The summer season is almost over, though the island is still full of people and some days parking spots are still rarer than tasmanian tigers. Most days lately have been glorious, not too hot but still sunny and mostly not windy. Combine that with closed beach bars and almost empty beaches and its the best time of year for us locals to enjoy our island.
I’ve been working back at the car rental agency again to help out, as well as grooming when there is work. Its not a busy time of year for grooming right now. At least not here. Not yet.
Mom is doing well in Athens. I took a trip with her to settle her into the house and she’s been doing well since. Apparently she’s been taking short walks with the support of a friend to the little park opposite our house to sit in the sun and enjoy some fresh air.
The situation with my aunt #1’s house has finally been resolved. I think. I hope. I haven’t got the bill yet, but something like the 5th plumber I spoke to (one mom’s youngest brother brought over himself) organised someone to come poke around with one of those cameras they stick down pipes to see where the problems are, and then came himself to dig in our lightwell to fix the leak. Turned out the leak was caused by old ceramic pipes which had cracked in about 4 places, which let water seep into the ground causing damp in our walls.
He had to create a huge hole in the light well and even dig up in aunt #1’s kitchen, but he says the problem is fixed, new pipes all the way through now.
We live in hope.
Next order of business is to organise a genocide of the cockroaches living in the old pipes. Yeech. All these years I’ve been organising pest spraying around the houses, never once did I think to get the guy to go into the lightwell and spray into the drains…
Ick.
I could never be a plumber.
Other than that, life goes on with its many challenges and small rewards.
I’ve been working on more dog sculptures I’ll share soon, and some new paintings. But mostly I’ve been busy working and just trying to keep on top of things while maintaining a certain level of laziness.
As is evidenced by the lack of stuff good enough to share.
I managed to visit the building site again today and get some updated photos. It was a case of using an anchor and dodging the dust storm cause of the high winds, but I succeeded.
The foundations are finished, and they have almost finished moving the earth and doing some backfilling. Don’t ask me. I’m just the one who pays the bills. Well, along with my brother.
On the way back I stopped to take a photo of something that should never have been allowed to happen, but hey… this is Greece and things ‘happen’…
To explain: there is, on all our documents and contracts, an access road which runs along two sides of our property. This is considered a ‘country/farm road’ or something in Greece. I will call it a country road…
So… this is the start of the country road today:
If you wore full protective gear, rock climbing boots and wielded a very sharp machete, you might be able to get through there. But forget car access, not even a donkey cart can get through with the huge walls the property owners built on either side.
I mean, are you kidding me???
‘Let’s build huge walls that go to the very last millimeter of our land so no one can take ANYTHING from us. After all, we have a road – this part of the country road was opened up… who cares about others down the line? Let them eat cake.’
And beyond those walls (even the buttress of a wall which seems rather unnecessary unless its sole purpose is to close off access, which is most likely is), they’ve tossed rocks and rubble on the path so that nothing can get through. Ever.
I know. I tried walking it once. At great personal risk.
What used to be a country road, accessed by foot and donkey in my grandfather’s youth, the only road to get to the beach back then, is now rendered useless. So, we no longer have public road access to our property.
Till now we’re driving in through a neighbouring block, temporary access… for how long, who knows, I don’t know. I’ve applied to the municipality to open up/clear part of the road further down where someone has built a house and has cleared a section to his place. We need to go from there till our property, giving access to another 3 properties… not just us.
When I asked at the municipality about opening the old country road from the beginning and informed them that walls had been built, a very friendly woman informed that ‘Oh, they’ve built walls? We cant/wont open the road.’…
HUH? Is it a recognised road HISTORICALLY or is it not???
Yet, apparently, when my closest neighbour on that side asked about opening a road a long time ago (she is currently doing what we’re doing and using temporary access through her brother’s land) she was told she already had the country road therefore did not need another way in…
Sigh.
It’s Greece after all. What can I say? If you know the right people, are willing to cut corners and do a little creative fudging, you can do almost anything you want. Sure, things are changing, the government is trying to crack down on everything, especially every single cent you might make, but the cheating and slight of hand continues…
But only for a few mintues. Long enough for me to have to move the laptop over a little on the desk so I could see it better!
However, it wasn’t raining, so it was a good day to go for a long walk, discover some new areas and take some photos to share.
Like this cute gate…
And this gorgeous little path.
And some pretty moss growing on an old tree.
