Alien & other Items

Saturday and Sunday 29-30 October 2011

While doing a bit of weeding and planting, I came across this visitor from another planet.  Its tail is exactly like one of our thistles.  If it wasn’t moving, I’d never have spotted it. 

More log chopping.  The nights are getting seriously chilly (for us spoilt Grecophiles) at around 11 degrees.  Dave is being wonderful – he lights the stove in the shed every evening, and then in the morning he’s first up, puts on the kettle and the heater in the van and relights the stove.  By the time I’ve finished a cup of tea in bed the bathroom-shed is toasty warm.  The days just now are gloriously sunny, so the hot water keeps coming.  The only downside is getting up for the loo in the night – if either of us moves we wake the other, and come back to bed freezing after an excursion outdoors.

Sitting on the decking on Sunday, I was loving the pear tree leaves, glorious orangey colours, twinkling in the breeze.  But the pear tree is right in the middle of the proposed house plot.  So I won’t have it to admire for very long.  (Unless Greece’s financial collapse makes our whole project untenable – in which case the pear tree survives – always an up-side!)

Maria from the Architects promised me that we'd hear from the Archaeologists next week, so we have that to look forward to (not that I'm keen to get diggers on the land, I'm quite conflicted about the whole building thing in that respect).  We also have to move Tropi on Monday, it's very likely that both irresistable forces will happen at once.

The piece of land to our north is up for sale, so in case someone decides to put a concrete monstrosity there we want to plant along the fence.  Our first attempt is this fig tree, which Dave has grown from a root found while walking last spring.  The Greeks consider fig trees to be weeds, as they grow almost anywhere, and spread if not contained.  We’re hoping it will form a fruiting hedge, and maybe give us wood for coppicing in the distant future.  It’s not looking too grand in the picture, a bit miserable about the move.

While we were there, I noticed a largish stone in the ground, and asked Dave if he’d lever it out for me, as big stones are very useful to anchor raised beds.  This stone was in the ground with the thinner end (at the top of the pic) sticking out the top, the rest went straight down, getting - as you can see - wider the further down you go.  Dave couldn’t get the pickaxe under it.  And wouldn’t give up.  And broke the pickaxe handle.  But was triumphant in the end.

My latest raised bed, for Artichokes (hopefully)