Tipota!

Friday 30 June 2012

Tipota (Greek for 'Nothing!')  No concrete, no workmen, no steel.  Everything just as it was.  It's very relaxing, building in Greece.  Nothing actually happens, so no stress, easy!

Cash for Concrete

Weds 27 June 2012

Got a call from the Architect and the Accountant.  So I left my Ivory Tower, actually more of a Sweaty Hut, and met Constantine by the roadside in Periyiali to hand over the final instalment of the foundation money.  Constantine reckons they'll be here on Friday to start putting down the metal and then pouring the concrete.  I'm not holding my breath.

I went on for a swim at the lovely beach north of Periyiali.  Jessica says its called Passa beach, named for the Turkish Pasha (Greek doesn't have a shh sound) for whom it was a favourite when the Turks were in charge.

Then to the accountant to sign off my tax return as a landowner.  No tax yet - but I am holding my breath!

We bought the land on 30 June 2010, so if the concrete is poured on Saturday it will be quite an anniversary.

Till Next Time

Monday 25 June 2012

George and friends took me to supper at George's.  (Dave is away skippering).  Everyone happy.  They planned to get up at 5am to clean the boat before taxis at 7am.  I'm impressed, they did it.  Thanks, everyone.

Let's see if I can do this:  Kate, Johnny, Eleni, George, Leon, Natalie, Niamh

Let me know if I got it wrong!

On the Range

Monday 25 June 2012

Dave is away on skipper charter for this week, so I'm throwing myself into creative stuff in the Hut, and, as you may have noticed, finally getting round to updating the blog!  But also, because I am intending to be around home as much as possible during the week, I wanted to get the chickens out free-ranging.  They're very big now, to have such a small run, and the intention was always to let them roam when they were old enough. 

So I made a tent of wire and green netting over the tomato and bean beds, to keep the chickens (and magpies) out, and flung open the doors to the wide world.  Dave made the door quite high, to fox-proof the enclosure, so I put a shuttering plank inside and one outside to make a bridge.  The chickens were very suspicious of the plank, and took some time looking and twittering before one of them made a run under it to the food, swiftly followed by the others now it was shown to be safe.

I was watching discreetly.  After a while, one of the chickens stood on the plank, then stuck a head out, and back in.  Out, in.  Out, in.  Then decided to stroll down the plank.  The two left inside were fascinated by this, but couldn't work out how she'd done it.  They went up and down inside the run, until one, MegaChuck, sort of scrambled onto the plank by accident.  By this time, AstroChuck, the pioneer, had come back in, and she wanted out again, and so hustled MegaChuck out.  This left DaftChuck inside, running up and down under the plank twittering anxiously about being left behind.

AstroChuck - named by Dave for boldly going where none of our chickens has gone before - is definitely the brains of the operation.  MegaChuck, who is the youngest by a couple of months, is huge.  I hope Helen got us the right breed for egg-laying, not for eating. 

I now let them out every morning.  Astro and Daft are up and over the planks in no time.  The first time, Mega got so stressed she just launched herself into the air, flapping madly and made it over the door, landing very nearly on Skits, (who is fascinated by these big flappy things, stalking them round the garden, but looking nonchalant if they get too close.  They are significantly bigger than her).  But now I let Mega out through the hen-house, it seems less stressful for her.

 Freedom!

 What about me?  MegaChuck to the left.

 AstroChuck meets Skits, Skits looks casual ...

 Astro and Daft survey the works

 'Look chaps, this is how you get back in'

 'I'm not fat, just large-boned'

The emptied potato bed - a great place for some really good scrabbling, and even a proper dust-bath, soil and feathers flying everywhere

Forest workshop

Saturday 23 June 2012

Dave servicing the outboard in his recently established cypress-shaded workshop:

Gig stowaway

Friday 22 June 2012

As Dave was putting his gear in the van, ready for Friday's gig, he pointed out this visitor from outer space crawling over his amp.  I took some photos, but it got spooked and flicked away.  We didn't see where it had gone, but assumed it was on the decking somewhere.  Two days later, having collected the van and finally got round to emptying it, the rock mantis emerged.  Hope he enjoyed it (and still has some hearing).

Tropi sails again

Monday 18 June 2012

We got back on Saturday and worked Sunday at Nisos as usual, then threw ourselves into getting Tropi seaworthy, with George and six friends arriving Tuesday teatime.  The stainless steel gantry had been measured for fit (Phil waiting until she was in the water, because of the way the hull flexes), so we collected it and I spent the morning upside down in the two cockpit lockers, screwing nuts onto bolts with Sikaflex dripping all over.  Dave got the nice right-way up job fitting the bolts, because he can't get in the lockers.