I followed my GPS back to Inge’s house and took some little detours along the way. I had gloves. I was ok.
And just when I was getting a little hungry, I ran into this tent selling olieballen in one of the cute neighbourhoods.
Warm and sweet. Just what I needed… Well, a coffee would have been good, but that had to wait till I got home.
In case you’re wondering, olieballen are kind of like donuts and here is a recipe.
Here is another interesting tree trunk… I can imagine seeing this as a kid, when I was sure fairies lived in trees. I’d be watching this little ‘door’ very carefully!
Of course, no post on Holland can be complete without a windmill, so here is one I discovered on my walk.
Providing this video works, here it is turning and squeaking.
Also, its nice to know you don’t have to live in a mansion (or even have gates) to have lions out the front…
Last night I ordered some Cowboy Magic – turns out it may have been invented by someone in the USA, but they make it in the Netherlands! Talk about immediate delivery. I got it this afternoon!
Beware dogs of Paros, I have a detanger and I’m not afraid to use it!!!
Tomorrow we head out to the very north of the Netherlands to spend New Year’s Eve on a friend’s boat. That should be very interesting. And pretty cold I’m willing to bet. But it should be great fun and unlike any other NYE so far in my life.
So, Tuesday came, and went. It was the big day – the day the container got delivered to our land.
It was a cold, windy and wet day. Not the ideal day to be out in the weather, let alone trying to move five zillion kilo metal container from one place to another. But I’d been pressured by the person I bought it from to get it out of the lot, cause the owners of the lot were pressuring him to get it out cause they needed the space. Always remembering that I bought it and promptly went to Athens for a week, which meant I’d already put off having it delivered by a week.
During that time I’d also had to organise where the container would go, how it would be oriented, and organise the ground to be levelled and have gravel put down.
All that was finally finished on Monday last week, so Tuesday was the big day. Despite the fact that when the diggy-diggy man called me to tell me the ground was finally ready, he said he wasn’t sure the truck (with a crane on the back, henceforth referred to as the lifty-lifty man) could get onto the land without getting bogged.
I got the diggy-diggy man and the lifty-lifty man to talk to eachother and it was decided that it was ok to deliver on Tuesday… all systems are go.
The crane on the back of the truck getting ready to tackle the container.Strapping it up to lift it off the back of the trailer.And lifting… and scraping, and struggling, and general pushing and shoving to get it across.
It was hard work getting the container off its trailer and onto the truck. I’m sure the only reason swearing wasn’t involved was that I was there, watching the whole thing. Turns out the crane just wasn’t big or strong enough to lift my container. The lifty-lifty man said it was much heavier than most ‘normal’ containers. Yeah. Its 7.5m long, a bit wider and much taller than most. So, it IS heavier.
He’d visited the land to see if he could get in, after seeing the container, didn’t he wonder if the crane he’d brought would do the job?
I don’t know. I’m no expert. I’m just a woman…
After a slow and harrowing trip down the narrow slippery roads, we made it to the land. Turns out the gravel was not the kind of gravel in envisaged. In Australia when you say gravel you usually mean some kind of hard, very separate stones you can choose the size of. And in most cases we tend to use ‘blue metal’ – like this:
This stuff doesn’t hold water, its great for things like ditches and drains. I would have thought it would be the perfect base for a container. Nothing will grow in it, ensuring the container didn’t end up with a forest underneath, a haven for snakes, while keeping it as dry as possible in the wet.
Instead, I got this very dirty/muddy/soily crushed stone which will probably compact nicely, but… well, its not what I thought I was getting. My fault. I didn’t go see what my options were. I trusted in the fact that the diggy-diggy man knew what would be best for my purpose.
Whatever.
But the screw-ups don’t end there my friends. Take a look at the photo above and take note that the levelled, gravelled area is on this side of the truck.
When we got there and faced the area that had been prepared, I explained how I wanted the container to sit: I wanted it to sit about 1.5-2m from the bushy stuff you can see on the right of the photo, parallel to it, so that the side door would face this way, to the west, and the front doors would face north, towards the eventual studio.
So when he pulled up at a 90 degree angle to the spot I was concerned, but as always, being a woman*, I thought ‘he’s the expert here, he knows his machinery, he knows what he’s doing, I shouldn’t question him’.
