huge party that carried on all night. At around 02:00 the Skiathos brass band girded its loins (or rather, struggled into their uniforms) and marched down the waterfront to add to the cacophony of horns and hooters, singing and shouting. I have never seen so many Greek flags in my life and you can still see them on buses, cars and even the delivery trucks humping sand & gravel to building sites.

Greece really needed that win. It has had so much bad publicity about not being able to be ready for the Olympics that it's ego (never small!) had taken a good bruising. This was just the lift they needed and they thoroughly deserved it.

The island has been quieter this year than for a long time. Tourism is down here, as it seems to be everywhere in Europe except for the really cheap destinations like Turkey and Croatia. Is it the Olympics, is Greece getting too expensive, is it the ongoing terrorist paranoia stoked up by Bush and his cronies? Who knows? We just know that it is actually nice to have less people around, the roads and beaches are quieter, there is not that frenzy that often happens about now and, although everyone is hurting to a greater or lesser degree financially, everyone seems more relaxed.

We cannot complain. Our houses are renting quite well (the new pool obviously playing a large role in that) and we already have some bookings for next year. We think (hope) that the magic of Skiathos will always attract discerning clients and that, if one offers a quality service, guests will continue to return to enjoy the relaxing peace and quiet that we offer.

We held our annual regatta last week. It is partially in memory of John Bremner (therefore called the John Bremner Memorial Regatta) and partially an excuse for a lot of nice people to get together and have a good time. 8 boats took part ranging from an 18 foot beach cat to tiny Toppers. Of course, the beach catamarans took the major honours (they would be hard to beat even carrying a few sacks of cement) but a venerable Yeoman (built some 25 odd years ago) came in third having judged the winds and course well. It even managed to hoist a spinnaker on the downwind stretches. We all adjourned to Sklithri Taverna to enjoy some ouzo, wine and snacks and the prizes were duly presented. A glass was raised to John's memory. He always supported anyone who sailed or who wanted to learn, and I had a few good sails with him across to the mainland and learned a lot from him (including an appreciation of a fine malt whisky or two!).

The island has a new mayor. We hope he will pay attention to some of the basic needs of the island like the roads and the rubbish situation, and try to bring it up to a standard on a par with islands like Mykonos where pride in their island, cleanliness and attention to detail bring tourists back year after year. He has, at least, been supportive of our efforts to fight the PPC (see following paragraph).

For those of you waiting to hear about the situation with the Public Power Corporation's plans to put pylons across the northeast part of Skiathos, the news is that there is no news at the moment. Everything goes into abeyance in the summer. Half the population goes on holiday and the other half is working hard serving them and the foreign tourists and trying to make a living. There was to be a decision by the highest court in the land in July but that seems to be put off until the beginning of December. What we are afraid of is that the islanders will forget or become complacent about the situation and that the solidarity against the pylons will shrink and wither away with time. We will try and get everyone stoked up about it again this autumn once the season winds down.

Thanks to everyone who submitted our email protest form at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/DEH/protest-form.htm> every little helps!

For those that don't know about this situation, there is more information at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/DEH/powerlines.htm>

The other evening, I was sitting out on our back terrace having watched the sun go down when it suddenly struck me that all I could hear was the quiet susurrations of the night crickets, my neighbour's sheep calling to each other, the tinkle of goat bells in the distance as a herd settled itself down for the night and the odd hoot of a couple of owls who nest close to our house. No cars, no hooters, no sirens, no planes, no man made noise at all except the tinkle of ice in my glass of ouzo. Bliss!

A friend of mine (whose house I helped to build) said that she hates my newsletters!!!! When she is in England and receives them she just wants to be back so much it hurts. I am still trying to figure out if this is a compliment or not!

Anyway, Skiathos is always here and waiting for anyone who wishes to enjoy her. I shall continue to love living here, warts and all (the island, I mean!) and bother people by writing about my view of it.

I leave you with the chirp of cicadas in my ears, the heat of the sun on my back and the happy sounds of people splashing around in the pool.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Spring 2004 Skiathos Newsletter.

I am sending this today, Sunday, hoping that it will brighten up your Monday morning.Easter has come and gone and we celebrated with all our good friends who always come for this special time of year. The weather was brilliant and we managed to hold ourselves in patience and give the Pascal lamb a proper slow roasting over the coals (5 hours!). The food was voted the best ever and we washed it down with our own wine. For us it is always special because it signals the definite end to winter and the time when we can start to think of warm to hot days, sailing over to Tsoungria, walking to Kechria, seeing all the good friends and acquaintances we have made over the years, and drinking an ouzo (or two) whilst watching the sun go down.

On to local news. Some of you will already be aware that many of us (Skiathitees and foreigners) are fighting against having a high-tension power line supported on massive pylons being put through the north and east of the island. There is more information about this at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/DEH/powerlines.htm> which voices what our objections are based on.

On the Tuesday after Easter there was a demonstration against the Public Power Corporation (DEH) who are intending to despoil one of the last untouched areas of Skiathos by constructing this high voltage overhead line.

Most of the residents of the island are against this for health, environmental and economic reasons. The island closed down completely between 10:30 and 12:30 and an impressive turnout of something between 1,500 and 2,500 people carrying banners and placards, met at the high school, marched down the main street and listened to speakers just before the Bourtzi on the harbour front. (It was amazing that, in this society where no one can agree on anything and family members have been known not to speak to one another for years over some small dispute, so many were agreed on this issue). Impassioned speeches were made by all members of Skiathos society, from the head of the church to the children of the junior school, plus several guest speakers from all political spectrums. The DEH say that the alternative (putting in an undersea cable) is far too expensive but our argument is that our health (and that of our children) plus the cost of the environmental damage would be far higher in the long run. The highlight for me was when a representative of one of the junior school classes said that they would hold a bazaar, bake cakes and collect donations to help the DEH with the terrible burden of the extra cost! The fishermen, tourist boat owners and a yacht made a symbolic block of the harbour entrance (no ferries were expected at that time) to show that they too were concerned. The demonstration closed with the students from the high school putting on a small play that ended with them casting an effigy of the DEH into the sea. Many TV stations had cameras recording the event and, as well as news reports, there have been several topical programs discussing the issue. We hope that this will make some impression on the DEH, the government and anyone else who may find themselves in a similar situation. There is an appeal due in June at the highest court in the land against the decision to allow these pylons and we are working with pro bono lawyers to try to get a positive decision for the island. We believe that our demonstration will help in that fight. I have posted photos of the demonstration at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/DEH/demo.htm>

If any of you wish to support our cause, there is a form at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/DEH/protest-form.htm> which you can submit (after adding your name and email address) and which we will forward to the DEH and to the ministries involved in this case. All help will be gratefully received. We feel that this is an issue of the utmost importance to the island and, if you have ever had a good holiday here, it would be good to add your voice to ours to try to keep our beautiful island from this threat.

Our new swimming pool is now finished and has enhanced our accommodation facilities immensely. As always, we have worked with Jacques and Andreas (French & Albanian) who, with their excellent team of Albanian craftsmen, have created one of the best pools in Skiathos. Whether it was because this was the first pool they have created from the beginning (they have already had lots of experience with every aspect of building pools) or whether we have been the recipients of extra special care, I don't know, but it is perfect! When the tiles go on is when one sees whether everything is square and vertical, etc. There is not a millimeter out of place.........quite remarkable! If anyone needs some good work done on their existing villa or for some future project, I cannot recommend this crew highly enough. See Jacques' web site at: www.skiathosbuilder.com <http://www.skiathosbuilder.com>

We decided to use a salt water system (it is less than half as salty as seawater) as this is kinder to the skin than chlorine and just far more pleasant to swim in. Also with all the recent negative reports about the damage chlorine can do to the body and the environment, we definitely didn't want to offer that to our guests! Lida went for the first swim shortly after it was filled but it was still pretty cold and she didn't stay in for long!

