Tax violations in Greece most common in Corfu and Santorini

From Neos Kosmos

"Tax evasion continues to be rife in Greece. This was proven by the country’s public revenue authority AADE last month, when for the first month of summer, it sent inspectors out to popular tourist destinations across the country, both on the mainland and islands. Over 7,700 businesses were inspected in total, with the highest occurrence witnessed on the islands Corfu and Santorini. Corfu topped the list, with six out of every 10 businesses checked found to be violating the law. While Santorini was a close second, with 56 per cent".

The imperial fringe: Ottoman art in Corfu

From The Daily Sabah, Matt Hanson

U.S.- China Trade Negotiations Resume (NPR)

Listen here: NPR's David Greene talks to David Rennie, Beijing bureau chief for The Economist, about the trade talks between the U.S. and China. Another round of talks resumed Tuesday in Shanghai.


Also here: Months After Talks Broke Down, U.S.-China Trade Negotiations Resume

UK: Online shopping codes; new anti-fraud rules

From MailOnline - Online shopping: "within weeks, new anti-fraud rules mean shoppers will need a security code to buy online but retailers and banks aren't ready for the changes...Critics say banks have not done enough to prepare shoppers for the changes. The new system requires customers to use an access code at the check-out".

The Newt, Somerset (+ Bruton, Castle Cary, Batcombe, Yarlington)

More Castle Cary than Bruton?

The Newt in Somerset, Bruton BA7 7NG


The Newt in Somerset


Trip Advisor comments


From Bruton Town website


I am curious about The Newt, but I reserve judgement. Having grown up close to Hadspen House during the nineteen fifties and sixties, I remember the view of the country house as it was then, when the nearby Stag's Head pub at Yarlington (our weekend regular for over twenty years) was a delightful traditional country pub with a skittles alley, and there was a golf course in Yarlington where my father would play and we would walk.


How my sleepy Somerset idyll became nothing of the sort, Mariella Frostrup

"The photographer Don McCullin, who moved to the area 30 years ago to escape the hurly-burly of London life, still shakes his head at how the place he was drawn to for peaceful solitude has become a magnet to those seeking the opposite...Nowadays thanks to the zest and imagination of so many locals, who’ve created a multitude of new ventures, the area can feel overrun. There’s festivals, pop-ups and Packhorse Fairs. Now The Newt in Somerset – a further billionaire fantasy project this time from luxury South African hoteliers Babylonstoren – is about to open, it seems the town’s future as a destination for those seeking artistic inspiration, plush hospitality and local crafts and clothes in some of the most ancient and beautiful countryside is secure".


Photo of Don McCullin, Bruton, by Joel Meadows: 'Don McCullin, Bruton, Somerset, 9th November 2015'


Bruton Dovecote, Jeff Bevan photos, Following My Feet

More about Batcombe :

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/interiors-inside-the-home-of-mariella-frostrup-hdb7d7c50

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11496477/The-Somerset-town-that-celebrities-just-cant-keep-away-from.html

*****

From The Sunday Times Home Section, on the new country clubs and The Newt (Zoe Dare Hall, July 28, 2019)

"The sound of birdsong is interrupted by the crunch of Range Rover Evoques on gravel, with a caravan of Ocado vans close behind...The Newt in Somerset...opening next month...is set to be a magnet for a certain crowd."


The Stag's Head Inn and Restaurant now

Poland: No More UK garbage

Poland won't take UK garbage any more
From DW: "Racing to meet an EU recycling target, the waste market in Poland is booming. But Warsaw is increasingly fed up with illegally imported foreign waste, much of it from the UK".

Islands of the Mind – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Corfu; Durrells

By Áine Ryan, Irish Times

Extract:

"Thus, the fact that Nancy’s daughter (not by Durrell), author Joanna Hodgkin joined us for lunch and made a presentation in the White House was very important in the balancing of Nancy’s silence and subjugation, as it were, in Prospero’s Cell. Moreover, it provided some gender balance to some of the other presentations where the reverence towards Lawrence Durrell’s literary genius conspicuously ignored his deeply flawed nature and objectification of women, which from a feminist perspective should have been addressed in the round to explore the central theme of the festival".

Breathing Forests, Seen From the Sky

From Next Observer, Facebook

J.M.W. Turner in Bridport; Bridport Museum until 28 September, 2019

29 June until 28 September (event details)

From the Exhibition Catalogue (above)

From my lecture on Art and the Dorset Landscape at the Dorset Country Museum, 30 April 2014 (based on the draft of my unpublished book with the same title, 2012-2013):

SLIDE 8 - After Turner, Bridport, Dorsetshire, Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England, 1826.

"Eric Shanes (1981) writes "In Bridport he demonstrates the town's principal product (rope) and by so doing creates a line that unifies the work". He adds that "Turner... shows the rope being used by men warping a brig into the harbour. David Burnett describes the image as "Turner's dramatic but romantic interpretation of a shipwreck at West Bay, Bridport". I consulted David Marler, a nautical expert who shares Burnett's opinion that this is a shipwreck, on account of the ship's broadside position, its rigging, the direction of the wind, the long lines from the waist of the ship sent downwind, and other factors such as the waves".

West Bay/Bridport? Tate.

Greece: Property Taxes (ENFIA)

Greek Reporter: Property Taxes to Be Reduced For Greek Businesses and Individuals

Dorset Images (Random); Cerne Abbas, Moreton, Dorchester, Maiden Castle, Portland

Old Dorset With Good Friends from Japan

We've known Yoshinori and Kyoko for forty-one years. Yoshinori is from the Snow Country, Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture. Kyoko is from Tokyo; they live in Yokohama. They first visited Dorset in 1979, when they met my mother and grandmother in Bridport (West Bay). On that occasion they also went to Hardy's Cottage and to Corfe Castle. Kyoko is a great fan of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' . This time we introduced them to the work of William Barnes, and we watched the DVD of Hardy's "Wessex Tales" (I'm not quite sure what they made of the first story,  'The Withered Arm'). It was quite a packed five-day visit.

Some photos by Yoshinori and Kyoko: