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A quick trip to the island having been delayed by various matters in the uk to do some painting…unfortunate that the beautiful weather that made the november there into summer ended just as i arrived..so it became inside painting rather than the outside which was my intended target. Two difficulties ,one is painting white onto white plaster is very frustrating and secondly the rough scarred finish tradition in the islands is very hard to pain into for the first time .Still managed to do the living room area -first time i havent enjoyed its roomy dimensions- and it looks a lot better - i realize the difference isnt noticable on here but it is when you are there.still on the last couple of days a mighty storm came in and eventually i managed to get off the island and battle my way through to the airport..having got back to the uk the normal thing haopened and its spring again there and here its minus freezing….

the swallows whom nested in the downstairs bedroom last year returned and re-nested in the basement-as the presence of doors and windows thwarted their return,so as we started with 2 birds we now have an entire flock- between 20-25 of them difficult to count as they fly so quickly. Every evening they perform around the pool an amazing acrobatic show which includes them sipping from the pool in the manner of firebrigade planes collecting water from the sea.not sure what drinking chlorinated water does for them but they seem to like it,and they also reduce the mozzie population as the dip and dive around the house. not to many mozzies around-maybe thats why- the young ones arent always as adept as their parents though -i suppose its a training flight -and as they dip for water they sometimes get it wrong and crash!I will try and take some more photos before they leave but they are so fast i am shooting at 8000th of a second and still getting movement on some of them.Sometimes the sky above the pool is full of birds like swallow wallpaper-will try and capture it.

so the first splash in the pool its on and working,there is a bit of a leak coming into the cellar from around the pool cleaner inlet and somehow they have managed not to put a waste water pipe from the filter to the outside …….but in general it works and with a mad 2 weeks of activity the house is just about ready,so a french family who’s house isn’t complete move in for the month to see how renting goes.The outside work isnt finished but inside bar some painting and shelves etc is finished.I even managed to construct the wardrobe for the downstairs bedroom -a task of herculean proportions-i never liked making models when i was  a kid and this was a nightmare-still its there and looks ok. the living room is set up as is the kitchen and even at the very last minute managed to get some bamboo matting to shade the living room terrace.so finished with 10 minutes to spare.as usual. That was 2 weeks ago and everything seems ok just had a day on the phone with the plumber as the french people reported the pol wasnt working. i had great difficulty persuading the plumber that there should be more water in the pool-evaporation and leak- as he kept saying the pool is full but of course needs to be more than full to get the water to go over the end wall-still eventually persuaded him there wasnt a problem with the pump and he refilled it and-its works fine now.so we hope the next 2 weeks remains calm.before i left the normal buzzards which soar around the house had been replaced by 3 pairs of ellanoras falcons which are beautiful but i wonder where the buzzards are?

so after 7 days pumping water from the spring (65 tons) the pool is full and waiting for the pool man to come and turn it all on he is supposed to arrive today-sunday- and who knows he may! looks very good though and when the infinity bit is working should look even better. i have the pump going into the sterna now to top up the house water supply but getting up at 5 everyday to start the pump is taking its toll…need a holiday! meanwhile the weather has been most strange there has been storm clouds around for 2 weeks now-must be good weather in the uk- its not bad weather but it is a little humid and the storm keep passing  by.this was one that annoyingly sailed straight past and rained on skopelos town but not us-people here welcome rain-.This storm was magnificent though and if you look closely also provided the view of a water tornado which i had never seen before and was quite a size.this close up give you an idea. 2 days later though we got the storm it rained for a bout 2 hours and we had 50 mm of rain then the sun came out again.messed the rods up a bit but really freshened everything up. now the big push to make the house presentable first guests arrive tuesday!