You can see pictures of the pool on my accommodation pages: <http://www.zorbathes.com> and, if it looks inviting, do drop us an email to see if we have availability. I have also put up a page with a photo history of the building of it if anyone is interested: <http://skiathosinfo.com/pool/photo-history.htm>

Of course, you cannot just “put in a pool”, so we have terraced quite a bit of our land with rock walls, made extra patios, improved the road and added a cellar half of which is for the pool equipment and the other half of which is storing our wine.

The wine has turned out really well and, if we don't drink it all, the cellar should let it mature in the right environment. We have always been so disappointed with the wine souring in the heat of summer and now hope that we have cured this problem.

Spring is definitely springing and everybody is busy preparing their shops, tavernas and cafes for the coming season. The locals are speculating about how good or bad the season will be and whether the Olympics will help us or not. The peace and quiet of winter is over and, although it is lovely to have the island more or less to oneself, we are all looking forward to a bit more “life”.

The nightingales and blackbirds are singing and Lida is busy planted the flowerbeds around the pool. It is time for me to get away from the computer and give her a hand.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Christmas 2003 Skiathos Newsletter.

The annual Christmas Bazaar took place last Sunday and was voted by all as a huge success. This was an event that was started quite some years ago by the International Women's Group of Skiathos as a small handicraft and bake sale to get some money in, but has now developed into an event that includes all of Skiathos. Money raised by the group now goes to local charities and needy causes and the amount increases yearly. This year the Scouts and Guides and the Skiathos Athletic Association joined with the Women's group at the local high school to make it a truly pan Skiathos happening. There were the usual handicraft stalls and a vast array of home made cakes, biscuits and other goodies as well as the Gluehwein (mulled wine) and waffle stall (which I just had to keep checking to make sure that everything was up to standard!). The women also ran a Games room with lots of ways to win prizes including a bran tub/lucky dip area which was constantly busy until the gifts ran out. Other events were a slide show with a story, a balloon room (literally hundreds of balloons which you could wade through, kick, bounce or pop to your heart's content), a baking room where the kids made cookies in all kind of shapes that were then baked at a local bakery and consumed with gusto. Father Christmas hats were being made in another room and by the end of the day all the kids were dressed in one and cotton wool was flying all over the place. The local choir came and sang Christmas carols in both English and Greek and Santa Claus (Agios Vasili for the locals) turned up to have his photo taken with all and sundry. All in all it was a wonderful Sunday, enjoyed by everyone, and a record amount of money was raised for good causes.

After a fairly wet first half of December the weather has turned beautiful for a few days. Clear sunny days followed by sharp, frosty (at least where we live) nights with the stars just leaping out at one from the night sky. (The local council keeps threatening to put streetlights along our road but A) we don't want or need them, B) it is a waste of resources and C) it would spoil the pleasure of those wonderful starry and moonlit nights.) The forecast is for cold wintry stuff to hit is just before Christmas so maybe another white one? Who knows? Several people who are now experiencing their first winter here have suddenly had a reality check as they were assuming that the sunny summer weather just went on all year. Have they not been reading the newsletters I ask myself?

Last week we poured the concrete for our swimming pool. Quite a job as it had to be completed in one day and it needed around 28 tons of reinforced concrete. 17 workers and 3 concrete mixers were used and everything went swimmingly (sic). Of course it is still a huge tip in and around the pool area but now we can begin to see how it will take shape. Flower beds, rock walls, a BBQ area and a new parking area will all slowly come together to make this a welcome addition to our guests facilities here. Not to mention the bonus for us of a cooling plunge in the heat of the day.

The wine cellar is now almost complete and the wines themselves seemed to have turned out well. Lida bought a professional looking corking machine in Volos and we are now all set to get serious about this. Of course our friends and we will have to spend much time sampling and comparing the wines, which will certainly help in adding to the Christmas spirit. There is some dispute about whether some should be named Chateau Zorbathes or Chateau Migraine. Time will tell.

Outside my window a Jenny Wren is hopping about and Robins are to be seen in the garden. The frost is slowly melting off the lawn (it won't do the grass any good at all!) and the bright sunlight is stream through into my "office" making the computer screen hard to see, so I guess it is time to wrap this one up.

I wish you all a very wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy and, above all, peaceful 2004.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the Autumn Skiathos newsletter.

The last charter flight left a couple of weeks ago and the island breathed a collective sigh of relief. Much as we need the tourism and the money it brings, working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 5 months (as do the majority working here in the summer) can be wearing at the best of times (and this year was not such a good year). The waterfront cafes that were still open filled up with business owners, waiters and general dogsbodies, sitting and doing ..……. absolutely nothing! The feeling of "getting the island back" was a welcome one and the local people were smiling at one another (even those who do not normally speak to each other!)

The weather also changed as the last flight took off. After a week of hot, south winds, it turned around to the north, became blustery and cold, and proceeded to rain. Instant winter! Even this was welcome after a hot and pretty dry summer. It has since alternated between south winds with hot, sticky weather but fantastic cloud formations, to west winds that dry the atmosphere out and make for clear views of up to 100 kilometres across the sea. Interspersed is the odd night of strong north winds and rain, usually just enough to avoid going back to the summer regime of daily watering (a blessed relief as well!). The sunsets have been amazing with everything from complete cloud cover and the sun just breaking underneath for the last 10 minutes creating a sky that seems to be on fire, to a few, very high, wispy clouds that catch the last rays of the day and go through the whole spectrum of colours as the light fades. One of the special aspects of Greece is its amazing light, light that has attracted artists for centuries. It is a constantly changing and fascinating spectacle that never tires the eye, particularly during spring, autumn and winter. The summer can be less interesting in this respect as the days are usually a boring parade of hot, hazy blue sky. Of course, that is what most people come on holiday for but there is so much more here enjoy. Colours that seem to be more vivid than elsewhere, jump out and hit you in the eye, but are then "weathered" by the evening light to make them turn into pastels of amazing softness and complexity. In our valley, the plane trees, fruit trees and a few other deciduous trees are changing to their autumn colours and stand out against the intense green of the pine forest and the ever-changing hues of the olive trees.

The highlight of our summer was the charter trip we took in a 55-foot sailing boat to Alonissos and the offshore islands there. They are called "the deserted islands" and are havens of peace and quiet with only the other odd sailing boat around. Our captain and hostess were Belgian and we were a mix of English, Dutch, German and Swedish and the combination worked really well. The sailing was magic, the food great and the feeling of relaxation wonderful. Once our captain saw that one of our Swedish friends and I wished to do most of the sailing, he relaxed with a book towards the prow and let us get on with it with just the occasional comment about tweaking a sail or adjusting the course to keep us going at maximum speed. We spent 4 days and 3 nights on board and I haven't enjoyed a trip more. Must do it again soon!

It has not been such a good year financially for Greece as a whole and Skiathos in particular. The Iraq war made May and June more or less washouts and the general economic nervousness (compounded by the tour operators filling planes with whoever they could get at whatever price) brought the overall takings of the island considerably down. The hope is that, next year, the Olympic Games will bring more tourism, but no one knows if they will affect the islands in a positive or negative way. It is a one off event and maybe tourism will be concentrated on Athens. We shall have to wait and see and try to remain optimistic.

