Hot

Men making fire

It's so hot here, 40C yesterday afternoon. We went out on the boat with a couple of friends and headed off to a small beach on a neighbouring island for a barbecue. Being on the water was absolutely the best place to be, and then we spent most of the day just wallowing in the water thinking how lucky we were to live in such a beautiful place. The only hitch was the disposable barbecue we had didn't want to light so Guy and Chris spent a very very long time trying to coax some life into it while Nicky and I made helpful suggestions. It managed to cook a few sausages but gave up on the pork chops.
I'm up early this morning (6am) as it's the only time of the day when you can get things done around the house without melting. So now it's off to feed the hens followed by a spot of ironing!

Haircut

I finally got round to giving Nancy a haircut. Her fringe was so long she could hardly see and after every walk I had to spend ages getting bits of twig and forest out of her coat. Also it's so hot here she is more comfortable. It took a long time and lots of treats to get it done and I think she looks beautiful!

Before

After ( this is her long suffering look)

Seeing the world without a fringe

Happy Anniversary

Two years ago today we were all in Dublin for Jennie and Shane's amazing wedding. Happy Anniversary!

Messing about in boats

We've had a wonderful fortnight with Jennie, Shane and Shane's parents June and Brian. The weather was great and the sea calm enough to go out in the boat without me shrieking in terror at any waves.

Chaos

Milou, the young dog we look after occasionally is back for a short visit and it's a bit manic here. All the cats apart from Joyce have decided that being in the house with a crazy dog is not a good idea and are sulking outside. Joyce is sitting determinedly on the back of the sofa looking at Milou with great disdain and every now and then swiping at her with sharp claws. This sets Milou off on a barking frenzy which in turn starts the other dogs off. I am sitting on the balcony with a cold beer trying to ignore it. Difficult. Thank goodness we don't have neighbours to complain about the noise.

                                           Joyce pretending dogs don't exist

Hide and seek

Some of my chickens lay where they're meant to - in the nesting boxes and then there's a group of naughty hens who (despite having had their wings clipped) fly into the garden and find secret little places to nest in. So we play a daily game of "hunt the nest". And then once we find it and take away piles of eggs they promptly find somewhere new, and so the game continues. I've just found the latest one. There is one very angry hen out there now complaining dreadfully that they've been discovered!

Last class

Today I taught my junior class for the last time. I've been teaching them for three years and they have been funny, smart, naughty, challenging but overall incredibly rewarding and I've learnt so much from them. And hopefully they've learnt quite a lot from me. After three years they are all pretty confident English speakers and their favourite game is I Spy which they try and persuade me to play with them whenever they get bored with grammar lessons.Here we are all together before we went to buy ice cream.