We've received some fantastic images – from Yorkshire to France – in our recent Tour de France assignment, and the best of them were compiled in this gallery. A massive thanks to everyone who took part.
We stay in Yorkshire for this very interesting story from Guardian reader, PsychedelicAmphibian. We have been asking people to share their stories about the discrimination people face over their accents.
Yorkshire - Loud, Proud & Elequent
I was raised and still live in the rural Pennines. I have quite a thick Yorkshire accent. However, I work in a profession, the centre of which tends to gravitate towards London in the UK. Now, the colleagues I may encounter when visiting there sound very upper class to me (and due to the nature of the profession, often are). I can tell when I open my mouth, they are often very surprised - especially as sometimes they have previously encountered my work (which includes lecturing, published articles and a prize-winning text book.) It obviously has never occurred to them that anyone with such a strong "Last of the Summer Wine" accent could produce any worthwhile written work in the English language. Trouble is, I find this quite amusing and can't help myself playing on it, often cranking up the accent to full-on flat-capped whippet-owning maximum. Probably because of the evidence of my work combined with the fact I can look pretty hard if I try, I've never actually encountered any problems with the hoorays once the initial shock subsides.
Having gone on for years, this has left me with a huge appreciation of accents. I love to hear anybody with an accent and never judge them on it. To me there is nothing worse than the BBC-type geographically inert mid-atlantic delivery. This might, I suppose sound like inverse snobbery but as this very article demonstrates, the UK is still conditioned by centuries of class based domination originating from the south-east. It seems that the only people concerned with the use of 'correct' English are those who have historically used it as a tool with which to rule.
The news has again been full of terrible scenes of the conflict between Palestine and Israel. Amidst the stories of this crisis, we were sent a photo from Usti, a social photography project working in Palestine. They are a group of Palestinian and international volunteers who have been building a mural of Palestinian faces to try and offer a more positive message.
Photography Mural Project for The People Of Palestine
Editors note: This is image has been uploaded on behalf of the social photography project Usti CB
Usti is a social photography project, that captures the most beautiful part of Palestine, its People. Asking: What makes you happy? snap.
#weRpalestine
One of those involved in the Usti project writes:
One of the volunteers was explaining the project idea to a gentleman when he said that this is the first time a project like this has happens that highlights hope not misery, life not death and beauty not violence. Collecting 400 pictures was extremely difficult because generally people here are not open to taking pictures by random strangers but in the past 3 days of making the mural we’ve witnessed lineups of people wanting to take picture for the next mural.
We have also been receiving accounts showing the terror and frustration for those living in Israel, who just want to see an end to the conflict. Bukharin shares his experience:
My Week With The Missiles
I do not want to compete with what's happening to people in Gaza. There's no doubt that it's far worse there than it is in Israel. But here's my experience.
My wife comes from Ashkelon in the south, near Gaza. There they've had rockets hitting them every ten minutes or so, with only a couple of seconds warning to get to shelter. For the past week I've had my mother-in-law and sister-in-law staying here from Ashkelon. So we've had six of us here in quite a small flat. My kids are 7 months and 2 years and 8 months old. Their nursery doesn't have a secure area (ie. bomb/missile-proof). For the first few days both stayed home. Now my son's doing half-days while I stay at home with my baby daughter. They've said that they wouldn't wake them if there's a warning siren, so I pick him up after lunch and he sleeps in his bedroom, which is also a reinforced shelter. We play a game called the "weeeyoooo weeeyoooo game". If we hear the siren, the weeeyoooo weeeyoooo, then we go quickly to his room. He loves the game. My mother-in-law panics and starts rushing. The first thing I do is remind her that we have 90 seconds to get there, so to be calm.
On Friday my wife and I ventured out with the kids. After our first turning the siren sounded. She grabbed the baby and I grabbed the boy and we ran to a tall wall. She lay above the baby; I protected my son. Afterwards we saw that the baby had been eating earth the whole time. For my son it was exiting. Because we haven't shown him our fear, he enjoys it.
