16th February

Koroni quayside

Koroni quayside

Through the few years before I came to Greece I made charcoal in the woods of East Kent.  In the photograph from which this drawing was made I am filling the rim of the lid of my charcoal kiln with sand to make an airtight seal.

15th February

Part of the deal I struck when I agreed to buy the house was that it should have a new roof, that the upper story of the 'extension' be demolished and the ground floor of it made safe, a flight of steps be built to access the first floor and the iron balcony on the front of the house also be made safe; hitherto access to the first-floor was by climbing glorified ladders and through trap doors in the first-floor floor.  Three generations of a family had lived, devoid of running water, sanitation, heating or electricity in this building.

By the spring of 1998 I had bought the house.  The new roof was on and other pre-purchace work completed.  The photograph from which I made this drawing shows work in progress of stripping what was left of the original lime-plaster rendering and repointing the stones with mortar.

14th February

Drawn from a photograph, taken in the early 90s, of my house as it was when I first saw it and committed myself to buy it.  The main part of the house had been built in the first years of the twentieth century, the much less well built 'extension' on the left was added later and by the time this photograph was taken was dangerously unsafe.

13th February

From a photograph taken late in 1996 of me in the ground floor of the house to which I had just committed myself to buy; wondering, perhaps, quite what I had done!

12th February

8th February

The car I bought last summer, a Suzuki SX4, is excellent.  As a comfortable, easy to drive, economical vehicle it more than adequately serves my needs but it would be cruel, particularly in the winter, to expect it to cope with the kilometre of track, which has more in common with a rocky stream bed than a road, that runs from Mystraki village to my house.  In order to save my SX4 further pain I decided to buy another vehicle; one better suited to off-road use.  My friendly Suzuki dealer had in his stock a twenty year old, built like a tank, Vitara which he sold to me for not a lot of euros with a year's unconditional guarantee thrown in.  Elisabeth has named our new 'village shuttle bus' Delores!

I need a lot of practice at drawing everything, cars in particular!

6 February

Church of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York.  My daughter, Annabelle, recently visited this wonderful old building and was kind enough to send on to me the guide leaflet she picked up there.  I made this drawing after the photograph reproduced on the front of the leaflet.