Summer normally brings with it a collection of visitors, one of the advantages and sometimes disadvantages of living in such a beautiful country. There is a tendency for these people to sometimes forget this is our home and visits weekly to the water park or the Baths of Aphrodite can sometimes lose their appeal.

This week we have had a young lady we were asked by to be her guardian, following her divorce from her father and her parent’s separation. Sky has really balanced herself now and she has settled in to a routine at the London Fashion College which she has been studying at now for 12 months. She is majoring in shoe design and we can really see a future star in the making.

 

       

We have also had our dear friends Carol & Brian from Bristol visiting. They purchased a home in readiness for their retirement and are here for three weeks just breaking in slowly to retirement mode. Gary & Wilma, dear friends from Manchester have called in to see us, enjoying one of our housekeepers lovely Sri Lankan curries, so good was it, they returned the following day for a second helping.

 

      

Next week we have Dipak and family and then it’s time for our big event, the Hills daughters christening (Tamsin) Both Craig & I are Godparents, a responsibility we will have to take very seriously, we don’t want Tony & Pauline on our case over Christmas lunch over at their place, telling us we have been irresponsible Godparents.

So, did I say something about summer!!!!!! This period in the middle of the year that is consumed in other peoples holidays. That period were we are lucky if we see a full week of sunshine without interruption from yet more guests, or a time when your time is never your own.

 

     

Maybe next time Outer Mongolia would be lovely to buy a home in, I wonder then would we still see the same number of visitors. Why is it, they never want to come in the winter, Cyprus has so much to offer and really is at it’s best. The flowers are in bloom, the temperatures are more acceptable to sightseeing and the tourist attractions are not bursting at the seams with school children. Goodness me, why would anybody want to go away in the middle of summer. We had a rule that “no visitors in July or August” at least this way we were guaranteed a summer of our own, but to be honest, we love seeing people and we really enjoy their company, but maybe not all together as cries of Basil Faulty come to mind.

 

    

So we will continue to entertain and we will continue to pretend we love the sights we see every time we do the tourist run, but one thing is for sure, when our home in Thailand is finished, that will be our very own little winter hideaway. Mind you, how could we exclude our dear friends from Roxmann Dogs, who this year entertained us with their dog show stories during their summer visit.

Well, the day starts as usual with glorious sunshine beating down on our hill top villa, the Mediterranean sea on the horizon and the most spectacular site of all, that of our family of Great Danes waiting to have their morning feed and their first run and exercise of the day on the mountain. (by clicking on any photo, you will automatically be taken to that particular set to see more) or click on any of the “LATEST” items down on the right hand column to see what we have been up to, or just click on the rosettes on the top right to find out about our multi winning Grand Champion Zsacharias;

How very fortunate we feel to be in such a privileged position, sharing our lives with each other and having our Great Danes as wonderful companions.

Feeding starts in earnest at around 0730 hrs, always taking the Alpha male first, followed by the more dominant members in their respective pecking orders. Somehow, I always appear to be last to sit down for breakfast, so that just about sums up what my position is over the dogs (very low down the list) but we would not have it any other way, as our dogs will always come first over anything we do.

 

We have one person responsible for the feeding and that tends to be me. This way I and only I can monitor the food levels correctly given and eaten by the Danes. Food has been a little erratic in it’s consumption these past couple of weeks, partly due to the fact that we have two of our lovely bitches who have just come through their season, which means the dogs have had other things on their mind, plus the temperatures and weather conditions have been hitting well in to the high 30c, which again is enough to put anybody off food. We are at the end of the bitches season now and hopefully a return back to normal eating habits. All dogs now happily fed, watered, walked and exercised, it’s time for them to find their spot to settle and relax after their start to the day. The picture above is typical of the sort of morning they are about to have. All happy together and mostly out of the mid-day sun. We like to leave them to relax when the weather is hot, but in the early evening, when the sun has gone down and the temperatures more acceptable to learning conditions, we take a ride down to the harbour which is normally quite busy. We do a few practise rounds of show work, normally atracting a little audience and then we let the dogs socialise and pose for photographs with the tourists. It’s a really good way of getting the dogs used to noise and crowds and they love all the attention. We are also very fortunate that our beautiful villa adjoins a spectacular mountain which is ideal for building stamina, building muscle and strengthening bones as we run them to the top when fully matured. Oh!!!!!!!! I always say, when I come back, I would like for it to be as a house cat or a Great Dane. To me it just sums up the sort of life we bestow upon our animals as something we to would like to experience in afterlife (here’s hoping). *** Hello wonderful guests! We’re really enjoying your comments and we’ve already starting posting more entries to our blog. Click here or click on ‘home’ in the top right of this site to bring you to our main page which lists all our entries in date order! Hope to hear from more of you soon. Don’t forget to forward the link to your friends for them to enjoy. xx