The world from my window

With less than two months before our Big Fat Greek Gap Year comes to an end, we begin to think about all the packing up that needs to be done and the journey home. We also think about ways we can make these twelve months away turn into another year, but without the homesickness. Ideally, I would like the best of both worlds. A foot in Agios Magikades here in Corfu and a foot in Lush Places back in Dorset. But it's a long stretch and I've never tried doing the splits. I'm working on it, though, believe me. This village has everything. Beauty, friendly people, warmth in heat and warmth in spirit.   And we've seen it through autumn, winter, spring and now summer. What an experience. It's been incredible. You couldn't get a better and more conveniently situated village on the whole of the island. Twenty five minutes on a good road into town and five minutes by car to the sea. Three good tavernas which are open all year round and the most e...

It's quiet now after all our village festivities. A cool wind whips through the plateia as a handful of people sit under the Narnia lamp post . And it is bliss. It's been a week now since our panigyri and still the days and nights have been pretty humid. 'The weather will start to change after the 15th,' we were told by our weatherman Canadian George, as the summer celebrations built up to a crescendo last Thursday to mark the dormition of the Theotokos . With the end of our long line of visiting family and friends, things have become calmer but the weather is still hot. After almost ten months in Greece, I am no longer like a holidaymaker, craving for sun. I sit in the shade whenever I can. I enjoy the early mornings, when the days are at their coolest. How chambermaids cope with changing hotel beds and cleaning in this heat is beyond me. They deserve a medal rather than a pittance. And I now understand why a siesta is so important to the people who work ...

We left just after three this morning and still they were dancing the night away. Nikos the Greek got through at least eight T-shirts. He pulled them out of a rucksack as if they were the silk handkerchiefs of a conjuror. There was a red one with a portrait of Che Guevara on the front, a Barcelona football shirt and an Argentina shirt with Maradona emblazoned across the back. Our friends' home-grown basil filled the church with its aroma. The village's three tavernas were bursting, the mini-market was busy and the balloon seller had a good night. And the ice cold coke and beer was much-needed on this hot and humid evening. And by the time we had finished with the lamb (nine had been spit-roasted), it looked like a dish Prometheus would serve up for Zeus - just a pile of bones . Now the party is over and that's it for another year. For more videos and photos from our panygyri, visit the Maddie Grigg Facebook page . That's about it. Love Maddi...

On the eve of the Dormition of the Theotokos , the church bells toll and there is a procession through the village and a service in the church. In the central plateia, the men prepare the sperna , soaking great tubs of raisins in water before taking them inside the hall and locking the doors to mix them up with the boiled wheat, almonds and seeds and maybe a dash of ouzo. The key is turned from the inside and then the women and children are allowed in to run the production line.   Their nimble fingers make quick work of putting the mixture into bags for tomorrow's service. And today, Marias in best clothes and newly-permed hair attend the morning service. There are older men in crisp white shirts and women in blocks of bright colours - orange, yellow, green - and widows in black. Inside the church, there is chanting, some singing and the congregation makes the sign of the cross in formation. Behind the screen of the iconostasis, the priest gets to work to make ...

At this time of year, there are festivals going on all over Greece. They might not be as extravagant as in previous years because of the economic crisis. Some have been cancelled altogether because of the hard times facing the country and its people. But there is one festival that, however bad things are, will be celebrated everywhere. We are now in the lead-up to the feast day of the  Dormition of the Theotokos  on 15 August, which is the best time in Corfu, according to our local shopkeeper. It's certainly one of the busiest,with people bustling in and around Corfu Town and the beautiful Liston. But if you look up, you could imagine you were completely alone. Try it - it's something I do all the time.   It's also a busy time for the island's patron saint, Spyridon. Today saw the commemoration of his defence of the island against the Turks in 1716. Marching bands and a procession bearing his glorious casket and body around the town. As we have little pe...

During our big fat Greek gap year, I've been taking lots of photos and videos of village life and events in and around Corfu. To see them, go to my  Maddie Grigg Facebook page  and click 'like'. You'll also find random yet relevant postings to do with Corfu and Dorset. That's about it. Love Maddie x

As the band struck up the theme music to Harry Potter , xylophones gently tinkling, I got up from my seat to find the best spot to take a photo. The plateia was atmospheric. It was a magical night, with a throng of people gathered under the trees to listen to the music. A sky of black ink, a bell tower picked out by spotlight and two lamps illuminating the church door. I half-expected the Knight Bus to come roaring through the village, slowing down to inch past the busy tavernas and forcing oncoming traffic to step aside, as coaches do around these parts. Or maybe Hagrid on a motorbike and sidecar. I clicked off the camera to stop filming and noticed a fluttering beside me. A small bat flapped by. Its wings almost touched the ground. I followed its progress as the bat wove in and out of the percussion section, swooping low over the timpani and bass drum and then up, higher and higher, to swirl around the bell tower. And then the band played the theme mu...

Well, my friend's parcel has arrived. Just as well it wasn't any smaller. That's about it. Love Maddie x

It's a story I know so well. Odysseus, shipwrecked after battling with Poseidon who is angry at the hero for blinding his son, the cyclops Polyphemus, lands, naked and exhausted, on the shores of Scheria, the home of the Phaeacians. He surprises the young princess, Nausikaa, who is taking a break from doing her washing on the shore and is playing ball with her handmaidens. It's a dangerous place, the water's edge, for ancient Greek maidens. It's where they get ravished by gods and demi-gods. Look what happened to Europa . Anyway, Nausikaa takes Odysseus home to meet the parents, the gentle King Alcinous and Queen Arete. In this video, they make their way along the shore to the palace. And then, Odysseus tells the story of the things that have happened to him since leaving Troy ten years earlier. The Phaeacians provide him with a boat so he can sail back to his kingdom of Ithaca and his patient wife, Penelope, who has been waiting for him for twenty years. ...

Great excitement. A new post office is opening up right in the middle of Agios Magikades. And I have a parcel to post to a friend. I can't find a jiffy envelope so I turn a couple of brown bags for fruit inside out and get out the parcel tape. It'll be open at seven thirty, we've been told. So we make our way up from the house to the plateia, accompanied by the rising sun. But the post office is closed. If it had been in Lush Places we would have had a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Or maybe even a fanfare. Not here. So I have a coffee and a cake in the plateia and Mr Grigg goes up the steps to pay the water bill. The ladies in the office allow him to walk out on the balcony like Juan Peron and he takes a couple of photos. All is quiet.   And then Thassos arrives from the bakery around the back, his arms full of bread. It's the best time of day. It's cool before the heat of the sun beats down and makes us all turn into sweaty blobs. And then we s...