EASTER AND ONWARD 2011

Things have been a bit hectic over Easter and the table used for the computer moved for other purposes so the blog has been a bit quiet.

We were invited to friends on Easter Day in Rethymno where a procession from the church carried the Easter Cross along the narrow streets accompanied by a Brass Band. It was a brilliant day and Kate and Luc did a wonderful barbecue in their shady back garden.

We had been booked on a short easy walk to look at Spring flowers on Easter Monday and Liz & Steve eagerly said that they would like to go. Lots of people booked a place and the weather was just right – bright and sunny – but not too hot for a walk out in the countryside. With all the recent rain, there were a lot of places that looked a little like the Surrey country lanes which seemed very strange to me when I am more used to seeing dried up red earth and scrubby grasses. The walk was very lovely but not at all easy and certainly not short. We ended up walking about 10-12 k up and down steep paths and in the end the coach had to come and pick up the stragglers who were having problems getting up the final climb on a busy road towards the taverna where a meal had been organised. However, some spectacular photos were taken and we were able to differentiate between Jerusalem Sage and ordinary Sage along with loads of other kitchen herbs which were all growing amongst the hedgerows and paths.

Tuesday and Wednesday were taken up with shopping and cooking for our housewarming party to which loads of people had been invited but fortunately only 35-40 turned up! We are still juggling with plates and containers in the fridge and freezer and trying to work out how to process/distribute all the food that arrived on the day. The weather was so kind to us being hot and sunny all day until the last guest left and then thunder and lightening in the evening (which washed both of the patios upstairs and downstairs). People were kind about the house and said that they liked the village. Rick the Builder took about 3 parties of people around the Mill and it was lovely that we had his children Elizabeth and Ryan at the party too which made it seem more like a family do. We live in hope!

Friday, we are taking off to Rethymno to watch the Royal Wedding on Anna’s TV.    Liz and Steve have a marathon journey home to plan for – so we hope today will be as restful and happy as possible. We thought about doing a British Tea Party and making tea and cucumber sandwiches – so we will see. Although ex pats, we are still wishing William and Kate a wonderful wedding day.

CHRONA POLA – Many Happy Days!

GOOD FRIDAY 2011

Even if you were not of the Christian faith, it would be very obvious that today in Skepasti, our village, is a very solemn day as the single church bell from the top of the village has been tolling from first thing in the morning and reminding us of the events of Good Friday.

In addition to this, the villagers have been making preparations in advance of Easter so that the village was given a good cleaning, all the walls and side ways have been weeded and today a procession of people have been making their way up to the church for Good Friday services and to take flowers. The flowers will be arranged into a kind of bower on stilts which will be carried around the village in a candle light procession as the sun goes down. People have been exchanging gifts – bags of newly laid eggs, flowers, and food. Our friend Niko turned up with a bag of eggs on Thursday morning as he and K prepared to drive to Achlade – a village nearby to deliver produce to his cousin’s wife, Katina. Katina, in return gave K a large bag of mandarins and a handful of sweets which was very kind. Later on, Niko turned up at the house with a large piece of meat and some very prickly artichokes for us and it doesn’t matter how much we protest, we always have to concede!

As our fridge was already full and we had a full programme of things happening over the weekend, there was nothing for it but to put the meat straight into an oven tin and roast it on the spot while I wrestled with hot cross bun mixture. On first glance, I had thought that it was a small shoulder of lamb and had put it in the oven with onions, garlic, potatoes and rosemary but when Niko turned up an hour or so later with second piece of meat, we deduced that it was not lamb but goat.  I thought that goat would be a bit like mutton in the cooking, so I hooked it out of the oven and tried to fold it into the slow cooker. I had checked every cook book I had and tried to work out whether I had globe or Jerusalem artichokes – without much help – and had thrown them in the roasting tin after a good soaking because the prickles were too deadly to do anything with. Niko had noted this poor treatment of his artichokes on his second visit and came round this morning with a plate that he had prepared earlier (with lemon and water) washed down with raki (fire water)! It was too early for me and I was befuddled. Our cup was truly running over and we will have to get more information as soon as we can.  The goat casserole evolved into a mild curry and was absolutely delicious but we would be grateful for any suggestions for the second of the goat gifts. Mrs Beeton is silent on the subject and said offering will rest in the freeze box until we are in the know.

