Home and garden

We were met at the airport by Rob, one of Simon's colleagues, and driven the 35 miles to Stanley. After a quick tour of the town we were taken to our house and were very pleasantly surprised. We have a very spacious 4 bedroomed bungalow to the east of town. The garden is large and sloping, more steeply at the front than the back, and we have views out over the harbour. I can even keep an eye on Simon windsurfing from our lounge window.
The garden is mostly very rough grass and rocks. Our tenancy agreement contained all sorts of clauses about not having anything in your garden apart from a wheelie bin and not planting any trees or shrubs but somebody seems to have got away with planting a couple of small trees in the past which are very welcome. A small area at the back had previously been used for vegetables and I am gradually enlarging it and also digging a flower bed at the front of the house. I have various seeds growing in pots on window sills at the moment.
Vegetable gardening is rather challenging with cool temperatures, strong winds, salt spray, numerous rocks that are too big to dig out and frequent vists from wild geese. I have a 10 foot x 15 foot polytunnel on its way with our last freight but we do not yet have permission to put it up and I don't know if I will be able to dig the 8 holes required for the foundation poles without hitting solid rock. Many of the local people have polytunnels in their gardens - some of them really big ones.
The major incentive for gardening is the scarcity and high price of fresh (or more usually stale) vegetables and fruit in the shops. A few things are grown locally but most are brought in from Chile by air or boat. Small leeks and tomatoes are about £1 each, a very small head of brocoli, a small cabbage, or a small cucumber about £3 each, a pineapple £8 or £9. A 5 kilo bag of potatoes is £6.
Our soil is a mixture of peat, sand and stones and dries out very quickly. I bought a sack of general purpose compost from the garden centre - it was Arthur Bowers imported from the UK and costing nearly £14 . I think I will be going peat digging at some point! I have already been and collected a load of horse manure from the common, where there are quite a few horses kept, but need to get another load soon. It is quite time consuming wandering around with bucket and spade and carrying it back to the vehicle as the horses roam over a vast area.
A couple of weeks ago we noticed water seeping out from under the bath and found that the carpet in the next bedroom was soaking wet. The men from the public works department were called in to investigate (one advantage of renting your house) and it turns out the shower has been leaking for a long time. Considerable demolition has taken place and then the job abandoned as the PWD also do funerals and there have been 3 deaths recently. However the workmen are back today so progress is being made. Also the plumber is going to fit an outside tap for us which will be very useful for watering the garden and rinsing windsurf kit.
Kerosene is used for heating and hot water, bottled gas for cooking and you buy cards to top up the electricity meter. These all seem much dearer than in the UK but petrol and diesel are much cheaper . However we don't usually drive far at all!
Well the rain has stopped and the sun is trying to shine so I am going to rake down a patch of garden and sow some carrots while the soil is damp.