On the home front, the real estate side of our business was very flat all summer and I was thinking that we would be having a very brief and frugal holiday this winter (no trip to California this year!) but there has been a flurry of activity in the last month and it seems that things are picking up again. Quite a bit more property has come onto the market as well recently and I will have to get down to updating the web site soon. We didn't let our houses as much as we would have liked this summer and are now putting in a swimming pool to compliment the peace and quiet that is our main selling point. We were losing too many bookings for the lack of a pool and so, after many years of refusing to do so, we have succumbed to market forces. We have taken the opportunity, whilst having the JCB here, to make a deep wine cellar next to the pump house for the pool and hope that this will extend the life of our home made wine which always tended to become barely drinkable once the heat of summer kicked in. Of course it has been dubbed the "bomb shelter" and friends have been kidding us that it is really a protective measure. We will drink a glass of our own wine to the health of ALL the people in this world and hope that we never have to use the cellar in fear.

I will leave you with the crunch of dried leaves underfoot and the smell of bonfires in the air.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the summer Skiathos newsletter.

A couple of nights ago we had an evening picnic on Tsougrias Island with a large group of friends from Holland. We waited until the taverna had closed and almost everyone else had left the island and we had it mostly to ourselves. We produced a variety of food and wine (including “Chateau Zorbathes”, our very own) and watched the sun go down over the hills of Skiathos across the bay. It was such a mellow evening that even the advent of hordes of mosquitoes from the brack water lakes behind Tsougrias' beaches couldn't detract from the beauty of the evening or put us in a bad mood. As the day light faded the lights of Skiathos Town and all the buildings, tavernas and hotels along the south coast came sparkling to the fore and the reflections on the almost perfectly still sea made the spectacle even more entrancing. The mosquitoes gave up as soon as it became completely dark and we could relax and finish our wine in comfort. I even went for a swim, which, if any of you know me !

personally, is as unlikely as pigs flying! Motoring slowly back across the gently undulating sea with our friends and listening to Lou Reed's “Perfect Day” crowned the occasion. Our captain, who had done the plentiful wine more than justice, had some difficulty in pointing us in the right direction, so his son gently eased him from the controls and brought us back safely to the Skiathos shore.

Tsougrias has to be one of my favourite beaches and places. There are no roads, you can only get there by boat, either your own, or one rented, or by the sea taxis that leave regularly all morning from Skiathos Town and return hourly in the afternoon. My other favourite beaches are the ones that you have to make an effort to get to. For that simple reason, there are never too many people there and the beach tavernas have to keep a good standard of food and service to make sure that they encourage those people to come back. I will not list them (you have enough clues already!) and I don't want to make the mistake of them become as busy as all the “popular” beaches are.

“Gavros” those small fishes that you can eat whole and are usually on the menu as “Whitebait” are the staple good priced fish throughout the summer. They are actually fresh Anchovies but bear no relationship to the over salted, dried up, tinned things we know elsewhere. If these are cooked correctly (gently fried in olive oil, first one side and then the other and NEVER deep fried) these are succulent, juicy mouthfuls of delight and, incidentally, extremely good for you. A plate of Gavros, a Greek salad and a view of the Aegean with a cooling breeze wafting across it should be enough to mellow anyone. The best ones are to be found at- ………………… (suggestions to gavros@skiathosinfo.com)

My other summer pleasure is sailing “Merlin”, my catamaran. Unfortunately, I do not get out on her as often as I would wish as the pressure of work keeps me running around (don't laugh - I have to make a living as well as enjoy the delights of Skiathos). Being out on the water, the temperature is always a few degrees cooler, the cares of day to day living seem to be left “on the shore” and there is always a good beach taverna to look forward to. Often the guests staying in one of our houses accompany us and they add to our enjoyment by their own delight in the (what for most, is a novel) experience. This year I shall have to make a new trailer for her, repair her sails (maybe have to completely renew the main) and consider buying a new motor but she is worth every penny and has given me more pleasure than any other material possession I have or have had.

In September we are planning a few days on a large sailing boat with German, Swedish and Belgian friends when we intend to explore the “Eremonisia” (the “deserted islands”) off and to the north of Alonissos, and the Marine Park in that area. It is something I have wanted to do for years but have never attempted in my own craft. Once we have done it with a more experienced crew, it will be a lot easier to make the journey alone.. Strange as it may seem to some, I cannot wait to get off Skiathos. However, I know that when I return it will be with be with a large smile on my face because Skiathos is really the only place for me in this world.

As every year, Audrey & Brian Hall will be putting on performances throughout September with the idea of bringing some extra culture to Skiathos and collecting money for local charities.

Here is more information

'A Cream Cracker under the Settee' by Alan Bennett will be performed at the Hotel Esperides on Sunday evenings starting at 9.0 pm on September 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th.

The play is a tribute to the late Dame Thora Hird and will be performed for the same charities as last year. The Skaithos Friends of the Animals and The International Womens Group.

The play is only a short one and the entire evening will only last around 45 minutes.

This will allow people to catch the last ferry back to Skiathos town and the people from around the area will have plenty of time to sample the delights of the bar or even a local taverna.

Tourism is well down this year and the island will have to tighten its belt this winter. We have a gap in the bookings for our Farmhouse from the 1st until 18th of August so we are now offering a 15% discount to anyone who would like to make a last minute booking. (<http//skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm>)

Well, that's about it for now. Our garden is being ravaged by a “plague” of grasshoppers but we get the occasional fresh tomato (if we are quick) and they taste soooooo good!

I leave you with the buzz of the cicadas in the olive and pine trees and the “creak” of the crafty grasshoppers as the eye the next ripening tomato.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the spring Skiathos newsletter.

Well, I know many of you have been waiting for this Spring Newsletter for some time but I was waiting until spring decided to appear. At last it has sprung (although today it is raining again!). After a long winter of bitter winds and much rain (and when it wasn't raining, it was trying to snow!) we have finally had a week of beautiful, sunny weather. The whole island has stirred out of its somnolence and is busy airing accommodation, preparing shops and businesses, cultivating bits of land for a garden and getting around to all the things that we have put off all winter. Everybody is painting, scrubbing, cleaning but most of all, smiling, as the sunny weather brings out the best in us all. Fruit trees are blossoming and you can feel the wild flowers just straining to come out of the ground and burst into colour. Greece has more varieties of wild flowers than all the rest of Europe put together and (although we only see a small percentage of this) it certainly feels like it in April and May.

We have tried to go for a good long walk at least every Sunday as the encroachments of age add to the waistline and slow down the energy. Determined that I shall not turn into a couch (or computer) potato, Lida drags me off for walks around the Kalamaki Peninsular or across the island to Kechria Beach and the Monastery. I must admit it is no hardship as these walks always remind me of exactly why I love living here. The streambed at Kechria has more water in it than we have ever seen and there are real waterfalls and spray here and there. Coming back through the Mandraki woods last Sunday, I was struck (yet again) by the fact that the only noises we could hear were our footsteps crunching through the pine needles, the sighing of the breeze in the trees and the singing of the birds who are also celebrating spring. Not an engine, siren or any other human generated cacophony to be heard.

Of course the war in Iraq is on everybody's minds. I feel upset for all the good Americans (among whom are many of our friends) who will have to deal with the fact that their administration has squandered decades of goodwill by their hasty, ill thought out and (in fact) illegal attack on the people of Iraq. Not to mention putting back international cooperation by who knows how long. Of course, apart from the uncertainty in the international situation, everyone in Skiathos is wondering just how badly this will affect tourism. We all expect fewer people this year but how many fewer remains to be seen.

We went to California earlier for our annual holiday and spent many wonderful days there with old friends. They showed us some amazing scenery in Yosemite Park and Big Sur and I would have loved to bring back some of the crashing Pacific waves to one of our beaches here. I am truly glad we made this trip before the war started as, at the moment; I have no inclination to return for quite a while.

We are putting in a vegetable garden this year. After several years of not doing so (15 odd years of commercial market gardening was enough to make me want a break) we feel that all the uncertainty warrants us doing so again. It will not be on the market garden scale, as we just want good fresh vegetables for our own use. However, if there are surpluses, I know many of the local ladies who will happily take them as they are constantly reminding me how good our beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. were. Growing organically, we may have produced less, but I hardly ever came back from market with leftovers.