Crete has been experiencing the wettest winter and spring for many years. The locals do not seem too worried because it means that their harvests will be so much better than usual and the countryside is absolutely carpeted with the most vibrant wild flowers. The fields and hills are greener than I have ever seen them, but many business are not bothering to open up until it gets reliably warmer because it is largely a waste of time when the weather is too cold and wet to sit outside. We are expecting our friends Liz and Steve to arrive for Easter tonight and had to spend some time tidying up and then having an afternoon siesta because their plane does not get to Iraklion until past midnight. We are praying that the weather will warm up in the next day or two and they do not think they have wasted lots of money flying over while there is a heat wave in England!

On Saturday, we took them to Panormo to show them around our nearest swimming beach. As we left the little town, we were anxious to see a crowd of young people gathered around an unconscious figure on the ground. After a few seconds, we realised that they were making a “Guy” for the huge bonfire that would be held in the evening. The Saturday before Easter Day is when Judas Iscariot is put on the bonfire and fire crackers and loud explosive fireworks set off … (any excuse!) We came back later for the big fire constructed from all the olive wood prunings and despite feeling that it seemed a bit medieval, made the most of the spectacle from a distance!

KALLO PASCA – HAPPY EASTER – from Crete!

THE DAY WE WENT TO ANOGIA

The CIC trip away to Anogia by coach was very successful and we met lots of new people from around Crete – many living further west near Georgopolis and some even into the ‘Wild West’ on the way to Kissimos who have their own TV channel. [It looks for all the world like a web cam left on the side of someone’s taverna where bands of people arrive at various times of day to play the local musical instruments – guitar, mandolin and lyra – to sing long laments or for troupes of dancers or sometimes a man with his reluctant child to dance in front of the camera. Once we tuned in to three empty garden chairs!] However, I digress and I am also being a little unfair to the other very talented young dancers who give a very good show in local national costume.

When we saw the programme lined up for Anogia, a lot of us were a little underwhelmed and thought that a wood museum, some caves and a wax works would not be very interesting although a visit to a new winery seemed a good idea! We visited the new winery first and took a tour of a large warehouse containing huge stainless steel vats and various crushing equipment and the filtering and process was explained in Greek and translated into English. After this the family who ran the business set up large trestle tables with olives and cheeses, rusks and keftedes (meat balls) to accompany the three different types of wine we sampled. May be it was my imagination, but after lunch everything seemed heaps more upbeat and enjoyable (!)

I had seen photos of the sculptures made by a young man which did not indicate the scale of his work, nor did I have any inkling of how interesting the visit to Axos would be. Georgios Koutantos was totally inspiring not only by the display of his work, the description of the woods and why he chose them but by his explanation about the relationship he had with the landscape, the family and the folk history of Crete. See www.woodenmuseum.gr for more info.

Later when we arrived at Anogia, we were immediately aware of the difference in temperature and weather up near the peaks of the highest mountains in Crete. The owner of our hotel was an endearing and enchanting grandmother who took the visit of 30 foreigners in her stride by sorting out all the room requirements, turning on the heating and making lovely cups of greek coffee and lighting the open fire for those of us who had worn ourselves out by walking down about 500 steps to the lower part of the town and then mountaineering up again! They must all keep so fit living there! The lower part of the town is nearly all newish buildings and very little remains of the original village. During the Second World War, British special forces, with the help of the locals, managed to capture the Nazi Chief of Staff which was a huge coup in terms of morale but, of course, this Cretan town in common with a number of others was completely burned to the ground and one in ten of the inhabitants were killed in retribution. The film “Ill met by Moonlight” starring Dirk Bogarde tells a Hollywood version of the story (- and K’s Dad, Vrassi had a ‘bit’ part in it).

Fortunately this was all many moons ago, and without forgetting their history, the local people seemed to welcome tourists from everywhere these days. In the evening a meal had been arranged at a lovely local taverna with panoramic view. K and I enjoyed our meal, caught up with old friends and tottered back to the hotel, which was very warm by this time.

Next day, we sat down to an enchanting breakfast – refectory style around two long school dinner-type tables – the breakfast menu (all by grandmother on her own) – hard boiled eggs, bread, local creamy cheese, honey, home-made apricot jam, cheese toasties and cheese & honey pies freshly made washed down with delicious coffee or mountain tea (some wild flower herb with cinnamon added). Thus set up for the day (=absolutely stuffed) we boarded the coach and set off for some caves in the mountains at .

