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The allotment
Even at a time of year when I expect the allotments to look scruffy, our site seems especially untidy. On the noticeboard at the gates there are notices that have been there all through 2012 and some...
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Rubbish
All Thursday afternoon Handsworth Helping Hands, our little group - in this case Mike, Denise, Linda and I, with Oscar dog in attendance - cleared litter along the green verge and bank that edges the...
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A New Year
So let's start new in 2013. The sun was bursting over the Victoria Jubilee. I tidied; removing old cabbage stems and slug ridden leaves, pulling weeds from the path, putting dead stalks on the...
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Circumvesuviana
Hotel Ideal on Piazza Garibaldi, NaplesWe took a train - Circumvesuviana - from Piazza Garibaldi to Ercolano Scavi, then a minibus to near the mountain's summit, walking up for another 20 minutes to...
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Ano Korakiana again
Our blood orange tree is heavy with fruit; our lemon trees too. I soak up the village, feel it through the soles of my feet, gathering strength – a feeling that began even as we disembarked from the...
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Indivisible
I was becoming increasingly uncertain of how to get where I was going, seeing none of the streets or buildings I was expecting round the next corner. I’d left our boat sitting on the mud at...
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Gossip
On stepping into our bedroom we are reminded of the improvisatory confidence with which ‘John the builder’; put that part of the 'improved' house together for our credulous predecessors. Tread over...
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Dover Beach: winter over the Kerkyra Sea
The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; —on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil...
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Summer Song's engine
Dave with his mate 'Quad' Dave had Summer Song’s old engine out on Tuesday and were starting to tailor the engine bed for its reconditioned replacement on Wednesday... ...more powerful and in far...
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Small tremor
At about 1010 last Thursday morning I felt the house tremble slightly. I’d not heard nor sensed a builder’s truck passing on the street. Peering out of the French windows onto the balcony I saw...
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Morning
A letter from England: Simon. Thanks for your comments. Hopefully the blizzards will be gone by March but you never know, as for a strike not very likely, despite attempts at portraying unions as gung...
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Συζήτηση υια τις απόπειρες-διαρρήζεις
Alarm in the village about thievery, culminating in an attempt by two youths wearing hoods – according to those who chased them off - to break into the Agricultural Co-op. The masked miscreants fled...
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Summer Song
D emails progress on Summer Song: Hi Simon, up date on SS old engine out, engine bay cleaned out and eng. Beds built up and glassed in to fit new eng. fitted on new mounts, prop shaft cupling machined...
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Greyness
We are almost running out of things to do on a rainy day.“It's raining in Athens” said Lefteris from the steps, which he negotiates more slowly these days, “It's raining in Italy. Raining...
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Travel
We slipped out of Ano Korakiana during a rain shower and caught one of the smaller ferries to Igoumenitsa - fares reduced 50%, it said 'military' on our tickets. It was dark on the mainland and we...
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Everything is changed
Strathnairn In the Highlands. Four months since Mum died. Her terriers, ever my companions on endless walks, are gone to their new home thanks to the kindness of Christina and James at Farr Mains. Brin...
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The Egg Volk - ο Εφιάλτης θα φανεί στο τέλος
Blokko in Kokkinnia in Athens on 17 August 1944 From a recent interview with Yanis Varoufakis Γιάνης ΒαρουφάκηςWhat do you know about the rise of right-wing Neo-Nazi groups (in Greece). What impact are...
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Carnival 2013 in Ano Korakiana
Κορακιανίτικη Αποκριά 2013Γράφει ο/η Κβκ 18.03.13Τελικά, μετά από αρκετά χρόνια ο καιρός ήταν σύμμαχος του φετινού Καρναβαλιού της Κορακιάνας. Λίγο πριν από το μεσημέρι είχαν ρυθμιστεί και οι...
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Handsworth Park History Tour
Aftab Rahman: Hey Simon that image looks really good. We have thrown a stone in the pond and now we will see the ripples.Simon: Yes indeed and it's our pond and we watch those ripples - assiduously!...
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