I am reminded of the time, many years ago, when, in London, we came across a Greek bookshop run by a Greek lady who obviously had not been back here for many years. We asked if there were any books about gardening in Greece as we wished to start a garden but didn't know how quite to begin in what we, at the time, considered to be quite a harsh climate. “There are none!” she said. “In any case you don't need a book, the soil of Greece is so fertile, you just drop the seeds on the ground and come back in a couple of months to pluck the harvest”! Oh, that it was so easy!

I am also looking forward to preparing “Merlin”, our 8-metre catamaran for launching at the end of the month. Her bottom will need polishing, her sails repaired, her rigging checked and then a good coat of paint overall will set her up for the season. I long to be back on the water with the wind trying to tug my cap off and the white water creaming under her bows, heading for the taverna at Tsoungria, Panormos or Kadi Georgi and a good Greek meal.

Our bookings are well down this year (but that was to be expected) so we have lots of room for any of you who would like to experience the peace and quiet and good hospitality that we offer.

See <http://skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm> for more information.

Well, as always, I will try to leave you with some flavour of this beautiful island and this time it is the smell of the beeswax candles in the churches as we approach Easter.

Regards to all,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the Christmas 2002 Skiathos Newsletter.

We had a glorious autumn with warm sunny days and mild winds from the south. Many more days than normal were spent having lunch on our new terrace that looks down the valley of Zorbathes and sometimes we were tempted to get back to the summer mode of T-shirt, shorts and sandals. Of course, it couldn't last forever and 2 weeks ago the rain came in with a vengeance. In the last 15 days it hardly stopped raining and twice, the day's rain exceeded the monthly average. Our streambeds became rivers and only 4WD vehicles with a high chassis could get through them.

I am overseeing the building of several houses for people that bought land through my services and wish to have someone here to make sure that things happen on time and according to plan. A near impossible task in Greece, of course ;o). Up until the rains set in, everything was going swimmingly (sic) but virtually nothing has happened in the last 2 weeks. As we are now going into the Greek “holiday season” which lasts from 23rd December to 8th January, not much more is likely to happen for a while!

The exception to the above was the guys working for a swimming pool company from Athens. We are building a pool for Dutch friends who bought a villa here and they worked every day regardless of the weather. Some days they had to construct a plastic “tent” over the pool so that they could work on and then the wind came roaring through to fling the tent away! However, nothing seemed to deter them and I am sure that the fact that they wished to finish before Christmas and get back to their families in Athens has been a great spur. It will be interesting to see how the pool looks at the end of the day. We had to make large rearrangements to the villa to get it in exactly the right place and I have been attaching photos of destruction to the owner's emails for quite some time. Now they are getting the photos of the pool and they can finally see some positive action. This pool will use an ingenious new system of water treatment that makes the water absolutely sweet, clean enough to drink, using no chlorine or salt. It sounds like heaven and I am curious to see how this feels. The system, although not cheap, is easy to install on older pools, so maybe we will all be able to benefit from it sometime in the future.

On the waterfront, there are now 5 cafes and ouzerias that have enclosed their outside areas in plastic tents (that resemble intensive care units) and it is pleasant to sit “outside” inside (or vice versa) and drink a coffee or consume an ouzo with a snack and still see the sea and fishing boats bobbing up and down in the harbour. Anytime from 10:00 onwards you can usually find some good company to sit and chat with and catch up with residents who have been here all year but have been too busy during the season to exchange more than a nod and a quick, “see you in the winter”. The season is mulled over, plans for the following year are discussed, and those that are building vent their frustration (and then bury it with ouzo and a shrug) as the rain runs down the side of the tents.

For the rest, not much has happened in Skiathos. After the frenzy of the election (when the incumbent got in for another 4 years) everyone seems to just want to wind down and relax. However, we attended a council meeting last week when sparks were flying between the mayor and the new leader of the opposition and it seems like we are in for “interesting” times. It will be good for the island to have some other voices raised about the issues that affect our lives (and the lives of all who come to enjoy Skiathos' beauty).

On our land, we have been pruning the olive trees and cultivating under them. The olive harvest was poor this year (as last winters snow had broken so many branches) but we still managed to gather enough to make oil for a while. If we don't get a crop next year (they fruit every two years as a rule) we shall have to BUY oil. It will be the first time for many years and will surely not taste as good as our own (psychologically if not in reality). We chopped down a big old plum tree that had come to the end of its days and split it up for firewood. It has left a “hole” in our landscape but the wood burns beautifully and we shall appreciate it (in our fireplace) to the last.

Both our daughters have come back for Christmas. Although they are now both grown up and away from home, we shall try to hold to the tradition of Christmas together for as long as possible. They both love Skiathos, having been born here in Greece and lived on the island for most of their lives, but whether they will be able to live here in the future is another matter. Apart from tourism and the building industry, there is not much for them to do and they both have ambitions beyond that. Maybe teleworking and the Internet will provide them with the opportunity to live in this most beautiful of places whilst still being able to use their capabilities to the full. I remain, as ever, hopeful.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year and, above all, a peaceful 2003.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the Autumn Skiathos newsletter.

Once again my apologies for taking so long to get this written but I have been so busy with various building projects and property contracts that the web site and the newsletter have been slightly neglected of late.

Today was Election Day throughout Greece for municipal and provincial elections and over the last 2 weeks Skiathos became a hotbed of political debate. In shops and cafes, tourists were served without the usual pleasantries as opinions of who should be elected (or buried) were bandied back & forth with great gusto. The Greeks love a drama and an election is always something to get one's teeth into!

We had 3 candidates for mayor:

The incumbent, a right winger and local doctor who has been in for 12 years already. His brother was mayor, his father was mayor and his grandfather was mayor (are we talking dynasty here or am I just being paranoid?) He has done a lot for his ego (and some say his pocket?) in the last 12 years but not much for the island (witness the state of the roads & the rubbish situation).

His main opposition comes from another right winger (maybe even more to the right as he would probably like to bring back the royal family to Greece) who is so fond of his own voice that he barely listens to anyone else's.

Thirdly is a loose coalition of the left led by a lady who has been a councillor for quite a few years. She is not my favourite person but is backed by some good people with common sense who might make some changes for the better and do profess to be thinking of the island's future rather than their own self interests…….we shall see.

Guess where my vote went. We may have the result by the time this goes out so…….

Re politics, I have posted a web page: <http://skiathosinfo.com/terrorism.htm> with a couple of cartoons culled from Greek newspapers (and translated) so you can get a Greek slant on world politics.

The weather this year has been the most unusual in my 30 years here. We had some fantastic thunderstorms (including one today just after Lida & I had cast our votes…was this a sign?!!!) with some remarkable displays of lightening and torrential downpours. The problem has been that they didn't last for just a few hours or a day as is normal but went on for many days and, in August and September, for a couple of weeks! There were some rather pissed off tourists especially as the weather in northern Europe was apparently very good during the same periods. Our streambeds have now been running since August and we have never seen them run except in winter and early spring. Still, we can't control the weather, which is a good thing as it would probably be just something else to fight about.

The island is slowly settling towards “winter mode” and many shops and businesses are already closed even though there are still tourists around. It has not been a good year for Skiathos, but also not for Greece and tourism elsewhere in general. Probably a combination of factors contributed, the economic situation, the advent of the Euro (which I am sad to say the Greeks thoroughly took advantage of to rise prices), the nervousness following the events of September 2002 and the growling of warmongers. Still, I am looking forward to sharing some good times with friends who I barely see all summer, perhaps playing a little (gentle) tennis again and getting some good bridge games in (I play regularly with a Frenchman, a lady from South Africa and an American lady which gives our evenings a nice international flavour). Although we are quite serious about our bridge, the 4 of us have quite sharp and witty senses of humour so I will often return home from an evening's bridge with a jaw aching from too much laughter.

