The Fourth Week.

Day 26 - Friday 25.4.14  
A beautiful day today, sunny and warm. Such a change from yesterday.  We decided to have a mooch round Sidari and to try and find the place we stayed at 20 odd years ago when the place was a sleepy little fishing village. No luck, it has grown so much, there has been so much development that it proved impossible. We do not like Sidari now, much too busy and one road is just wall to wall bars and restaurants. We struggled to find a 'Greek' restaurant open and settled for  a cafe where we had a 'Full English' and very nice it was too. We shopped for our essentials, water etc. then drove back to our lovely little Arillas for Poppy to have a run and swim. There were quite a few people on the beach enjoying the late afternoon sunshine.
Sad night tonight, we went to the Marvel to say goodbye to Bob and Nicola they are on a late flight back to the UK. Bob says he has done lots of writing while he has been here, so we can look forward to his new book very soon, we can't wait for it and hope it is as good as his others, which I am sure it will be.

Day 27 - Saturday 26.4.14     Beach cleaning day!
 Lots of locals, Greeks, English and others descended on the beach to help tidy it up before the influx of visitors. We helped, as did Poppy, she was a great help collecting sticks between swims. She is getting very brave and goes further out now she has got used to the waves - talking of which - I found the following on the Arillas Forum and found it interesting:-

The size of the beach in Arillas Corfu
The size of the sandy  beach of Arillas is different almost  every day. It all depends on the current of the sea and the direction of the wind which moves the waves.
Sand is a liquid element with specific dynamic.
The shape of the beach depends on whether or not the waves are constructive or destructive.
Constructive waves move sand up the beach while destructive waves move the sand down the beach.
If the wind is from the south then the waves move the sand towards the sea resulting to a decrease of the width of our beach. When the wind blows from the north , then  it moves the sand out of the water making the beach wider. Three days of north west wind ( Maistro ) can give us a width up to 2 meters a day.
This is why most of you who regularly return to Arillas  are most of the times surprised by the shape of our beach .The beach profile changes seasonally due to the change in wave energy experienced during summer and winter months. It  is higher during the summer due to the gentle wave action during this season. Conversely, the beach profile is lower in the winter due to the increased wave energy associated with storms'

     

Painted pebbles. 

 As I was picking up litter, I found these 3 painted pebbles, I placed them on a flower bed. Someone has taken a lot of trouble to paint them, I wonder who!

     Poppy swimming   

     

Surfing

Poppy is getting more adventurous with the waves and is  surfing some of them.                              












The people of Arillas do take pride in their village, there is a great community spirit here and they do a lot to make the place attractive. One example of this is a  few years ago when we came we found they had been re-cycling cans - big time! This was the result - no longer here now they were replaced with permanent bins.

                                                         
The notice says 'We do recycling for our environment - nothing goes to waste'


When we got back from the beach Vasso came to clean, her hubby Yannis came with her and walked me round the garden, and told me the names of some of the plants. He assures me the Loquats/Nespoless will be good to eat in a weeks time. We have a Peach Tree with lots of fruit on it, a Pomegranate tree, a Red Olive tree, lots of lemon and orange trees. A satsuma, and a Seville orange tree to make jam with - not for eating. Also the most gorgeous Bottle Brush tree - Callistemon.
       

                 

Pomegranate

Day 28 - Sunday 27.4.14  

This morning it was warm and sunny, but we heard a few rumbles of thunder. Luckily it did not rain and it turned out to be a glorious day, lots of lovely warm sunshine. We walked down to the beach and had a lovely long walk and play.

Mesembryanthemums on way down to beach

 Walking down!

A few years ago a restaurant owner, (Kostas on the beach), and friend to many people died at a very young age (40 something). We have a group on Facebook and Arillas.com, of friends who are regulars to Arillas, we were all devastated to hear the sad news about Kostas and we decided to purchase a bench in his memory. This we did and it is placed on the jetty every Spring and put in storage for the Winter, today was the day it was re-installed in its place, therefore we had to go and sit on it. We met our friend Ann Stewart, who had just returned from the UK, you can see her in the background walking down the jetty to say hello, she has invited us up to her and Roger's house to see her chicks.

Phil and Poppy

Poppy and I

     

                                           
While we were walking along the beach we got to the place where the stream joins the sea - and found a tiny turtle being washed down and out to sea.

The Stream

Baby Turtle

This evening we fancied a Pizza so we walked down to Pizzeria Lithero, and very nice it was too, all cooked in a wood burning oven. We had Saganaki and stuffed peppers for starters, which we shared. Then an amazing Chicken Pizza all washed down with a jug of local red wine. Excellent value for money. Vasilis the chef is a showman, we enjoyed watching him prepare the food, with his little twirls, flick of the wrist to flour the counter and everytime he took a pizza out of the oven he spun the huge spatula. Entertainment as well! We walked back up to the Marvel for a nightcap, and lo and behold the waiter who had just served our meal arrived with a takeaway order for Kostas and his friends at the bar. If the locals eat the food, you know it is good.

Day 29 - Monday 28.4.14

It rained quite heavily in the night, and this morning it is cloudy, cool 13 deg and persisting down - might have to get some turtles for the puddles in the garden. We stayed in all day, I made a nice Chicken Curry for dinner and did a lot of reading.

Day 30 - Tuesday 29.4.14        Andy's 42nd birthday!

There are so many birthdays today, Andy, Dot, William, Karen and Stella. It was pouring down with rain again, up to about 4pm. We had a good internet signal today therefore I did some reviews of books I have read on Amazon and also ordered some items for our friends Kes and Kath to bring out with them next week. We had a drive up to the supermarket and then took Poppy down to the beach to catch the early evening sunshine. She is loving the water and was jumping off the jetty to chase her ball. We were most impressed when she stood on the waters edge and had a wee. Beach front is looking really good, lots of new plants and some new benches have appeared. The locals are frantically getting their places ready - it seems most places are opening on 1st/2nd May. I made Spaghetti Bolognaise for tea with home made Garlic bread.

Day 31 - Wednesday 30.4.14

We woke to lovely sunshine today, but it had rained heavily in the night.

Loquats

Front garden

 The gardener came and cut the front grass, he picked some Loquats/Nespoles for me and I gave him a Mythos.











We decided to have a drive to Corfu town today, we wanted some bits from Lidl and to visit Jumbo for the first time. It is a huge 2 story store, took us ages to have a look round, some very unusual items there. Almost like Woolworths/Wilko rolled into one.
When we got back we went down to the beach for Poppy to have a run, we walked towards the North End. We were surprised to see that the old wooden steps have been replaced with a very smart looking ramp, again the locals have been very busy over the winter. The sunset tonight was lovely. Poppy did another wee on the waters edge, she is getting good at it, I suppose it is like me, when I hear running water, I want one too.

Day 32 - Thursday 1.4.14

100 days without a cigarette for me today!
1st May is a bank holiday here, apparently all the supermarkets are closed, but most of the tavernas and restaurants are opening for the new season.

Greece celebrates Spring… the Festival of Flowers. Protomagia!!! That is the name of this celebration  Our friend Sara picked wild flowers from along her track and made this beautiful wreath.

















We had a drive into San Stefanos today, we drove down to the Port and the beach - here are some photos we took.

We visited our friend Yiota's new shop - very nice it is too, so spacious!

Then we went for a coffee and took Poppy for a run on the beach. On the way back into Arillas we spotted the new sign which has been erected at the edge of the village.

Armourada for dinner tonight, we decided to have Saganaki between us for starters. We asked Leon how big they were, so he got his pen out and drew the size on the tablecloth. Only in Arillas! It was much bigger than he drew though.