Close to perfect

A good sleep, and Lorraine brought us tea and we sat with the French doors open, looking out at the harbour and the hill, trees and houses across the bay. The day started cloudily, but by the time we'd eaten a slow peach and yoghurt, toast and cheese breakfast and had left for the nearby Mamari beach it was beautiful. The beach was almost completely empty, and utterly gorgeous. We swam together, then I did a bit of sketching, and reading George Seferis's brilliant poetry. Lorraine finished Mountains of the Sea, by Ray Naylor which she has been reading for a long time. Then she crocheted and we gazed dreamily into the distance. We're expecting rain tomorrow so we lapped up all the sun we could. 

Photographing jellyfish -- not usual here -- in the shallows, but what came out was the beautiful look of ripples of light on the pebbles. I only noticed the jellyfish today, and it was then it clicked about the day before.

We mooched back home, and Lorraine went to have a shower, I went for a long walk. I found a steep sort of donkey path that led uphill and inland away from the village. I kept hoping it would turn towards the old mill overlooking the bay, but it went in the opposite direction so eventually I turned back after climbing a steep hill. Then back into the village, and walked up the steep road on the other side, where we had a villa when we first came here. I couldn't believe how we'd stayed there, as it was such a climb, which we did with big packs of water and so on. I continued climbing, and got to a really high place over the village. 

Back to Lorraine, my steps tracker telling me I had already climbed the equivalent of 44 flights of stairs. In the village I walked past a man drinking a cold beer outside the little Europa bar. I found this sight oddly inspirational. I picked up Lorraine and we sat taking in the beautiful view and getting outside a large cold beers and discussing how lucky we were. The first beers were so good, we simply had another one. Then we were joined by Leanne and Rahul, who happened to be passing. Lovely people. Excellent fun and we all found it very easy to talk to one another.

Then we made off to the Supermarket and dropped into Taverna Kohli on the harbour front. We enjoyed this being more homely and friendly than the one last night. I had been craving giant beans, and I also ate a very good moussaka, 'to grandma's recipe' apparently. Lorraine had a nice pork souvlaki. We washed this down with some amber coloured rose. A man fishing a couple of yards away, pulled out a small barracuda from the harbour, which was taken straight to the kitchen, the owner pausing only to show its bitey looking face to a small child. 

Home after what had been close to a perfect day. 

Below the view from bed, on Mamari beach, and the view when I walked back into the village. Harbour view is the highest building on the left set in the trees.