The world from my window

In front rooms and in coffee bars, on sun loungers and all through the internet and the media, there is confusion and differences of opinion. There are so many aspects to this crisis. If I hear anyone nod sagely that the Greeks are at fault ‘because they are lazy’ I will personally insert an Olympic-sized discus up their rear end. Read more on The Lady Shed , for which I'm writing today. That's about it. Love Maddie x

I turn my back for five minutes and find my husband in bed with another female. Arty has climbed up onto the mattress and is having a cuddle, blatant in her enjoyment as she rolls over to have her tummy tickled. She's not even allowed on the sofa, let alone the bed. 'Don't look at me like that,' Mr Grigg says. 'She's been so good on this trip, I couldn't refuse.' We can see Corfu from the cabin windows. Kalimera Kerkyra.   Someone is keen to get going. We stop for a comfort break, have a quick paddle in the sea and then we're off, up the road, through the village with its single traffic light and down into the olive groves and up into the plateia. We stop the car. Elvis, who runs the post office and who has this nickname for his unfailing ability to grab a microphone and croon whenever there is a panygyri, is sitting outside the shop. I wave that special Greek backhand wave and he smiles and says kalimera . And then he realise...

'I've got a plan,' Mr Grigg says, when he gets back from walking Arty around the block while I work on my laptop to the beat of high-speed Italian internet on our way to Corfu. I need some light relief. We've been driving through Europe in a heatwave these last few days. A heatwave, and with a hairy, panting dog in the back of the car. This dog, which you would think was crossed with Muppet but is, in fact, pure pedigree, has coped well, especially in her cooling coat. Not so us, though, in traffic jams and searing heat in the busiest week we could ever have chosen in northern Europe. 'Everyone is going on their holidays,' our hostess explains, as we sign in to the latest overnight stop on our way to the ferry at Ancona. 'Anyway,' Mr Grigg says, as we bask in the cool of an air conditioned room. 'We're going to wash the dog, have a shower and then put her to bed. And then we're going out for a bite to eat and then we're cyclin...

  As the future of Greece hangs on a souvlaki stick, I wonder how things will pan out. So much has been said about this crisis, nothing I say will make any difference. I don't know much about economics but my heart tells me that the Greek people have been served a pretty raw deal over the years. Corrupt politicians and irresponsible lenders have connived to make a complete pig's ear of the situation. And while all this ridiculous posturing goes on in Northern Europe, ordinary people are suffering. Some terrible stories have emerged as the arguments in the Eurozone rage on. But I am a firm believer in the essential good of humanity. Take Thom Feeney's recent efforts. As I write, 106,713 euros have been raised by 5,325 people in four days through a crowd-funding initiative. When he set it up initially, more than 100,000 ordinary people from 182 countries raised almost €2 million for the people of Greece. Says Thom: "This is a humanitarian crisis, not just...

Some 330 years ago, ancestors of mine were on a battlefield in Somerset, engaged in a hopeless fight. It became known as The Monmouth Rebellion . At least five members of the Herring family (to whom I'm related on my father's side) from Pitminster, Somerset, were fighting for the Duke of Monmouth. William Crabb, a 'gentleman from Ashill', from whom I'm directly descended on my mother's side, was also at Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685. It was the last battle on English soil. It was an heroic but hopeless attempt to overthrow an unpopular king, the Duke's uncle, James II. Monmouth, the oldest of King Charles II's illegitimate children, landed at Lyme Regis on 11 June 1685 with a party of eighty men. He gathered a significant proportion of the population of West Dorset, East Devon and Somerset along the way. He was handsome, a proven hero on the battlefield and popular with Westcountry folk who had met him on a charm offensive of the region a few year...