An unexpected visitor?

 Friday 11th November 

Amazingly I woke up at eight today. The days are shortening at both ends and it’s nice and dark in the little room, so I am having lie ins for the first time in my life. I did wake at four, as usual but was able to drop off easily. 

During my guitar practice I was looking at how I change from chord to chord. I move one finger, then the other. If you look at professional guitarists, the fingers move together. That’s the way forward!

Photo interlude: the hire car.

So do I have a visitor? Last night and the one before I kept hearing scratchy type noises.  One of my Sifnos friends might worry about this, but I  have no reason to believe there is a rodent in the house. It’s probably the wind and I have checked everywhere and there is no sign of a mouse being in the house, no droppings whatever. These houses are made of rocks and I can’t see how a rodent could break in to be honest. I went outside with a torch to see if I could spot anything outside. I did see on my night sky app that Mars is close to the moon and highly visible and there it was, it’s a sort of mucky orange colour.

After an early lunch at Gran’s, which I ate by the harbour  I drove along the road I was on yesterday, but carried along past the turn to Vagia. A bit further on, the road degrades to a rocky mess for two hundred yards then it’s regular surface reappears, I have no idea why, it’s been like this for as long as I remember. I am heading to Koutalas, where we stopped with my Sifnos friends when they were here. They were closing the taverna up then, it’s all closed now. This beach, Ganema and Vagia are beaches in this big bay. Before I got to Koutalas, I spotted a stream on an acute bend and stopped the car. I walked inland from the road and there were a series of pools all running into one another, with the gentle sound of running water.

Some kind of mayfly or dragonflies were dancing above the water occasionally touching it, having a drink maybe. I then drove to Koutalas and walked to the furthest end and lay down  in the sun. The area was impacted by the iron ore extraction with buildings and piers now in ruins. There is a pretty church at the far end that I know but this old boat hut interested me more. 

After a lay down in the sun, I walked back to the car to look at the map. I found a big plastic bag, so picked that up to put in the bins. In front of me, four butterflies were chasing after each other, I have not seen that before. As I approached the bins, the cats jumped up looking at what I might be putting in the bin. Sorry guys. I took a look at the church on Koutalas, Theodore I think the name is but I like Irini best, which is between Koutalas and Ganema beaches 

There does not seem to be a path to Ganema from Koutalas, so I had to drive and park at the beginning of a track that leads down to Ganena. I am not sure how busy this place gets, because there isn’t an obvious place to park, and the track is very stoney. The beach is lovely and big with a nice curvature to it. It’s got the familiar trees as well that we see on these beaches. It was a nice peaceful way to end the day