I will never learn that I have to, I MUST question. Cause my opinion matters. I’m not stupid, I have a brain. Maybe if I’d said ‘hey, why not pull up alongside the spot I want it and just pick it up and plonk it down’, maybe he’d have taken my advice. Maybe not. Maybe he’d have said, ‘no, this is the best way.’ Or ‘No, its too soft there, I’ll get bogged.
Whatever. The result was this…
They began lifting the container up off the bed of the truck and it was scraping and complaining and the crane was cursing their mothers.
I can only presume that the plan had been to lift the container off the truck, then swing the crave over to the side and, with a bit of pushing and shoving, spin it around to sit at a 90 degree angle from the truck.
Don’t ask me how that was supposed to work, but I do believe that’s what they expected to happen.
But no matter how much they pushed and shoved, the container would not spin enough, it wouldn’t clear the ‘legs’ of the truck, and the crane couldn’t lift it any higher.
This was the result. The container is now sitting at a more or less 90 degree angle from where I wanted it. Nowhere near the gravelled area. Not on a levelled surface.
Its now sitting on a light downward slope with a slight angle to the right. They said ‘It’ll be fine. You must know a man with a jack, just get him to lift one corner at a time and put besser blocks under the corners to level it.’
Instead of looking out from my future studio to the front doors of the container (the narrow side) I will be looking at a big flat side.
And I paid for the levelling of the ground and the gravel!
And the back, where I planned to put an outhouse, which I wanted facing towards the hill, where its much more private and out of site of the building area, is now visible.
So I’m in a funk. I got back from what was supposed to be a very exciting day for me and fell into one of my ‘can’t do a thing’ moods. It was just wrong. I’d thought about the orientation a lot before deciding where it should go. I’d considered where the sun would rise and where it would set, where I’d put a grooming table and a bath for dogs, where I’d put a workbench, where I’d put a sail for shade, where I’d put a garden to be watered by my shower and the dog bath.
Suddenly it was all messed up.
Ok, so maybe this orientation will work… I don’t know. I have to think about it. maybe I can put a garden between the studio and the big flat side to sort of hide it. I will still have some morning shade on the other side and some afternoon shade on this side, but not where I pictured it. Maybe the front doors are better not straight into the north wind. I don’t know. I’m confused now.
I spoke to my engineer and he said he will come and we will look and evaluate the situation. If it needs fixing we will fix it. We’ll find a way.
But the gravel I paid for is now over there, instead of under the container.
sigh.
Stay tuned for the next installment or disaster. Whichever comes first.
z
So many times in my life I’ve let men decide things for me, tell me how things should be done, walk all over me. I am so capable of making decisions and thinking outside the box, and seeing things clearly and even for thinking of better or easier ways of doing things. Yet I persist in letting them push me around. Why?
Since I never seem to find the time to paint lately, I figured I would go ahead and work on a commission.
A friend of mine ordered coat hanging racks for her two granddaughters.
Coat racks. Too plain, I thought. Not much scope for “zefiness”… So I started on the idea of a shelf with hooks.
I found some pallet table drawers online and they were just the thing!
In this pic, I have already removed the front drawer panel, leaving the finger pull hole.
I didn’t want a hole there, so I found some corks that fit and glued them in. Eventually, there will be pretty white knobs on the corks for hanging a scarf or cap. I ordered them but they haven’t arrived yet.
I began by painting the drawers pale pink. I then mixed up a lighter and a pinker batch to create an ombre.
I thought it was too pale, so I darkened the pink for the bottom slat. Now I wonder if it was better paler… oh well… It’s a process!
I also cut 2 bits of trim to act as a barrier to hold things safely on the narrow shelf. In the end I made the trims the palest pink to offset the brighter pink.
Once the paint was dry, and before putting on the shelf barriers, I added cute little critters to the slats. They are different but the same, if you know what I mean. They’re done in the different shades of pink with a black outline.
I added double under-shelf hooks to the bottom, I couldn’t find them in white, but they tie in nicely with the black outlines on the artwork.
Here they are with some of my recycled sock bunnies and one of my favourite shopping bags.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Now I just need the cute, simple white flower knobs to arrive, and I can pack them up for shipping.
Yes, I know. I’ve gone and done another disappearing act. But as usual, I have great excuses.
I’ve been busy grooming dogs in the morning, working 5 hrs every afternoon/evening at a travel agency, and trying to get a swim, a rest and some food in between.
