A scorpion on a paradisal day

More relaxed for parts of the day than I have felt in a long time. Lorraine and I after breakfast, sauntered down to the beach and rented a couple of sunbeds and based ourselves by the glassy sea for the day.

We bought spanakopita pies for lunch, Lorraine brought a noodle for swimming, and I spent much of the afternoon snorkelling in what is probably the best place I have ever been for it. The bay's mix of sand, pebbles, stones, rocks and fields of seagrass create a perfect environment for a variety of fish. I saw yet another octopus today, slinking across the seabed, and probing a long tentacle into a crack before pulling itself in and the eyes and body exactly mimicking the rock it was hiding in. So many moments of beauty, and although the water is distinctly cooler (and there are streams of cold fresh water entering the bay under the surface that make the water look blurry). There are a few short wooden jetties, on metal legs, that poke into the water, and the one in deepest water that I saw was surrounded by a shoal of hand sized saddled sea bream, that were completely happy to let you swim among them. So beautiful seeing all the varieties (all of the ones I met again in Meganisi) but in much greater abundance. 

On land, I mooched about while Lorraine basked and embroidered, and walked up past the house Lawrence Durrell lived in, and up into the hill next to it. However this is very different to when I came here thirty years ago, and what had been mostly olive groves now has expensive properties and holiday homes built into the woods. Still very attractive however but I could find no pathway towards the bay like I had once followed, if my memory of the place is at all reliable. 

Makes me very happy to see Lorraine so relaxed too. We had a lovely time together, and went out for a decent meal in a different taverna. I had a chef's special chicken hotpot, a tomatoey sauce, with a touch of chilli pepper in it with lots of other bell peppers in it, and a few bit of potato and chicken. Quite delicious. Lorraine and a lamb kleftiko which came in paper this time. 

Home again, and as Lorraine was chatting to Beth, I found some interesting activity on the bathroom floor, some of the local tiny ants carrying something near the toilet bowl, which on closer inspection turned out to be a scorpion. After thinking about this for a while, I think what they were carrying was the shed skin of a scorpion -- as scorpions moult. Which of course leaves the thought of a bigger scorpion in a shiny new coat somewhere in the bathroom. 

A cheeky glass of ouzo and Fanta on our balcony before an early night. 

Below a snap from my stroll, The White House where Lawrence Durrell lived with his wife Nancy, a spot of bathroom nature photography, and a view of the evening colours.