A day off and other things...

Sandra in lovely sunny Parga.

 With the disappointments of last weeks, high water, poor electricity etc.  and having to stay in the house a little longer, we decided to treat ourselves to a day off and have a ride up to Parga and along the Epirus coast line.  We couldn't have picked a better day for it with little wind and temps in the mid twenties.  Parga hasn't changed much although things are looking remarkably clean, spick and span for the end of the season, more like you would expect it to look in May and still as beautiful as ever.

The old town of Parga and the castle.

The town was actually bustling for this time of year perhaps the spring like weather had something to do with it.  Of course Sandra can't resist getting fruit and veg when it's fresh and displayed as nicely as it was there, I don't know whether we shall ever get around to eating it all as we are still cooking camping fashion in the tree house.

No day off is complete without fresh fruit and veg.

Tree and Mike have moved some of their furniture back into "our" house in anticipation of us moving out and them moving back in again so we are not quite slumming it as much as we were, we now have a settee and a dining table but of course are not there very often to enjoy using them.  However it is somewhere to lay lay our heads at present and we are grateful for that.

All the olive trees are loaded, bumper harvest?

Looking around the island at the moment it is obvious that this years harvest is going to be a real bumper one, virtually all the olive trees are absolutely laden with olives.  In all our years of coming to Greece I don't think we have ever seen such an abundance of fruit on the trees.  I suppose the downside of this is that there will be a lowering of the price for olive oil when it all hits the market which will mean that the farmers will have to harvest much more to get the same price, it always seems to be the less well off that take the brunt of things here.

The other love of my life getting her winter coat fitted.

 Things on the boat are now happening pretty quickly as the weather has improved.  All the steel work is now finished including the gantry where the solar panels are to be mounted, as is the spray hood.  The cockpit awning work is also progressing nicely we have had a fitting today to ensure that the patterns for the side and back sections is still "true" before they sew them together.  With good luck and a fair wind we should be in a position to move out of the house and onto the boat in the middle of the month.