(Halcyon Months on Lesvos)
The Halcyon Days are a typical Greek weather
condition. They usually take place after the New Year, sometime in January, normally
a few days to two weeks when the wind is hiding and the blue sky is decorated
with a bright shining sun.
Greeks (and many other people) have myths to explain
most natural phenomena and so too for Halcyon Days: Halcyon, daughter of
Aeolus, God of the wind, married king Ceyx. During a bad storm her beloved king
drowned and Halcyon became so distressed that she too threw herself into the
angry waves and drowned. The Gods took pity on them and changed the loving
couple into a pair of Common Kingfishers. And Aeolus insured that for a period
in January the winds would no longer blow, so that the birds could easily build
themselves a nest on the rocks and lay their eggs.
I thought that the Halcyon Days this year took place
at the beginning of January when the weather was beautiful. However, the
weather became even more beautiful in the middle of January, so maybe that’s
when these special days took place. But the great weather did not stop then, in
fact, it has even become warmer. Were the Halcyon Days at the end of January or
even transferred to February, when spring weather set in to transform nature?
Everywhere flowers were in a hurry to unfold their colourful petals, almond
trees flowered and even the first wild asparagus rose towards heaven. In mid
February the thermometer tried to reach 20 ºC, a sign for the hastening arrival
of many more flowers.
It’s now so warm that even the Gods must be at a loss at
what’s going on: this year we’ve had Halcyon Months rather than Days! I guess
the birds are overjoyed to have such warm nests. I’m a little less happy
because it’s not only the birds that are profiting from this warm winter
weather; the insects too will be surviving and increasing in numbers for this coming
summer. They’re already up-and-running: big buzzing bees, the first mosquitoes,
delicate fluttering butterflies and fat zooming flies. And I am sure that the
fruit fly dakos, responsible for the bad olive harvest
this winter, is already preparing for another big offensive.
I shouldn’t complain too much because, of course, I
really enjoy this lovely weather and lots of Greeks are happy that they’re not
having to spend as much money on their winter heating. One complaint, however, is
that there hasn’t been enough rain, leaving lots of rivers still dry. But it’s
only late February, so we still have a chance for big rains.
It’s just as well that we cannot make the weather ourselves, otherwise
there would be a war between the people preferring a cheap winter and enjoy the
great weather and those who believe that low temperatures and lots of rain is necessary
to keep a balance in nature
Anyway, the unusually warm weather is the topic of the
day. They say that the Dutch speak a lot about the weather, but come to Greece
and hear how much they talk about it. You don’t even have to come to Greece to
see the weather. Just open your computer and click: through the webcam in Vafios you can
enjoy blue skies and splashing sunsets at Molyvos. If you are curious about what
goes on in the harbour at Plomari, you can watch that through this
webcam. Perhaps you know people in Plomari and want to say hello; in
Plomari there even is a second webcam from which you can observe the comings
and goings on their main street: webcam Plomari 2 (note: like
the webcam in Mytilini
it does not work on all computers). If you’re wondering if the weather is the
same on the neighbouring island of Chios, just click and watch the weather
there with a webcam in Kampos.
If you have plenty of time and you’re curious about the weather in the
rest of Greece, here
is a page that lists webcams all over Greece, from a busy highway near Athens, to
a snowless ski track, to Olympus and idyllic beaches, through clear or dusty cameras
or just as frames. For those, who apart from nice pictures, love everything
about the weather (temperatures, air pressure and humidity) the weather webpage
of Paleiochori in Kavala is possibly
the best one to visit, with a.o. 3 cameras filming in 3 wind directions.
Do you have boundless curiosity and do you also want to know what flies
through the air and what sails over the seas? Then you can even peep at sea and
air traffic: through this link you can try
to discover what ship you can see passing over the horizon and through this link
you can see which airplanes are flying over your head.
But there is, as yet, no webcam that can make you smell the sweet
fragrance of the blossoms, hear the whispering of the trees or the lapping of
the waves on the beach, nor feel the sun on your bare skin. For that you have
to leave your chair and travel to Greece.
(with thanks to Mary Staples)
© Smitaki 2014
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