one of the big things in Greece is water,the people speak of it as the french do wine,its the basis of life and it is a joy-except when you dont have any. So with not being able to empty the pool until pipes were fixed -cant leave it empty in the sun- i couldnt use the water for anything but garden purposes which is fine as i have put about 30 tons of water on the new trees and plants which will hopefully get them through the drought period. The roof collected about 50 tons into the tank(sterna) but of course that is in use by the house on a constant basis so its down to about 25-30 tons now. and of course the pool needs about 60 tons. so to fill the sterna and the pool need in excess of 100tons. It sounds a lot but the average person in greece uses a ton(1cubicmeter) a week and of course in places like the usa domestic use is over triple that. Its 20€ a ton to have water delivered.so i decided to try and get the water from the spring down the road.Lividaki is its name and its famous for being the best water this end of the island-better than bottled all the old boys say- and also in full flow in june. The beaches below the house have had waterfalls and springs on them until just a couple of weeks ago and there are many cold water outlets under the sea. So there is no shortage of water just have to stop it running away. Also a family have a small cottage about 3 minutes down the road and he has a pipe up to his house from the spring.but i havent seen them around all year. So i hatched a plot with nicos the plumber as it turns out he was at school with the wife from the cottage so he was to ask if we could add on to their system. Eventually he found the man(Lakis) and he agreed a pump was ordered from athens and we set it all up. First we had no luck at all but discovered that some hunters had managed to pepper Lakis’s pipe with shot so eventually we replaced pipe all the way and after 1 1/2 days toing and frowing managed to get it working. So i am drawing approx 400 litres per hour up 300 meteres of pipe and after 3 days the pool is half full. Just bumped into lakis this morning though-very nice man- and he says that we have put our pipe slightly off his land onto a neighbours land(how can you tell there are no mrakers!) and that he is a difficult character so may have to get the boys out and move the pipe.The water is beautiful though and its a bit odd to have a pool full of spring water a bit cleopatra-ish!

gback again and miracle of miracle something happened while i was away and it was what i asked for! I asked vangelis to go and find me some more stone to finish off the outside wall and asked tasos the albanian stone builder to finish building it-and they did!exactly as i asked for it! it may have been the full moon or maybe i have cracked the secret.Looks great although the stone as its freshly cut will take about 5 years to get to the lighter grey i am after its a good job and cheap too and the whole 50 sq meters came to just over €1k +stone.so very happy will get these boys back after the summer to do some more. Thinking about it though when i told vangelis i needed some more to finish off he said that the source of the stone was up the mountain and it would be expensive to take the big digger up there just for a bit of stone.I thought no more about it till i took basil for a walk up the mountain today and saw a hole had appeared in the hill like a giant bite. and lumps of stone lying about look remarkably like mine….ummm i wonder. the land belongs to canadian nicos the fireman so i am sure vangelis must have asked…?.Meanwhile yannis the main builder(who is suffering from stress) came back -only 6 months late to do all the snagging and put the marble (same as the floor)splashback in the kitchen which has now freed me to start finishing off.Upstairs bedroom nearly complete just need to find 3 blokes to help me get the newly painted and very heavy old wardrobe up the side of the house .then paint up bathroom ceiling sand the walls and treat them then upstairs done, the start trying to assemble wardrobe in downstairs bed and finish off down there. then kitchen needs painting and shelf fitting and fridges assembling,then.. to hot for outside concrete at the moment,so we wait for the weather-again

so at last the boys arrive and the drystone walling begins.From about 30tons of large rocks they construct most of the wall in 2 days .we had 3 of them the first day and 4 the second. They break the rocks and place the stones carefully to construct the walls very much as we do in england. the main difference is they dont do capping stones on top so will probably finish it with cementacornia top.the colour is lightish grey with white marble flecks the orange colour is just clay sticking to the stone which will wash off in the rain.and its supposed to rain on monday,everybody is holding their breath because the olive trees are in full flower and if a heavy rain falls in the next 10 days it will ruin the crop. so we hope for light drizzle at most! how the guys have any eyes left i dont know as shards of stone like kung fu weaponry is flying around all the time .i told them to be careful as i have only go 2 eyes and this seemed to amuse them! maybe i have tapped into the albanian sence of humour.also asked them if they wouldnt work on sunday because they were going to church but they solemly said the didnt have churches in albania just enver hoxa. so obviously you dont joke about him even though he is dead. still they are doing a great job and its looking great!