We have various building projects in the pipeline to enhance and improve our accommodation in Zorbathes and I have taken on the overseeing of some building sites and a swimming pool project. With all that and updating the web site I don't think that I will be hanging around on street corners much ;o)

I always try to leave you with some “feel” of Skiathos and this time it has to be GREEN! The island is just covered in greenery and heather like no other year in our memories, so with my trouser legs wet from treading through dewy grass, I will leave you until the next time.

Peace,

Geof.

The July 2002 Newsletter:

I must apologise for the large gap between my previous newsletter and this one. I have really just been too busy to get it together…..but now you are for it!

It's 06:30 in the morning and I've been up for ? of an hour, getting the lawns and flowers beds watered and feeding our 2 cats (who would tear me limb from limb if the food is not in their bowls by 07:00 at the latest). It is a lovely time of day, everything looks so much greener in the morning light and the temperature is so nice and cool. The cicadas haven't yet woken up but the birds are already singing to each other (or nagging at their babies to get out of the nests and start looking after themselves).

Today, I am off all day with my catamaran. Either to Skopelos or Pelion depending on which way (and how strong) the wind is blowing. I have 2 couples and one of each couple has their birthday today so we shall try and do something a little special. I look forward so much to these sailing trips as they are such a relaxing day. I can forget about the property business, the web site, looking after building sites and all the other things I do in a “normal” day, and just use the natural elements to get from Skiathos to a good beach and taverna and back again with some interesting company. We have been doing fewer and fewer catamaran trips and I don't really know why. Are people less adventurous than they used to be, are we getting too many of the “lie next to the pool at the hotel/apartment and never experience the island” type of people or is it that there are now so many yachts in the harbour offering a similar kind of thing? Anyway, I am happy whenever we have some clients as, otherwise, we tend to put off going out ourselves until “tomorrow” and, as we all know, tomorrow never comes.

I have probably taken on a little too much work and seem to spend too much of my time running from appointment to appointment, to building sites and to the airport and not enough time enjoying the beauty and peace of this island. On the other hand, life is really interesting at the moment and I am facing challenges that still stretch me at the venerable old age of ?? (Emails with estimates of my age to: <mailto:decrepit@skiathosinfo.com> please).

I still remember travelling form town to Troulos by mule when the estimate of time and distance was measured by the company you had or, if you were alone, by how many cigarettes you would smoke. “How far is Kechria?” “About 3 cigarettes.” In those days, the mules, horses and donkeys outnumbered the cars and were often quite reluctant to give way! Now there are only a few old boys riding animals and both species are dying out rapidly. Although the pace of life in Greece is still much slower than the business driven frenzy in Northern Europe, I still have the feeling that we have lost something on the way. Although most Skiathitees have a pretty good standard of living now, they were happier when they had much less things and much more time.

The island is a bit quieter this year. The tour operators estimate that, overall, bookings are down 10% and that is certainly the feeling we have here. I must say, I don't mind too much; the roads are a little less busy and business owners have a little more time to chat (although mostly they are complaining that tourism is down this year!). However, we will see what happens in July and August when, traditionally, the Italians and mainland Greeks invade the islands for some pillaging and raping. I think it will be the usual madness. Thank God for the peace and quiet of Zorbathes Valley where we live.

Just a note on crash helmets and seat belts. Although, in Greece just like the rest of Europe, it has been law to wear seat belts in cars and crash helmets on mopeds and motorbikes, this was never enforced in Skiathos before. Well, now it is being enforced and the police were (and still are) on the road often (except for long coffee breaks and even longer lunch hours) and they harvested a fine crop of fines (for the police benevolent association) before locals and tourists alike got the message. You have been warned!

I have just received an email from Audrey & Brian Hall who so successfully produced and performed "Shirley Valentine" last year in Skiathos. They are planning more entertainment for us culture-starved inhabitants and guests. Here are the details:

We are delighted to tell you that once again we are going to present theatre in Skiathos in September, again for charity.

This year it is 'Her Big Chance' an hour long piece from Talking Heads by Alan Bennett.

We have arranged to present this at the Hotel Esperides at Achladias Bay. The dates are 8th. 15th. 22nd. 29th of Sept and the 6th October. All are Sunday evenings and will start at 10.p.m. when they have cleared dinner. We have been led to understand that all will be welcome (not only their hotel guests).

Audrey & Brian.

Oh dear! A week has passed since I started writing this and I haven't yet sent it off. I had better do it now or it will turn out to be the autumn newsletter.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello & welcome to the March Skiathos Newsletter.

As I look out of the kitchen window I see the pink blossoms of the peach tree and behind that the blossoms of our small almond tree and behind that the white of one of our massive old plum trees. Against the slow greening up of the land it is quite a sight. The old plum tree produces lots of plums but they are not really great and don't get ripe until latish September. It is fun to see passers by picking a plum in summer, try it, and then spit it out with distaste! The plums don't even make a very good jam but, as I look at the thick blossom now, I am reminded of why we keep it. We have had an amazing February, just one day of rain and for the rest, sunny & warm (to hot) days. Mind you, we needed it after the snows of December and January. We certainly got our white Christmas but I think most of us would have been happier without it. The snow started on the Monday before Christmas around lunchtime and by Tuesday evening we were looking at 1 metre of the heaviest, iciest snow I have ever seen. Trees, electric cables & telephone lines were all knocked down and two parts of the main road were damaged badly. Half of the road, at Maratha, disappeared entirely! The olives suffered tremendously but will recover now that they have had all the broken wood cut away but many pine trees were uprooted or so damaged that I doubt if they will survive. The local council is still busy trying to clean up the mess along the roads and may be finished before the season starts but nobody will clean up inside the forests, as there just isn't the will, the money or the manpower. I guess nature will have to take care of it. I had to get to town on the Wednesday, as there was a real estate contract to be signed. It involved the purchaser of the land, my daughter's man & myself trudging through 4 kilometres of hip deep snow until we reached the main road that had been partially cleared. Luckily, the snow packed down under our boots and we only had to lift our feet a mere 50 or 60 centimetres or so every step. That was quite a trip! I have scanned in some photos of the snowy scenes and you can see them at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/wintersports.htm> We had barely recovered from this snow, when another lot hit. This was the one that you probably saw on your TV's as Athens ground to a halt and everything there was chaos. We were by then quite used to snow and the island reacted quickly and efficiently, but we could have done without it. Our electricity came back after a few days but I was without telephone communication for 4 weeks!!! For an Internet user and email junky like myself, this was purgatory! When I finally could log on, there were over 500 emails to answer. I must admit that I ignored some, as I just didn't have the puff to answer the ones that asked for information that was already on the web site.

