Souvlaki, Beer and Bouganvilea

June 2005. My house is on its way. Having bought a shell, the builders are now turning it into a house. We were told on an island you are expected to take the builders souvlaki and beer. I must say, having done that, they seemed very pleased – and four souvlaki only came to 6 euro. These had the lot, the bread, egg and trimmings. I hadn’t a clue what the man in the souvlaki shop was putting into them, he kept asking me did I want an egg etc and I kept saying yes please!

We are living in an apartment until the house is finished and I thought I would get a bouganvilea as a starter plant. Let it grow through the summer and then…. that touch of colour already!

I had seen a garden centre on my travels in Kamara and a book had an advertisement for the same shop. My brother and I went on our bikes to have a look. It really didn’t have a lot there and no bouganvilea. We asked the shopkeeper if he had any and he said he should be getting some around midday from the nursery. My brother asked where the nursery was and got some directions. These were pretty good and involved turning off at the sign for Gourna beach and bearing right towards the church later. We did this and found ourselves at a house, with a man watering his plants, mostly in pots. I practised my Greek and asked if he had any bouganvilea. He looked a little mystified and I was cross with myself for not checking the dictionary for bouganvilea so I said airily “Don’t worry, we’ll look”. After a few minutes of spotting a few rather nice specimens of all manner of species it began to dawn on us that this was not so much a nursery (even on a small island) as a keen gardener. We turned back and I engaged him in conversation – by this time his wife had arrived to see what these two English twits were doing peering around her garden. “Is this a shop that has… erm….?” and picked up a frond.

“No” he replied, "that’s back up the hill and around on that road” pointing to a stony track further up the hillside.
I was dreadfully embarrassed and muttered lots of "signomi"s and "goodbye"s and we climbed onto our bikes and made our escape.
As we rode I seriously doubted if we were on the right track. It looked as if it were meant for goats and I shouted to Simon “I don’t think this can be right” he shouted back "well let’s give it a go" – and there were the green tunnels, not with plastic like jolly old cold England but netting affairs down below and we sort of skidded to a halt at the bottom of a fairly typical rock-strewn road.

The nursery is really pretty good, with shrubs such as lavender and manolis, palms and bouganvilea. I asked if we could buy and he waved his hand around to suggest we had a look. Nothing was priced but but the bouganvilea I chose was 8 euro. I plan to go back with a list when the house is ready and get a few things like a lemon tree. I’ll hardly have any land but I want some pots for the verandah and a tree or two in the small area I can use below the house and behind it on the slope.

We put the bouganvilea into the basket I’d originally got for Rosie the dog to ride in and wound an elastic around the mirror to keep it in place. I understand I looked something like a peculiar jouster. Then we stopped at the garden centre for a large pot (between my feet on the bike platform) and a bag of compost (backpack).

Brilliant!

That was a a couple of weeks ago. In the last few days (when England was suffering a heat wave) we've had some big winds, up to force 4 I believe, for 3+ days. My little bouganvilea which is on the balcony of the apartment has lost most of its colour! Just a couple of deep pink "flowers" left. Oh well, I'm watering it every day - hopefully it'll survive.