Seeing Friends

 28 - 30 August 2020

Our friends, Naomi and Pete are back in Greece, so we took advantage of needing to take the car in for a fix (rats had chewed through the screenwash pipe) to visit them near Preveza.

We explored a previously unknown (to us) area to the east of Preveza, along the coast of the Amvrakikos Gulf - including this little harbour where we had lunch.

Two days later, with the car back in action, we went to collect another friend, Pete, from hospital to bring him home.  With Covid regulations in force, we were the only vehicle allowed in.

Parsnip wars!

28 August 2020

Mad Robbie has challenged us to a Parsnip Growing Challenge.  I'm not usually in favour of vegetables grown to enormous size at the expense of flavour and usefulness, but once in a while can't hurt!

Dave preparing special tall tubs with our secret ingredient - worm poo from the worm farm.  Robbie planted his seeds last week, so we're already behind, but we have Permaculture principles on our side, so watch this space.

An old friend returns

28 August 2020

Our lovely boat, which sank in March 2019 in a bad storm, and which we sold as an insurance write-off to Kelvin at IBA, has made a recovery.  She benefited from lockdown, getting a lot of attention while the office was closed and has been completely gutted and refurbished.

 We are absolutely (we think) sure that we don't want to buy her back - but then again ...

 New cushions and upholstery in the saloon

 New mattresses, bedding and all new overhead linings in the cabins

 Very smart saloon

 Refurbished galley

 Kelvin was taking her out for a shakedown trip, and sent me a couple of photos.  

How do we resist???

Checking the plantings

25 August 2020

Back in April, we put a range of seeds into the new 'wiggly' bed, and I made a drawing of what went where.  We had quite a downpour after the planting and the seeds moved around a bit.  So I took the packets and tried to identify what was doing well.

 We have a few kale plants of this type - Cavalo Nero, but the purple sprouting kale elsewhere seems to be happier.

 The chicories immediately went very bitter and then flowered.  Reading them up, it seems they are better as winter veg, when they are less likely to flower and will be less bitter, therefore.

 This, and the one below, are two varieties of organic, perennial  chard, which has just kept throwing up leaves all summer and has supplied salads and steamed veg for us maybe five times a week.  

Another watermelon is coming - I have designated it for my grandson, hopefully visiting in October, and shall try to keep it well until then.

 This year, for the first time, our two young fig trees are being reasonably productive.  The figs are lovely, I have them on cereal in the morning.

 A late blooming waterlily appeared unexpectedly

We have had some high winds, and I noticed the hazel trees had lost their nuts, but I found these three lying below the tree (we don't have squirrels).  It may be a tiny crop - but it's a step in the right direction, and they tasted good - we had one and a half each!

Not so good

20 August 2020

When Greece gets it wrong ...

 I thought it was so funny to see this apparently posh sink in a showroom window - supported on three battered concrete blocks and a cementy piece of wood.  Could so easily have been our house during the construction years.  Made me chuckle.

 A few days later, we were in Nidri for a pizza, looking for somewhere to put the bikes, and we were directed to an actual bike park.  The sign says 'Bicycles'.  This was an astonishing find.

On closer inspection, however, we saw that the metal hoops for the tyres had obviously been run over by something large, because they were crushed and twisted, so you couldn't get a wheel in between them.  The Demos (council) spirit is willing, but the implementation is weak.

Family Fortnight

9 - 23 August 2020

Dave's son, wife and grandson have come for two weeks.  Holiday time!

 First firing of the barbeque - a trial run just for family to check we have everything - turned out we'd lost the tongs, but everything else worked well

 One of the watermelons was fabulously ripe just at the right time, so it came to join the party.

 Lots of time in the sea, learning swimming.

 An evening shot of the house, across the pond, taken by Rob.

 Music on the terrace - Rob, Dave and Mark getting the band back together.

 Celebrating Rob and Tanya's wedding anniversary - testing the barbeque on a few more people

Grandad in action

Constructions continue

8 August 2020

The carpenters turned up and made our lovely little roof with lots of attention to detail.

 Posts at the corners, two cross-beams and the boards.  Tiles and finishing to do.

 These are the bamboo shades we wanted for 'eco' covering around the garden.  They turned up in decaying plastic wraps.  Shocking, and unnecessary.

 Paving reinstated around the posts

 and the gravel swept back in, like nothing happened.

 The roof needed a chimney which needed a cowl for the barbeque (the costs were mounting up), and one had to be made to fit as we had designed freestyle and it was non-standard sizing.  While the woodwork was being treated with wood preservative, we covered everything with cloths for protection.  

When we removed the cloth from the shiny stainless steel cowl, we found a praying mantis had taken shelter in there.  It was a fabulous thing to find and a great photo op.

Hurrah!  The completed outdoor kitchen - which we are calling the 'temple' for its grandeur - and, says Dave, for the burnt offerings likely to made there!

 The shade bamboo used as a screen between the entrance from the field and the big water tanks and tool store.  The picket fence in the foreground is the next thing to fix up, but maybe when it gets a little cooler.

This was bound to happen if we built a barbeque - even in Greece in August - it will come on to rain.

In the garden

4 - 7 August 2020

The garden is very dry now, but we are still collecting courgettes, and there are watermelons, and the perennial chard is proving excellent, so we always have some greens for salad or for steaming.

 The chicory went straight to flower, but it is making a fabulous show

 The sunflowers are flourishing too

 We picked our first corn cobs, and found out that if you plant the variety 'popcorn' it will not boil soft even after 40 minutes.  We hadn't known this.  We have a few corn on the cob plants which are delicious, but the majority are these popcorns, which after a little research we found have to be dried for a month before they can be popped.  Something new to learn all the time!

 Full moon, early one morning, setting behind the house

 Another early morning - we've been seeing three adolescent fox cubs playing around the pond and in the garden over recent days.  One morning one of them put its paws up on a bench Dave was sitting on, mending the hose pipe, and took a good look at him.  On this occasion, I saw one out of the bedroom window - having a go at a bag of potting compost - ripping it open, determined to have a pee in it.

 The magpies weren't too happy about this either, and one came down to chatter crossly at baby fox, who put up with it for a while and then chased it away.

 The compost - torn open and pee'd on.

Lots of excitement when we spotted an actual growing hazelnut.   Our first - wow!

Garden Constructions

1 - 3 August 2020

Work has begun on the roof for the outside kitchen - which has proved unusable due to being in full sun for most of the day.  We want a tiled roof so it can be used for rainwater capture, so it is a job for the professionals.

 Our labourer turned up, lifted a paving stone at each corner, and dug out a hole for footings.

 Unfortunately none of us remembered we had a pipe running through one of the corners, so it suffered from the pickaxe.  It is an overflow pipe from the big rainwater storage down to the lower barrels, so it was empty, and no water was lost.

 Dave stepped in, and did an impressive emergency repair, which will be encased in the concrete footings and should be fine.

 Big metal stands were set into the footings.

 Meanwhile, in a shadier part of the garden, Dave and I finished setting up the 'rustic arch'.  This is the approach from the field where most people park when visiting.

It makes a nice entry, and defines the paved space very well.  The pre-planted bougainvillea on the left can now be trained to grow up it.