We are legalised

 5 March 2021

We make an early visit to Lefkada to collect our new biometric residence permits, required as a result of the B-word that shall not be mentioned.  We weren’t expecting the call to say they were ready, and had started the day’s gravelling, and did some more after we got back, so the working day wasn’t wasted.

The worst bit of gravel shovelling - when there’s only a bit left at the bottom of the bag.

Finished!  All the way round to the paved area.  Now we have a neat path all round the house.

While we were in Lefkas we stopped at the garden centre for some flowers to prettify this bank (if they survive).

And to prettify this patch of gravel in front of the solarium.  In retrospect, Rosemary might have been more sensible.  We’ll have to see how they do.

This is one of the two 2-year old almond trees.  This one didn’t produce any nuts last year (the other made two!), but is full of flowers this year.

The hugel beds turned potential apple orchard: self-seeded borage is rapidly providing ground cover -and lots of nectar for bees.

More Gravel

4-5 March 2021

On with emptying those builders bags.  Two and a half cubic metres of gravel to tidy up the path around the house.  Been meaning to do this since forever!

Getting started, with our brand new shiny ‘gold standard’ rake

This is where we were at, the corner by the bathroom window, with waste pipes to cover.  After a few barrow-loads we were very grateful for ‘Richie’s seat’, the flat stone on a disguised concrete protrusion in the foreground.  When we were building this part of the stem wall, my son Richie was here helping, and he insisted he’d found the perfect bum-shaped stone to go here.  He was right, and we were grateful.

This is an almost surreal photo of rocket in flower in front of a duvet cover on the line.  Quite strange.

Dave brings yet another barrow for me to rake out.

Having been reminded by my brother that it was our wedding anniversary, we stopped to take tea by the pond.

Then, on with the gravelling, completing this corner - the line of tiles are covering the copper lightning earth cable.

And then round the corner, back towards the paved courtyard area, but not quite finished

A New Fridge

 2 - 3 March 2021

Our old fridge still felt like a new fridge to me, but it had become very inefficient with a faulty door seal and freezer seal.  Also, Dave was finding it harder to get things out of the very low shelves, so it was time for a new one.  Although I’ve always prided myself on being able to get everything in our under-counter fridge, it has been a struggle at times, and in summer we lose veg more quickly if there’s no room for it in the cold.  A larger fridge was called for.

An excitingly large box arrives.  We tried to persuade the delivery van to come up to our gates, but the trees were overgrowing the track too much.  He ended up leaving the assistant to turn the van, while he carried the fridge on his back up the hill and all the way into the kitchen. We tipped him well!

The old fridge out, while the new one settles down

We measure and estimate and draw lines, then Dave jigsaws a chunk out of the worktop.  Thank goodness for homemade kitchens, you can be very cavalier about alterations!

The new fridge in position.  We’ve lost some worktop, but gained lots more cool storage, and we can still get at all the mugs and tea caddies on the shelf above.

Landscaping the Pond

 2 March 2021

We have decided to tackle the remaining bags of building materials (yet again).  This time we thought we’d get some of the remaining pond pebbles distributed, especially where there are plant roots exposed in the water, or where the lining is showing through on land.

Tiny sized pea gravel is easy to shovel and distribute, but the larger pebbles are a real chore to get on a shovel, and then left out again by the pond.  Slow work.

An example of one of the places where a fold in the lining has become exposed at the pond margin.

After adding in more stones - they are a bit muddy from the bag and look yellowish.   After a bit of rain they will be less noticeable.

Building a Bug Hotel

 26 - 27 Feb 2021

Lovely warm sunny days, the special days when the sun isn’t searingly hot and it’s nice to sit out.

As it was Friday (even though all days are alike in lockdown), we had an afternoon bonfire, getting rid of perhaps a third of the remaining waste wood, as well as several tins of cider and some stuffed mushrooms.

On Saturday we finally got on with a long-delayed project: building a bug hotel.  These are very trendy, but serve a useful purpose in collecting together various bits and pieces that creatures like to live in, and putting them in a designated spot where they should remain undisturbed.

Our starting point was this ancient cat kennel we made when the kittens first arrived - long ago when they were going to be yard cats.  They never liked it, and after we moved into the house they followed us in. As there were no walls for the first five years it was very difficult to set boundaries and in the end we built the house around them (and us).

So the cat kennel is robust and waterproof.  First I removed the two boards at the front, as they weren’t structural, and then started collecting nesting materials.  Small sticks, logs, moss, bamboo, roof tiles, pine cones, bricks with holes in, and the legs of two ancient tables which every year are targeted by carpenter bees for nest holes.

Dave drilled holes in the larger logs for solo bees and wasps, and anything else that likes them

The completed ‘hotel’, after several hours of packing and prodding and wedging and jamming.

The basement is a toad house.

In location, close to the beach at the pond. 

I expect it won’t be long before tiny sun beds and umbrellas will appear.

Wood Chipping

 25 Feb 2021

Today we decided to get on with some wood chip production to get the paths covered before the weed season kicks off.

Today’s session produced enough clippings for a thick layer (about 10cm) on this wide but short bit of path.  The bed is the slightly different texture on the left.