I have been extremely busy. The demand for land and villas is rising all the time and my biggest problem now is to find sufficient properties to fulfill the need. However, as the locals have now realised that I am in the business of selling property, more and more are letting me know of plots, villas and houses. I had expected the winter to be as quiet as it always was, but things have changed. More people are coming out of the season and enjoying the peace and quiet of an uncrowded Skiathos and many more people are living here full time, which makes for a great winter mix of interesting faces. Most of us end up in one of the plastic tents set up on the waterfront outside a caf? for a mid day coffee or beer and a chat. I get quite a bit of my work done there meeting or phoning clients and friends jokingly refer to it as my “office”. For the rest, Skiathos is quiet and the rush to get ready for the season hasn't yet started. We are looking forward to “Kathero Lephtera” (Clean Monday) at the beginning of Lent when we shall all end up on one beach or another, flying kites and having seafood picnics. Greek Easter will be very late this year; the 5th of May is Easter Sunday and the charter flights will already be flying so, if you have the time, try to be here for the best Greek celebration of the year. Many of the locals are asking me if we are going to have a good season or a bad one. They now know that the web site is a fair bellwether of the interest in the island and, as far as I can see, everything looks like another good year coming up. The tour operators have been saying that, due to 11th September, bookings are going to be down so they cannot pay as much this year to the locals letting accommodation but, at the same time, it seems that more charter planes will be arriving this summer. So, it looks as though they are just playing both ends against the middle for the own extra profit. Come independently and support the Skiathos economy, not the fat cat tour operators who leave very little money on the island. Olympic is providing (again) a minimal service starting from the end of March and you can see their schedule if you follow the links at: <http://skiathosinfo.com/flights.htm>. You will also find lots of links to travel agents and other companies offering flight only seats to Skiathos. A good way to get from the UK to Skiathos is to fly with easyJet and then Olympic. Olympic themselves may be offering good deals from Gatwick or Manchester all the way through to the island. Worth checking out. Finally, a plug for our own accommodation in Zorbathes Valley: <http://skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm>. You will not have a more relaxing and peaceful holiday than in one of our houses here. I guarantee it!

Well, that's it for now. I hope to see many of you again this year and the island hopes to see the rest. If you listen closely, you may hear the first nightingale trilling in the background!

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Skiathos Christmas 2001 newsletter.

Firstly, I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. We are looking forward to having our daughters back with us and to the parties and gatherings that will happen over the next few weeks. The Greek holiday season tends to stretch from around the Friday before Christmas (in this case the 21st) until after Aghios Yiannis on the 7th January. This is the best part of three weeks and, if you need to get any official paperwork done in this time, forget it! Apart from the usual holidays of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve & New Year's Day (when traditionally presents are given), there is "Ta Fota" on the 6th January when the waters are blessed for the coming year. The service starts at the church and the congregation then wends its way down to the port where the liturgy continues. A cross is thrown into the sea at the end of the service and local youngsters dive in to retrieve it. Traditionally, the weather is good on this day but it can be cold, and the divers smear themselves with olive oil to keep themselves warm whilst the priests drone interminably on. Encouraging shouts of, "Throw the cross Papa, throw the damn thing!" can be heard from the crowd which usually comprises most of the residents of the island. A lot of pushing and shoving goes on to get the best view and some unchristian words can be exchanged at times. Once the cross has been retrieved, everyone wishes everyone else "Chronia Polla" ("Many years" or "A long life") and retire to the cafes and ouzerias to enjoy ouzo or tsiporo and snacks. The next day is the name day of all the Yiannis (and there are a lot of Yiannis and their relatives) so not much gets done then either. After this, life returns to normal, and most everybody goes into winter hibernation. There will be no celebrations until the Carnival season starts and this will be late next year as Greek Easter Sunday will be on 5th May. For those of you who have never experienced a Greek Easter, this is a good opportunity to do so as the charter flights will be starting before this date. Easter is the big happening of the year and, although it is unfortunately becoming commercialised like so much of our lives, it is still a wonderful event to participate in. If I can help anyone with arranging accommodation for this time, just send me an email. Regarding weather….I shall never, ever, ever, complain of lack of rain again (well, at least, not until next summer). We had over 35 centimetres in 3 days in November and as I write this, we are into our 15th day of rain with hardly a break. We had the driest and warmest September & October since records began and were desperately praying for rain. Now, I am desperately praying for a glimpse of sun, just to remember what it looked like! The streambeds are up again and we shall not be going anywhere for the next couple of days. Thank goodness I have access to the Internet to keep me from going crazy! Shipping has often been cancelled, sometimes for many days in a row, and has upset the whole rhythm of the island. People are often finding themselves on the wrong side of the water, stuck in Volos or Athens trying to get to Skiathos, or trying to get off Skiathos to catch a flight or get home. I have also been working on my book about my early experiences here and that gains many pages on these wet days. Otherwise, it goes in fits and starts and I find that my memory is full of holes. Luckily Lida remembers many things that I don't and I have been in contact with old friends again to check some details. It has been nice getting in touch with people again and, even if the book comes to nothing, at least it has stimulated these contacts. A footnote to the Shirley Valentine performances last September. There were 4 performances altogether and were thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended. Over 600 GB Pounds was raised and split between the International Women's Group of Skiathos charity fund, and the Skiathos Friends of the Animals dog shelter. There is a web page about the Dog shelter at: http://skiathosinfo.com/sfa.htm. Unfortunately I haven't updated it recently, but it does give the number of the charity if anyone feels like supporting this good cause. I have put a web page up with this year's Christmas carol at http://skiathosinfo.com/The 12th day of Christmas.htm but this is a slight variation on the usual story and does contain strong language, so only read it if you don't mind four letter words.

Most of the mainland is covered in snow (only the warmth of the sea is keeping us snow free so far) so maybe we will get a white Christmas. I'll leave you with the (potential) sound of welly boots crunching into virgin snow.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Skiathos Autumn Newsletter.

It has finally started raining after almost 7 months of nothing but the odd thunder shower. Skiathos was becoming parched and I was spending 2 or more hours watering every morning just trying to keep our lawns, trees and flower borders alive. It is a great relief to see the rain even though I know that I will be fed up with it very soon. The last 2 winters were comparatively dry and over the last 10 to 15 years, we have definitely been getting less rainfall than we used to. The stream bed that runs through our valley (and helps to keep it so green) now only runs whilst it is raining. When I first came to Skiathos, it used to run until June and sometimes even July. We had pools of water that were full all year long and had terrapins and (I am told) even fish in them. These have all dried up and the terrapins disappeared long ago (more's the pity). During the summer months, we often find ourselves wishing for rain whilst all the visitors to the island are praying for none! However, without lots of good rain, this island would not be the green haven that it is. A good snow also helps (oh yes, we DO get snow sometimes) as the melt water almost all goes into the ground whereas a terrific downpour will often run off into the sea particularly after a long dry period.

Enough of the weather. Skiathos has gone into "winter mode" with all the shops and tavernas outside the village (bar a couple) shut until next season. The buses, which ran every 15 minutes in the summer, now go only 5 times per day and the schedule is cunningly worked out to be of no use to anybody.

The local people are sitting around in the kafenions, relaxing, drinking & swapping stories of the season just gone and telling each other how badly they did (in case the taxman is listening ;o). We are all wondering how the season will be next year and hoping that the terrorist madness (and the reactions to it) will not have too great an affect on people's wishes to come to a place where they can truly relax and "get away from it all".

We took Merlin, our catamaran, out of the water last weekend after a farewell trip to Tsoungria Island and a last picnic on the beach there. Hauling the boat out is always a sad event as it is the definitive end to the summer fun. We are winterising our houses, taking down the mosquito screens and putting up shutters and weatherproofing.

The oranges on our trees are ripening and, although they are not so big this year due to lack of rain, they will make us plenty of good marmalade.

We picked and pressed the grapes and hope for a decent wine though, again, there were far less than normal. I hope this years will be better than last years. That never matured properly as I had picked the grapes a little too early and the wine remained just too sour to be pleasurable. We live in eternal hope!

For the rest, I am looking forward to updating the web site and I have started to write a book about my experiences here, especially during the early years in the 70's when there was virtually no tourism in Skiathos and we lived a "back to the land" type lifestyle. I will let you know when (if) it is finished.

Lastly, a couple of statistics. So far this year, I have answered 3,575 emails from people making enquiries about Skiathos. That is, on average, 12 per day. This is up 12% on last year and, although the emails are now slowing down, there will be a lot more before the end of the year.