Having visited the Glow worm Caves in New Zealand, we thought that once you had seen a cave, you had more or less seen them all – but it was well organised, well lit and this time we saw varieties of bats instead of glow worms. Also lots of mountain plants within the Wild Life Park that were well worth stopping to have a second look at. We were amazed to learn the baby stalactites – no bigger than a pencil tip were 100 years old and so the huge columns were so many thousands of years in the making.

Kimon’s knee and foot were playing up, so we sat in the café there while the rest of the party walked down to the nearest village for the waxworks museum. K and I had the excitement of being on the coach when it went down to the centre of the very tiny village and negotiated double parked cars, overhanging balconies and innumerable hazards to pick up the rest of the party. How the coach driver got through without so much as a scratch was a complete wonder. (We had easily the better side of the bargain because the rest of the group said that the wax works were a bit strange!) and off we set for the next stop which turned out to be a ethnic Cretan village with all the different workshops, restaurant, little places to stay and rather sweet – except it had been entirely built about 3 years ago on a mountain side and getting from A to B was by lots of hard ascents or stony steps. So the project was interesting but not exactly the real thing.   However, the lunch was convivial and I was amazed to see one waitress serve us all without a hitch or a hint of a problem in an astonishing short space of time.

By this time, the coach was up in the mountains overlooking Heraklion and we were all nodding a bit as we made our way along the main highway to our drop off points.  It had been a lovely day or two away but boy, was it good to be home!

JEUX SANS FRONTIERS

What a busy week we have had and how did we ever find time to go to work? Following our encounter with the French couple last week and offering them cool drinks and a rest after their days clearing their land around their new foundations, they offered us wood from the olive trees that they were having to cut down in order for their building work to get under way. Thinking of our rather puny wood stack, we eagerly accepted their very kind offer. However, with a bulldozer and heavy lorry busy moving backwards and forwards, the only way to access their growing heap of tree trunks, was to shinny up a 6 foot wall of earth, walk gingerly around the piles of stone and rubble on each side of the foundation pit (which resembles a small quarry) and then puzzle out how to get a large pile of wood around said obstacles and back into the car. We tried twice, with various forms of apparel and equipment, but decided that we needed help. Someone with a chain saw, a wheel barrow, climbing boots and a pick-up truck – and may be having a delivery of wood might cost less??? Meanwhile, Jean-Luc and France leapt around like gazelles, clearing orchards, pruning and felling trees and looking very fit indeed.

France 1 – England 0

On Tuesday after Art School, we met up with Nigel and Marya in Rethymno at the Blue Chairs and had long discussions about the problems of trying to keep an English car in Greece for more than 6 months. It would probably mean paying a huge import duty to get the English plates changed to Greek ones and we are trying to work out what to do about it. All the shops in Rethymno are preparing for Easter and look very festive.

On Wednesday we had three Herculean tasks. AE, ATE followed by OTE. The AE is the abbreviation for a Greek tax number. I dutifully queued up for the third time with the completed form, my passport, a photocopy of my passport, a copy of my birth certificate, a copy of my marriage certificate and a copy of Kimon’s AE! We got there at 8.00 a.m. and there was already a roomful of people sitting waiting for various forms of documentation but Kimon pushed me to the front and the young man took all my papers and went through them. After a few moments, he said that I would need to get my marriage certificate translated. I said, “Of Course” in a dead pan (totally furious) way. Then he said that he would give me my number, but I would have to bring the translation into the office at a later date. YAY! One success.

Then we went to the bank (ATE) which was straightforward and while we were on a roll, set off for the OTE office to ask about the delay to our telephone and broadband. Having given all the information to them 6 weeks ago and signed the contract, we had to give it all again, then sent upstairs to the Technical Department where there was a lot of cheeping going on. The far windowsill was taken up by 4 canaries chattering to each other and taking sand baths in a collection of bowls and containers. There was one lady at the untidiest desk ever with logs, folders and papers all over the place, but she put our name in a grid on a clipboard and I think this was reassuring! She said that we would not have our line until after Easter and they would call one week before they came to fix it. So that was Wednesday.

