Garden Update - August 2019

13 August 2019

We are starting to think seriously about our plans for the garden landscaping and infrastructure to start next month (heatwave permitting), so I thought it would be good to set down some markers of where we are now in the garden.

 The start of the terrace-building, waiting for Rowan to find time to continue

 The salad and herb bed - with newly installed olla pots, which may not be working properly.  Mint and cherry tomatoes are rampant.  A self-seeded mulberry, and a re-planted hazel sucker are growing.  The walls made of roofing-board offcuts are starting to rot in the soil and fall over.  This bed will be cleared and re-built this winter, hopefully saving the soil we've made.

 Strange squash from a mixed seed packet are turning up around the garden

 A little chilli plant bought in a bar seems to have settled in

 Down the slope, our elder elder and younger elder are struggling with the heat, and the little reincarnated moringa is failing again at about 30 cm.

 Left and centre are lemons, recently treated with diatomaceaous earth to control massive aphid farming by the local ants.  To the right, a self-seeded avocado that seems to be flourishing.

 The bigger fig.  Doing well, although only a few figs, about five, this year.

 A tiny elder, planted in hedgerow position, but struggling against cricket attack, and with a self-seeded judas treelet muscling in on the water supply.

 The one remaining sweet chestnut, growing slowly but strongly.  With one sweet chestnut seed growing, so it is getting fertilised from somewhere.

 The robinia in the hedgerow - needs the undergrowth cutting back.

The smaller, neater fig.  Less tree, slightly more figs this year.

This is a lot of photos, and there's more to come, so I'll do another post.

Tropical corner

6 August 2019

We have a flourishing pot full of turmeric, and some ailing licorice, all of which is desperate to be harvested and/or planted out when we have some beds ready.  We also had a couple of ancient tubs of organic ginger and turmeric which were sitting suffering on a windowsill.  Having bought some potting soil and a couple of big deep Moringa-appropriate planters, we decided to get everything into pots in a hot little corner.

From the left: two tall pots suitable for Moringa's long tap roots; wrinkled turmeric roots; wrinkled ginger roots; and at the back, the two-year old turmeric and invisible licorice that keeps coming back each summer.

The quest for innoculations

6 August 2019

As we have finally decided to go on holiday somewhere other than the UK, we need some innoculations for exotic diseases.  Hep A was easy enough - prescription from GP to purchase at the pharmacy, who have a micro-clinic and stuck it in there and then.  Typhoid was another matter entirely.

We started with the GP, who said we had to go to the health department in the Town Hall (the Demos).  We went to the citizen's advice in the Demos and no-one would tell us where the right department was.  We wandered around aimlessly until someone took pity and directed us.

At the HD we tried to explain why we were British citizens seeking innoculations in Greece.  The idea of ex-pats going on holiday was quite new to them, and involved a lot of phone calls to a busy advice line in Athens.  Eventually we were allowed to proceed.  We were given a form to take to the bank.

We went and queued some more at the bank.  We eventually arrived at the payment machine (a new innovation causing a lot of consternation), and found we were in the long cash payments queue, not the empty card payment queue.  Luckily we had enough cash to pay our 40-odd euros and leave with a receipt.

We had been told to come back the next morning with the receipt, to take the innoculants from the fridge in the Demos and deliver them to the hospital.  When we returned with the receipt, there was trouble - we hadn't made two 20-odd payments, one each.  We took the wigging, and set out for the hospital.

Luckily we checked just before leaving and found out it was the new hospital, not the old one.  So at least we could drive there and park.  We had a cool box with us for the Typhoid, but it needed the fridge quickly.  We sat in the waiting room, and were encouraged to take a ticket for paediatrics by a helpful fellow-patient, but while out collecting the ticket, the innoculations nurse arrived without our knowledge.  After a bit more of a wait, we checked the room, given the urgency of getting to a fridge.

The nurse was there, and there was no queue. She took our phials of innoculant and made lots of phone calls to check what to do and whether we could actually go ahead, since we'd had Hep A only yesterday.  Finally she said we had to see a doctor to get a signature and he wasn't available for 30 minutes.  We went over the road for a coffee.

The doctor was still busy, but we queued up with our paperwork, and enlisted sympathy from others in the queue, so we could barge in ahead when he appeared.  We took the signed papers back to the nurse and finally got the jabs.

We were given our sets of paperwork and told to take them back to the Demos, who would send them to Athens.  There we were issued with our yellow medical cards and told to go back to the GP who signed and stamped them.

Only Tetanus to go now ...

Bike Batteries

29 July 2019

We've had our e-bikes for two years now, and Dave's battery has developed a fault.  We're just out of warranty (!) and the company said that our particular batteries weren't that good and have been discontinued.  Dave researched the internet and found someone offering a build-your-own solution for half the price, and so he ordered one.  Within minutes of returning from our yachting week, he had a cloth spread on the table and the soldering iron out.

He's just come back from testing it out, and reports a resounding success.  The plan is to do the same for my bike next.

