Thursday, June 17, 2010

The second week always goes faster than the first. The island has refamiliarised itself, changes have become the new routines. Sunflower is now Adraxti, with charming Cretan hospitality and place of choice for sundowner and co-listening. Kalypso hasn't changed, nor Korfari, but the secret beach is inaccessible after another landslip. Faltaits museum terrace is still peaceful in the shaded fig-tree terrace high above the bay. The writing sessions, here and elsewhere, have been a delight - and so has yoga, dancing, singing, swimming daily in translucent water. There's poignancy too - Keats understood when he wrote that melancholy dwells with beauty: Beauty that must die; and Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips, bidding adieu... Do I sound rhapsodic? Probably because I am. Rhapsody here is easy as breathing. Skyros is about creativity and community, and the way each enhances the other - you can't explain it, you have to experience it.

Time now to pack the sunlotion and the new greek dress, shake the sand out of my sarong and to say goodbye to my lovely group and to Suzie, Sarah-Helena, Hazel and Julian, and leave the magic island still basking below that sizzling blue sky. At 6.30 am tomorrow, to be precise...

No comments: