Clik here to view.
Yacht Summer Song
Simon on Summer Song a few years agoSelling Summer Song. I’ve been putting it off. Procrastinating for months, but here goes....For sale in Greece - Yacht Summer Song Snapdragon 27 sailing yacht with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A visit from my son
Our son turned up at Democracy Street, unannounced as he prefers. I’m always half expecting such surprises; wondering if it was I or he or she who left the key in the door. When anyone’s here,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Supper at the end of May...του λογαριασμού
“Του λογαριασμού!”“Terrible meal!” says Mark to the young man who’s been serving us at Panorama in Ag Markos “Call the manager! We’re not coming here again” Mezes, Greek salad, saganaki, grilled...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scale insects, ants and citrus trees
Every morning I check the citrus leaves. Are there or are there not more scale insects? Where I see an accretion I examine the small black round shapes, sometimes having a white halo round their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A day in Sarandë - 'Faleminderit'
Democracy Place in Saranda, Albania I shall view the town of Saranda as less distant, less foreign, having just been there for the day. Lin and I passed through there once before - during a guided tour...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ερημίτης Erimitis
My friend the writer Richard Pine, who lives in a village in the north of Corfu, has drawn my attention to a recent article by Gerald Durrell’s widow - Lee Durrell - about the 'development' of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
After I'd carried our luggage down the 13 steps
Ano Korakiana. Welcome rain. After I’d carried our luggage down the 13 steps, while Lin drove on down Democracy Street to park, I returned for our shopping - packed in three cardboard trade boxes....
View ArticleClik here to view.
A chance to talk about my stepfather
Michael Livesley asked me, out of the blue, to come up to Liverpool, and talk to him in 'The Livo Lounge' about my stepfather, Jack Hargreaves and the work being done to serve his legacy and make his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dot
There comes a moment in the passing of time when the days of our stay in the village feel numbered. A flight is booked. We must check-in on line and get boarding passes, jot down lists to do, things...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dorothy Reynolds - her funeral
It's raining and grey this morning but it feels lighter. Yesterday the family and some of our neighbours said farewell to Dorothy, my mum-in-law, at Perry Barr Crematorium. Her coffin was a pleasing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Age
A day later the rest of the family arrived. Linda and I become 'Nan' and 'Grandpa', 'Mum' and 'Dad'. The cottage becomes turbulent. To let grown-ups stay in bed, I'm steward - for drinks, cereals,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Μελίνα ~ Χρυσάφι της ζωής
Melina Spingos (1990-2019) in the centre. Her mum, Katya, sits at the back left (photo 2012: Thanassis Spingos) Yesterday Melina Spingos, the 29 year old daughter of Katya and Thanassis, woke feeling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Signing things away
On such a day as this There is something exhilarating about getting successfully through the Greek bureaucratic process! I have just left the Corfu Port Authority. I came from Ano Korakiana on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Cycling to places
In an aeroplane, even the slow descent to Corfu airport from our village to the runway at Kapodistria, 18k further south, I travel further with one bite of a sandwich sat in my belted seat, than I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To a friend in the village
The sea of Corfu between Ano Korakiana and Mother GreeceΑγαπητή Αγγελική. In Ano Korakiana bereavement has been heaped on bereavement. We are foreigners who have a home in the village, but even, far...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Recalled to life'
Jack Hargreaves 1911-1994 with his stepson Simon Baddeley born 1942 (photo: Barbara Hargreaves) My stepfather delighted in reading Charles Dickens. He could recite first lines of the novels It was the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The march of time
Seven years ago in Spring, under Efi and Adonis’ walnut tree in their garden next door, my neighbour and friend Lefteris and I celebrated our 70th birthdays– he two months younger than I. It was a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Context
Before first light the parched island is soaked by a drenching downpour, a timely damping down of hectares of tinder. We lie in bed surrounded by unaccustomed gloom, lightning flashing through the...
View ArticleClik here to view.