Greece 2 England 2

On Thursday we had promised to give neighbours Angeliki and Niko a lift into Perama because they had shopping to do and we were up bright and early for another 8.00 a.m. start. Niko went to the council office to help K with sorting out our water bill which was great. We also returned home with a box of cakes and half a chicken from him to say thank you for the lift. Our fridge and freezer are now overloaded with local produce – milk, eggs, oranges, lemons, sausages from the English butcher in Vamos, horta (a kind of spinach which Kimon helped to pick earlier in the week) gifts of minced beef and a large piece of fish. Together with the flour and rice we brought from the UK, there is very little we have needed to buy for about two weeks now. However, we have planned to hold a party just after Easter and invite all the villagers so that we can find a way of saying thank you.

On our return from Perama, I felt duty bound to cook this wonderful chicken and discovered Lemon Chicken in the Crete Cook Book we recently unpacked. As Niko had given us the chicken and Valero our noisy neighbour had given us lemons we did a small plate for each of them and I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did! Scrumptious (and easy!). Spying some past-their-best bananas, I decided to make an Edmonds recipe (never fails) banana loaf, packed a small weekend case, then we moved outside and painted the large wooden trunk with wood preservative and because the fumes were so overpowering, took a walk up to the Mill to clear our heads and water the mill gardens. Oh, and then I gave K a hair cut!

Check out these hilarious road signs – could not resist taking a photo!

After all this, we were completely pooped and are looking forward to a quiet weekend away! Because - on Friday, we are going on a little trip with the CIC (Cretan International Community) to Anogia (pronounced Annoy yer – a boring number of puns have emerged from this). A coach is taking about 30 of us up to this mountain village and we will stay overnight returning on Saturday evening. Photos and possible sketches to follow!

TROPICANA – EAT YOUR HEART OUT

YAY SUMMER IS HERE! We have had a wonderful week with plenty of things happening in addition to the usual fixtures of Art School on Tuesday and visits to Panormo to do shopping and banking.

We were a bit concerned on Wednesday when Niko, an elderly gentleman called at the door with a 2 ltr bottle of virgin olive oil in each hand and asked us if we could do him a favour. K and I met him last Easter on our way up to the village church for the midnight service of light and he had invited us in for a drink and a chat. It was obvious to us that he was struggling to talk, had lost a lot of weight and was not at all well at the moment. We had previously invited an English guy to supper and so I was busy cooking - but Kimon set off with Niko to his orange orchard because he had oranges that needed to be picked before they went to waste. About 2 hours later they both returned with buckets and bags full of the most beautiful oranges I have seen in a long time. Kimon said that he had had a wonderful time and the orchard was a beautiful place. Stewart, who had been invited to supper, is having a house built quite close to the village and his wife will be over to stay in May but in the meantime he is staying in a small guest flat in a neighbouring village and supervising the build. Just before we sat down to eat a very ordinary supper of cottage pie, we sliced off a portion and put it on a plate for Niko and Kimon took it up to him while it was still hot. He said that Niko was sitting down with an oxygen mask but was grateful for some supper. Next morning, the orange juice we made from oranges straight from the tree was totally out of this world - sensational. It was slightly upsetting that Nikos could not bring back the little supper plate without adding half a dozen eggs on the top of it! We protested but he would have none of it!

Thursday was spent with our friends the Brods who have a flat in a lovely complex in Panormo and arrived in the last ten days or so. We were so grateful to them that they said that we could borrow their broadband for the time being because getting a telephone line is a real battle with the local telephone company OTE. We were expecting an engineer at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday but nothing happened and we have been telephoning the number given to us every day for three days with no response – so we think we will have to go and bang a few desks next week! Jane O sent me a wonderful Utube film via Email about Bureaucrazy, which summed it up to a Tee.

We woke up this morning to find a 2 ltr bottle of milk on the door step which was the prelude to a magical morning doing Nikos’ egg and produce run with him. We loaded the car with oranges, oil, milk and eggs and he showed us all the back roads winding round the lower hills before the mountains. The car was actually weaving into the panorama we could see from the roof terrace, which was fascinating for us to learn about. We really felt that summer had arrived this morning as we watched the swallows building their nests in the eaves of the houses and puttered along the country lanes. We dropped off lots of produce at his cousin’s widow’s house and then a large bag of eggs at his niece’s. Nikos insisted that we stop off at the Taverna for a glass of beer on our return home.

