Serifos day two, reservoir walk

 Serifos 13th September 

Well actually last night. This is the view after dinner, doing the crossword, with the smell of the taverna next door tingling my nose senses, possibly inspiring me in my efforts to do well on the Evening Standard cryptic crossword. This picture is the thing that sold the property and island to me !

Last nights cooking went ok, I still need a few things to get the kitchen working including a chopping board and scales. As there are only two hot  plates, a  dish that needs three has to be managed differently! But it’s good to have these challenges. I don’t seem to have forgotten anything as far as I can see. Unfortunately I wasn’t careful enough with the eggs I bought yesterday and as they don’t come in an egg box, four were cracked so  I had to use them last night. Tonight I am going to make a Thai curry, I bought some red and green paste with me. I will freeze portions of it I don’t eat.

So this is the view at about seven am. The sunshine is bathing Hora and the mountains opposite with a pink hue. It’s very pretty and there is a gentle breeze. I have my trusty coffee and gadgets and radio four is playing on BBC  Sounds. I will have my breakfast soon. I am going to do the reservoir walk today, before I do I might clean the floor with the mop so it can dry out while I walk. At bang on seven thirty, a church bell tolled, I wonder if it’s the big church that the priest I met in the coffee shop last time presides over. The sun is truly up now and I can feel it’s heat on me.

Outside the front door is a small plant trough with mostly dead plants in it. I have been watering it and I am going to try and grow some spring onions! I have no idea if I have enough time for them to mature before winter cuts off the growing season!

It may not be realistic but when I chatted to the supermarket owners, I told them about wanting to find someone who wanted to improve their English and them helping me to get going with Greek. Well the lady owner said she was interested. So maybe I will see if she really wants to try. I guess we would do the exchange of words when there are no customers. In the winter I imagine it will be very quiet. 

This whole experience  reminds me when I moved into my first house, and how I got on there, getting it up and running. It was the first time I lived on my own, and I led a very regimented life, mainly to make sure I ate fairly well and did not end up living in a pig sty! I was worried about the electric bills, and was regularly reading the meter. Like here, it was all electric, no gas. It was also very small, much smaller than here. I also did not have a car, but I had a bicycle! 

My recently upgraded iPhone has a new fitness app that is telling me how many steps I am doing each day. I am not going to get obsessed with the numbers it’s revealing, it’s just a bit of fun. One thing I was determined to do is update the information on Google maps about places on Serifos. I have just added my photos to the Wash House entry and added some notes. I have also created a Facebook group “I love Serifos” and added the first post about my visit to the Wash House.

So the reservoir walk will be written up in full on the I love Serifos Facebook group, but before I did it, I went into the bakers, where I was told, there was no spanakopita left, but they had a chicken slice which was awesome. Forget your Ginster ones! The walk starts by the other super market and I was soon on my way past the first church and onto the second one by the graveyard and water oasis. The church was open, a guy had been walking ahead of me and he had opened it up. I then carried on and got the the reservoir, which still seemed quite full, it’s only used for agriculture use. There were some birds swooping over the surface of the water and I also saw a bird of prey, not sure what it was. I would eventually go right and towards Livadi, but I decide to go left and to the beach Psili Ammos, where a historical monument “Stairway to heaven” could be seen. This will be my first time thing for today. The beach was lovely, it was a nice combination of sand and rocks, there were only a few people on it. In the distance I could see Syros and the little island Serifopoula which is close by. On the headland was this unusual statue.

Then I saw the so called “Stairway to Heaven” which was a bit of a disappointment, I expected something a bit more interesting.

There was another bit of modern art, by the holiday homes, a model of a head. I then went back up to the main road. Further along, in the valley there are olive trees and I could see Livadi, there are not many yachts in the marina now. There is another little island here called  Vous. Another thing I have not done is walk around the whole of the peninsula, which is opposite Livadi. It was ok, one area seemed to be used as a rubbish tip, further round there was a huge wetland area, fresh water running and I imagine lots of frogs! There was also some goats in a fenced off area, there was one that seemed to have escaped. 

There was also a flock of sheep. The path ran out, so I had to cross a field, heading to where the path would reappear. After here the path turned into a smart concrete drive, this area of the coast has some very smart holiday housing. From here it was a short walk to the start of Livadi beach, I had time to buy a drink and ice cream before the bus took me home.