The world from my window

The Beetle’s trundled more than eighteen hundred miles across Italy and France, with cars and lorries tooting both in frustration (it takes longer to get up north, the slow way) and admiration. Well, she is rather stunning for a forty-five year old. We’re pleased to be ensconced in our Brittany Ferries cabin, with Mr Grigg watching Licence to Kill on his laptop and me struggling to work out the code for the free WiFi and children next door who are so excited they’re bouncing off the walls. If they were mine, I’d put them in the top bunk and then close it. But as the ferry chugs across the channel through the night, they’ll soon be asleep. Which is more than can be said for me after a night out in Le Havre. On a bank holiday here in France for the Ascension (and it should be a bank holiday in Blighty too for Oak Apple Day), places to eat after a three-hundred mile journey were in short supply. We ended up in a bar called Au Bureau with disdainful Parisi...

We're in Genoa. The Italians are a noisy lot. But possibly not as noisy as the Greeks. This is a beautiful city. In Via Garibaldi, the grandeur of Italy's largest port hits you right between the eyes.   Our hotel was hard to find in a 1969 Beetle in the blistering heat. But it's quirky, just as I like it.       We're heading west today, off to my dad's cousin in Provence before sweeping across to Toulouse to visit a former colleague and catch up with her news. And then it's up to the Dordogne to see our old chef. (I was a publican in a previous life. Christophe became our good friend). And, then, on Oak Apple Day, King Charles II's birthday, we'll board a cross channel ferry back to Blighty. Bella the Beetle will be dwarfed by all the other vehicles. Here she is coming off the ferry from Corfu to the mainland. It'll be good to be back home, at least for a while. But, I have to say, the Corfiots put on a great sho...

It's been a busy few weeks at the Villa Oleander. We've welcomed and said goodbye to our first guest of the year, picked up my vintage VW Beetle (more of that in another post), which has jumped back into life thanks to the restoration skills of a local garage, found and bought a Greek car, helped our neighbour build an apothiki, sorted out a route for driving back to the UK, welcomed and said goodbye to my mother and sister and welcomed my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who will be staying here for a couple of months. I'm pleased to say my dear old mum was treated liked royalty. 'They are angels,' our cheerful lady in the kafenion said of Mother and my sister. Earlier, in the AB supermarket in town, we bumped into another villager who insisted on buying a bottle of wine for the aged parent. 'For the mother of Margarita,' he said, patting my shoulder. 'She is the same age as the Queen Elizabeth.' She is indeed. I didn't like to te...

Everyone's talking about it. There are elections coming up on this island in a few weeks' time. You can tell, because the grass verges are being trimmed and the potholes are being filled. And there are posters everywhere. 'One prostitute is worth a hundred politics,' one Greek sage said to me last year. 'At least she is honest.' Understandably, in Greece these days, there is a great deal of cynicism about politicians in the birthplace of democracy. Men in sharp suits have been touring the village. 'Pah,' said a local. 'They take your money and put it in their pocket.' But to the politicians, elections are serious business. Although perhaps not. Having once been accused of sedition by a friend who claimed I'd defaced an election leaflet at his home, I am always on the lookout for inspired political posters. We had a faceless Tory once (just once? ) in South Somerset. And, back home, Sue Farrant (Lib-Dem) was turned in...

There's something about this place, this magical place. OK, so we have sun, sea and sand. And plenty of it. But Corfu is so much more. Despite all the obvious influences of its conquerors, the island is just like this graffiti on a hillside crash barrier. It assaults your senses, everywhere you go. This morning, the swallows dart in and out, looking for a suitable place to nest. Oh please come, please . There's a cuckoo in the olive groves, a cockerel crowing, dogs barking, a dove in a palm tree and sparrows chirping in a lemon tree laden with sweet-smelling blossom. Our neighbour is next door building an apothiki and his little Chewbacca dog, who is just getting used to a drastic haircut, has just popped over the say hello. The azure water is crystal clear down at Paleokastritsa. The monastery's beautiful gardens smell of cat pee but you can forgive them for that when you see what's being taken care of in a box. A door looks out onto the courtya...

I was making the rounds of my pelargoniums out on the terrace this morning. For the past few days, there has been the tell-tale sign of cat trying to scrabble in amongst the plants. But now, with plenty of souvlaki skewers sticking up bottomwards and a load of pepper put around the outside, it seems the cats have given the flowers a wide berth. And then, today, deep within the terracotta planter I discovered this. Here, have a closer look. It was nestling in an egg-shaped indentation in the soil between two plants. But there were no visible signs of whatever it was that put it there. No broken stems, no disturbed soil, nothing. Just a big, fat, hard, speckled egg. Mr Grigg put it in water to see if it floated. It didn't. It must be fresh then. Unless it's ceramic. But it doesn't feel like it. It's too big and white to have come from any of the hens next door. And, besides, they've never, ever ventured over the wall. And it's too small ...

Corfu is an island known for its diverse flora and fauna. It's where the young naturalist Gerald Durrell learned his trade. He wrote about it in the Corfu Trilogy, the most famous book of which is My Family and Other Animals . This rich diversity is everywhere you look. You just need to keep your ears and eyes open. One person who does this all the time is photographer  Giannis Gasteratos , who has given me permission to reproduce his pictures on my blog.  This is Giannis: And these are some of his photos: Hoopoe European pond terrapins Balkan wall lizard Common cuckoo Iris pseudachorus Male western marsh harrier Northern wheatears Orchid meadow Pheasant Poppies Ruff Short-toed snake eagle Yellow wagtail Flamingoes Agile frog Common shelducks He doesn't have a website but Giannis, an ornithologist, posts from time to time in the Corfu's Flora and Fauna Facebook group. I want this one for my...