well back for the final push just the snagging and the outside work to finish then its all ready to go.the weather suddenly decided it was full summer-missing out the early summer bit and its very beautiful still green but with perfect weather.the house is still cool though and i am sill not sure if aircon is necessary? its perfect inside and its about 30c outside -it rarely gets much higher than 36 here so….this is the dawn from the living room terrace across to alonisos(the next island) you can see how calm the sea isaalso found that if you stand on the rock at the end of the beach you get a good view up to the house.but this 3rd picture is from the car park above the beach is a better angle on the house and you see the ruined kalivi(cottage) below it. 

so time to take the furniture van back to england and to let basil chase rabbits once more. the one thing he doesnt like about greece is the lack of rabbits! but of course its still march and in the mountains of greece the snow is still falling so its a tricky journey in a large truck with no weight in it. i throw in loads of olive wood logs to large for the wood burner here for some ballast                                      and tom and suzanne added a mattress of staggering proportions which they want back in england and we trundle off northwards.The snow started in a picturesque way quite early in the hills-most people don’t realize greece has skiing- but aswe climbed it got increasingly deep until at the top it was about 2 meters at the side of the road. and it was snowing quite a bit but it wasn’t really freezing so although having to drive slowly it wasnt quite a disaster and the almost completed new motorway on the other side meant that despite all the white stuff it only took 5 hours from volos to the boat.epirus region is beautiful(and snowy) cant think why more people dont use it for holidays… in italy fortunately the weather was beautiful as we had to wait for basils rabies injection after which you have to enter britain no sooner than 24 hours and no later than 48 hours. he decide to take advantage of the handily placed fountain to keep cool before his jab.Why are vets in europe about75% cheaper than in the uk?? the longest stretch of driving through italy was a bit dull but otherwise uneventfull but after overnighting in the jura region the last day driving back to norfolk proved rather tiring as the van decided 5th gear to be an unnecessary luxury and we struggled up hill and dale at about 55 mph which made the last day a rather exhausting 15 hour drive but at least we managed to get back. Now leaving basil in rabbit heaven and returning to the finishing work i have adopted a new plan i am o the island for 5 days organizing talking to the various workmen and getting materials then i am disapearing for easter and mayday holidays ,which run into each other here, and then when i get back everything should be ready to start. I normally arrive-talk to everybody then have to wait two weeks till everything starts so i am just circumventing the 2 week frustration-well thats the plan anyway! meanwhile i ahve organized the stone for the dry stone walling at the back of the house. i could have course just bought ready cut stuff from volos but in an effort to match the local colours and stone type i asked vangelis to go and find some and so this was dropped onto the drivewhen i returned it is grey but the orangey colour comes from the clay it was covered in so its either blasting it off or waiting till it weathers in.anyway have found a mastera (builder) from elios to do it so again another different person i have employed.I am a one man fiscal stimulus to the island econoomy.cant see why the g20 dont do the same -if they all just built holiday homes  we would all be back in work again. its also true that the periphery work around the house is as important really as the house itself and almost as expensive, most people dont include it in their original plans and budgets.i did- but not enough -especially as the pound is now worth the same as the euro!

the full moon comes around again and with it suitably mad weather these two views from the kitchen window are the night before the actual full moon and the day of…impressive cloud! meanwhile i am in my normal mode of trying to get workers to turn up and doing all the diy i can .putting up coat hooks shelves etc and restoring furniture the magnificent and heavy wardrobe is looking back to its former glory now and the colour works with the blue.Unfortunately it suffered when babis and his albanian mates tried to get it through a doorway that was smaller than it was. The technique is to try a ram it through the opening several times to see if it will go or miraculously shrink in the process and then think about maybe angling it a bit to get it through unharmed. I had followed them about though picking up broken pieces of moulding etc so at least i had the raw materials to stick back together,i remember they moved the furniture out of its all home after lunch which is also a bad idea as liberal quantities of tchipoura(local ouzo type) tend to obliterate any sign of subtlety in their actions.Its just missing from their culture they dont have any idea about finish or breaking stuff or asthetics. i suppose 40 years of enver hoxa and his brutalism rubbed off. Brilliant hard workers but not for anything that is in anyway breakable.meanwhile the hills continue to fill with ever increasing clouds of flowers, and some hills seem now to be carpeted in colour ,the anemone’s are amazing still going and in their hundreds of thousands ,bit purple for my taste but whos complaining ,the meadows of daisies poppies and marigolds etc though are stunning