Flies in Plakias

[We live in Plakias]

It's January. The weather here has been very warm and sunny. It should be much, much colder. The good side is that one can go to the beach. The water is still warm enough to swim in. The bad side is the flies. Colder weather would have killed them all off. The other morning I swatted over 40 of the little buggers in our kitchen. And that was before breakfast! They are of the 'bitey' variety and have a habit of going for your face. But they keep our cats amused. Our little female cat is very agile and leaps up and catches them in mid air!!!

[JackieatUrbanAgenda]

V annoying....I know how bad the midges can be elsewhere. In some ways the warm weather isn't a good thing for January. We were told last year that it was a heatwave in January that jeopardised the olive crop so I really hope the same will not happen again this year. At the risk of introducing a subject that could cause arguments, I did some background research with colleagues when I got back home in Sept and one in particular is very concerned about the impact of climate change on the Med area....seems it is causing extremes and changes to the seasons that everyone is having to cope with. Unseasonal heatwaves and flies may just be indicators of change.

[We live in Plakias]

This morning is another stunningly beautiful day. Not a cloud to be seen. But we need rain. We drove to Rethymno yesterday. As we went through the gorge I looked down and there is virtually no water in it. Last year it was much fuller. Our bougainvillea is shooting and last year it was March before it did that. Last summer was HOT and went on right to the end of October. Climate change? I don't know. But the weather pattern over the last two years has been unusual.