It was all happening today. Just after lunch, I was up to my eyes in oranges, lemons, peel. pith and pips – a lovely sticky mess it was too – when Kimon returned from the village with a French couple – Jean-Luc and France who had bought a piece of land in 2009 and had just been granted permission to start building their house. So we showed them around our place (Croziers – a Loft) and then went for a walk to see the bulldozer starting to dig their foundations. France has to return to Marseilles to her work next week, but her husband is going to project-manage the building, so it was quite an exciting day for them and they had hoped that the local Priest would bless their land. However, we were not altogether sure that this arrangement worked out too well because we were not of the Orthodox tradition. I gathered that the young Priest who arrived to bless the village Taverna this morning did not want to get into trouble with his Superior by getting involved with us, ‘unorthodox’. (I think that was what it was about – I said a few prayers of my own in any case and I’m sure that God was listening).

After all these perambulations, I returned to my marmalade making as all the fruit had cooled nicely and could be mushed up and strained. I ended up with a wonderful batch, which set beautifully. A FIRST! The label brand is Cretan Orange Grove Marmalade and I am saving some for my Dad who never goes on holiday without asking if there is any marmalade to be had! Either it will wait for my parents’ visit to Crete or I will try to find a way of getting a jar back to the UK in my suitcase … a challenge for any Crozier abroad.

KALOMINA – KALOMITI

This morning I was in a taxi with friends from the office on my way to St John’s Church, Waterloo dropping off some pots of flowers and I realised that I had left my handbag in the office. After the delivery to the church, it hit me with some force that I had to try and get home or back to the office without my Oyster Card, Season Ticket or purse, which are always attached to me. How would I be able to explain this to the ticket clerk at the tube station?  As I crossed the road, I was narrowly missed by a lady on a scooter with no helmet and …..

then I woke up. 

What a relief to find that it had all been a bad dream and it was now FIVE TO ELEVEN IN THE MORNING (8.55 British Time!) It was also 1^st April so my sub-conscious had obviously decided to play a trick on me just as I would have been starting work on a TGIF day.

While I had been asleep, Kimon had been shopping, fetched six boxes of books from storage and I was feeling very lazy indeed. However, we unpacked one load, and checking the sky which showed a big rainstorm over the mountains heading for us, went for the next load. He said “Kalimera” and an extra “Kalomina” to everyone he met because it was the first day of a new month. We have also been reminded that it is Saturday morning tomorrow and we need to be around for the weekly street sweeping/hosing event which K calls RIXIE, RIXIE (I will get him to translate this – he thinks it means “Fill, fill”). This is great fun and needs to be initiated at our house, because we have the water tap at the top of the hill. We turn on the hose and sweep out the front courtyard of the house and the narrow roadway outside and everyone in the village comes out of their house with a broom or a hose - if they have one - and the village starts sweeping furiously down to the bottom at the village square!! We have been away or out for the past two Saturdays, so we have not been taking our civic duties seriously!

Overnight there have been some unusual gusts of wind from the direction of Africa and every surface outside the house is covered with red desert sand. It is almost impossible to see out of any of the mirrors of the car so it will be a good opportunity to give the car a clean in the morning also.

The lady next door to us (being of an inquisitive nature) is dying to know how much we paid for the Kalomiti*. We are not quite sure why because she has a shady patio outside her door already – but we think this is just a way of making conversation in Greece. Everyone asks you how much things cost, say you have spent too much, their cousin could get it cheaper but end up going to the same place to buy something identical to the one you have! This does not bother K, but I find that it takes some getting used to. We are also resorting to retrieving boxes from storage after nightfall to avoid any more relentless questioning about all our pragmata. Nobody could believe that we have so many books –which is hardly surprising because I cannot imagine how we still have this number of books after getting rid of so many!! Still, our bookcases do look homely now, I can look up recipes and we are beginning to see more floor space back in the storage room in the Mill.  Photos will follow when complete.

*(the Greek word for bamboo canopy from Mr Bamboozle but we hope that it will be an asset rather than a calamity!)

SATURDAY – RAIN STOPPED PLAY

2 April 2011. Hideous day - dark, cold and raining relentlessly all day. No opportunity to redeem ourselves with civic duty and RIXIE ..ing as God did it for us! I resorted to climbing into a sleeping bag and watching terrible TV and trying to decipher greek writing in the advertisement breaks.

