Ginger beer

8 August 2019

Dave is in continuous production of home-made ginger beer now.  It is very drinkable.  Not sweet like commercial ones, and quite alcoholic, so we limit ourselves to no more than a bottle each, once in a while, when we want something to sit out with and enjoy the evening.

 Meanwhile, the tropical corner is showing good signs.  The ginger - on the right - is flourishing.  How great if we can make our own ginger beer from home-grown ginger!  The turmeric on the left was planted about a week later, but also seems to have taken.

 Amazing moringas are showing why they are such great trees to grow - five days after planting, we have seven out of eight seedlings showing.

Electric car points

2 August 2019

We heard on the grapevine (well, the internet really, but grapevine sounds more romantic) that there were some new car charging points at the marina in Preveza.  So we decided to have an outing to discover them and find out a bit more.  Unfortunately we forgot to factor in travel over the bridge and past the airport on a Sunday in August.  It took some time to get there.

However, it was worth it.  We tracked them down, and then went into the office to find out more.  They are not yet ready to be used, mainly because no-one knows quite how much to charge for a charge.  But if we wanted to use one, the manager told us, we could email ahead and something would be arranged.  A bit more infrastructure, and in quite a useful location for us.

Garden Update - final

No more after this, I promise.  Not very interesting for readers, but a useful memento for us if things start to develop from here as we hope.

 These are two goji bushes.  They are spreading like mad, and are full of flowers loved by the bees.  Maybe they will turn to berries.  We've had one or two in the past, but not a full crop yet.

 One of the random squash.  They seem to like the woodchip beds.

 The other re-sprouted moringa, less tall, but bushier than the other.

 Another squash

 The strawberry bed.  Looking vibrant, but less productive than last year.

Yet another squash

The bougainvillea by the front door has perked up and is flowering again.

Garden Update, more

More of the trees that are hanging on in our garden, the hoped for 'canopy' layer of our forest garden-to-be ...

 But, problems in Eden!  The internet identified these as Scale Bug, infesting the mimosa.  I treated it with diatomaceous earth and scraped all the bugs off, and the tree has been doing better since.

 After the bugs were removed, the mimosa looking happier

 This is the unhappiest of the five robinias.  It was too far from the hose for a long time, and has only just held on.  Recent watering is encouraging new shoots to appear.

 The pomegranate that never does anything except produce and drop a few flowers every spring.  Needs feeding and tidying.

 A very unhappy lime tree.  Not comfortable in the heat.  But responding to our new watering regime.

 The centre robinia, a bit happier.

 This is the other lime tree, slightly more comfortable than its sister, and seems well established now.  Planted for its edible leaves - useful in salad.

 This scruffy little bush is locally known as 'Monkspepper', and officially as Chaste Tree, apparently the peppery seeds which can be used in seasoning have a depressive effect on male libidos, which explains the names.

 One of the reborn moringas - sprouting from last year's roots.  This one has now reached two metres high, but is not very bushy.

 Mulberry

 Robinia 5

Dave's citrus - the one we look after best (it gets pee'd on from time to time).  Good growth, currently no fruit.

Garden Update continued

A review of where we are now in the garden, continued from the last post

 A view of the self-seeded, probably apple, trees in the hugel bed, with the wonderful vast robinia in the background - definitely our star tree!

 A close-up of the actual three (crab) apples that showed up this year.  We are encouraging these self-seeded tree starts as we are hoping to be able to graft onto their root stock when a bit more established.

 This is the actual purchased apple tree - it is doing very poorly indeed.  We will move it this winter, as we need to landscape and terrace the bank behind it.

 This was a gift, we think it is a flowering cherry, which may mean it will never fruit, which would be a pity; but it will be good for bees even so.

 One of the hazel trees, which are doing better than expected in the heat.  I think they like being by the oak hedgerow.  Some baby catkins are showing - at the wrong time of year.

This is the kalamata olive, which we bought to provide big fat eating olives.  Not one has shown up yet.

 The citrus nearest the kalamata.  No fruits, but looking healthy-ish.

 The 'unreachable' citrus, for a while too far from the hose to get much water, although we've fixed that now.  Surprisingly, it is the one with a few little fruits on it.  We've forgotten which citrus is what, but these look like satsumas (Ready for Christmas?  All four of them).

 The third and fourth citruses - not looking too good.

 This is the standard olive tree that we planted, it is flourishing, and has a good crop of baby olives, which will hopefully make it to maturity in December.

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 ...