But not everybody enjoys these glorious days, especially the Greeks that celebrated May 1st on the island and expected to go to the beach (!) But the plants and flowers thrive now, before the sizzling sun dries everything…

Our pink Cistus parviflorus is in full bloom, and the Lomelosia cretica (above) is following along.

As our neighbor’s goats observe, Costas whacks the dried greens very carefully, among the fragrant thyme and savory bushes, and the vivid yellow blossoming phlomis.

Flowering plants are not many in our property, we only spotted four wild orchids under the olive trees this year. They seem as if they are speeding up their pace to catch up, blooming as fast as they can among the already yellowing greens.  

We harvested the last tender edible winter greens and some fava beans, of which we still have plenty to last for a couple more weeks.

The many green almonds promise an abundant crop, and the quince tree is spectacular in its large pink-white flowers.  

Our unusually plush rose bushes will flourish soon, and we are also looking and waiting for the budding wisteria to bloom. We had the first flowers around Greek Easter, Sunday April 24. 

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Last winter we did not get much rain in Kea, and this, the 2021, summer was particularly hot for more than a couple of days: for about two exhausting weeks the temperature remaining very high, even at night, something quite rare.  

Back in the spring, we had already noticed that the vegetation was far from lush this year, and  then by June we realized our trees were not doing well at all.  The big fig tree, whose particularly large leaves Costas uses to wrap the sea bass for grilling, had fewer and much smaller leaves, and the figs were tiny and far from abundant.  

And our lemon trees that produce wonderfully aromatic thick-skin lemons look particularly tortured.  

The only thing that is thriving this strange summer is our small, much-pampered vegetable garden, where we added extra compost and organic fertilizer –basically dried sea weeds.

Every cloud has a silver lining

On the other hand, less rain and humidity brought less bugs, and with the appropriate drip irrigation we managed to produce more vegetables. Our heirloom rose bushes, planted next to the vegetable patches along with other flowering plants, and most importantly, various aromatics like basil, oregano, European thyme, mint, and rose geraniums, were thriving as well in our small vegetable garden! And no beetles around to devour the roses, for a change..

As we are collecting our tomatoes, squash, peppers, and Sicilian eggplants, we remember that every cloud has a silver lining; yet still, we do hope for more rain and less heat next year!

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