Finally back to Greece (twice)

Once again I'm back to blogging as today Halil came past to help in the garden however it's been a fun and busy few weeks so let's get on with it.

Hat on a basketball

A storm in the distance

Let's get weeds removed

A beautiful sunset

After work one evening Rosie and I went into town and met up with some people at the local basketball court and I played some ball, Rosie played with the other kids, and then played badminton with me. It was fun and hopefully we'll do it again. I've also been trying to get out into the garden regularly and get a load of weeding done to keep our flower beds looking nice. It has been such lovely weather recently also.

Getting to the beach nice and early

Out for food (I'm just out to shot)

Mike playing with Rosie

The tortoise crosses the road

We had a really lovely and busy weekend after this. I was up very early on Saturday and drove across to Greece to collect my friend and his wife who were on holiday and visiting us for the night. I spent a couple of hours on the beach, got to lay and read and swim a little before I headed to the ferry port and picked them up. I didn't get all that many pictures however we had a lovely time, including getting out for dinner to the restaurant and then a lovely long drive around to do some sightseeing before I had to take them back over to Greece to their ferry again. On the way home I stopped and waited while a tortoise crossed the road. I didn't ask it why it was going though.

Rosie with all the peas

A ladybird on a wildflower

Enjoying the weather on the patio

Put a new chair together

Loads of puppies

Snake skin scrap

There's been some harvesting going on the last few weeks and first off the peas were ready. Angela and Rosie went out with a pot and collected them all and then worked together to shell them all - a great result for a little work. We spent some lovely time sunbathing on the patio on the recliners and I put a new one up so we have one each; unfortunately Dutch then went and chewed the new chair which made me quite unhappy. It did warn us that we needed to keep him away from our new insulation tiles and the pool so we've delayed putting the pool up until we can fence it in; this fencing is now due tomorrow so hopefully soon we can finally put the pool up! Down at the farm there are more and more puppies all the time; they are very friendly and cute! I found a scrap of snake skin while watering which was pretty cool to see - Rosie was fascinated.

We set out the wooden track for fun

The strong winds took this tree down

Rosie chilling on Grandma's bench

Her first ever painted miniature

Here's a tortoise

We've mostly had absolutely glorious weather for the past few weeks however a huge storm did blast through which brought the most incredible winds before dumping a load of rain (very welcome indeed as this refilled our water collection, and soaked the ground really nicely) however the wind did break some branches on some of the tea trees and also took down the top off a walnut tree! Other than this, it's been lovely and warm and I'm gutted we don't have the pool up yet. We've seen a fair few tortoises around which is always exciting and Rosie does love seeing them just like I do. While watering I noticed one of the plum trees that gives an early crop was absolutely loaded with perfectly ready plums so I grabbed the harvesting bag and in about 30 minutes had 3kg of plums ready for preparation. I have since chopped all these and they are in the freezer. We have so much fruit this year it's going to be a bumper crop!

Early to the beach and how lovely it was

A flying fork

Mummy and Rosie burying me

I'm buried!

Sat in the waves having fun

She really does love the sea, and so do I

Panorama of the beach

Time for lunch

Yesterday we were up super early and out the door towards Greece; on the way we picked up our friend. The queues at the border were really long however they processed everyone super quickly and we were on the beach before 8am which is perfect. We had such a great day as the weather was perfect - hot but a breeze and lots of lovely shade as well. Rosie had a blast, she buried me and I got a fair amount of snorkeling done, though there was a strong current going across the beach so it wasn't as relaxing as it can be as I was swimming hard to stay still sometimes. Towards the end of the morning the swell built up and Rosie had a blast jumping in the waves and then just sitting down and letting them wash over us. It was so beautiful and a perfect day, topped off by a lovely lunch at a cafe next to the port. By the time we got home I was wiped out and slept for two hours straight!

