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Retaining wall in progress | #week 7
Dmitris the Excavator and his team started to erect the reinforcement structure. After two weeks, more than 100 tonnes of stone had already been laid in the gabions. By hand, stone by stone. The work was unfortunately interrupted by rains every few days, but it looks like the risk of the road falling on our… Continue reading
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Architecture – decisions taken a year ago.
What we have learnt, Corfu’s traditional houses facades are mostly of plaster, less often of stone. The typical characteristics include arched arcades, stone window frames, shutters, simple windowless roofs and walls in one of literally several colors – neither white nor blue being one of them. The most common palettes are yellows, pinks, ochres and… Continue reading
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Films: Durrels
So much has already been written about the Durrell family, who arrived in Corfu a few years before the outbreak of the Second World War. The excellent series based on the excellent trilogy by Gerald Durell (a less acclaimed writer, but a great naturalist), is loved all over the world.On the island you can still… Continue reading
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Panta rei | #week 4
Corfu is known for its multi-day rains and flash floods. This is caused by air masses from the cold, high mountains of Epirus colliding with extremely humid and warm air from the Ionian Sea.Adjacent to the Meraki Hills is the rema – a deep gorge that is mostly dry. It is an extension of the… Continue reading
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Schrödinger’s equation | #week 3
We are stuck. Nothing is happening on the site. The purchased gabions are rusting away quietly, waiting for their time. Earthworks, concreting, electrical connection – not even contracted. The professional who has to reinforce the hill will not start work without a contract and an advance payment. It took a month to have this communicated.… Continue reading
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Books: Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else. This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. Probably everyone has watched Zorba… Continue reading
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Hill reinforcement | #week 1
A year ago, torrential rain caused a landslide in the upper right-hand corner of the plot. It came very close to destroying the road above, so we were lucky that didn’t happen. However, together with our engineer, we made the expensive decision to reinforce this part of the hill with stones in gabions. There was… Continue reading
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Less
Noise, city, stress. Things. News, politics. Pollution. Junk food. Pretending. Medicines. Selfies. Talking heads. Expectations.Addictions. Unwanted, dusty relationships. Haste. Irritation. Anger. Ugliness, thrash trucks, Netflix. Meraki Hills is a place where there will be less of all this. Our house, surrounded by woods, backed by a solid hill, looking boldly at the sea and the… Continue reading
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How we get there
Living in Lisbon. A house in the Alentejo within roaring distance of the ocean waves. Crete, ah, Crete! Corfu. We were looking for culture, friendliness, smells, history, flavours, to put our spiritual and bodily needs in a beautiful and meaningful context. Bye, bye Portugal Such were our dilemmas. We regretfully said goodbye to Portugal in… Continue reading
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Books: John Fowles, Magus
Goodness and beauty may be separable in the north, but not in Greece. Between skin and skin there is only light. John Fowles wrote his masterpiece after a year spent on Spetses, where he used to teach English in late ’50 of XX century. Somewhere between multifaceted yet captivating storyline meanders within the magic of Greece.… Continue reading
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