We found out later that we could easily have blown up ourselves and the yacht due to a gas leak in the regulator, which had corroded over the winter after its soaking in salt water during the storm.  I fitted some straps to the gas bottle and must have disturbed it: when I then went to clean the cabin below, it kept making me sick, until Dave came in and recognised the smell of gas.  Incredible, really, that we didn't make tea or seal any rope ends with a naked flame after the regulator was disturbed, because we did both, earlier in the day.  Also wonderful that we found the problem before George took off in the boat, as it could've gone at any time.  All too scary for words.  We got a new regulator, and filled the hole that the previous owner had made in the floor of the gas locker - stupid thing to do, and stupid of us not to have spotted it as a hazard.

With about three hours to go, on Tuesday, Dave and I, with Lin and her daughter Jade, who'd been helping me clean the boat, weighed anchor and took her out for the maiden voyage since the storm in September.  We put the main sail up, the genoa out, the genoa in, the mainsail down, then pulled into a bay, dropped anchor and variously swam, slept and sunbathed until George text to say he was in town.  Safely road-tested, we reluctantly returned the boat to Nidri, seriously tempted to just head for Kalamos ...

 George, Leon and Johnny, watching the football at Yamas Bar

 Next day, complaining of a hangover, George and Johnny borrow a dinghy from Chris Brown, and move it to the boat, demonstrating their world-class spiral rowing technique.  Look at those swirls in the water, that thing is not going straight!

Culture in Corfu

Weds 13 to Sat 16 June

Mary, who ran the drawing course for us, was holding a Summer Festival in Corfu town to raise funds for the Anglican church, so we decided to go.  Jessica couldn't get time away from the restaurant, so only Amanda and Dave and I went.  The car almost let us down, it had had an episode the previous week, leaking rusty radiator water into the gutter outside IGR.  We towed it with Vinnie's help to Gregoris the Car Butcher on the bypass, and he fitted a new water pump and cylinder head gasket.  (He always seems to fit a cylinder head gasket, whatever goes wrong with the car.)  Anyway, the day before the Corfu trip, we were in Poros at the chicken feed shop, and it did it again.  Dave says this is because he'd been ultra careful and checked it, but put an airlock in it through rushing.  So he fixed it and the car seemed fine.

We drove to Igoumenitsa - lovely clear roads, the car happy, and Dave made it in 90mins, so we got the ferry an hour earlier than expected.  We taxied to our taverna with rooms, belonging to a friend of Mary's and found it all very friendly and helpful, with good food.  Takis Taverna in Kontokali.  Mary and John came to eat with us the next night and we all had smoked trout - exceedingly yummy.

On Thursday we visited the Anglican church and saw the exhibition of local artists, some extremely good, then went on to the exhibition of Edward Lear drawings at the Asian Museum.  Lear, who wrote 'The Owl and the Pussycat' among other things, spent a lot of time in the Ionian, drawing views for the administration.  Lots of the places we knew, and could see how they'd changed.  Good fun.

On Friday we had a very lazy day, sitting by the water in a little cafe, Dave watching and sleeping and wishing he had a fishing rod; me sketching the view; Amanda coming and going, doing a bit of shopping, staying for lunch, leaving around tea-time to get the ferry back for work on Sunday.

Dave and I stayed the extra day.  Friday evening was a concert of Jazz and Pop in the church, but after the interval it conflicted with the England-Sweden football, so we went from one extreme to the other.

Back to the church on Saturday for a fund-raising day of cream teas, stands of local produce and crafts, and impromptu Blues.  Dave settled down with homemade lemonade and enjoyed the music, I roamed around buying things and chatting.

One of the Blues players was Jim Potts, who has written a book about the cultural history of the Ionian. He used to be in the British Council so I mentioned my late uncle, John Press, and he not only knew of him, but thinks he's an under-respected poet of his generation, and has just written a paper discussing aspects of his work.  Small world, I suppose.  It felt for a moment like I'd touched on that eighteenth century idea of traveling, where everyone knows everyone else and family connections mean everything.

  Posh street in Corfu

 The two views now in my sketchbook (approximately)

  Dave at the museum

  Mary's painting of the front of the Anglican church, where the festival was held

Jim Potts and Raoul, playing the blues

Cob City

Monday 11 June 2012

Would you believe it!  Just down from us, about 3 or 4 fields, there's a lane running crosswise, and on a small corner of land there is an eco-build going on.  All sorts of rumours are doing the rounds, but it seems most likely that George (yet another one) who owns the land, has a sister in EU grants and has arranged for this cob-building week course, so we now have a handy cob example very locally.

Dave and I walked down and found the course was being run by Stamatina, who was host at our course in Lefkas two Aprils ago.  She was a bit unhappy with how this was arranged, as the architect was apparently not very familiar with cob and had specified reinforced steel inside the cob walls.  Stamatina was finding it very difficult to pack the cob in around these, and was worried that the cob would crack as a result. 

We were interested to see the woodwork, and the electrics, especially the battery/bird box, and also that the little house is designed with bio-gas as an energy source - out from the loo, back in through the heating.

