Strimming the verges, reducing the fire hazard. Our garden.

An Albanian strimming the field next door.  Our neighbour on the other side has already had her grounds strimmed and her 'boy' does our entrance way as well.  

This man has a name but I bet not many locals know what it is.  I was talking about this with a friend recently.  Her next door neighbour is a foreigner (local alien) and has been here for thirty years.  She is known as 'the foreigner' , the one who looks after the dogs.  Although she is well known and well liked no-one knows her name.  Down the road is 'the crazy woman' and we have 'the ponytail' (a man with long hair) and 'the red nose' in our neighbourhood as well.  They are local Greeks but they are rarely called by their names. K is known as 'the stone' (votsalaki), because as a small boy he threw stones.  I am 'the foreigner' too but to describe me better I am the wife of

'the stone' and Elli and Danae are 'the little stones' (votsalakia).

And, wonder of wonders,  the Albanian is actually wearing protective head gear.

At this time of the year everyone is strimming and the island looks a little cleaner.  However, there is always a 'however'.  The road verges are done by a council worker and he did not do a good job this year.  He didn't strim low enough so many of the weeds have just been 'laid low'.  What is cut by the strimmer is just left behind to lie on the ground till these tinder dry stalks are eventually blown away or washed away by the rains in September.  One of the reasons everyone strims now is to reduce the fire risk.  However, if the dry grass is not swept up and removed the fire hazard remains on the ground.

Strimming reveals all the plastic and rubbish which is not removed either

A badly strimmed and dirty verge.  Not an attractive sight for the tourists.

My Summer Garden ..

Cherry tomatoes.  Yeh.  We may have a decent crop this year.

And the first zucchini

The lemons have more than doubled in size since we pruned the tree.