Sunday was Mothers Day and we set off to Panormo for a lovely Sunday Lunch of sardines and lovely mixed salad. More of the businesses were beginning to open up.  When we arrive each summer for our “relaxed” holidays, we have no idea of the big production involved in preparing all the hotels, shops and tavernas for business during the tourist season. As we made our way down to the restaurant, we could see all the hard graft beginning with pressure washers in the tavernas, decorators and new furniture being delivered. It must be disheartening to be so dependent upon the arrival of hoards of tourists to make enough of a living for the winter and we hope that all the locals have a better summer than last year. Sunday afternoon was much more proactive with lovely sunshine and we spent time outside planting seeds and filling large ceramic pots ready for planting up. 

Kimon laughs as I check my boxes and planters every morning for signs of life but we have a few lettuce and tomato seedlings sprouting which have not needed any watering lately!

POET’S CORNER

K and I have not really done much in the way of creative writing or poetry for many a long year, but tagged on to all the airport runs that Kimon was doing at the beginning of the week, we had another invitation. I went to my Tuesday Art Class and Kimon had met Anna from Heraklion airport at luchtime – so it was about 4.00 in the afternoon when we drove West towards Nigel and Marya’s house at Kalamitsi where we had been invited to stay the night. We had to turn off the road at Georgopouli which is a nice little resort where a river runs into the sea. A King George (not sure which one) from England visited there at the beginning of the century and suggested that a lot of Eucalyptus trees should be planted as the land was marshy and the locals suffered greatly with mosquitos. So, now the enormous trees are a feature of his namesake town square and there are lovely little shops and tavernas to visit. However, we were not stopping because the road to Kalamitsi runs straight through the town, across the bridge over the river and winds up and up in the mountains until you have an eagle’s eye panorama of the sea. K and I noted all the building work going on everywhere and wondered how long people’s sea views would necessarily exist. Nigel was nervous because he had offered to give a talk at the Arts Society the following day and he was trying not to have second thoughts about it. We had a lovely meal (Cottage Pie made with pork mince = Pigman’s Pie) and lots of laughs and catch up time since we all last met over a year ago.

Nigel was the friend who had helped K make all the basic furniture for our house – refectory table, smaller table and four beds. In their house in Kalamitsi, Nigel had made a completely fitted kitchen, lots of beds and tables, bookshelves, their staircase and had discovered all sorts of carpentry skills that he didn’t know he had before!

The next morning we set off for the Arts Café in Vamos. This is a busy little place where lots of English people have settled but which K and I have never visited before. The title of N’s talk was the Life And Work of Roger McGough (who presents Poetry Please on Radio Four). N did a great talk with lots of humour and examples of Roger’s poetry. There were about 20 in the audience and we all learned a great deal from it and enjoyed the poetry (and a lusty singing of Lily The Pink!) The idea for the talk came about because Roger McGough will be visiting Crete in a month or two and will be running a Poetry Workshop as part of the Vamos Arts Festival. Obviously Nigel has signed up and I paid for Kimon to go as well because he does pen the odd ode and it would be good for him to get some encouragement and input, particularly of a humorous kind. So there are all sorts of good creative things happening. [Sophie, Kate & Leo – we may yet see the publication of The Tale of Vanishing Sidney!]

After the nervous exhaustion of the morning, we all spent a very relaxed lunch by the river at Vrises where the wooden bridges reminded us of Monet’s water lily paintings and Nigel sunk a beer or two in sheer relief that it was over. The sun was hot overhead and we kept moving our chairs to keep in the shade of a large umbrella.

When we eventually got home, I was able to take a look at our new bamboo because Mr Bamboozle had been true to his word and fixed the new canopy together with my free gift – a bright mauve petunia plant. This heavyweight bamboo should last for longer than our previous matting which had been carried away in the winter storms. So, completely exhausted after a busy few days, we sat in style under the new covering and had coffee and metaxa before falling into bed.  (photos next blog)

K had done so much driving that we decided not to take the car out for the next 2 or 3 days to give him a chance to unwind and because petrol is so expensive now! We have noticed that there are far fewer cars on the road because of this very steep cost increase of the last month or two. However, we have been “croziering” around the house, inventing ‘pigeon keeper-offers’ (for upstairs window sills) and doing a first coat of paint on the living room walls before we put the book cases in place and unpack all the boxes of books.