Friday, June 17, 2005

Clear Skies Ahead

It seems we have entered the period, blissfully, where it rarely rains. The temperature is ever so slowly creeping upward, the nights are pleasant, and the snow is almost completely gone from the peaks of Mt. Olympus. It is relatively common here, at least from my experience over the past 3 years, for it to not rain for long periods of time, starting sometime in the summer (yes, ok, I know its not officially summer yet, but humor me). When we lived on Kos, we moved there at the end of July, and the first rain we experienced there was sometime in mid to late October.

The last time it rained on our mountain village was last Wednesday, June 8th, which will start the official countdown between rains. It seems very strange, I guess, I mean, in America, if we didn't have rain for very long periods in the summer people started to panic. Here in Greece, despite the lack of rain, things remain lush and fecund and there is no fear of drought. To me it is still very strange not to have frequent summer thunderstorms, as that seemed to be a staple of life in Nashville. You would think in the land of Zeus he would flash his lightning bolts as frequently as possible.

Of course, as soon as I post this, I just know we are going to have one of those fast moving downpours that come out of nowhere and last 5 minutes, which will be great, considering I'm about to put a huge load of laundry on the line.

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