Friday, 24 June 2011

Our first stay in Mia Mera

We arrived in the dark to spend our first night at Mia Mera so had to wait until morning to see what it looked like - and we loved it!



The weather on our first day was a bit gloomy so we went into Corfu town to do some administrative chores. We ended up buying some patio furniture and a coffee table, as well as bargain wine from Lidl.









Anyone would think Marc was on holiday!




The work part of our stay revolved around trying to make the grass grow. We were a bit disappointed when we arrived that all our hard work last time had resulted in so little grass. We have ended up with 'my' side and 'Marc's side'. My side has the natural look - my view is that as long as it's green and doesn't have prickles, then it's fine by me and I'll water it. Marc has gone for the grass only look. So we watered our respective sides every day - the down side being it took me longer as mine is bigger.


Marc's side




My Side



And finally, the inside. All the mirrors, lights, fans, clocks etc are in place, our new coffee table looks great and the solar water heating is working (sort of).



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Cats and Sunsets

We didn't get greeted by Stelios this time - in fact we didn't see him at all. But he is such a sociable cat (unlike most in the neighbourhood) we suspect he has found a good home.

To compensate we had a cat and three kittens living in the garden. Sometimes we didn't see the kittens for days, or we would only see one or two. But mum was always around, usually being pursued by 2 tom cats who faught each other at regular intervals.

Mum in a tree and tom waiting underneath,


Two of the kittens




And here are the obligatory sunset photos - taken from Waves



Sunday, 22 May 2011

It's VERY yellow


Loads of progress over the past few weeks. The most noticeable is the colour of the house, which looks much more yellow than we envisaged when we chose the colour. But we like it!








We have also had the walls and steps finished off, the driveway laid (it will be grass/gravel beyond this point) and we now have a washing machine (which Marc snuck in when I left him alone on our last visit).







We study every photograph for signs of grass growing (in spite of the storm damage) and you can see some shoots coming up (if you look very carefully).




Wednesday, 20 April 2011

April in San Stef



When we opened the door on the morning after we arrived we were greeted by Stelios - very battered and beaten and very pleased to see us. We fed and watered him for 2 weeks and when I left he was a much healthier looking cat.


The land around Mia Mera is a typical building site - a mess! The plot is very steep, the soil is very sandy and in the wrong place and when it rains it's washed down the hill.

Our plan for April was to sort out the land and get some grass sown to bind the soil. We started with Yannis and his diggers.



Then Marc and I spent a few days moving stones, scraping and shaping and finally sewing seed. The next job was to keep it watered so the seed didn't blow away in the really strong winds. It would have been easier if the mains water didn't get cut off very day without fail(contracters building a new road kept cutting through the mains).



Thanassis and Marc had to make a trip to town and I was left in charge of watering on a spectacularly low water pressure day. They bought me a bottle of wine to cheer me up - one and a half litres for 2 euros, nicely presented in a plastic bottle. Actually, it tasted OK!






Our grass seed was also visited by the neighbouring
goats until we persuaded them to go back home.




Thanassis also bought me 2 olive trees which produce my favourite olives.



Then the rain came - which was a great relief as it meant we didn't have to water to seed, and we could get on with the inside of the house.


We had to clean all the floor tiles with a horrible cleaner containing sulphuric acid - it took 2 days and we still have one room left to do.




Finally we could do the nice bits - unpack the furniture and get the house ready to stay in when we return in June.

Our bedroom






Kitchen/living room






The view




And Marc has stayed for another week because we only managed to seed two thirds of the garden. He'll get to celebrate a traditional Greek Easter as a reward.
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