We called in a few times during the week.  Unfortunately it didn't get finished in time, I wonder what will happen to it now?

New friends

Friday, 8 June 2012

Walking down to Nidri to meet Dave - who managed to avoid most of the hammering and steel truck deliveries by being out sailing with friends of friends, Ian and Clare - and saw this big pile of straw.  I took a photo as a cautionary reminder that straw over here can easily be hay - it's very green.

On to George's for a meal. Ian, Clare, Angie (with broken wrist), Vinnie, Dave and me

Growing things

Monday 11 June 2012

The garden is rather overwhelmed by long grass at the moment.  We should get out there with a strimmer and cut it all back, but instead we have our little routes through the savannah to where we want to go.  Going off trail means itchy legs and vicious little seed pods in one's sandals. The cats rub up against your legs when they want to be fed, and their coats are full of scratchy little horrors.  But some things are flourishing.  My first artichokes, from two different plantings, both matured at once.  I'm not sure if this is a crop or a discard, to encourage proper growth next year.  I ate them anyway, the rounded one was yummy, the spiky one a bit sour.

And our fifth type of orchid has emerged from under the generator box: a Pyramidal Orchid.  Quite impressive, this one.

Iron Man

Wednesday 6 June 2012

The next day the steel arrived, cluttering up our access down the garden.  Constantine refers to the supplier as the 'Iron Man' conjuring up Ted Hughes and Black Sabbath all at once.

And the day after, there was more

The steel mountain sits outside the [No Fly] Zone and heats up, radiating blasts of super-hot air, which is exactly what we need at this time of year.  At time of writing (oops, v slack, I know) which is 27 June, this steel mountain is still exactly how it was left, three weeks ago.

Shuttering

Tuesday 5 June 2012

We were surprised, early in the morning, to hear a flock of motorbikes coming down the track.  Dave was just stripped off ready to go in the shower, so I closed the shed door on him and went to see what was happening now.  Following the motorbikes was a big truck, full of shuttering boards (to contain the poured concrete).  These were dropped off and the day filled with hammering.

We had suggested, mildly, that maybe the foundations could be shuttered before the first pour of concrete, but that was not acceptable last week, apparently because it's too difficult to set up the shuttering on bare ground.  I don' know why this opinion changed, but it seems to be going ahead as we wished it, without much bother on our part!

This was how it looked at 9.30 am

 And like this by 4.30 pm

Here's Schrodinger checking out the bit I'm not too sure we need, it seems a lot of foundation for a little outhouse.

More lines

Saturday  2 June 2012 

Finally, some action.  Both Constantine and the concrete man turned up, and walked about a lot, measuring, hammering in stakes and tying red string.  When they were done, I asked what it had all been about and Constantine said they were lining up where the outside edge of the wood frame would go.  It seems our lines were pretty much okay, too.

When Worlds Collide

1 June 2012

This week we've been working long hours on getting the boat ready.  George is coming out with friends this month and before then we want a short break in Corfu.  In May we started working at Nisos on the charter-yacht turnaround - long hours on Sundays, and the band has been playing on Fridays or Saturdays at the bar.  I did my debut stint behind the bar last Friday, which was fun.

Then a friend wanted help with stepping and refitting a mast, so Dave and I lost another three days on that operation.  I was helping by hanging onto various ropes, but each time a man saw me involved he came over and took my rope away - an act of chivalry, or distrust?  Anyway, it freed me up to take photos.

But the toerail on the poor old boat has finally been fitted, which allowed us to get on with the structural repairs necessary: we did three 10 hour days this week getting the boat lifted by the yard to re-insert the rudder and fix up the steering gear, refitting steelwork and fairleads, engine maintenance, and taking out the big saloon windows. 

The windows came out very easily.  They'd been leaking badly anyway, as there was no sealant left behind them.  But the plexiglass - which we'd had for over a year for when we got round to this job - was the wrong size.  So instead of being able to stick to our schedule, we had to belt into Lefkas town to try to get the right size.  They agreed to cut them, as soon as someone was free, so we found ourselves at a loose end in Lefkas town for a couple of hours. 

We ran into Constantine, actually, he was riding his huge motorbike up the pedestrian walkway and we had to jump out of the way, but we stopped and talked, creating a mini traffic hazard, and he said out of the blue that he expected to be at the land tomorrow June 1st with the concrete.

We got back to the chandlers and found that we'd have to wait another hour for the cut window panels, so we decided to go back and get on and pick the panels up tomorrow.

As we returned, we called in at IGR chandlers for some keel primer, and the car subsided with a gasp and started leaking rusty cooling fluid into the gutter.  Dave said he'd have to look at it tomorrow.  Meanwhile, Vaia lent us her car to go for the van, saving us a long hot walk to Vlicho boatyard.

So today we have to be in three places at once, oh, and the band are setting up at 2 pm, so that's four places for Dave.  What larks ...