Thieves

Earlier in the year we finally constructed a shower in the garden. Somewhere to have a quick rinse either after working in the garden or when returning from the beach still covered in sand. It's built against the garden wall and we leave some shampoo and soap on top of the wall. Yesterday as I went to use the shower I realised that the soap was not on the wall where we had left it the day before. Searching everywhere around the shower we still haven't found anything.

Two days earlier when I went out to water some shrubs at first light I discovered to pine martins scampering and playing just in front of the house. Of course, as soon as they saw me they quickly vanished. With no other explanation for the disappearance of the soap we have laid the blame on these two visitors. So, if anyone sees either a pair of very clean pine martins or any frothing at the mouth, you now know why.

The fire is out

The fire at Areopoli which started either late on Monday evening or early Tuesday morning now seems to be extinguished.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, we went down to the beach for a swim, with temperatures in the mid 90's now for about a week you need to cool down a bit! Without any wind, the sea was very calm. About the first 10 meters of water from the beach was coated with black soot from the fire, small pieces of grasses, and leaves still recognisable by their shape. It was obviously more than just smoke that we had seen in the morning.

For three days, planes and helicopters have been flying past us on the way to the fire, but today we have only seen the small 'spotter planes' that regularly fly up and down the coast checking for fires. The reports on the news indicate that 'hundreds of houses have been destroyed', about 5,000 hectares (almost 20 square miles) of land burnt and extensive damage to services such as electricity.

Fires

On both the local and satellite news today there have been stories about fires raging across Halkadiki in Northern Greece. There, tourists have been evacuated from their hotels and many have spent the night on the beach.

This morning at about 6am we were woken by the smell of smoke. Looking out in the dusk before dawn we couldn't see much, but as the sun started to rise it became obvious that there was indeed a fire somewhere in our area. Most of the mountains behind us were shrouded in a haze of smoke and without any breeze early in the morning it didn't clear very quickly.

Being up early, we decided to walk to the village to check for any post before it got too hot. After talking to a couple of people we found out that there was a big fire to the south of us near Areopoli. Both tanker planes and helicopters that scoop water from the sea have flown past us down to the effected area.