Yoga road trip

24-26 February 2018

The opportunity to head off into the mountains for a yoga and meditation weekend came up, and we couldn't resist, so Dave and I packed our mats, and lots of woolly clothing, and set off with nine others for central Greece.

The location was the same hotel we'd been to for Rosa's singing workshop, almost a year ago, but it was all new for Dave.  The weather was rainy, with low cloud, so most of the time the fabulous views were obscured.  On Sunday we had an outing to a local waterfall:

 As we left the cars, and strung out along the walk to the falls, it was clear, if overcast ..

 ... but by the time we reached the bridge crossing the watercourse, low cloud had descended to envelop us ...  (in the mist: Marie-Do, Brenda, Lucy, Paris, Debbie, Jo (our teacher) and Pauline - probably)

 ... so we repaired to the coffee shop, which was miraculously open, for hot chocolate

 (Marie-Do, Brenda and Paris, walking up the hill while Dave drives the car through the slush)

Monday morning we were travelling back, and woke up to a winter wonderland.  Very pretty, quite impractical for travelling.  Despite the weather, it was a good workshop, nicely balanced, with plenty of stretching and breathing.  Very glad we went.

Bath Time

21 February 2018

Simon had to delay coming to fit the bath due to Carnival weekend, and 'clean Monday' kite flying, a pre-Easter tradition in Greece for anyone with young children.  This worked for us, as it gave us time to decide we wanted a small shelf behind the bath, and time to build it.

 The fruits of one of our increasingly 'manic Thursdays', when we try to do all our errands in Lefkas after two hours volunteering at Lefkogaia.  In this case - lots of tiles, adhesive and grout, for the bathroom

 The floor cleared of boards that were getting damp and mouldy, and the bath levelled.  At this stage the bath still has its protective plastic which is filthy, but we left it on till the fitting was done.

 I like to have a shelf behind the bath for shampoos and things, about 10cm deep.  This is the first two batons installed.

 And a day later, complete with plasterboard and rubber duck.  The duck was a present years ago from the only other Liverpool football supporter on the island, when he left; it has an LFC crest on its chest. 

 Simon in action with the drainage and taps

 All cleaned up, mats back, bath plumbed - just add hot water!

And from the other direction.  Good to go, as long as we're not too splashy, until I get a chance to do the tiling.

Birthday

17 Feb 2018

One of these comes round every year, and this one was made special by the sun coming out and the weather warming up.  It was especially special because Friday and Saturday were the first two days we've had sunshine since the new solar panels went operational.  The batteries started from a low 27%, and during two days of rain, crept no higher than 50%, but as soon as the sun came out, they raced up the scale to hit 100% over breakfast.  Dave was ecstatic.

Birthday breakfasts are a bit of a tradition for us, so Dave made smoked salmon and scrambled egg, and afterwards we took tea in the garden with the chickens, who were very glad to be in the sun again.  Lunch was salad, with mostly home-grown leaves, and Dave's home-made red cabbage sauerkraut.  All very special.

Peak Frustration - and resolution

12-14 February 2018

Blow-by-blow account of How The Electrics Were Fitted:

Monday 12 Feb, am: the part expressed from Germany arrives.  Hallelujah.  Dave opens the inverter and fits it.  We ring Tomas to ask him if he can come to change the wiring from the old system to the new.  He says he can come in a few days.  We put the phone down and feel the frustration rising like a kettle coming to the boil.  Dave looks so hangdog I ring Tomas back and beg him to come sooner.  He can't promise anything. 

Monday pm: Tomas arrives and changes the wiring - I gush over with gratitude, he's made a special effort.  We get Mark on the phone, he is amazed the part has arrived, as he's just had an apology from the courier saying they don't know where it has got to!  Mark takes remote control of the computer and tries to make it work.  The inverter won't recognise the batteries.  We try all sorts.  Turning everything on and off several different ways.  Nothing doing.  Tomas has to go.  We have to rewire to the old system or we have no power.  We suggest Tomas teaches Dave how to change between the systems - so we have some autonomy.  It turns out to be quite easy (should've sorted this out a while ago).  Mark says we'll try again tomorrow.

Tuesday am: early call from Mark.  His small kids have brought home gastroenteritis from kindergarten and the whole family is prostrate, including Mark, can we postpone to Wednesday?  Meanwhile, we should try everything we can think of with the wiring and the programming to make it connect, we can't do any damage!

Tuesday pm: as a last resort, Dave reads the manual (it was on CD and we forgot we had it) and tries the troublesome connection in a different socket - not the one that was expressed from Germany.  It turns out we didn't need that part, the model has been updated and one of the sockets already installed was the one we needed.   (Aaaaaaaargh!)  Connection is established.  But the solar panel inverter still needs to be programmed. 

Wednesday dawns dull and overcast.  The one battery currently talking to the system is showing 27%.  We are an hour ahead of Mark in Germany, and Dave is champing at the bit.  Simon arrives, to investigate what is needed to fit the bath.  Tomas arrives, with the last few light fittings.  Mark rings, he's good to go, so we start warming up the computers.  The delivery driver with the washing machine rings - he's on the bypass and needs me to find him and lead him here.  We are having a manic Wednesday. 

