Volume 1, Issue 1
Christmas 2008
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Winter in Corfu can be cold and wet albeit still more pleasant than northern Europe, but when the sun comes out it can be positively summery. One thing that makes it different is that winter is a shorter season and we have already mentioned the second spring in November when snowdrops and pear blossom catch you completely unawares.
One of the best times to see Corfu’s real beauty is in January & February, equivalent maybe to the same period some two months later in the north. Corfu's favourable climate and winter rainfall ensures its verdant nature throughout the year and it has a wealth of natural assets. At this time, the beauty of the Corfu countryside can take your breath away.
For those visiting the island for the first time, the most striking aspect of the landscape is the sheer abundance of olive trees. In 1623 the Venetians offered money as an incentive to plant olive trees and to replace wild ones with cultivated ones. Within a hundred years there were more than two million and this number has increased until today, Corfu is one endless olive grove. Because olive trees in Corfu are rarely pruned they look quite different from those in the rest of Europe, being much taller and wilder. Many of them are hundreds of years old.
The island has three classified zones - seashore, lowland and mountain and from Roda, you can access all three within a few minutes. In June, at higher levels, you can still see species which flowered earlier at lower altitudes, particularly such species as wild mountain sage (phlomis) and the statuesque verbascum with its spiky tower of lemon-yellow flowers. The microclimate of Corfu, together
with the lack of herbicides and pesticides, favours the growth of wild flowers which bloom during all four seasons of the year. There are, for instance, 36 species of orchid which have been catalogued in Corfu and nobody thinks twice about picking great bunches of the things to make their Mayday ‘stefani’ to hang over the door on May 1st.
In March, April and May the ground is a carpet of flowers, changing colour from day to day. A field full of short, wild, purple irises will knock your socks off and you will be amazed at just how many different varieties can occupy the same square metre of ground, each one queuing up for its few days of glory. Getting to the island is not so straightforward in the winter and it is a much different place than summer tourists are used to. However, to many of us, it is worth the effort as Corfu rewards you many times over for your commitment.
We will continue to look at nature in Corfu and examine ways of getting to the island out of season. In the meantime, here is a piece from Gerald Durrell’s famous book ‘My Family and Other Animals’. If you haven’t read it yet, put it on your Christmas book list.
"Spring had arrived and the island
was sparkling with flowers. Lambs with flapping tails gambolled under the olives, crushing the yellow crocuses under their tiny hooves. Baby donkeys with bulbous and uncertain legs munched among the asphodels. The ponds and streams and ditches were tangled in chains of spotted toads' spawn, the tortoises were heaving aside their winter bedclothes of leaves and earth, and the first butterflies, winter-faded and frayed, were flitting wanly among the flowers."
was sparkling with flowers. Lambs with flapping tails gambolled under the olives, crushing the yellow crocuses under their tiny hooves. Baby donkeys with bulbous and uncertain legs munched among the asphodels. The ponds and streams and ditches were tangled in chains of spotted toads' spawn, the tortoises were heaving aside their winter bedclothes of leaves and earth, and the first butterflies, winter-faded and frayed, were flitting wanly among the flowers." 
“The first flush of activity has begun.”
As most visitors to Greece will know, and as the many signs will tell you, toilet tissue is not thrown into the toilet bowl, but into a bin alongside. You will soon remember to put a plastic bag in first and dispose of it every day in your nearest wheelie-bin.
Millions of visitors to Roda have got used to this practice over thirty-odd years of tourism, but things are about to change. A sign has been erected by the
crossroads dec-laring that Euro-pean funding is finally bringing mains drains to Thinali, the local
council area into which Roda falls. The first ‘flush’ of activity has begun on the infrastructure with holes appearing around the Almiros area where the treatment plant is planned. Surveyors have been seen throughout the area and painted red stakes have sprouted everywhere.
Of course, this is Greece, so you can expect to continue your paper-folding skills for a year or two yet! Do not remove that book on ‘origami’ from your wishlist, it will be useful for a while yet!
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