Manic paw licking.

For some reason Wilf has started to lick his back paws with what appears to be a manic determination. He does it every year at this time - so it must be some form of allergic reaction. Has anyone else come across this problem? I wash his paws in a saline solution twice a day but it has no effect whatsoever.

Up to the local bar this morning. At last the tourists have started to arrive much to everyones delight. The Dutch and the Danes seem to have returned to their annual routine of migrating en masse to southern europe. Not a moment too soon - the hotels and restaurants are decidedly empty. Even the very fancy hotel on the coast that is always full has sent us an e-mail offering 35% off a room for nights between now and mid-August. Last year we were only able to get in, after a cancellation, in mid-September.

Swine flu mania continues to sweep Italy. In the supermarket the aisles were full of large displays selling disinfectant, face masks,and medical hand gel.

Bundles of energy

It's eight in the morning and already it's hot. The two troubadors are going to be kept in the deep shade outside by the pool until as late as possible this morning to make sure they are completely exercised and thereby avoid a repetition of yesterday afternoon. Keeping two supercharged Polish Lowland Sheepdog boyz inside on a scorching summers day is not the most relaxed of pastimes. Every toy in the arsenal was dragged out to see if it would distract their attention from the one overriding fact that they wanted to get out and chase lizards.Nothing worked.When the books say that PON's are a breed that need lots of exercise they are right.

Thankfully, 'the font of all knowledge' finally made it home last night and Wilf literally flew down to the car in a euphoria of greeting.His paws barely touched the ground as he shot off down the drive. It took four and a half hours for the 'font' to get back from the airport. There was a horrible accident on the motorway out of Rome with tailbacks of seven miles - two meat trucks had overturned on the central reservation, scattering carcasses all over both carriageways. Quite gruseome and just what you need in 40 degree temperatures! We dined outside at midnight and went to bed at two after much rebonding and ball throwing by moonlight.I'm hoping a late night coupled with an early morning start and copious exercise for the boyz will give us humans a quiet afternoon.

Our marvellous doctor in London came out with a sound and simple piece of diagnostic advice. If you're in the northern hemisphere and you are displaying flu symptoms then you probably have got swine flu - ordinarily, the height of the summer is simply not a time when flu is an issue so cases that appear now are pretty clear cut. The spread of the outbreak in the UK is proceeding exponentially.

Digby. Starting the day off at a gentle pace.

It's going to be a scorcher today - probably in the low 40's. We were out and about early enjoying the cool air , watching the balloonists floating above Todi and marvelling at the acrobatic skills of the falcons that are nesting along the drive. At 5.30 am it was 21 degrees which is about as hot as it gets on a good Scottish summer day.

We use the first three hours of the day to get everything done around the fields and the house before it gets too hot. The time just seems to whizz past in a burst of early morning activity. The lavender needs to be watered, the olive trees checked for signs of heat stress, and of course the two troubadors need to get enough exercise to last them through until it cools down again in the evening. I came across Digby flat on his back on the lawn outside the front door. He had fallen into a deep,happy sleep with a ball in his mouth.

Swine flu is back on the agenda. Everyone in the UK is to be given the 'flu' jab and if I understood the Italian morning news correctly so is the entire population of the EU. Why the sudden change? Last week we were told Tamiflu would be distributed and now we're all being innoculated.

Heat!

It was already 12 degrees at six this morning so we loaded the boyz in the back of the car and drove off to the mountains. Wilf and Digby view the mountain walk as a great treat - lots of new and unfamiliar smells. We were back for seven with the sun already high in the sky and pumping out heat - the scorching temperatures can't be too far away. Sometime in the next week or two I shall have to get the clippers out and shear the boyz ahead of the 35 degree heat - being boisterous males they naturally make life as difficult as possible during the trimming process and squirm and squeak as if their lives are being threatened.

We saw the first face mask yesterday in the village - swine flu panic has taken root in our small community. I read an interesting article yesterday saying that people can only have one major fear at a time . The volume of calls to environmental and terrorist help lines have plummeted in the last three days while the volume of calls to health lines has skyrocketed.

Can a day get any better?

Wilf has started his day on a high note - as we set off from the house on the morning walk he quickly found a partially eaten boiled egg left behind by one of the builders . After four days in the sun it must have just reached that gourmet level of canine putresence.By the time we noticed he was lagging behind the appetising article had been swallowed , leaving only a tell tale trail of small egg shell pieces as a clue to its existence. Naturally, the horrid day-glo plastic starfish with the annoying ( and miraculously still functioning ) squeaker joined us on the morning excursion.At this time in the morning the only sound , apart from the wheezing starfish, was the breeze rustling the leaves on the ash trees along the driveway.
The Italian morning news covered the Swine flu epidemic in great detail on its six o'clock bulletin. It can be said that faced with the choice between a cold factual appraisal of the outbreak or a burst of hypocondriacal hyperbole the media here has chosen the latter approach.I would expect the lines at the doctors surgeries here to be stretching round the block this morning amid stories of civilisation in the America's coming to a grinding halt.