24 Shades of Blue (A Holiday Blog)

"It's time you left your knitting nest," said the Long Suffering Husband, head cocked to one side and trying not to tut.
I looked up, briefly, opened my mouth to say something and changed my mind.
"It's just that you are making a permanent dent in the sofa, " he continued, "I think you need a holiday."
I wasn't sure. The problem was me, not the sofa.  He could prize me off my spot but I'd still be taking myself with me. "I don't know," I said, "I'm just feeling rather blue."
"Then you need to get somewhere warm," he said, knowing that my skin often goes blue when I'm cold.

Skiathos, like all the Greek Islands is very blue. There's green too. with olive groves, pine forests, vines creeping over pergolas outside tavernas and beautiful gardens but it's the blue that strikes you. So much blue.

1. Pigeon Blue: The sky when we arrive is dramatically filled with thunder clouds. Lightening streaks across the sky and more rain falls than they have ever seen in May.  People always say that when we go on holiday but the clouds were not the usual grey. No battleship but the blue tinged grey of a pigeon's breast.
2.  Royal Blue: The colour of the umbrellas the hotel gave us. We had waterproofs but you should never pass up the use of a free blue umbrella. We stood on the beach, laughing in the rain.
3.  Independence Blue:  The sky darkened and rain fell in huge puddles and splashes for three days. We talked to the staff, who wondered why we weren't hiding inside, or complaining,  like all the other Brits.
4.  Navy Blue: The colour of Nikos' polo shirt.  The other staff all wore white and beige chinos but his denim jeans and polo shirt marked him out, as a rebel.
5.  Turquoise - The colour of the sea as it laps the water edge. Great for paddling, even when it's raining.
6.  Sky blue: The clouds started to break and a blue sky peeped out. A tentative blue, that we are used to, punctuated with occasional puffy white candyfloss balls.
7.  Egyptian Blue: A hotel with free blue cotton beach towels and comfortable sun beds, with a buzzer to press on the straw sun umbrella should you need anything.
8.  Baby - The sky, finally hits the colour everyone has been waiting for
9.  Electric Blue: Demitris' apple watch, vibrated when anyone pressed their buzzer and he would come running to bring them things.  He got quite upset if you went to the bar yourself but was always polite and friendly (even when he shouldn't have been).  He needed his 9 hour a day, 7 day a week job.
10.  Teal - Just as you start swimming the sea darkens.
11.  Prussian - The colour of the sea just as you've swum far enough to feel warm, where you can't see the fish anymore.
12.  Space Blue - The inky blackness that creeps into the sea when you have swum far enough from the shore to make the LSH think you've been run over by a passing boat.
13.  Cornflower - My favourite sun dress. Impossible to wear in Britain but perfect in Greece.
14.  Yale - The colour of the sky after it has been flecked with pink and you can lie on the beach looking at stars.
15.  Azure - Tables, chairs, window frames of Tavernas are painted this colour. Mouths water, imagining feta cheese, olives, slow cooked meet, filo pastry, olive oil, yogurt, garlic, cucumber and tomatoes.
16.  Carolina - The sky is now consistently bright.  The sun is strong and warm.
17.  Sapphire - My flip flops. Feet exfoliated by sand and salt water.
18.  Olypmic - Blue of the Greek flag, refusing to flutter in the wind but hanging limply from the side of buildings.
19.  Maya - Sophia (3 tomorrow) has a bucket and spade that she is using in the shade of a bar to build an imaginary sandcastle. She doesn't enjoy the music piped in and complains that Adele is 'whiny'. We talk about dogs and she kicks her crawling baby sister up the bottom when no one is looking. "It's to help her go faster," she tells me with her hands on her hips.
20.  Turkish - The bus that runs all the way along the island for less than 3 Euros. Skiathos is negotiated by bus stop numbers. We get off at number eight.
21.  Steel - The colour of the bins where people happily drop their empty bottles.  Ouzo bottles carefully matched to the colour of the bins.
22.  Tiffany - The icing on the coconut cake in the evening buffet.  You comment on the strange colour and the woman (who is a bit of a feeder) tells you that you really must try is and that it goes really well with the four other desserts she has persuaded you to have.
23.  Air Force - the colour of the bruises that I get on my legs from being bounced along dirt tracks and beaches on the back of a motorbike.
24.  Powder - the colour the airplane appears to be as we see it coming in to land, followed by swallows, determined to show it how to fly.

With all the blue around me I felt less blue.

I would like to say that it had lasted but the LSH was at least temporarily right. (He's always right, he tells me.)