A very Greek Christmas tree

We saw this on Nidri high street late one evening.  It's been wired from the lamp post  - brave but foolhardy.  My computer is off for repairs tomorrow - and I don't expect it back before Christmas, so

We wish you all a very merry Christmas 

and a happy New Year

and we hope very much to see as many of you as possible next year at Goat Bottom 

(cob-stomping or cocktail-sipping, whichever suits)

The Hearthstone

Sunday 19 December 2010

Dave's caught a chill (olive picking in hailstones will do it every time!) but we got on anyhow.  Sara did this big heavy jigsaw - lucky not to crush a fingertip - then Dave mixed up clay and sand and some of the leftover tile adhesive to bed it in.  That stove looks promising!

Washed out

Saturday 18 December 2010

Shrimpy was hoping to finish the job on Saturday, but it just wouldn't stop raining.  I took a photo of the track: a running stream.  We must stroll up there with the mattock sometime, to arrange a little drainage.

More olives

Friday 17 December 2010

As Jim and Anita tied the knot in Liverpool, we found ourselves involved in a little olive husbandry at Goat Bottom.  Tina rang and asked if today would be okay for Ian (aka Shrimpy - he used to work the shrimp boats out of Norfolk) to come round with the chainsaw and look at pruning our trees.  If it suited them, it suited us, so we got the olive nets back out, and decided where to start.

Tina explained that olive trees in dry climates don't do well if they're too tall.  If the tree can't get enough water, the topmost branches become parched - and dangerous.  She looked at the tree nearest the camper truck and said she wouldn't park a vehicle under that one, so that's where we started.

Two of the biggest branches were full of rot, eaten almost away inside, so we caught it just in time. 

When the rains came we hid away in the shed - a bit of a squeeze for four people with all our tiling paraphernalia still lying about everywhere - and had some lunch.  A small accident with a flask of soup introduced an interesting flavour of mulligatawny to our woodwork.

Despite the rot, the tree had fruited well this year, so as Shrimpy cut away the rotten branches, Tina and Sara stripped them of olives (while Dave grouted the shower)

Another break, and while hailstones lashed down outside, we inaugurated the bigger gas stove (a pressie from Mike and Margaret) so we could make four cuppas at once.

But at the end of the day we had a substantial stack of olive wood - so it must be time to get on with installing the stove.


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Small miracles

It's gone cold, with a biting chill wind and there's snow on the local mountains.   

But the wild iris carry on regardless:  

Scrumping Marble

Thursday 16 December 2010

We'd seen Howard the previous night, at Jess Brown's 21st Birthday Party in Biblos.

Howard told us, despite loud music and a sore throat, that he'd found a place where marble offcuts had been dumped, if we were interested.

We were interested, and after an early visit to the dentist in Lefkas town we followed Howard's surprisingly good directions to this quarry, where we found loads of dumped paviours (logged for scrumping another day) with small pieces of thick marble scattered amongst them.

We are hoping the marble pieces will jigsaw together sufficiently to make a base for the wood stove to stand on.

Tiling the shower

14 & 15 December 2010

We put up plasterboard, and spent a couple of days learning the difficult things about tiling.

These included:

cutting plasterboard;

getting everything level (in three dimensions, including forward and back);

mixing up adhesive;

cutting tiles using the tile cutter;

trying not to lose the little spacer crosses in the adhesive;

being tolerant about little spacer crosses lost in the adhesive which prevent the tile lying flush with its neighbours;

.

and ultimately, that tiling is altogether too fiddly and messy for Dave and that Sara should just get on with it

Interior

Thursday 9 December 2010

We were drinking draught Alfa beer in Lefkas the night before, and despite not having much we felt a bit poisoned in the morning with banging headaches (preservatives, probably) and didn't fancy another day on the roof just yet. 




 

So Dave devised ventilation screens for the eaves, while I painted behind the shower with wood stain, and then we cut and fitted the first sheet of plasterboard.

Bill called by quickly to deliver the door frame - we're very impressed, it fits perfectly.  Initially we thought the latch was on the wrong way round, but then worked out we were trying the door upside down!

 
Oh, and this fellow turned up again.  He's about four inches long, and very curious.  I made him pose for photos before encouraging him to go eat aphids down the field.