OK. That's it. I will leave you with the smell of the rain washing the summer's dust off the island and the sounds of the birds celebrating in the trees.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the August Skiathos Newsletter.

You are receiving this because you either subscribed to it, came sailing or walking with us, stayed in one of our houses, signed our guest book or simply sent me an email enquiry. There are now well over 3,000 of you and the list is growing…

"Today Skiathos, tomorrow the world" ;o)

Well, August has just been unbelievably busy. What with meeting our clients and settling them in to our houses, quite a lot of sailing trips in our catamaran, relatives and friends staying, showing potential purchasers plots of land and villas, and a couple of hours every morning answering emails, Lida and I are happy when we get an hour or two together somewhere to just sit and relax.

Given the chance, towards the evening, we sneak off to some beach taverna on a relatively peaceful beach (like Elias Beach, Hidden Beach or even Tsoungria Island) and watch the sun go down with an ouzo and a nice fish meze. We even attempted to stay overnight on the catamaran at Tsoungria but got little sleep as we were nervous about the anchor holding, the wind getting up or all the disasters that the human imagination can conjure. As it was, the boat was rock solid and we could have slept in total relaxation. Next time perhaps ;o)

The weather has been generally pretty bloody hot (even the cicadas are mopping their brows!) but we did have a wonderful thunderstorm (all night long!) a couple of weeks ago with a really good downpour that freshened the island up and minimized (for a few days at least) the danger of fires.

The lightening was spectacular and the thunder kept receding and then returning as the storm seemed to like Skiathos as much as most people do!

Some travel news Minoan Flying Dolphins have finally got a reasonably efficient web site at http//www.dolphins.gr/english/index.stm You can check the schedules and are given a telephone number to phone where, in theory, can reserve tickets using your credit card. It would be interesting to know if this actually works so, if anyone has any experience with this, let me know.

A good friend of mine had an interesting experience trying to reserve tickets with Minoan before this web site was set up and I quote his email to me

"I tried to book my trip by fax. It is impossible to reach them by
phone. I had no reaction on my first fax so I sent a reminder a week later.
I wrote on the reminder that it was a repeat of an earlier fax. Today I had
two bookings confirmed by fax with two different booking numbers referring
to each of my faxes by two different people in the same office using the
same fax machine.... If I now ask them to cancel one, two new people will
cancel one each and I will have to swim to Skiathos having hitchhiked to
Agios Konstantinos. I am prepared to do anything to get there!"

Such are the trials of traveling in Greece, always moderated by the fact that it is so worthwhile when you (finally) get here.

For a listing of car ferry and hydrofoil services throughout Greece, go to http//www.gtpnet.com/topeng.asp
You will have to sign up for this service but it is free.

Cultural events

It has been almost impossible to get any correct information about the events at the Bourtzi this year and I have been reduced to telling people to go to the booth in between the harbour and the Bourtzi where Vasilis will at least tell you what is on that particular evening.

What is definitely happening elsewhere in Skiathos is several performances of "Shirley Valentine" throughout September. Here is some information from the people who are organizing and performing this

'Shirley Valentine' will be performed on each Sunday evening at 8.30.pm from
9th September to 30th September 2001. The venue is Maniatis Garden, next to
the Esperides Hotel on Achladies Bay. No 10 Bus stop or the local ferry boat
from Skiathos old harbour is the cheapest way to get there, but a taxi is not
expensive.

We have been to Skiathos numerous times and wanted to 'give something back'
as it were, so the performances are free, but collections for local Skiathos
charities are going to be taken during the interval and after each
performance. You would pay at least £5 each in the UK so we are hoping that
people will be generous.

Audrey is 'Shirley' and we have already done the play in England (raising
£4000 for the local hospice). Brian is doing everything else and we mean
EVERYTHING so any help from anyone on Front of House or something else would
be gratefully received. We should be around the venue most days throughout
As already proven giving out our e-mail address is really helpful to all
concerned, so please feel free.

Audrey and Brian (Hall) OldPinfold@aol.com

Well, I am certainly looking forward to that.

They have managed to find quite a lot of sponsorship from tour operators and others and I am proud to have been given a mention (or at least the web site has) although all I have offered has been encouragement.

This weekend is the start of the great exodus and at the harbour can be heard the honking of horns and raised voices as the Greeks and Italians all try to get on the same ferry at once. There is definitely a Jacques Tati movie to be made there every year ;o)

We will be glad to see the amount of people diminish to more normal amounts in September and look forward to the "golden month" when the sea is still warm, the beaches are less busy, the sun less strong and the locals more relaxed as they have at least earned some money in August and everything from here in is gravy.

Why not come and enjoy it with us……..we still have some availability in our houses in Zorbathes http//skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm

OK. That's it for this month. I hope all of you who made it so far this year had a great holiday and those of you who are coming will have a good one too.

I am looking forward to mine in rainy London and Amsterdam in January!

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the June Skiathos Newsletter.

As I look out of my "office" window I see clear blue skies, the lushness of our lawns and flowering shrubs and the pine trees being ruffled by a delicious cooling breeze.

We had a funny old May with quite cool to almost cold temperatures (especially at night) and a lot of visitors didn't get as much sun tan as they would have liked. Even now, in June, the evening temperatures are a little lower than average. Of course, I love this and would be quite happy if we didn't have the (now annual) heat wave.

If the winds continue to blow and keep everything to a perfect 25 to 30 degrees and around 45% humidity, you will not find me complaining.

When I refer to my "office", it is just a small room in our house where I keep the computers, telephones, etc. and stay connected to the parts of the "real" world "out there". The Internet has allowed me to live in (what I consider) the most beautiful place in the world and be able to access all that I find good outside Skiathos and (virtually) ignore everything that I don't like. It has also allowed me to build my web site and communicate with many other people who share my love for Skiathos.

And what's going on in Skiathos at the moment?

Well, the council have put new tarmac and a pavement (!) on the road to the airport. Not before time as most peoples first impression of Skiathos was potholes and mad taxi drivers. At least we have gotten rid of some of the potholes ;o)

Of course we all drove around for a few days with tar dripping off the bottom of our cars but, "Hey! That's progress for you".

Papadiamantis Street now has flower beds on each side of the central access road area, narrowing down what was, last year, a nice broad boulevard. I suppose they will look better in a few years time when the trees that have been planted in them reach a decent height but, for now, I see them as things to trip over when the street is busy at night. I hope I am wrong.

The local council has promised me the cultural events program but it is still not quite ready they tell me and I am getting fed up with asking. I will put it up on the site as soon as I have it.

An alternative event planned for sometime in September is a live stage performance of "Shirley Valentine" behind the Achladies Beach.

I hope to have more details for the next newsletter. Meanwhile, if you are interested, contact Audrey and Brian Hall at OldPinfold@aol.com who are organising this.

We have been out sailing a few times (not as many as I would like) but still haven't made it over to Panormos on Skopelos yet. This is one of my favourite sails ending up in a stunningly beautiful bay for lunch.

An excellent read is Michael Carroll's "Gates of the Wind" which describes Panormos Bay and Skopelos before the real advent of tourism and gives a wonderful feel for the island people.

I read it about once a year to remind myself of what things were like when I first came and why I stayed.

It was my privilege to run into the author at the Skiathos airport last year and to exchange a few words with him.

We are planning another "moonlight walk" on July 6th (one day after full moon) when we go from Evangelistra Monastery to Haralambos Monastery, across the plateau of Karafiltzanaka, around the high point of Skiathos called Mount Mitikas and down to the Platanos Taverna at Profitis Ilias. Here we sit for a meal while the moon rises over Skopelos. Finally we stroll back downhill to Evangelistra Monastery and drive home.

This walk encompasses some of the best views of the island as well as some of the nicest spots and we look forward to it with great anticipation.

