Happy 2010!

I wish to all of you happiness, health and freedom! May we see for 2010 a free Iran, a free Palestine and a Silvio-less Italia in a better world. 2010 starting with a full moon, a symbol of beauty in Persian culture, I wish you a lot of beauty in your lives and in your hearts.

ΠΑΛΙΝ ΑΚΟΥΣΑΤΕ ΑΡΧΟΝΤΕΣ (ΚΥΠΡΟΥ)

Garden physic

What kind of gravitation theory would Newton have discovered if he had received one of those leaves (and not an apple) upon his head during the most legendary nap in the History of physic?

Worshippers

God does not like to be worshipped by an ignorant man who imitates someone else. Gibran Khalil Gibran, Khalil the heretic

Dry Christmas in Venezia

This picture was taken some years ago, in Venezia, in piazza San Marco:

It would have been quite harder to take such a picture nowadays as piazza San Marco is a lake now: "acqua alta" as they call it there… Another consequence of the global warming? Another global warning?

New traditions

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΓΕΝΝΑΤΑΙ ΔΟΞΑΣΑΤΕ A Christmas lemon tree: we do what we can with what we have… But a real lemon tree with real lemons!
BON NADAL A TOTHOM!!!

Els Reis de l'Orient i l'estrella

A simple star as Christmas decoration in our street… Not much but it is more than enough for our small village in this (end of) crisis: no need to spend millions for that. Moreover a single star was enough to guide the Kings from the East to Bethlehem. ΑΝΑΡΧΟΣ ΘΕΟΣ ΚΑΤΑΒΗΒΗΚΕΝ

Fish riding

The best way to find/join some mermaid!

Fractals

Fractals? Chaos? Which theory should we use as a model for the growing of branches of trees?

Something definitively non-linear.

Snow Leopard

And it is not an add for the new OS of my computer: winter is definitively here and cats in the gardens have to adapt to this new playground.

Pastoral eastern philosophy

Yin & yang cows:

And indeed these cows look so zen…

Zoom or not zoom?

By zooming in we have a beautiful view of this fountain…

but we simply miss these trees with their warmest reddish leaves!

We cannot have everything: life is a series of choices!

Fairy tale swan

What should I have done to transform this swan in the beautiful princess she once was?

Italian balls

Il suo alleato, Bossi, ne ha elogiato «le palle», argomento decisivo per tutti e due.
Rossana Rossanda,
Il Manifesto, 12/12/2009

Quando Fabrizio Corona l’altra sera in tivù ha preso a cazzotti un muro (dimostrando scientificamente che palle e cervello non comunicano), la sua fidanzata Belen Rodriguez ha chiamato il programma per dirsi orgogliosa di amare uno «con le palle».
Alessandro Robecchi,
Il Manifesto, 13/12/2009

Autumn sky

Imagine how depressing it can be when such black clouds cover all the sky and we cannot see any blue…

Sleeping garden

Woods waiting for next spring/summer to support some climbing vegetables: beans &c.

Series of trees

Trees

Winnie weekend

A baby-sitting night for Saint-Nicolas (patron des écoliers…) with my nephews here, with lots of Winnie’s for them to make their stay nicer: a Winnie light to make their dream sweet a Winnie & co tablecloth for breakfast… and a good cappuccino. But this one was for me!

Το αγκάθι

Πρωινά λαχανιασμένα rendez vous ματαιωμένα δρόμο παίρνεις δρόμο αφήνω κόμπο δένεις κόμπο λύνω στην ηλιοφεγγιά σε φτάνω στην αστροφεγγιά σε χάνω Όποιος φοράει τη θλίψη στέμμα ίσως ποτέ του δεν θα μάθει τι δρόμο ανοίγει ένα ψέμα τι μέλι κρύβει το αγκάθι Στου Απρίλη τις ταράτσες ονειροπαρμένες φάτσες σκάβουν στη σιωπή λαγούμι με τσιγάρο και με ρούμι σαν φαντάροι απολυμένοι που κανείς δε περιμένει Όποιος φοράει τη θλίψη στέμμα ίσως ποτέ του δεν θα μάθει τι δρόμο ανοίγει ένα βλέμμα τι μέλι κρύβει το αγκάθι Μόρτισσα καραμελάτη τσακιστή και μυρωδάτη με κερνάει σαν νυχτώνει του έρωτά της το αφιόνι κρύβει η νύχτα το μαχαίρι και μας παίρνει απ' το χέρι

Humans or passports?