There's an (empty) duck pond in there somewhere

Running water back into the pond

Cleaned out the dried up scum

Fixing the stairs

Trimming branches

Levering out a clump of saplings

Chopping down a dead tree

This area is looking so much better already

We have a lovely clean pond again

And so to today. I had a super busy early morning getting stuff done before Halil arrived and had just got outside to clean out the pond when he did get here. I swept out the bottom of the pond and collected all the material for the garden then started the tap to refill it. This took all of five minutes total. Inside Halil was working on fixing the one step on our spiral staircase where one of the welds had come loose. It did not take him long to repair this and then we were both outside back to the task of clearing the trees that are spreading everywhere by the driveway. We worked for about 2 hours straight and got another four or five trees removed. This time we did not use Thomas as the trees we are removing are so tangled with their roots it was crazy difficult to get them up. Halil also cut down and chopped up a dead tree we found. We've decided to leave the big trees for now and take all the sapling and spreading encroaching growth. He'll probably be back next Sunday for another session. I'm really enjoying working with him! During this time the pond refilled so now hopefully the ducks will enjoy it again.

So there it is. I may be back next Sunday with another update but I'm not sure. Let's see how it goes. Thanks for reading.

Toilet done, men away for a while

The men were back in today, for the final day of working with us for a couple of months, but first of all let's go through the weekend.

Camping time with Roo

A quality early morning sky

Setting the stones under the bench

Old bench and new

Rosie on the swings

A party display at the park

Picnic in the garden

Friday night was awesome as I pitched the tent and me and Rosie camped the night. She just loves camping, and slept really well. I was up super early, as usual, and went out to do the final tasks on the bench which involved bringing up stones and spreading them, and shifting the big pile of spoil left over from digging out the footing. It looks great and Rosie has been sitting up there loads. She really likes the heart shaped stone that I dug out and have leant up against the fence. We headed out to the courier midmorning and stopped off at the park for some fun before heading home in time for a call with my family and then we took the blanket into the garden and had a picnic lunch.

The huge tent is set out for erecting

Rosie fits inside the bag for the tent

This tent is just superb

Excited to be back here again

Louise is grumpy that Angela isn't around

In the afternoon Rosie and I took down the small tent we'd stayed in, and then put up the huge family tent as Angela and Rosie camped on Saturday night. It went up really well, despite the wind picking up quite a lot, and then we rushed out the door for dinner and playtime at the restaurant up the road. It was a very lovely time, and we met a Bulgarian couple who live in the UK and were over for a holiday to visit family. They had a daughter the same age as Rosie and we invited them to visit next time they're in the area. That evening the camping was a relative success (though it rained heavily) and I had the puppies up with me who were sulking a bit that they weren't able to cuddle with Angela.

Smashed hatch glass!

This was so tasty!

A stunning sunset

Sunday was super busy for me but there was some drama. I was working and Angela was cleaning when I heard a huge crashing sound and went running to find out what had happened. It turned out that Rosie was trying to put the hatch down and it slipped out of her hands and slammed down super hard, smashing and scattering glass everywhere. Rosie was, of course, distraught and had run off to hide on the balcony. It took Angela and I about 40 minutes to clean up all the glass and make it safe to let the puppies back in and for us to walk around again. We're now waiting for the window people to come quote for a replacement with safety glass. Later on I took Rosie to karate, had a very lovely meal (that I cannot remember what it was called) and then as I collected her the sky was stunning.

Halil gets started sorting the spoil pile

Pipe is now being bedded in

Loads of bricks to be skipped

Drain from the downpipes being re-attached

Breaking out for an access hatch

Cementing in to finish up

Boxing off done and dusted

And so to today. The men were in on time and got stuck in to the final jobs to finish the toilet install. They sorted through the spoil from their excavations (they had dug up loads and loads of stones and old bricks) and then secured and covered the pipe over. With that done Bekir reconnected the drainage pipe into the main feed down to our grey water system and then put in the inspection hatch over both the access points (so we can clean the pipe if we get a blockage) and finally boxed off the hole in the wall as well. It was a good and productive day and Halil's friend also came past to do the annual service on Mo the lawnmower, who was immediately put to work as the grass is growing so fast right now.

Balcony dinner time

I'll leave you with us having dinner on the balcony for the first time this year. We even got to watch some cycling, which Rosie really enjoyed. A great way to end the day.

So there it is. The men won't be back for a fair few weeks so I doubt I'll be updating soon but thanks for reading.