Winter Stories · 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.
Below the house the coast opens into a wide bay, and at its eastern end is Kokkinos Pirgos: a working village with a small harbour and a long beach of dark sand. In summer there are sunbeds; in winter there are footprints and a few dogs. The sea is still swimmable for the brave into November, and the light on it is the best of the year, low and from the side.
Most winter days look like the first photograph: blue sky, flat sea, the hills behind Agia Galini sharp and brown. When a front comes through the picture changes in an hour, the waves come up and the clouds pile on the mountains. Two days later it is blue again.
The harbour is where the fishing boats come in, and it has the taverna we go back to; ask us for the name. At dusk the Paximadia islands sit on the horizon like a ship that never arrives. From the house the sun sets behind them in December.
