Today Habibi the Gardener came round with two friends and they began the autumn pruning of trees and hedges that happens every year at this time. There was so much to come down and they haven’t done the trees in the lower garden yet. Our hedge that runs along the road boundary has come down a good 3 feet and let in a lot of light and space to that part of the top garden. We can see down to the sea from the lounge again now. I hadn’t registered it had got so high really. They also took about 4 feet off the top of the huge fir tree that is alongside our house on that side. That was precarious work that took some scrambling up the side of the tree but then to take the top off, they had to put a long extension pole on the electric saw and lean out of one of the bedrooms. What a job!!! Habibi also put down sacks of manure all around the fruit trees and more sand into our paviered drive.
Bob and I were not idle. We took down the pergola curtains for the winter. They must go to the laundry tomorrow. Bob replaced the towel rail into our ensuite that he’d mended the fixing for. What a useful man he is!!! We also finished fixing in place our winter rain pipe to take rain from the master bedroom balcony and redirect it over the garden. I think I’ve written about how we have a downpipe from the roof guttering that just “ends” over that balcony. In the heavy rains of winter, rain just gushes out the end of that, crosses the balcony and runs down the house wall beneath causing a bit of penetrating damp into the kitchen. We rigged up a diverter last year at this time which worked well but Bob has made a better one now with more time. We have a long length of wide flexible tubing – as wide as the downpipe which we have rigged across the top of the wooden beams over the dining terrace and out to the garden. It is fastened into the downpipe and the joint covered with – wait for it – a section of the lower arm of an old wetsuit”!!!! The pipe is cable clipped to the beams and the outer pillar. It will work well through the winter and we’ll take it down again next spring when the danger of heavy rain is passed.
Picked 2 lemons today from the tree behind the bbq. They are a good size and beautifully shiny. As you can see, the weather continues to be lovely.
On Saturday we went back to the Kyrenia Medical Centre for Bob to see the cardiologist. He ultrasounded Bob’s heart and reviewed the test results and the ecg. Good news! All is well and nothing required to be done, everything is as expected for a man of his age. That’s a relief. I am planning for second opinion tests at the Near East hospital probably as soon as I can. Fingers crossed that my results are good too.