identities, journeys, fictions away from the roots
It's been two months since I was last by the sea. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and I have certainly missed this friend. I'm at Horsey Gap in Norfolk to visit the grey seal colony that breeds and pups here every year. The part of the beach that I enter from the... Continue Reading →
Hottest day of the year in England and Wales. And Spain and France. Unnatural. It’s still warm in the house when I go to bed, and I hear mozzies and flies and bees that mistook indoors for outdoors when they saw the light of my lamp. Yesterday’s mozzies and flies and bees lie dead on... Continue Reading →
I've been going to Riga almost every year since 2016 (pandemic excluded). The first time I hoped for a sense of inherited belonging, that I'd feel at home in my ancestral city. It wasn't without disappointment that I realised that I'm not Latvian, but Swedish-Latvian, and don't belong in Riga, but belong where I create... Continue Reading →
Diesel, faeces, fish bone, fruit, leftovers, plastic polluted water. The bay is paradise but at a high cost. No rain since May, forest fires out of control in the east, and a rise in Covid cases. Greece is a very old country, where no water, island or mountain remains unchartered or untouched. And it's a... Continue Reading →
Sivota Bay, Tuesday 24 August 2021. Morning There's a copy of Aesop's Fables in the boat library. The one about the Mother, the Child and the Raven sticks out to me. A mother takes her child to the seers, who predict that it will die young from a raven (Greek: korax). The mother shuts the... Continue Reading →
Villas in Sivota Bay at night. Photo by Jessica Zarins, August 2021 The villas in the mountains, so beautifully located. An L shape has been cut straight into the hill, and is filled by three homes in sleek shapes, whitewashed walls, locally sourced stones and greenery growing on the roofs. It keeps the heat out,... Continue Reading →
Sivota Bay, Lefkas. Tuesday 24 August 2021, afternoon Spending time with my parents for the first time in nine months is comfortable, safe and relaxing in a childlike way. My mother pays for lunch, my father pays for dinner. When there are sounds outside the boat at night, my father goes up to check. When... Continue Reading →
The swallows, the flowers, the morning light. Cigarette smoke, petrol fumes, coffee vapour and spray-on sun lotion. Dutch, Italian, French, Serbian, English, German, Swedish and of course Greek. Here as in every village, the widows still wear their habits of mourning, despite some of them not being much older than my suntan-wearing parents. Cat on... Continue Reading →
Sunday 22 August 2021. Evening The scents from the mountains and the forest caress their way down to the boat. Olive trees, oregano, pale ivy, cypress, grapevines, wild onions, and pine. And sea. And dry clay. The moon is full, completely orange and rises in the eastern entrance to the bay. My cycle matches that... Continue Reading →
Sunday 22 August 2021, morning The sun is still hidden behind the mountains in this lake-like bay. Slowly it makes its way higher, colouring the Mediterranean pines peach. A rooster heralds its approach, confirming to last night’s party-goers and today’s day-afterers which time of day it is. The distant church bells confirms which day of... Continue Reading →
Branches 