Time for some new tyres, too.

 

Clothing Challenge

July 2019

I have read so much recently about 'fast fashion' being the second most polluting industry in the world, after oil, that I have decided to do something about my part in it.  I had already, for some years, been trying to buy only from ethical clothing suppliers.  However, I have too much clothing.  I have clothes that I've never worn because they are unsuitable for a building site.  It's time to start wearing everything I've got.  And now the sewing machine is set up on its own little table, I can make and mend as well.  So, the challenge is - no new ready-made clothing to be bought for 12 months from 1 July 2019.

My first reaction to this has been to switch the focus to Dave, but he's now stocked up with enough new ethical t-shirts to keep him going for a while.

Dave in a new bamboo t-shirt with local artisan hand-crafted fish pendant.  He doesn't like being dressed up, but tolerated it on this occasion.

Off on a jolly

21 - 28 July 2019

Our wonderful friends, Geoff and Fran (Fran helped us plaster the south face of the house a few years ago) lent us a yacht for a week's gentle cruising.  As it is too hot to do anything but be in the water, this was a fabulous thing to do.  As soon as my brother, Jonathan, got wind of the idea he asked to come along too, so we were three (unfortunately, his wife is from Pakistan and couldn't get a visa at short notice, or we would've been four).

 Dave and I took out the electric outboard for a spin to test the range of the new battery.  

 We came across Paris and Rowan swimming in Dessimi Bay on the first night, and Jonathan invited them to join us for champagne on Tuesday in Sivota

 Cheers to Geoff and Fran for lending us the boat

 One of our two nights in a lonely bay, just us and the goats and Jonathan's fabulous tuna spaghetti

The Blues Brothers, over breakfast in Kioni

The last night, a strange panorama shot of Dave and I at a table on the beach in Spartahori

A good meeting

18 July 2019

Our friend Lin had an exhibition opening at Z bar in Lefkas Town on Thursday.  She collects wild flowers (1 in 10, only common ones) and presses them to make lovely expressions of the local flora.  We went to the opening and were very pleased to meet someone we've long wanted to know.  His name is Aris, and he lives in a village on the hills near here, collecting the local wild herbs to make tinctures and salves. He and his new assistant, Will, were very interesting to talk to, about local varieties of herbs, trees, and even the permaculture hero - comfrey.  When it is cool enough to walk in the hills we will go to visit them and learn everything we can.

Exteriors

Mid July 2019

It is so hot now that we are doing very little indeed.  Early morning, Dave does some strimming, and I water the garden for about an hour.  This is not a good thing to be doing, so we are researching water conservation strategies.  Then we hide out indoors through the heat of the day, making plans for fixing up the garden and making proper water management happen as soon as it cools down.  With our thoughts fixed firmly on the garden, I decided to sign up for a short course on Organic Plant Culture (offered by acsedu.org) to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of actual horticulture.

Some few things are happening in the garden, and seem worth reporting:

 Three Moringa trees have returned from the dead. This is the best one

 Dave came across a welcome visitor climbing over our water pipe

 It is the season of preying mantids, and they seem to love our house - which is nice, because we have adopted them as our symbol - given that most of what we do is on a wing and a prayer!

A green one on the front door ...

 and a brown one on the kitchen door

 One of our successfully self-planted cabbages was let go to seed, so I went to collect the  harvest. Not sure if it is hybrid seed or if it will breed true, but we'll give it a go.

 The kitchen garden is flourishing after its rapid make-over last month, together with a few of the plants in pots that I got to make Mum's bedroom steps attractive.

 This is the kitchen garden from the other direction.  tomatoes, squash, mint, and rocket, with parsley going to seed for collection.

 A surprise in the hedgerow.  I've never known our wild brambles to fruit before.

 On a visit to Sivota recently, I came across these two barrels planted with interesting polycultures.  The top one is hibiscus and squash.  The bottom one I can't remember or clearly identify now, except for the fennel.  We'll have to go back!

Interiors

Early July 2019

It occurred to me, mostly because people kept asking to see, that the last minute rush to get ready for my Mum's visit meant that I had no photos of our finished living room.  So here are a couple - not as entirely 'showhome-y' as I would've liked (stuff lying around that needed putting away), but they give the idea.

We are very pleased with the varnished floor, and the way the kitchen tiles meet the wood.  And I love the rugs, a wonderful burst of colour against our white and wood.

Singing Shanties

Friday 5 July 2019

In the absence of any other musical outlet, Dave has decided to join Rosa's Shantymen to learn more about singing harmonies.  The end of term concert was on Friday, and involved three (pub) locations around Lefkas Town, so we booked into a hotel for the night to be on the safe side.

 Six Shantymen in full voice outside the Irish Bar on the sea front

Michael and Dave in close-up, with Rosa conducting.  We later went for supper with Michael and his wife, Marlin, and had a very nice evening.

We met up with them a few nights later, to see their house renovation in Lefkas (very impressive), and to get a proper photo of Marlin's knitted bike!