A European holiday - part 1 (Greece)

Relaxing and beautiful start of these 2 weeks' holiday: 5 days in Corfu, Greece, at my aunt Genevieve and uncle Jean-Marie's "little house in the olive trees", along with my sister Véronique.

Début de vacances tout en douceur et beauté avec cinq jours à Corfou, en Grèce, chez ma tante Geneviève et mon oncle Jean-Marie dans leur "petite maison dans les oliviers" en compagnie de ma soeur Véronique.

amazing view from the terrace
vue imprenable de la terrasse 

Olive trees every where - des oliviers partout

The little house in the olive trees  (c) my creative cousin, France
La petite maison dans les oliviers (c) France, ma cousine créative

To make us feel grateful for we too often take for granted... the first days, the village water tank was empty.

Pour nous faire sentir reconnaissant de ce que l'on prend trop souvent pour acquis... les premiers jours, la citerne du village était vide.

fetching water - corvée d'eau

climbing the steep road, the water tanker !
le camion-citerne qui monte au village !

Perithia: a deserted village which gives a glimpse at life on the Island a few generations ago: people used to live off the land far from the coast because of pirates. Tourism made the following generations settle near the sea.

Périthia : un village abandonné qui donne une idée sur le mode il y a quelques générations : les paysans vivaient de la terre le plus loin possible de la côte et des pirates. Le tourisme a bouleversé la donne et incité les Corfiotes à s'installer au bord de la mer.

Corfu - city centre. Corfu was under Venetian rule for nearly 400 years and the architecture has an Italian flavour.
Le centre ville de Corfou : Corfou était sous domination vénétienne pendant près de 400 ans et cela se voit dans l'architecture.

la gallerie devant le musée

The famous Liston - le célèbre Liston

Equally famous tourists - des touristes non moins célèbres

Museum of Asian Art - le Musée d'Art asiatique

the fortress - la forteresse

Katavolos - on the other side of Corfu Bay

Katavolos de l'autre côté de la Baie de Corfou

view from the house - can't get enough of it.
la vue de la maison - on ne s'en lasse pas.

prickly pear - figuier de barbarie

Spot the black nets under the trees to gather the olives.
Remarquez les filets noirs sous les oliviers pour récolter les olives.

olives

The publishing industry embraces diversity...

Finally, there is awareness and more initiatives to promote diversity in the US book industry. But will diversity address mistrust and misconceptions? Or will “diverse” people read “diverse” books that look like them, tell them about their lives, while “non-diverse” people will go on reading “non-diverse” books? And they will become books apart, having fewer and fewer stories in common? 

What if children read books about similarity? Books where people mix, books where people don’t define themselves between diverse and non-diverse, books where people realise how humanly similar we are, when we laugh, when we cry, when we get hurt, when we smile at a good book, printed by publishers that don't segregate between white mainstream books and diversity satellite imprints. Isn’t that the way we make friends? Isn’t that that the way our brain works, by creating connections with similar things, making strange things become familiar, parts of our family? Books that make us look at ourselves in the others and at the others in ourselves. 


The day when books will reflect our similar human lot, turning it into familiarity, maybe we will be able to read further… how the animals that we treat as low class citizens care for their children, communicate, have feelings and empathy… how trees feel. And we will overcome our selfishness and become better neighbours and attentive carers and blossom into humans, finally.

Farewell sky

The sky said farewell to Ramadan ... a severe thunderstorm then this golden sky.