Today is the sort of day when I wish I were outside with my crossword puzzle rather than in here staring at a computer screen. The leaves are clinging on stubbornly to their branches and I’m still seeing plenty of geckos darting about showing no sign of slowing down as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler.

As I begin to write this newsletter on the first day of July, it occurs to me that instead of moaning about the long queues on roads and in supermarkets, we should be looking forward to two months of breathing-space and rejoicing in the fact that it’s Summer. I may be in a minority here but I rather like the holiday atmosphere everywhere. Busy markets, bars and restaurants. The camp-sites are alive again. There’s music and animation – swooping swifts, chirping crickets, butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers ….. praying mantises!