Glory days

 Wednesday 8 December 2010

That evening was Dave's moment of glory - the winter series end of season prize giving.  Tropi came first in the cruising class, so the whole crew with consorts (except Blind Bill's Sylvia, who was minding Bill's Bar while he also went to the prize-giving) went to Lefkas marina to receive our plaque.

Mike2, Sara, Dave, Bill, Mike1

Very proud of him!

Starting the Roof

Wednesday 8 December 2010

My moment of glory!  Dave is heavier, broader and less flexible than me (hurrah! - for me, not him) so I got the heroic task of climbing up between the rafters (yes, I know I mustn't step on the bits in between) to start nailing the roofing plywood down.

We didn't take any more photos after this, as all the rest were big heavy pieces of ply, and we both had to concentrate hard not to decapitate Dave on the stepladder while fitting them. 

We did the south face and recovered with polythene.  I managed to squeeze out bum first through the western triangle, where the ground is highest.  Dave holding the ladder and guiding my feet - a risky job, and much braver than climbing about on the roof.

Loft Insulation

 Tuesday 7 December 2010

After tea we got on with insulating the loft.  We didn't want to take down the polythene as it had taken five of us two attempts to get it up there, and that was before the ceiling went in.  So we stood on ladders at each end, and poked the pieces in.

Luckily we had an old curtain pole with a finial on the end that proved invaluable for prodding the wayward bits in at arms length. 

So the job turned out to be much easier than expected, and we finished all the sections before it got dark.

Cats and Dogs

 Tuesday 7 December 2010

We went back to the wood yard with Blind Bill, who is rushing around preparing to go to the UK and trying to get everything done, but still agreed to squeeze in time to make us a door for the shed. 

We took advantage of him being there to get plasterboard for the shower at the same time.  We loaded up his little pick-up again, and followed him home.

 This one large piece of wood will be turned into a door frame in the magical environment of Bill's workshop.

Marvin arrived to bring a note of gloom to our day, but condescended to finish up the scraps of our take-away gyros lunch, before a large black dog bounded in and chased him up a tree.

The large black dog was Vaggi, only being friendly.  He was out walking Tina, who stayed for a cup of tea and suggested an olive press deep in the Lefkadian hinterland for our harvest. 

Concrete next door

The work next to the apartment is proceeding conventionally - huge piles of mud have been dug out, rocks and other hardcore has gone in, and then concrete has been poured over all.  As it was drying, this last blossom off our bougainvillea drifted down as a small gesture of hope:

A few days later, when the rains came, it turned into a lake, although not a very pleasant one, and probably a huge disappointment to the frogs who used to live there. 

Getting in the Olives

Friday 3 November 2010

 Mike and Sue at her birthday party

After a birthday party for twins Jo & Sue on Thursday evening, we weren't up to much on Friday except getting in the olives.  A fine collection.  Dave overfilled one of the bags and twinged his back, which gave us an excuse to take it easy for a day or so.

The Darts Final

1 December 2010

More trips to the wood yard, looking for coving to disguise the ebb and flow of the ceiling; skirting to cover the unsightly gaps at floor level; and corner beading to cover up some dodgy measuring of the t&g.  We fitted the coving, then installed the shower tray so the skirting boards could butt up to it.

That's a mock-up of the compost toilet in the LH corner, with a beam for the planned modesty wall.

Then we ran out of time, as the evening was the semis and final of the Byblos Darts Tournament.  Dave was all geared up with the new shafts and flights Pauline had brought from the UK.  In fact, almost every contender seemed to have matching black shafts and red flights, Dave being a soft touch in these things.

Sara went off to Panto rehearsal, while Dave scored five games to nil in the semi final;  Sara arrived just in time for the final: Dave vs Gray.  Gray had won his semi at five to one, so it looked like an even match.

But Gray was off colour, Dave took the first game of seven with aplomb: straight into the double of his choice, and again in the second game, and the stuffing just seemed to go out of Gray, losing every game after that.  7-0 to Dave.

I did try to upload a great photo of Dave between shirts - here he is wearing the champion's cap and polo, with Gray in the losing finalist's tee - but the blog engine blocked it, presumably due to naked torso content! 

(Note the matching darts!)

Enamoured

25, 26, 27 and 28 November

 Endless nailing.  Dave got the best hammer, and I had the other one (heavier and without a claw end).  Talk about repetitive strain.  Bill had offered us a compressed air nail gun, but we'd have had to go in search of the special nails in Lefkas, and have the generator running while we were using it, so we went for the hard labour option, and nailed 30 square metres of tongue and groove by hand.

