Bank Holiday Weather, again, again

Going

Well, it’s hard to believe but the weather for the Greek Easter, if anything, has been worse than last week. We have had torrential rain, high winds and thunderstorms galore. Nevertheless, during the week we took advantage of the help of some neighbours, out here for the week, to prune a tree in a particularly difficult spot. They borrowed our cement mixer for a day to lay a path at the end of their pool and offered some help with the tree in return.

Gone

This involved the purchase of a long ladder in order to get high enough up the tree for it to fall in the right direction, not on the retaining walls or on the flower beds! Chain saw at the ready and it was down in three. Then came the effort of dragging all the long branches down to the bonfire area before cutting them up for logs and for burning off the leafy ends. The burning season ends soon as it becomes too dangerous to have open fires outside. Even after heavy rain the cut branches are easy to ignite and the fires were fast and furious.

Macho men

It was fabulous to have two fit and energetic volunteers working flat out and enabled us to get loads done in a very short time. Then on top of that they invited us to dinner at their house down the road. We arrived home very full and very thankful.

Pile for burning in foreground, next trees to be pruned behind!

 Unfortunately, the great progress we made enthused Ray to prune two more trees so we still have a great pile to cut and burn, grrrr. However, we can now see the village in the distance and with binoculars it should be possible to read the menu boards outside the tavernas to see what the specials for the night are.

In between times I have been working like a Trojan to decalcify the drippers on the automatic watering systems and carry on weeding. There are also lots of repairs to do to the water pipes and drippers where the dog has chewed them up. I am leaving this to last in the hope she will have grown out of it by then. I bought a product to stop nail biting in England to put on the more vulnerable ones but I don’t think the taste is strong enough to put Kelly off.

Alternative Easter Egg

On Easter Sunday Kelly bought us the gift of a half chewed snake and since then we have seen several others. It seems very early for there to be so many snakes about. It must be a combination of the early hot weather and the spring rain. Doesn’t bode well.

Bank Holiday Weather, again

There are half a dozen yachts in the bay; early holiday makers here for the  Easter break and the weather is so awful. It’s such a shame as March was exceptionally dry, warm and sunny. It is colder elsewhere in northern Europe so I suppose that’s some consolation. I had been wishing for rain however as I had to resort to the automatic watering last week because the ground was getting so dry. I needed the rain to water-in the spring fertilizer I had sprinkled around all the plants we have put in. Before doing this it is necessary to rout out all the weeds nearby as otherwise you are encouraging the weeds to grow as well! Hence my recent exhaustion.

The inclement weather has brought a stop to the cementing, which is a pity as the stone cladding on the electric pillar is nearly finished. It’s now 90% complete, which is traditional for Greece. The steps up to the road are paved and pointed so there is just the surrounding wall to build up. I say ‘just’ but this will take some time, and there’s still a frame and door to make for the meter cavity plus painting the upper section of the pillar. Oh, and the railing to make and erect, and that’s before the electrician can be called.

vine in bud

Rain stopped play on the sanding and repainting of the pergola as well. This is more like 40% finished, so quite a lot more to do on this. At least we can be sure that the weather will turn dry again before too long. Luckily, we were able to get all the leafy parts of the latest olive tree to be pruned burnt off before the rain started. It only takes a short while to chain saw the long branches down then ages and ages to cut up the small stuff and cart it to the bonfire burning place.

vine in leaf

The vines I pictured budding two weeks ago are now in leaf and there are more wild flowers in bloom than I can mention. The trunks of the trees by the pool have had their annual whitewash and the middle one has more catkins than I’ve ever seen. The wild pear trees have also had copious blossom this year, I think it must be a result of the wet, wet spring.

catkins

It has been so cold we turned the central heating back on and brought some more wood in for the open fire. I cautiously hadn’t cleaned out the grate yet, as in previous years I have been caught out by doing it too early. It is so comforting to sit in front of the burning logs in the evening it makes the fireplace chores well worthwhile. We used to have an open fire in the lounge when I was a child and my father taught me to chop kindling and lay a fire. In later years my parents had an electric fire with a piece of cellulose in the shape of coals and two red bulbs underneath with revolving covers so it simulated a real fire, not the same thing at all!