The curly leaf may be leaf miner. You can see a tell tale back and forth trail on the bottom of the leaf from the worm mining away inside the leaf. This is generally a cosmetic issue only and won't hurt the tree however does look unsightly. A spray or drench using spinosad is the accepted method here of doing away with them.

If you are just tipping the branches to even them off, you can prune them any time.

I appreciate your help thank you.

may I ask when you reccomend - more drastic pruning

Drastic pruning, or more than 15% of the tree should be done when the tree is dormant in the coldest part of the winter. For full disclosure, I have pruned more than 15% of my mature orange and avocado at the end of summer with no noticeable issues but the experts (Of which I'm not one) will advise that winter is the best time for drastic cuts.

That helps a great deal!

i will wait till February!

any rules of thumb? -will be greatly appreciated !

Prune-a-Lemon-Tree First dead/diseased wood. Then crossing branches, then trim to size. Remember that citrus are generally tip bearing so if you trim off most branch tips, expect a light fruit load. Here is a good basic how to that I found.

If you would like a diagnosis regarding the cause of the curled leaves, you should submit some good images for us to look at.

I now notice the focus is not too good (apologies bright autumn sun with long shadows)

i have seen sticky cocoons on the leaves & spider webs amongst branches

I prune first then spray. It is easier to hit everything in a thinner canopy. It is also easier to spot specific problems. I just bare rooted a potted Meyer into ground. I lost half my roots so I removed 1/3 of my foliage and shaded the tree for a week. She is doing fine but I am expecting no growth till next February or later.

i opened up the center a few weeks ago (no sawing just pruning)

- but it's so lanky on top

i will take a look later (the garden is some distance away)

is there any thing I can make and spray it with?

i have olive oil soap & many essential oils.

I live on a small island (Greece) & we are cut off due to the strikes etc.

Thank you for the links I will start studying.

Just to add ... The locals reccomend hanging up moth balls - made here of Naphthalene

I've always used a few drops of dish soap in a sprayer filled with water and gotten good results. Easy to make, cheap and works very well on almost any insect.

I use Canola (4 tablespoons) oil and Dawn 1 (tablespoon) dish detergent. This works well on established growth but seems to hurt fresh young shoots Canola oil is much cheaper than olive oil. Please excuse my country's (USA) version of metric. We are the only one that uses it

-most grateful for all the information.

they have a crude brick of soap here (like the Marseille soap?)

it is made with olive oil -I thought I could grate some up, but I guess it would be hard to figure out the quantity.