Reflexioné, también, que toda incertidumbre era preferible a la de un diálogo con esos consanguíneos del caos, a quienes la infinita repetición de la interesante fórmula soy argentino* exime del honor y de la piedad. J. L Borges ANOTACIÓN AL 23 DE AGOSTO DE 1944, Otras inquisiciones

* one can of course replace argentino by any other nationality…

White candies

	White candies… for black swans maybe.

Black swans

It was the 1st time I saw black swan in real… and maybe even the 1st time I just saw black swans at all!

Hidden museum

If you want to see what is hidden behind those trees… just open this page in the blogTHESSALONIKI DAILY PHOTO by Κόστα: he is lucky enough to live in Θεσσαλονίκη all year long and took a “leaveless winter” picture of this museum…

Departure?

"Tutto considerato al mondo ci sono solo due tipi di uomini: quelli che stanno a casa e quelli che non ci stanno." (Kipling)

Actually Kipling could as well have said:

those who look at the sea day: and night: and those who take the boat:

I have read this quote by Kipling on the site of the wonderful broadcast: Siti terrestri, marini e celesti, on RAI Radio 3: every sunday at 23:30 or every week via their podcast. Siti terrestri, marini e celesti Dalle miniere di sale di Taudenni, alle profondità abissali degli oceani; da una piramide Maya sepolta nella giungla ai miasmi della discarica di Malagrotta; dal tappeto verde dei più prestigiosi casinò d'Europa, alla tomba di Jim Morrison, alla Cloaca massima di Roma; dal rogo della biblioteca di Alessandria alle pire funebri dei ghat di Benares, il viaggio di "Siti" si snoda attraverso una serie infinita di luoghi geografici e immaginari in un caleidoscopio di suggestioni olfattive, sonore e letterarie. Un programma di Silvestro e Guidarello Pontani, a cura di Loredana Rotundo. If you want to explore this world and discover other worlds, you know what to do…

Another sunset

A more classical one with its “tomato soup with cream” coloured clouds… Someone cooking tomato soup for some battalion? Napoleon’s army spent a few night here before the Waterloo battle… Some kind of vegetarian sacrifice: cooking tomato soup for Gods instead of killing bulls?

Natural dark pink

I simply couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this sky. Dark pink? Purple? I don’t even know what name to give to this colour…

Maybe viola: the sky became fan of la Fiorentina last night and it helped them to win.

Or maybe there was just some big explosion in a factory producing blackberry marmalade…

Anti-who?

También recuerdo con algún estupor cierta asamblea que se convocó para confundir el antisemitismo. Varias razones hay para que yo no sea un antisemita; la principal es ésta: la diferencia entre judíos y no judíos me parece, en general, insignificante; a veces, ilusoria o imperceptible. Nadie, aquel día, quiso compartir mi opinión; todos juraron que un judío alemán difiere vastamente de un alemán. Vanamente les recordé que no otra cosa dice Adolfo Hitler; vanamente insinué que una asamblea contra el racismo no debe tolerar la doctrina de una Raza Elegida; vanamente alegué la sabia declaración de Mark Twain: “Yo no pregunto de qué raza es un hombre; basta que sea un ser humano; nadie puede ser nada peor” (The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, pág. 204). J. L Borges Dos Libros, Otras inquisiciones

Σκυλάκια

	Small dogs? Indeed, if you take one of those flowers and push on their sides, they open and close ‘their mouth’ like a dog barking… Still, I prefer not to touch them and share those pictures with you… the only thing left from summer’s garden and its colours.

Outoor guest

Here is our guest in the garden… where he sometimes meets other cats from neighbouring houses. Autumn, soon winter: not much left in the garden… no coloured flower; just some green: grass, leaves &c.

Indoor guest

We finally found where this cat came from. Or at least what is the last stage of his odyssey before arriving here… The baker had somehow adopted him for some time but the law does not allow them to have a cat in the bakery. They had to close their doors to this so nice guest. And he just tried to find another house: on the road again. My nephew loves him very much even if he is still somehow afraid. But the cat too seems somehow afraid as he often goes and sits under the tables. My niece is “in love” with him but his father does not even want to see a cat and this is why they did not take it at home.

To be continued…