According to the calendar, today
marks the first full day of summer (June 21), but the truth is that summer in the southwestern corner of the Peloponnese arrived in late April. The strong,
unrelenting sun prevents much outside work past 10 a.m. I continue to dig out rocks with my hoe--after six years, the field is nearly pristine.
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| View down to the ocean from home |
My Albanian worker/friend,
Leonida, completed the power sanding of our porch’s wooden columns yesterday—an
eight-hour day of serious labor (cost: 50 euros, about $60, with multiple
coffees and snacks on me), and now he’s applying the first of two coats of
oil-based stain (teak color) on the bare wood. It looks fantastic and will
require so much less maintenance year after year. The plain urethane was,
admittedly, a mistake.
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| Finikounda's main street--a town of 250 with 18 tavernas/restaurants and a dozen bars |
Leonida is also an accomplished
stone mason (μάστορας/master
mason) and we are negotiating construction of two stone columns and the end of
the driveway (2 meters high) to which I’ll attach a sliding metal gate (built
by a local steelworker). The perimeter property fence is a big-ticket item, like
the solar array, and will have to wait until next year, as resources allow.
Yesterday I met a German man in a
nearby mountain village who has a fantastic villa with an extraordinary view of
the Mediterranean and the undulating hills of cypress and olives that extend to
the sea.
He is the owner of a photovolatic
company in Bavaria and has offered to bring superior German-made solar
equipment—panels, batteries, and inverter/charger next spring. Perhaps our son Manny
and I can install it in just a few days next June, with some local help.
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| Refinishing the bare wood with teak stain |
A solar array will make our
little house viable for three seasons. The fourth season—a relatively short “winter”—might
require installation of a small woodstove, if we're ever in residence then. Another project for another time.
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| Town beach in the morning--where I never swim |
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| Village church |
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