Winter Stories

Short notes from the house and the roads around it, November to April. Added through the winter.

The green Messara plain with olive groves and yellow flowers, mountains along the horizon under cloud

February to March · History

Phaistos, with the plain gone green

The Minoan palace sits on a ridge over the Messara. After the winter rains the plain below it turns green and yellow, and the site is almost empty.

The dolphin fresco in the Queen's Megaron at Knossos, blue dolphins and small fish on a cream wall

All winter · History

Knossos on a quiet day

In summer the queue at Knossos starts before the gate opens. On a weekday in winter you can stand alone in front of the dolphins.

A taverna table with fried small fish, fried shrimp, beetroot, cheese pies and a Greek salad

All winter · Table

Lunch at Pelagos, open all winter

The fish tavern on Agia Galini harbour keeps going when the rest of the village closes: Tuesday to Sunday, indoors, with the morning's catch.

The long snow-covered summit ridge of Psiloritis under a clear blue sky, olive hills in the foreground

October to April · Weather

Snow on Psiloritis

The highest mountain on Crete carries snow from the first storms, some years in late October, through to April. On a clear day it shows above the hills.

A large flock of pigeons scattered across a sky of broken cloud and blue

12 December · Weather

A flock over the hills

After three days of rain the sun came back, and so did the birds.

A long dark-sand beach, calm blue sea and the hills behind Agia Galini under a clear sky

November to February · Sea

The bay at Kokkinos Pirgos in winter

The long beach at Kokkinos Pirgos with nobody on it, the harbour flat at noon, and the Paximadia islands at dusk.

Black olives ripening on a branch, the valley and the sea below

4 November · Harvest

The week the olives come in

Nets under the trees, the press in the next village, and the first oil of the year on bread.

The monastery courtyard: a mulberry tree shading a table and chairs by an ochre wall, bougainvillea in flower

October to November · History

The courtyard at Moni Odigitria

A fortified monastery in the hills south of Matala, with a mulberry tree over the table and the bougainvillea still out in November.

Strings of green, orange and red chilli peppers hanging from a wooden pergola over a long table

October · Table

Peppers drying under the pergola

In October the herb shop in Kouses hangs its year's peppers from the roof, green turning to orange, the reds already dark.

← Winter at the house