ISLAND LIFE

What we lacked this April in glowing fireflies, we are more than making up for with tiny brown butterflies, the olive groves are quietly alive with their chaotic dance, this is food for the birds and a tempting game for a feral cat, was it the sloshingly wet winter that has brought about this wonderful phenomenon, there is more insect life this year a low bumble hum is coming from my lavender plants, full of furry bees, and the mosquitoes seem particularly blood thirsty this spring.  Radio 4 says that insects are doomed particularly the butterfly, it certainly doesn’t seem so from where I’m sitting on Paxos.  (The photograph I know is a swallow tail on our bougainvillea (taken by the rather talented Bob Berry) if you have ever tried to take photographs of clouds of fluttering butterflies you’ll know my pain).   

One thing we are not short of here on Paxos is the feral cat, but we are blindsided by the sadness we feel having lost one we rescued just two years ago, there is something unbelievable sweet and grateful about a cat plucked from a life of dirt and starvation, they hunker in the shadows picking over our leftovers from the green bins scattered around this island of rain and cold (even Greece can be cold in the winters), but this beautiful tortoiseshell with her green green eyes got lucky when Marc found her in a hole in the hedge, her hip badly broken, she was starving but trusting and he described her purr and miaow as the prettiest he had ever heard. Two years on she has come to rest at the bottom of the garden under an ancient olive tree and we can imagine her coming up the path to greet us, to follow us in, and take her place by the fire. We have however a distraction but he’s got big paws to fill, another rescue came to us as a black kitten with shaved face and almost completely blind he purrs like a tractor is stalking the patios of Cavallino, big and beautiful he is part of the makeup of Paxos and love them or hate them they are integral to the life here and part of the flora and fauna. PAWS and our local vets are wonderful, kind and respectful and should be celebrated as such, if you get the chance to visit them please do, make a donation to make a difference and maybe even take one home with you ❤️

High summer feels more like an endurance test than pleasure, horns beep, tempers fray commensurate with the mercury reading. Brittle gardens flop thirstily, snakes, lizards and tiny Paxos tortoises retreat under dry leaves and into cracks in the blackened walls.

My daughter sees a large grey hare flash across her 4 am headlights we wonder where it finds water and how anything survives.

The temptation that is September seems just out of grasp but it is coming, along with the gentle winds and a downpour or two. From the edge of the Cavallino patio, the Ionian sea in the distance glitters as if broken blue crystal shards. Fat ripe burgundy figs drop plumply to the floor, and jasmine flowers warmed by the hot sun fill the thick air with their intoxicating perfume.

The sudden wind takes the curling white smoke left over from annual spring clear ups and pushes it out to the far corners of the island. Everywhere is an artists pallet, bursts of vibrant colour and green shoots seem to appear overnight, the anticipation of summer and its many visitors hangs excitedly in the clearer air.

At dusk enthusiastic fireflies dance haphazardly in the growing gloom of the olive groves, making magic.

On the streets and in the villages, detergents sploosh and fizz across the pavements, brooms are flourished, pools scrubbed and windows flung wide, not long now !!

Happiness can be found right here in two perfectly fried eggs and a pile of sun-soaked tomatoes taken before 10am on the bustling harbour front of Gaios. While my bitter coffee goes cold, I watch the anxious clients waiting for the flat-bottomed boat which will speed them on a crest of foam to the white sands of anti-Paxos. What is it about the human condition that makes us always so concerned, is this the right boat? Will it leave on time? Will it come back without me? The Greeks watch with pensive amusement, this daily fluttering, then suddenly all is bedlam and shouting someone’s moped is in the way and nobody wants to move it…….

The world and square are suddenly a party, excited voices echo, children clamber and clammer in a muddle of colours and sizes, is this spring finally? People have emerged as if from a hibernation of television and cheese pies. A riot of fallen blossom carpets the verges and covers the rubbish, everything is green and blue and sparkling, here we go a new summer is just around the next bend in the river of Paxos life.

We are an island of fire, everywhere you look furling tendrils of blue smoke rise-up through the grey of the trees, we have Paxos smog! So acrid that sometimes we lock the doors and windows and wait for a forgiving wind to change the direction of the fug, everyone is cleaning, clearing and strimming, the buzz is a background hum like no other, but at 3-ish in the afternoons they down tools and go home for an early dinner and beer, the smoke subsides, a warm sun peeks through and we drink cold wine on the terrace, even now the shorter afternoons are stretching towards the spring.

We experience an arrival! The soft smell of rain (petrichor) permeates buildings, the top of the sea, clothes, and the food we eat, it snakes around the side streets waking up the mosquitos, birds have a place to splash and cats lap greedily at its oily surface.

Our clients are also enjoying this turnaround, boots and sturdy shoes are donned flip flops discarded, this is the time to walk and really discover what tiny Paxos has to offer, scented pink cyclamen stretch their heads above the surface, slowly carpeting the paths and filling out the cracks in the stone steps. Lots of coffee is being drunk and the kafenios are full of walkers having a simple lunch and a carafe of wine.

I feel joy when I pull on a pair of jeans and take my vertically challenged dog along the slippery paths towards Ipapandi this might be Winter, but it feels like heaven to me!!

With the thermometer rising so does the ripple of people coming to Paxos for their respite from the modern world, Panama Hats, the creaky wheels of exhausted suitcases on paved streets, the chatter of the glamorous Italian set, all a backdrop to this lovely place that so many like to call their second home.

It’s been a busy few months, from the school half term holidays to now, the islanders have been welcoming people with open arms, so pleased finally to see us after two years (for some) of absence. Tripper boats from Corfu sound their arrival and the coffee bars, and tiny cool back streets fill for an hour or two, the ebb and flow of life on this little island.

It has been lively here preparing for this glorious summer, new shops, and restaurants have opened, hats and linen dresses flutter on the breeze waiting to be plucked for a special occasion. The scent of a delicious lunch curling around the buildings, cats waiting by the fish slabs for the odd treat, tossed and slithered in their direction.

The heat shimmers above the paving slabs, causing a flattering filter effect across to the sea where the boats wait to take their guests across to the tiny satellite of anti-Paxos with its Caribbean style sands and cocktail blue sea.

Always an island of contrasts, elderly gents sit with their worry beads on shady street corners, often joined by the priest. The glitterati and their entourages flitter like brilliant butterflies for our entertainment, the stalwart Paxos returnee quietly viewing this life as it goes by, and we wait —- for September and the cooler winds and the silence of the cicada and the white pebbled beaches returned to just the few….