Here we have a few large missiles every day, rather then many rockets. After the sirens we hear large booms, normally it's the Iron Dome defense system intercepting the missile. Then we know it's safe, wait a couple of minutes just in case, then emerge.
It may sound petty in the middle of a war with death and destruction (again) in Gaza and fear and trauma in the South, but a major disappointment for me is Neil Young. We had tickets and now it's been cancelled. Two years ago during the last Gaza war the Pixies cancelled and this time Neil Young, though this time it's for safety reasons. I'm gutted.
For me the missiles quickly became the new normal. My wife and I moved our mattress onto the floor of my son's room and sleep there with the kids; my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are almost ever-present. I've decided to avoid the TV and radio news. Israeli news is depressing and understandably slanted; other news which covers Gaza in more graphic detail is too much for me. I'd rather focus on what's happening directly in front of me and hope that it ends soon. Everyone I know just wants peace and quiet, for us, but also for the Palestinians.
From conflict to the healing power of gardens – as Life & style launched their new assignment: How does your garden grow - we were reminded of this photograph shared by Eujin Byun:
Refugee Garden
Mohammed, 80 years old, has this beautiful garden in front of his tent. I told him that his garden looks 10 times better than mine. He said he has nothing to do but gardening and it also gives him some hope, hope that one day he will go back to his country, Syria and make beautiful garden there. He promised to invite me to his garden one day. :)
This week, Victoria Buchan showed us how gardening is so important for her mother:
Tomato growing
Gardening as therapy for my mother aged 80 who has Meniere's disease.
The tomatoes taste wonderful too.
Guardian Cities set our readers the challenge of sending in artwork that portrays and celebrates your city. Holly Brodie shared her oil painting ' The politician, the protester and the party-goer' claiming it shows that people can't help coming together despite taking different paths in life:
'The politician, the protester and the party-goer', oil, 40x50cm
In London, people can’t help but converge, in spite of divergent priorities.
For the Life & style's 'Do something Brainy' series we asked if you had seen any interesting nocturnal creatures recently. Phil Wilson certainly has, as this fascinating image of a Greater Horseshoe Bat proves:
Greater Horseshoe Bat at dusk
Taken a couple of days ago in Buckfastleigh, Devon
And from bats in the UK to hippos in West Africa. There have been plenty of interesting animals featured in our July Wildlife on your doorstep assignment. But Paul Absalon's picture of semi-submerged hippos particularly caught our eye this week:
The heatwave in the UK means we've been getting some great pictures in the Travel assignment asking readers to share their best summer selfies. ID9484278 sent this lovely image of her and Ula enjoying both the sun and an ice-cream:
Me and Ula
Living it up in the sunshine with ice cream, fountains and a picnic.
It's great weather for walking too and we've been asking you to describe your favourite walks with us. The best of them are being featured, every month, as a cut out and keep in Do Something magazine. Bob Weatherhead sent in this photo showing a walk through Christ Church Meadow, in Oxford. We're hoping to see a lot more of your walking routes and please include as much detail as possible.
The Cherwell in Christ Church Meadow
A favourite walk is through Christ Church Meadow from the rear of Botanic Garden to the Thames
And finally the Teacher Network have been encouraging teachers to share photos of how they're planning to relax during the summer holidays. Not surprisingly perhaps this has proved to be rather popular. None more idyllic and relaxing so far than TheLostTeacher's view of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco from a hammock:
Atlas Mountains Morocco
I'm in a hammock in the Atlas Mountains. My wife and I are the only people here. It's so quiet. No essays to mark. Marvellous.
GuardianWitness is now on Facebook, as we wanted to share your contributions with a wider audience. Since launching we've had some really interesting contributions. Have a look at our page and get involved.
New assignments this week
GSCE results: share your school success stories
A-level results: share your school success stories
Commonwealth Games 2014: share your photos and experiences
A love letter to African cinema – share your stories and photos
And there's always Weather view, if you'd like the chance to get your photo published in the paper.
Thanks to everyone who's been sharing their photos, videos and and stories with us this week. You can see all the contributions – or add your own - on GuardianWitness.