Unfortunately, art has gone by the wayside as is always the case… its always the first thing I sacrifice. Cause its easy to do. Jobs for money get 1st priority, then food, then rest. Even the dishes get more attention than art… as pitiful as that sounds.
This coming feom a woman who didn’t mop the floors for weeks…
So, for now I’m sharing the last 2 small pallet trays I painted. I found the trays and couldn’t resist them cause they seemed cute, and just added a few touches to make them cuter.
The first one got fish, cause, well, everything gets fish pretty much. The second got an octopus… just because.
Other than that, life is pretty much as always. The island is still full of people but its a lot quieter than last month. I yearn for winter and quiet. And time to myself, to be at home for whole days at a time where I don’t have to see anyone at all… or be anywhere.
Oh lockdown, where are you now?
Is it healthy to wish you could just be left alone to do your own thing?
I bought a tiny folding bluetooth keyboard which I’m trying out on the phone. It will take a little getting used to if I’m to use it to do stuff like this, but it sure will be handy for connecting to the TV for searches and other typing needs.
Whatever.
Hopefully I will find/make some time to do some art soon. I miss it.
Would you believe this is an AI image? Microsoft Edge updated last night and this morning I was greeted with a message that I can now create images from words/descriptions. So I wrote coffee mug, laptop, sun coming in window. And this is what I got.
This is so cool!
Anyway, the title of this post is a lie, there has been progress on the house in Athens, but I have no photos to share, despite having asked for some more than once. The contractor still says the house will be finished before Easter (this weekend) but since the windows aren’t being put in till after Easter, that’s a pretty strong “NOT”.
Whatever. My plan is to keep at what I’m doing till I’m told the house will be finished TOMORROW, then go to Athens to check it over, make sure it’s all done, organise cleaning and real estate agent, then I can say it’s actually finished.
I’m still packing away stuff in my house to make it a kind of exhibition space, but things are going slowly as I’m not home all the time. Eh. It will get done when it gets done. No use stressing about it.
Meanwhile I’m enjoying having 3 dogs cuddled up to me in bed at night. I’ll miss that when I finally move back home.
In fact, other than the usual chasing my tail, I’ve had time to clean the house and cook a few meals. Woohoo!
I’ve been tackling the house tidy/clean/organise issue with a plan. With being so busy for a while I was way behind on my housework to the point where I had no idea where to start. My plan is simple: divide and conquer.
I’ve broken the house down into areas and am attacking them one at a time. I began one afternoon while I still had energy after work. I started with the upper kitchen cabinets, inspecting, re-organising to make sense of things and tossing out anything I don’t use or had expired, putting things to give away into a box etc.
Then I moved on to other areas.
In-between I washed tons of clothes and dishes, swept, mopped and put down rugs for winter, made a vegetable stew and a spanakopita (spinach pie for the non-greeks).
So far I have a stack of clothes I don’t wear, and some odds and ends I don’t want. I’ve filled a box with crafty stuff to give away but have more to sort, so nothing is gone just yet… Things always get worse before they get better – and this is no exception. I have a stack of stuff to go to the basement and stuff to give away, all placed judiciously next to the door, within easy reach should the mood hit me to actually move them on to their eventual location.
My bedroom cupboard and wardrobe are organised, but the bookcase in the living room is still stuffed full of stuff ‘to do’ which need sorting into “Yes, I will do something with that one day in the not too distant future” from the “Nope. I’ll never use in this lifetime” stuff.
However, it was one step forwards and two steps back in the plan… Somewhere along the line I saw some very old books being given away so I collected them… hm. The packrat in me never seems to stay quiet for long… My excuse? They’ll come in handy one day – either as decor (who doesn’t love old volumes?) or craft projects for the too far gone ones.
Its ok. I’ll throw out some old stuff to make space for more old stuff!
Of the stuff I was going to get rid of, I decided to make a knife block a la pinterest – it’s not good for the knives to be tossed into a drawer – it dulls the blades, not to mention you risk losing a finger every time you reach in to grab a whatsit from the drawer.
The usual: I simply chose the books I wanted to sacrific use, painted them with some offwhite chalk paint I had, tied them together with some twine I had, and voila. Instant knife block. Done. One small thing achieved in a mess of things to do.
See? Made from things I’ll use “one day”. I knew I was right to keep them!
Yes, its hard to get rid of stuff when you live to make things, but some days I just have to take a good long hard look at myself and face it. I can’t do everything, no matter what my business card says.