At least it had the sense to rain on Friday, so we got a day to recover before continuing.

The black cat turned up to inspect the works. It has the saddest face imaginable - clearly prophesying Doom.  We've called it Marvin the miserable moggie (with apologies to Douglas Adams)

All done, and parcelled back up to keep the rain off.

Recycling wine (boxes)

Wednesday 24 November 2010

[Nick's 50th birthday - when your not-so-very-much-older sibling reaches 50 it requires a moment of reflection - mine was along the lines of  'However did I get to be here, doing this?'  Mysterious ways, indeed.]

We had bought two very large pieces of hardboard for the ceiling, to be nailed under the rafters and hold the insulation in the loft.  In a moment of joint brain failure we decided it would be less hassle to cut the oversized amount off one of the sheets, instead of half off each.

Therefore, it was only when we were nearly all nailed up - not an easy job, and one a relationship doesn't easily survive - that we remembered why it would be good to have equal sized pieces that would meet in the middle where we had arranged for a handy joist to be. 

So we had to put in ladder pieces, and nail to them.  and then we thought we'd better put the insulation in that section, as it would be difficult to do from the edges.

Our plan is to put silver foil under the insulation, but we didn't have any yet, but we did have four wine box inners that Bill at Bill's bar had given us.  Just enough to do the one section we needed.  I cut the foil into flat sheets and hosed them down, while Dave shaped the insulation infill.

Then finally, we could put the second piece up, and our ceiling was done.

More wood

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Bill had rashly suggested helping us bring some wood home from the wood yard, as he was going there himself on Tuesday.  We went early to get some of the polyester insulation that Constantine had recommended - no surprise to find it twice the price of Rockwool - but infinitely nicer to handle.

 Bill was confident he could manage 4 metre lengths - which we can't do in the back of the van as they'd trail along the ground, so we bought tongue and groove for the internal walls, plywood for the roof and hardboard for the ceiling, and swamped the poor little pick-up.




It came on to rain just as we were leaving, so we waited a while, but in the end decided to risk mushy hardboard rather than hang round any longer.

We followed him back in our van, expecting him to take off with the wind under the hardboard at any moment.

Night Sweats

Tuesday 23

By 5 am the howling winds had scared us out of bed and down to the pontoon to check the yacht.  All okay there, so we drove on up to the land to see if our shed frame was still standing.  Seems pretty robust, phew!

Barn Raising

Monday 22 November 2010

We turned into our little track on Monday morning to find a new wide concrete road on the Corner of Doom.  A relief, despite feeling conflicted about the concrete.  There's still a vertical plunge off the edge, but the road is wide enough even for me to navigate safely round it. 

 Once on site we removed the tarpaulin over the frames, and found a lodger - he was very miffed to be disturbed.

We'd just happened to mention to the crew during the weekend that we might need a bit of a hand on Monday.  

Lovely guys that they are, they all agreed to come along and help with our barn raising.  Dave and I put up the first two frames bright and early.

Mike and Margaret turned up just as we finished our lunch break, and Mike (2) and Bill arrived soon after.  Bill is a proper woodworker, and within minutes decided he needed his own tools for the job.  Unfortunately he'd walked down from Paleokatuna village, not realising quite how far down the hill we are, so Mike (1) had to give him a lift back for his van, drill, clamps, and the 'special tool' (quizzically raised eyebrow).

The lads started in enthusiastically, very quickly relegating Margaret, me and even Dave to junior status.  I think they were grateful to be out from under the lash of the skipper.  The other two walls went up smartly,

then the rafters went on - against a darkening sky.

 (Dave holding up the pot of screws for the proper workers!)  This was where we found out about the 'special tool' - a neat gadget braced onto the side of the rafters to guide a drill to make a diagonal screw hole to fix down the ends of the rafters. 

This is the photo I've sworn not to put on the blog - Bill says if Sylvia sees it he'll be in real trouble!  (Oops, sorry Syl)  But it is the only one which shows me doing anything at all.  This is the point where the framework was complete and we just had to get the polythene cover on.  The wind was getting up and rain was close.

It looks easy, but we should've had stop-motion photography for this, if not for the whole afternoon.  Despite our combined race-winning knowledge of what fabrics do in the wind we took two attempts to get the cover over and nailed down

What a team! 
Bill, Dave, Margaret, Mike (1) and Mike (2)