Two paths like this: thin but long, were cardboarded before the cardboard ran out.  We will continue chipping to get these covered.  We need to do some cutting back in the hedges to get chipping material, so it’ll take a few days.

Dave putting the chomper away 

As a final thought, we decided to open the package of bramble clippings from last year.  We had wrapped them in thick black pond liner offcuts to discourage regrowth, which seems to have worked.  However, we saw a very lovely slow worm in the heap, and Dave said it may have laid eggs, so we shouldn’t dig out and distribute the clippings.  Good for potential wildlife, bad for progress on the garden infrastructure. 

My Birthday Again

 17 - 19 Feb 2021

Every year around this time I have a birthday, and I never seem to tire of the excitement

Dave being very lovely ...

... and making me my favourite smoked salmon and scrambled egg breakfast.

This was followed by Greek lesson, after which we invited teacher and fellow student to stay for lunch and wine was opened.  The rest is a bit hazy.

On more sober days, we have started trying to empty these big sacks of building materials, distributing gravel around the house and pebbles around the pond, so that we can finally be free of degrading polypropylene sacks.

In the pond, the inexorable cycle of life continues with new tadpoles

Dave at work on a shelf for the Solarium to raise the seedlings into the light and away from whatever is digging in them at night.

We have (noisy) new neighbours.  But they are very colourful.

And I finished another painting, this one for my brother,

 (when we can get things delivered to the UK once again).

Chasing Paper

 15 - 20 Feb 2021

We were talking to a friend who had just completed the post-Brexit process of applying for a non-European residents permit, which reminded us to get going on this.  We had asked at the police station in Lefkas around 6 January, when they’d said come back in Feb, and then we had let it slip.  

Laurie gave us the list of requirements for those of us with existing 10 year permits, all of which were doable.  We rang for an appointment on Monday, and were given an appointment on Friday.  This was remarkable, because everyone else we know is having to wait weeks.  Maybe there was a cancellation.

So we set out to collect

• 4 passport photos (untouched by human hands!)
• copies of passports and existing residency permits
• 5 years of tax receipts
• AMKA tax number confirmation 
• Proof of payment of €16 admin fee (this involved the excitement of online Greek government admin website and internet banking in Greek - but ultimately successful!)
• Proof of residential address - this was the one that proved tricky, as we have no bills in Dave’s name.  We had taken our marriage certificate on general principles of ‘take everything’, but they wouldn’t accept it untranslated.

Luckily, the very helpful clerk at the immigration desk agreed to give us another appointment the following Wednesday (because we had already started the process) rather than make us wait until April with the new bookings.

On Weds we picked up the translated certificate - not without some stress, as the translator had promised it for 9:30, but only arrived at her office at 9:40, and then started the translation.  We were terrified of losing our appointment, so Dave stayed to wait for the paperwork, while I legged it down the road to the police station to get my application under way.  Dave arrived, breathless, clutching the translation, just in time.

Now we have one more appointment next Monday, for fingerprints to be taken, and then we wait for the cards to be issued.

Meanwhile, among this crazy paper chase, Dave realised that his driving licence had expired.  Under Greek rules, you renew every three years from age 65.  Oops.  A new paperchase was underway.

This time we needed:

• 4 passport photos (these were still on file at the photographer’s from the week before)
• A medical certificate from our GP - we called for an appointment and they said come immediately!
• An eyesight test certificate - the GP told us where to go and we just walked in off the street.  Dave wasn’t even tested, just asked if he wears glasses for driving)
• Another exciting foray into the world of administrative online payments, €98 this time.
• Copies of passport and driving licence.

The appointment is on Monday, we’ll see how it goes.

One surprising upside was that, being at the GP, I decided to ask about the pain in my hip, that I’ve had for a few weeks.  It was diagnosed and prescription given and it went away the next day, so I was very pleased.

Dave with the precious file of all imaginable documents, in Nydri High Street, (which is currently being massively overhauled) after our second visit to the photographer.

The bonfire

 7 Feb 2021

There has been a pile of old wood at the end of the garden for about two years.  It is wood that is no good for the stove or the garden: treated or varnished, rotten pallets, chipboard or plywood.  As we had friends here liming the house (needs doing every year, and we’re not so nimble on ladders as we were) we thought we could usefully take ourselves off down the garden and finally get started on the scruffy heap.

Part of the heap

Including old garden furniture.  This is the last of the outdoor sofas from the Biblos Bar of legend that was in Nidri High Street

. 

Fluffy caterpillar rescue service.  It was heading into the fire pit when I spotted it.

Some of the wood was good enough to give away, and we invited Robbie round to collect it, so he was there for the ceremonial chainsawing up of the Last Sofa!

We shared a drink with Robbie, and a picnic lunch down the garden, and a good time was had by all.

Growing things

 1 - 4 Feb 2021

Now that the almost non-stop rains of January are behind us, we decided to get some seeds in tubs ready for planting out in March or April.

Anemones are in flower everywhere around the garden, vibrantly pink.

Dave at the seeding table for our mega-planting session

Camomile daisies are also rife

and the borage in the apple tree beds is flourishing

Growing things, indoors and out. 

 In the Solarium, the chayote vines have outgrown their short sticks and had to be supplied with longer ones, and a few little moringa trees have started too.

Along the floor, our collection of seed trays