A nearly abandoned house in a small back street

The morning clouds gradually cleared leaving a hazy sky which kept the temperatures from climbing too high. A few hours by the pool passed by with my headphones playing a collection of my old favourites tracks on an iPod playlist I'd made for somebody a couple of years ago.

Helena had bought some local food goodies which we had as a luncheon picnic in the garden outside our room. Then we ended up spending the late afternoon sitting on loungers beside the sea which lapped gently shifting the small pebbles back and forth as small wavelets arrived from various directions moved by unseen distant winds.

We have a half-board arrangement which is turning out to be another brilliant idea of Helena, as the taverna attached to the hotel serves excellent delicate local foods with a lot of variety. this means we don't have to worry about finding places to eat in the evening and tonight we wandered the short distance along the beach and climbed the small rise up into Skala, a small quiet and mostly traffic free town.

We did casually search for a bar to have a preprandial drink which took us around the back streets.  It even lead us to the old Roman villa remains, which were closed by this time, and then down the Homer steps which didn't have such an ancient feel, but led past a beautiful bougainvillea a view of which I've added as an 'Extra photo'. You can even see a 'Woodpecker' descending the steps.

But I am blipping a lovely old house which seems to have been nearly abandoned.  Its steps to the front door now seem to be a store for beer crates.  But the flowers and old garden remind me of the older Greece which is less apparent in the tourist areas. Hopefully our imminent day trips around the island may reveal glimpses of that older world, which given more time we could see more of.