Today I can actually say I got a few things done so I’m proud of myself. And sore.
Yesterday mom went off with her youngest sister to her country place for a few days. It’s easier to work without her here… I just put on some rockin’ music and get to it. Today it was Johnny Cash. On the other hand I can’t ask mom what to keep and what to get rid of. Mind you… that’s probably a blessing. Mom would want to hang on to just about everything… cause we might need it, someone in the family might want it, etc.
I started the day by sorting through a few more cabinets and lining up crockery and glasses to see what she wants to keep and what to give away. There’s a LOT to sort through. Back in the old days family gatherings and parties often included up to 50 people – so you can imagine the amount of crockery and cutlery needed for that. And most of it’s still here, in cupboards.
I started boxing up my brother’s photos, souvenirs and posters for storage. Those were easy.
I made up bags and boxes of things to give away and a bag for rubbish and put them in the stairwell for easy access to ‘outside’.
I measured and ordered a shoe storage unit for behind the front door downstairs and a couple of other small things from Ikea. I won’t be going overboard with shopping as mom wants to keep and use as much as possible what she already ad.
I then tackled the ivy. It was a lovely sunny day so I figured best to move outside while the weather allows. Dad made a carport way back when and put metal across the top and grew ivy over it. That ivy is like a tree now, its so thick in placs. It’s time for it to go. Once its all cleared away I can get the railing repainted and can start planting pretty things in the garden.
The thing is, since there are wires everywhere holding the ivy in place you can’t just hack away at it with a hand or electric saw. I decided the way to tackle it was to cut and break off as much as I could by hand to enable me to see the wire and metal. That way I can attack the thicker bits with my reciprocating saw later.
While fighting ivy, a gypsy drove by shouting out about taking away old metal things people don’t want so I called him over. We get that a lot here. Guys in trucks and utes go around neighbourhoods playing recordings saying they will clean out basements, rooftops, yards etc and take away anything you don’t want. Some will take furniture and just about any household items. Others will only collect metal. Sometimes they charge you for doing it, other times they will only take things which have resale value for them. The guy today took some old metal chairs I needed to get rid of, some old radiators, some odds and ends, plus the bags and boxes I’d already put on the staircase.
As a favour, he took a load of things down to the rubbish for me, heavy stuff I couldn’t move myself. He wasn’t interested in furniture so I’ll be calling another guy about that later.
I called the electricity company again and put in a complaint about them taking so long. Not a thing back from them yet. Again. And still no news from the natural gas people either.
All in all a pretty productive day. Meanwhile enjoy some pics from today.
Stage 1. After removing SOME ivy. This is what it looked like from the gate to the renovated apartment looking toward the carport.Tossing ivy cuttings into the run-down little garden as I go.Stage 2: you can see into the carport now.Stage 3: light inside the dark and damp carport! Still tons of ivy to remove.The bathroom is finished!A bar for mom to hold onto.The smaller window. Greeks and windows in showers… I don’t know…The bathroom really is tiny. Still need to get and put up a shower curtain, but love the hooks for added hanging space.Kitchen finished. Dishwasher in place.
So that’s about it for today. Tomorrow is a new day and I’ve barely made a dent in the things that need doing.
In the cobblestone streets of Parikia. Be thankful its not giant underwear this time!
I got back from Athens a few days ago and will be going back again sometime next week. The house is finished (well, except for the power and natural gas). The contractor did his thing and called in a cleaning crew so when I get back I should have a new clean house that I can begin moving stuff into for mom.
Then we wait for power and heating…
Hopefully it will arrive before Christmas.
Meanwhile I’m still running into various greek labyrinths of getting things done, but I’m keeping a positive attitude. Most of the time…
Its great to be back home, even if its just for a little while. I’m catching up with friends and doing some stuff for my home etc. Not a great deal as I do sometimes get lazy, but I’m working on the fabric jewellery order for next summer, and I have a couple more things in mind to do before I go.
The weather has been alternately beautiful and sunny then windy and rainy. I don’t mind. Me and Lainee have our warm little home and eachother.
On the good news front, I now have two planters with columbines growing in them!! One was the last of the seeds I brought from Australia – I brought over tons and they never grew till this last lot. They’re doing well, fingers crossed. The second planter has seeds I bought online from England. They’re just babies still do fingers crossed on them too. All going well I’ll finally have columbines this summer!
junk4joy 