In the kitchen, the washing machine and dishwasher are hastily stuffed into (luckily pre-cleared) spaces, Tomas is agreeable to fitting the cooker hood, and Simon tells us to level the bath and he'll be back to fit it next week.

In the utility room, Mark and Dave are making all the different parts of the system talk to each other - with some trouble - the stuff is so new, even the customer services people Mark rings have to check with technical and get back to him.  Tomas finishes and leaves.  We're on our own - Dave says, 'Throw the switch, Igor!', so I do.  And it works.

Dazed and confused, beyond the point of celebration, we plug in the 2000 watt kettle and make tea.

 Computers and camp stools in the utility

 White goods hastily stuffed out from under foot

 The bath - to be levelled.  Two years up against a wall!

 Everything open and being investigated

 Tomas and Panos with Dave in the kitchen - fitting lights and the new cooker hood

 At last, all the lights showing green - what a marathon!

The new kettle - which takes more power boiling two cups of water than we could supply in total with our old inverter.  Hurrah for the new system.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Other frustrations

9-11 Feb 2018

Even a little job like fitting a sink fell foul of our current run of frustrations.  We determinedly bought all the fittings we needed, on one of our Lefkas Thursdays, getting more than we could possibly need, just to be sure the job could proceed; but then found that both our jigsaws had given up the ghost, and time had to be spent on searching around for a decent quality new one.

Some time later - the sink cut-out completed.

Studio sink

7 Feb 2018

It is ten days to my birthday, and I decided I would like the sink fitted in the studio as my present.  So Dave turned to plumbing.  After clearing the clutter from the corner (yet another corner of clutter to be re-distributed!) I found the water pipe had been gently weeping for probably years, luckily only very slowly, but it was time it was fixed, before serious damage was done.

 

 The corner, cleared.

Dave starts the plumbing.

Comparison

5 Feb 2018

We were wandering around the garden, watching things grow (as we do!) when we looked over at the neighbour's patch of land, and noted the comparison with our own.  Dave suggested I take two photos 180 degrees round, one of his land, one of ours.  It is a heartening comparison.  We are still so far from where we want the garden to be, but this illustrates how far we have come from where we were.

 Bare soil with a few hardy daisies between the trees

Our more lush terrain, definitely preferred by weeds

Ceiling edges

5 Feb 2018

We finally started on some of the ceiling work.  Dave got on with tongue-and-groove panels where the roof boards meet the ring beam - he made them double-sided, so the music room wall was completed at the same time - finally replacing the last of the pillow-stuffed gaps.

 This is the stack of wood through the middle of our living room - a daily obstacle course, until we get the work done

 Dave at work on the edging panels

 Meanwhile, in anticipation of eventually getting the electrics operating, I thought I'd clear up a couple of the kitchen dumping grounds where we hope to put white goods in the near future.  Before and after photos, above and below.

 Dave's first panel in place - pillows still stuffed in the panels to-do.

 And the remains of the balsa wood model of the house I made a few years back, when it was all on the drawing board.  I think the cat has walked through it a few times.  Not easy to keep delicate structures intact around here!

Further frustrations

3 Feb 2018

In the on-going saga of getting the new electrics established, Tomas was finally able to return and fix the final connection between the panels and the system.  We had Mark from Off-Grid Europe on the phone, and we were ready to throw the switches.  But when Mark said, 'plug wire A into socket B' we found there was no socket B.  Mark thought the system had been supplied without a crucial little component.  He would have to order it and get it expressed to us from Germany.   Back to the long wait.

 The system, with the batteries pulled out so we can get at the back to turn on and plug in cables, etc.  Lots of fiddling about, but no results.  Much sorrow.

But at least Tomas was able to fit more wall lights and drop off our handsome new standard lamp.

Garden surprises

30-31 Feb 2018

We have a number of shoeboxes of seeds, variously bought or gifted to us over the years.  Most of them out of date.  So, rather than throw them away, we emptied all the packets into a salad bowl, mixed them up and flung them around on the prepared beds in the garden.  If they don't come up, we're no worse off, if they do, then they're better off than in a shoebox.

 Dave, emptying seed packets

 While clearing out a few grass clumps around the little hazel trees (below) which are set up against the oak hedge, I came across the things in the photo above: they looked like little bruised new potatoes, but one split apart and smelled of rich chocolate earthiness.  It is just possible they are truffles, which like to grow in oak/hazel woodland, but we weren't prepared to risk eating them, just in case.

 Dave at work, strimming

 Chickens at work, scrabbling

 Where Dave was strimming, after I'd cleared and manured around the judas tree and the blackberry and raspberry bushes.  No signs of life in the berry bushes yet, but it is still rather early.  I lashed rocket and kale seeds on the earth before covering with straw.  We decided it's best to put in our own ground cover rather than let the grasses re-establish themselves.