Wednesday

We woke this morning to grey skies and some rain - just a little but we are so glad that it held off until after Sally and Tommy had returned.  This is when you realise that our homes are built for the Summer as they quickly feel chilly on an overcast day.  My plans to do the washing went out of the window.

Even without the rain it is officially Winter now that our visitors have gone - the garden is being prepared starting with the removal of the gazebo covers in the hopes they might last another season.   The sun wreaks havoc with the fabric and it becomes weak - with coptic storms approaching they would get ripped to shreds.  The gazebos look a little sad without their covers and even though it is sunny and bright with blue skies the lengthening shadows and nip in the wind makes you realise that the year is almost over and Christmas is fast approaching and I have done nothing so far.

We had the aluminium men coming today to complete the stone wall project - it had always been our intention to fill the gaps between the stone pillars with some sort of fencing and eventually we decided upon aluminium panels.  We don't know what might happen in the field next door but at some point in the future it is likely that they will build as it has been changed from a vineyard into plots.  We want to retain our privacy and thought that if we put the panels up now we would soon get used to them being there and get plants in the garden to grow up and soften them.  When I got a bit of an unexpected tax rebate we decided it should be put towards something specific.  This meant that I needed to go down to Polis today to get the money to pay them - the weather down the hill was infinitely better than up our way!!  I parked outside C&A apartments as the roundabout was full and bumped into Eva who reminded me that John and I must go down for coffee and I have promised that we will.

I quickly did my errands in town including having the tyre pressure checked - John told me, and the car has a sign which says, the pressure should be 1.8 all round but the man in the garage shook his head and steadfastly pumped them up to 2.2 - they always seem to do that although I have no idea why!!  On my way back to Droushia I stopped to take a photo of a house in Polis that always grabs my attention - I just love the door although the spray paint job leaves a little to be desired!!

 

I shot off for the next instalment of my mosaic class - Eleni had kindly finished all the tiles as I had left early on Thursday to go to the airport.

This is the back side of the fish - the good side is face down or at least that is supposed to be the good side - I will have no idea what the finished article will look like until we remove the fabric backing and then of course my fish will be swimming left to right rather than right to left as it does at the moment.  All will be revealed in due course (tomorrow).

 

The next stage was to prepare the frame - this meant putting in wires that will keep the concrete in place like reinforcing rods do when you are building (apparently).  These wires are put in and tightened before the concrete is poured in.  As the classes had to miss a day on Friday because one of the instructors was sick we all helped to make sure that everyone had their frame prepared in readiness for the big pour.

I had promised I would take photographs of each stage for  Kelly so that she has a record of what we did just in case she wants to do this again.

We then got a big old dollop of concrete stuff put on the back of the fish and we had to spread it out evenly into the frame.  Then we had to scrape off the excess and wipe off the outside of the frame. 

The final thing was to inscribe our names into the concrete so that we could recognise our fishes then next day when we would be grouting the front and cleaning it off.

This didn't take too long so I was back home in plenty of time to see what the Ally men were up to.

After a bit of fine tuning on our understanding of what the men were to do and Alex's understanding of what is men were to do the project got underway.  As a result of something getting lost in translation they did not bring enough aluminium to complete the job but it will be done by the end of next week.  When I got home the fencing between us and next door (which replaces the rickety old wooden fence) was complete - it looks so much cleaner and nicer - it is a little higher than we thought but that's fine as it just means it is impossible for someone next door to look over unless they are on a ladder.

The panels down the side of the property outside the back door, which is actually our front door, have been installed. I am glad we have a gap between them because it doesn't feel like we are fenced in and if I were tall enough I could still see through - I am not so I can't!

They completed as much as they could of the back fence - and will return again next week to finish off.  I really like it - I think it looks like the turrets have been waiting for the expanse to be filled - I am happy and John is happy - result!!