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A story by Sharon Blomfield in The Sifnos Chronicler

Good stories never die. Some – maybe the best ones – merely lie dormant, lurking unseen, for up to years at a time and when the right story-teller comes along, stir themselves back to life.

So, I imagine, Antonis Grafas might say. A professional diver, he is a passionate explorer of sunken wrecks in the Greek seas, each with its own tale to tell. But the power of the story he uncovered on the sea bottom near Sifnos and the hold it took on his imagination surprised even him.

This story begins in 1943 on the night of November 7 when a crew of six airmen, members of the British RAF’s 38th squadron, climb aboard their Vickers Wellington bomber in Berka, Libya and head out as the lead aircraft on a wartime mission over the Aegean aimed at freeing the islands of Greece from German and Italian control. Somewhere above Naxos, they are struck by enemy fire and forced to ditch in the sea.

#Greece #Sifnos #WWII #History #Humanity #Canada #Grafas #Documentary #The Sifnos Chronicler #Blomfield

Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Hertford Heath, project by William Wilkins, Arthur William Blomfield and John William Simpson.

#architecture #william wilkins #wilkins #arthur william blomfield #blomfield #john william simpson #simpson #hertford heath

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I’ve been speaking with a friend on Sifnos this morning. “How is it there these days?” I asked. It’s early days in the reopening of the country to tourism and I’ve naturally been wondering.

“Quiet, relaxing,” was his answer. “Hardly any non-Greeks about.”

So the guy I wrote about in the excerpt below from my book, I guess, is not there now. Pity. Normally I take pains not to make fun of other people, and at this terrible time in world history that seems more important to me now than ever. But this man, well …

Besides, on a hot summer’s day when I’d love to be on my beloved island and can’t, how achingly delicious is it to think about Sifnian ice cream?

#Greece #Sifnos #Pagoto #Ice cream #Blomfield #The Sifnos Chronicler

What is it about Greece that so inspires writers, always has? With Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, it’s where the very idea of literature in the western world began. The Histories by Herodotus came, relatively speaking, not long after and in the centuries since then, this muse has infected countless others. Some like Cavafy and Kazantzakis were of Greek heritage, others became so enamoured with what they’d encountered on their travels that they had no choice, really, but to put pen to paper.

I’m one of those. On my first visit a dozen or so years ago, the island of Sifnos took a firm hold on my heart and the result is my two books, The Sifnos Chronicles: tales from a greek isle and Sifnos Chronicles 2: more greek island tales, as well as this blog. Up until then, I’d never ever considered myself a book author. Now I am one. What I’d never expected is how many wonderful, interesting, passionate people from all corners of the globe my writings about Sifnos would bring into my life. Ekaterina Botziou from the UK is one. She’s a go-getter, an eclectic sort and when she posted a video recently on her Youtube channel. “What’s on My Greek Bookshelf” and included my two books on it, well, I was thrilled. “A beautifully written travel memoir,” she called The Chronicles. “Nicely paced,” she went on. “Funny and quirky,” all of which, of course, made my writer’s heart soar. Chronicles 2, she said, “carries on in the same vein, with so much more fun.”

Ekaterina’s video got me to thinking about my own collection of books about Greece and when I went to my shelves and tallied them up, it was many more than I imagined. There were the guidebooks that started me off on this grand adventure, among them Frommer’s Greek Islands and a well-thumbed copy of The Cyclades: Discovering the Greek Islands of the Aegean. A Greek phrasebook/dictionary, Learn Greek Without a Teacher, plus Instant Greek and the more realistic Learn Greek in 25 Years. A copy of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin whose movie version convinced from its first scenes that this country needed to be in my future. Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill, a title that springs to mind every time the ferry I’m on is on is sailing in or out of Piraeus. A new book in 2019, Eye, by Marianne Micros, a collection of short stories exploring the mythology, folklore, Greek customs and old-world customs that have fascinated her all her life. This book was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, one of Canada’s top book prizes and, as she lives near me and her writing and mine have brought us together in person several times, I was extra thrilled. ---- Post by Sharon Blomfield in The Sifnos Chronicler

#Greece #Literature #Reading list #Books #Blomfield #The Sifnos Chronicler

“Sifnos cheese or feta?” If you’ve been to this island, you’ll know the question. It’s what you’re most often asked when you order horiatiki. Which kind of cheese do you want on your Greek salad?

For me, the answer is easy. I can have feta almost anytime, pretty much anywhere, is my way of thinking, so if there’s a choice to be made, Sifnos cheese it will be. Soft, fresh and mild, with a swirl of olive oil on top and perhaps a lashing of black pepper, spread it onto a slab of fresh bread and I’m in heaven.

I am, it must be said, a cheese lover and one of the things I find so interesting about travelling almost everywhere in Europe is the quality and variety of its regional cheeses. I make it a practice to try the local version wherever I go and to learn what I can while I’m there. Once high in the French Alps, in front of a sunburned chalet, I asked two men about the Reblochon they’d advertised on the sign at the entrance to their farm. The next thing I knew I was in their kitchen sipping white Bordeaux while their sweet white-haired mother gazed happily out through the window and told me how she’d spent every summer of her life in that sunlit meadow, how excited the cows always are on the trek up the mountainside in spring, and that the rich array of wildflowers that grow at that elevation are what give the cheeses of summer an extra kick of colour and taste.

#Greece #Sifnos #Cheese #Blomfield #The Sifnos Chronicler #Dairy #Greek products #Food

I found Lindaki mou’s family when I was in Sifnos in June, and I must tell you that was a thrill. “I’m from Canada,” I said when I was sure I had the right person. “I know a woman who came to Sifnos in the 1970s and lived with your family. Her name is Linda.”

The woman looked at me and, even though we were relying on her daughter to translate, her answer was instant. “Well, why hasn’t she been back?”

“I was eight years old when Linda was here,” she went on to say. “I remember her.” Then, “How is she? Does she have children? What does she do?” This Canadian teenager who loved nothing more than to hang out with their donkey had caused quite a stir at the time, I could see, and became a part of their family lore.

Over the next weeks, as I got to know them bit-by-bit, eating at their café on occasion, I could see in the newer members of this family the qualities Linda described. Hard work. Ambition. Determination. Open-heartedness. Kindness above all. When my time on Sifnos was up and I went to say good-bye, “Will you be seeing Linda?” they asked. They had two gifts, one for her, one for me and for her a note. “Apó ti Sifno me agápi,” it said. From Sifnos, with love.

#Greece #Sifnos #Blomfield #The Sifnos Chronicler #Hospitality #Filotimo

Derek Blomfield, Brenda De Banzie, Prunella Scales, Richard Wattis, Daphne Anderson et John Mills dans "Chaussure à son Pied (Hobson's Choice)" de David Lean (1954) - adapté de la pièce de théâtre éponyme d'Harold Brighouse (1915) - mars 2025.