Dog days and a walk in the dark

23 and 24 November 2016

The puppy re-homing charity is taking Pepper and Scamp to Holland on Thursday.  So Wednesday was 'the last walk'.  We wanted them to get as much exercise as possible as they would be spending Thursday in a box.

 Even after 6 weeks of being told not to, they are still jumping up when they see us.  Here Scamp demonstrates her flying skills before being brought up short by the chain.

 Pepper doesn't trust the camera (which is coming on by itself)

 and then apologises for being distracted

 Tails moving too fast for the shutter speed

 Dave & dogs

 Sara & dogs on Wednesday afternoon's walk

 Then at 5:30 am the next morning

 Waiting patiently at the rendezvous, with no idea what all this strange behaviour means

 but looking a little hurt and betrayed, nonetheless

And even more so, when crammed in a box in a car for the drive to Thessaloniki, there to take a plane to Holland.  Not a fun day.  In the end, it was hard to part with them, especially Pepper, as they are lovely dogs.  But they need a lot of training, and training takes time, and we don't have the time if we're ever going to get the house finished.  It wouldn't be fair to them to keep them.

Once more, my plinth has come ...

22 November 2016

Neil came back to put the next layer on our foundation.  With rebar and threaded rod embedded in the concrete base, he laid breeze blocks to form a plinth skewered by the bars.  When we get the wood to top off the ring-beam, it will all be bolted together.

While inside, we've moved the scaffolding to the east end of the living room, for the final sections to be lathed ready for plaster

Singsongs

18 November 2016

Another choir performance, followed at the weekend by an all day singing workshop.  Lots of song!

Supermoon

14 November 2016

With all the buzz about the 'Supermoon' - an unusually close full moon on 14 Nov - I decided to try out the tripod and have a go a taking some photos.  The night was slightly overcast, but I had fun setting up the shots.  It turned out that moon rise was directly outside the kitchen door, so I could click the shutter for a long exposure and make supper at the same time. 

 Dusk falls

 First show of light in the sky

 Moon briefly visible before rising into cloud

 From the kitchen door, through olive trees

Nice clouds, badly framed photo!

Lucy in the Gallery with Paintings

Saturday 12 November 2016

Our friend Lucy has been very daring, and presented a show of her paintings in a gallery in Lefkas Town.  We and many others went to the opening night to support her.

Dave, Dmitris and Panos provided light background music.  Later, two other greek musicians joined in, and for the first time, Dave played in an otherwise all-Greek band.

Whitewash!

10 November 2016

Lots of days painting the interior wall sections with limewash.  While the scaffolding is set up for plastering, I thought it would make sense to paint the high level panels as well, so we don't have to shuffle all the furniture and protective sheets back and away again later.  Three coats in each section, washed down all around between each coat.  We're doing a lot of work to give ourselves a smart 'half-timbered' mediaeval finish, but it does look rather fabulous as it starts to come together.   By Thursday 10th, almost all the west end of the living room is painted. 

 The two big bedroom wall panels - they took some doing!

 While waiting for the high level sections to dry, Dave and I painted the lower ones too, so that this job moved much faster than we'd expected.  Which is a nice change!

 Then, excitement!  Rowan came round to measure for the remaining windows and doors.  He reckons he can do the outstanding downstairs casements and the front door before he leaves for the UK in December - wonderful!

 Puppy portraits.  

Now named Pepper (above) and Scamp (below)

Trombe wall foundation

Thursday 3 Nov 2016

Neil arrives to dig out a trench and pour concrete for our new little foundation.  This will form the base for a wood-framed glassed-in space that will help to heat the interior in the winter.  We are still deciding whether to have glass panels that lift out completely during the summer, or to shade with trees or blinds.  The idea of a thermal mass behind glass is known as a 'trombe wall'.  We didn't take the time to build a cob wall, as we meant to, for this facility, so we will have to put our thermal mass in the floor or elsewhere.  Meanwhile, we're still calling it the 'trombe wall' (just to have a name for it).

 Neil and Dave set to with pickaxe and shovel

 The puppies are unamused

 The trench dug and levelled

Meeting the house main foundation, past the gravel trench and 'French drain' dug all round the house by Dave.  The new ring-beam will encase the drain in this one spot, which isn't a problem.

 Neil drills holes into the main beam for reinforcing rod connections.  We want this little ring beam to move together with the main one in an earthquake, so they need to be properly linked.

 Cutting wire for the beam

 and laying it in the trench

 Then the first concrete is poured - after the mixer broke down and Dave had to jerry-rig the pull-cord mechanism.  This meant that we had to keep the mixer going, as it wouldn't start again easily.

 But the day just kept getting stormier ...

Neil leveling the base.

After this, the rain started, and I stopped taking photos to protect the camera.  Dave had been digging earth and shoveling sand all day, so I joined in to help keep up the momentum (concrete needs to be poured all at once to avoid sheer lines).  So I shoveled sand into buckets, Dave carried them to the mixer, and Neil poured and leveled; and we all got very wet.  We finished at ten past four - I made it to choir practice, showered, changed but still bedraggled, by four-thirty!

Not house-trained

1 November 2016

The puppies (which turned up on our doorstep and which we are fostering until they can be re-homed) are now being locked into a large kennel overnight.  As they get more confident about being fed daily, they are roaming further afield and need to be contained.  The downside is that they have to learn to manage their outputs, as we found out on Tuesday morning. So I hosed out the kennel, and Dave washed down the dogs.  Very doleful dogs!

 Having had a good shake, now ready for breakfast

 Dave does the highest bits of limewashing

Pepper demonstrating her 'leaning' technique, where she sits on your foot till you stroke her

Lots of Developments

31 October 2016

Last day of October, and we are a hive of activity.  Our bricklaying, floor-paving, concrete-pouring friend, Neil, has agreed to come and build the final, missing, bit of our foundation.  For some reason, when the base ring-beam was laid out, the little area that will be glassed in (like a micro-conservatory) to create a winter heat source, didn't get made.  But we did get the roof joists, so we are building this bit backwards - attaching a new little reinforced concrete ring-beam to our existing one, so we can build a wood frame up to the joists.  So we ordered the materials.  While waiting for delivery, I plastered the final section of bathroom internal wall, while Dave, with Dmitri's help, continued the final coat of whitewash.

 Then the delivery came, Neil's cement and gravel, together with more sand and lime for plaster.  And while the truck was here we asked him to move a ton bag of very fine sand we've had since grouting the kitchen floor, and not used very much of.  It is now in the way.  Because all synthetic materials break down in the sun, it was touch and go whether the bag would hold together.  The bags have four loops for rope to link them to the hook on the swing arm.  The bag moved a metre, and one loop pulled off.  The rope was re-threaded, and the bag moved another two metres, before a second loop broke.  With the loops tied up and threaded again, the bag finally scraped over to its new location.  Phew!

The recalcitrant bag of fine sand

 and the area (under the flying roof joists) where the new foundation is needed (showing a dark patch from where the bag of sand was moved).

 This is the stack of floor pavers that collapsed when I took one off the stack to weigh down a waterproof cover over the cement bags.  The pavers nearly got me, I had to do a few vertical take-off jumps to get clear.  Luckily the aloe vera didn't get too battered, either.

 After all the excitement, I went back to lathing - the last little space at the west end of the living room

with a close up to show the detail - complicated sections where an olive wood corner and an electrical fitting come together

And yet another mantis comes to visit us - outside the kitchen door this time