So, probably our 6th day of quarantine today….. It’s perfectly lovely to be honest. No problem at all. We have everything we need up here and just enough jobs to keep Bob happy until we can get out and get the bigger ones organised.
Very hot and clear again today. We could see the mountains of Turkey very clearly, north across the sea. After breakfast, I did my pot watering and then oiled and restored some lovely African carved figures we have – inherited from the previous owners of Villa Rockheart who had spent a lot of years in Kenya. They live out on the dining terrace and over the year, their colour fades a bit and they get a bit dried out. I rub them with oil and then polish them with a spray treatment for wooden floors – they look really nice.
Our grapevine is well underway this year and climbing all over one end of the terrace. I took some cable tags to help secure some of the larger canes to the wrought iron grid there. We get quite a lot of grapes on it and it’s a lovely feature for guests to be able to lie on the couches and just reach up and pick some grapes.
The dustbinmen turned up about 10ish. They seemed to be taking black sacks as well as emptying the bins. Must be dreadful in this heat….
Finally, I could put it off no longer, and I went and got the pergola curtains from the bag they’d been returned in from the laundry. And lo and behold! They were all in pristine condition and the tie backs too. Loaded up the curtain hooks and then Bob and I hung them from the pergola. It looks really lovely. I am so pleased with them and it dresses the pergola well for eating lunch and dinner out there.
Bob has been descaling things today – various coffee machines – and he got down the broken blind attachments ready for when we can go out and replace them.
Just as we were about to hang the curtains, Rick the Pool Man, arrived for servicing the pool. He comes on a Tuesday and Friday morning. We had a chat across the wall, before scuttling back inside so as not to violate the quarantine rules. He gave the pool and good vacuum and then went down to investigate the non-return valve situation. And came back and confirmed that, yes, we had two stuck open. One of them had a bit of debris in it that he’s cleared and it closed. The other is well stuck open with limescale and he thinks it would be worth trying to descale it, but if not it will need to be replaced. Bob is going to try and descale it and if it doesnt work Rick will bring up two valves when we next see him – might as well renew both while we’re about it. They aren’t expensive parts. Bob has made a new temporary filter to go over the drain hole from the gulley into the ballast tank so that should stop debris getting through in the short term.
Spent the afternoon by the pool reading. It was almost too hot to be honest. I had to sit on the shallow end steps and read in the end. We have a pair of birds living near the house. They are a bit like a magpie in that they are black and grey/white but they are not magpies. Anway, they have taken and eaten every single loquat on our tree!! I watched them swoop down, take one in their bill and then fly off with it. Greedy things!
We had cajun fish for dinner sitting by the pool. It was a lovely sunset this evening. After dinner we watched The Pursuit of Love, the new mini series based on the Love in a Cold Climate trilogy. I’ve read the books and I remember the previous series. It’s a great cast I must say but I don’t love it as much as the original one back in the 80s…. much like when they remade Mapp and Lucia. Very enjoyable though and Andrew Scott is always worth the watch.
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