Tales from Crete | 54

After a few months in Crete (only interrupted by a short trip to Denmark for a week), I am now back in the cold and wet Jutland. If I had to be really optimistic, I would say that it is probably nice to come home again, "because outside is good, but home is best" as they say. But it's a bit difficult to deal soberly when Crete is my second home and the temperature is still 26-28 degrees down there and I love the heat. Super good weather for those who are going on autumn holidays down there and according to the weather forecast it should be full sun all next week, so I guess you can't complain about that.

After you, like me, come home after a few months, there is a lot to sort out. The lawn has become so long-haired that it needs to be harvested with a scythe, there are fallen branches and leaves around the garden that need to be removed, the summer flowers are more or less withered and need to be discarded, the weeds have sprung up in the most unusual places, the grape plant on the terrace is again overgrown and shuts out all light to the many large bunches of grapes that hang, and I could go on listing like this, but there is also a single small point of light. My bottle gourd plant that I planted in the early spring, and which I had no expectations of bearing fruit, has grown so large that it completely blocks out any light in our living room, and it is even filled with tiny "Flaskis" as they are called in Crete, from where I also got the seed for the plant. Of course, all the small Flaski's can't be used for anything, but there are 2 bottles that might be used for something and one is even gigantic. In fact, I have rarely seen such a large Flaski in Crete, so now I am very excited to see if it will also dry, so that I can turn it into a bottle, a lamp or use it as a decoration.

I learned a few tricks on how to give the natural bottles a chance to mature and dry up with the rock hard golden brown surface they need without the same sun they usually get under the southern skies. I had to make sure to allow it plenty of sunlight, so away with pretty much all the leaves on the plant so they don't shade. I think my wife is happy about that, because then some sunlight can also enter the living room. But I now think it's a bit of a sad sight when such a large plant that has grown up in just 5-6 months and now spans 6-7 meters in each direction along the gutter with just a single thin stem from the ground and 2 meters up before it splits. Now it will be so exciting to see if my giant Flaski will mature before the frost kills it. So, just to be safe, I made a pillow placed on a chair so that it doesn't fall so far and smash all over the place if it were to fall off. But I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the weather gods are with me a little longer.

Next year I will definitely have to try again, because it is now very pleasant to follow the plant, but that time the joy.

If you would like to try your very own bottle gourd, I have seeds collected in Crete that you can come by and get for free in the shop, and if you want to pay for the postage, I will also be happy to send you a small handful .

Happy autumn holidays to those who have it and a good weekend to everyone