Landscaping - if you'll pardon the expression

We flew out to San Stefanos on 12th June and returned to England on 28th to pick up Annie and Jess from their holiday home.

We planned on a 16 day break with 2 days working and 14 days holiday. But the best laid plans ....

We spent our time clearing away rubbish, waterproofing, earth moving, shifting stones, bricks and breeze blocks and sorting out plumbers, tilers and window fitters.

The weather was very hot and humid during the first week (40 degrees) and then we had 4 stormy days followed by some perfect weather.

Our main task this holiday was to try and return the land to some sort of semblance of the way it had been previously.

We used Yannis as our landscaper gardner - he is the local digger driver and moves earth with a passion, but lacks a little finesse!!

At the far side of the house our idea (with advice from Nigel) is to create a terraced garden and we have decided to use the roof of the tank to form the lower terrace. Yannis managed to get his digger up to the top tier and then he pushed earth down to the back of the water tank to form a slope. We then shaped and scraped and finally wheelbarrowed any decent earth we could find to cover the top of the water tank.

We have also tried to restore the hillside at the side of the house nearest the lane. After Yannis pushed a mountain of earth over the bank from the higher terrace, we tried to give it some contours and make it look as natural as possible. Now we just need some greenery - and as it's been a wet June in San Stef, maybe it wont be too long coming.

In the process of doing this we have hidden the sceptic tank. We planted 2 olive trees between the house and the lane - one we moved from the back of the house and one we found buried in the earthworks, but miraculously still alive.

We have also levelled (sort of) the land above the rear patio so that you can step onto it without having to do a hill climb (well nearly - we need one extra step).

We now have to let the land settle and, in September, Yannis will come back with his digger and do some more 'landscaping' for us.

In the meantime we have heard that the inside of the house is nearly tiled.