We have good friends arriving from the US at the beginning of July who will be staying at our houses.

Our bookings are slowly picking up but we still have many gaps so if you are looking for a truly relaxing holiday with real peace and quiet, check out our houses at http//skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm

There are new photos of the Barn with its extension and vastly improved patio area.

That's it for now, I leave you with the sound of the cicadas buzzing in the trees and the gentle lap of the water on the soft sand's edge.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Spring Skiathos newsletter.

As usual, it is later than intended but, believe it or not, I plead pressure of work!

In fact it was hearing the first nightingale singing in our valley and sighting the first hare on the road at night 2 days ago that reminded me that I must get this together.

I had just returned from a trip to Thessaloniki (half business, all pleasure) and the mainland was stunning. Everything was green with newly sown crops and in between were swathes of white and pink from the blossoms of the almond trees. In the hedgerows, wild flowers were adding other dashes of colour and I was reminded of pictures I had seen in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam this winter.

I was in Thessaloniki to help promote 2 new websites which I am starting with a friend: http://thessaloniki-info.com and http://halkidiki-info.com. They will give lots of information about the areas (rather like http://skiathosinfo.com) and will offer accommodation at some of the better hotels in these regions. These hotels are open all year round as there are many things to do and see in the area.
On my way back, I stopped at Neos Panteleimonas under Mount Olympos to see Stelios and Claudia who run the Olympic Wings adventure holiday centre. http://hidden-valleys.com/olympos/olympicwings.htm
Unfortunately I had only 2 hours to talk with them before I had to continue my journey to Volos. However, it was well worth while and we may be trying to offer some combined holidays with a week at their centre and a week in Skiathos sometime in the future.
Upon arrival in Volos, I found that the hydrofoil for Skiathos was full to brimming so I took the opportunity to spend a night at Villa Horizonte on Pelion (http://hidden-valleys.com/pelion/villa-horizonte.htm) with my good friends Ingrid and Wolf. Their hospitality was, as usual, wonderful and they brought me back to Volos the following day to catch the next hydrofoil.

Well, back in Skiathos at last.
Were you beginning to wonder if I was going to mention Skiathos at all? ;o)

The village is perking up and if you move too slowly you will be painted white by old men & women wielding white-wash brushes as the town prepares itself for Easter and the beginning of the season.
The new paving stones of Papadiamantis Street have been extended to the side streets and the town is staring to look really nice. Having no traffic on Papadiamantis Street has been wonderful but you have to watch out for the cars and mopeds crossing it (sometimes at great speed) as they go from one side of town to the other.

Property sales are going well and look to get better as the Greek government is threatening to raise the tax rating on all property in the next couple of years. This means that prices will inevitably rise but not for a while, so now is a good time to invest. There are 2 villas on the market with both owners keen to sell, so, if you are looking for a nice place on Skiathos, email me at property@skiathosinfo.com

As previous readers of this newsletter will know, I am keen to promote a decent flight only service to Skiathos at reasonable prices so that people can choose their own accommodation (e.g. our houses in Zorbathes: http://skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm) and not be tied to what the Tour Operators are offering.
I have recently been contacted by someone who wishes to set up this kind of service, if not this year then next, and I hope to work together with him to promote what I think will be a very good step for Skiathos. A web page has been set up with a feedback form to get people's opinions on such a service and I hope that many of you will go to it and give us the benefit of your thoughts on the subject. You can access the form at: http://www.wardington.com

Well, I think that's it for now. We are looking forward to Easter and the return of many friends who have villas here and also our youngest daughter will be here for the holiday :o) 
The weather has been warm and sunny (we could have used more rain but, what can you do?) and we are busy trying to get the gardens in shape.

This time I would like to leave you with the sound of the bees humming in the almond, plum and peach trees, as they gather their harvest and produce ours at the same time.

Regards,

Geof.

Hello and welcome to the Christmas 2000 Skiathos newsletter,

I have made it a web page this time because I wished to include some images. 

Please click here http://skiathosinfo.com/christmas2000.htm to go to the web page.

Regards,

Geof.

Autumn 2000

It's autumn already and I don't know where the time went!
I have been meaning to get this newsletter out for the last couple of weeks but we have been as busy as we were in the middle of summer.

Lida is off doing her walks with "Solos", groups of single people that come every spring and autumn to walk and see the parts of Skiathos that most people don't get to.
Unfortunately part of our favourite walk, from Platanias Beach through to Kechria Beach has been badly burnt in a forest fire and is lost to us for several years. However, there are many other places of beauty and interest and she manges to easily fill 3 walks a week.
The weather was so hot and dry this summer that Skiathos became a tinderbox and we were lucky not to have had more fires than we did.

Happily for the island (but not for the visitors in the same period) we have had a few really good rains [ :o) ] since and all the fire danger is over. There have also been some very untypical cloudy days during September and October but fortunately, most afternoons the sun came out, and made it beach weather again…at least for a couple of hours.
Perfect walking weather though!

We pressed our grapes again this year and the harvest looks good. Of course you should never count your bottles until they have been tasted (although, the more we taste them, the harder it becomes to count them ;o)

Last year we had around 140 litres happily fermenting away and we were licking our chops and rubbing our hands in anticipation……but that was before our neighbours 2 pigs decided that they would have a "wine tasting".
What happened was that the pigs escaped and were obviously very thirsty.
They arrived on our lawn and were grubbing in the wettest part (where the sprinkler overlaps) when one of them discovered the wine fermenting on the patio and managed to put a neat hole in one of our 25 litre demi-johns with its snout.
Lida arrived home some time later to find 2 completely sozzled pigs lying on the doorstep!
She managed to drive them up the hill to one of our neighbours (with the greatest of difficulty, they were stumbling around all over the place) and shut them in his courtyard.
I arrived shortly after and asked what had happened as it was obvious via our "pig aerated" lawn that something was out of the ordinary.
Lida explained and I then realised that the pigs belonged not to the neighbour above, but to another neighbour further down the valley.
Up we trudged and tried to move the pigs out of the courtyard and down the hill before he came home and discovered them. They were, by this time, suffering severely from the effects of some 20 odd litres of very young wine and were most reluctant to move anywhere. After chasing them round in circles for half a hour, we finally managed to get them going in the rough direction of our lower neighbour and then sat back exhausted from our efforts.
We informed him what had happened and he found the them next day still crashed out under some bushes (presumably with the porker equivalent of a huge hangover!).

We will be keeping our demi-johns in a safer place this year. In fact, I was thinking of drinking it all now to prevent any pig-napping but, remembering the state those pigs were in, I have refrained!

We are definitely coming to the end of the season and the cloudy weather has accelerated the effect. Many of the outside tavernas are shutting down and the beach umbrellas are being slowly gathered in.
I must say that I a looking forward to the peace of winter and getting on with updating the web site and starting a few new projects.

On one of the new web sites we will be offering select, exclusive accommodation in Skiathos, Skopelos, Pelion and Switzerland with possibilities for yacht chartering, diving, sailing, walking, skiing or, of course, just relaxing in a wonderful place.
The site is not fully completed yet except for our ski chalet page: http://hidden-valleys.com/switzerland/ovronnaz.htm where you can stay in a small, private, catered chalet with ski guiding. This holiday is specifically tailored for those who are "over 40 and want to improve their skiing".

We will also be adding a new "wing" to our Barn: http://skiathosinfo.com/accomm/zorbades.htm which will add a master bedroom, a small bedroom and a proper bathroom with a bath. Outside we will extend the patio area and add terraces with rock walls and Pelion stone to bring the whole building up to the same standard as the Farmhouse.

It's going to be a busy winter but an interesting one.

Well I hope that some of you (if not all of you) will be able to come and share this wonderful island with us again next year.

Keep checking the website and if any of you has some