Hot, hot weather has meant little or no activity in the Mingay-Alstead household. Most of our day was spent flumped in the cool cottage. We ventured out at three o’clock to walk the dogs hoping it would be a little cooler.

We chose a walk where much of the route was shaded by trees but it was still so hot that by the time we’d gone a mile, the dogs were really overheated. We stopped in a village, got them some cold water and some cold, shady concrete to lie on and let them cool down for a bit then went home via the river so they could drink and splash around to keep themselves cool.

DM is sat on a railway sleeper (not one of ‘ours’ by which I mean the Liskeard and Caradon Railway, they seem to have all been made from granite, an abundant local resource…..this is a later, wooden one). It’s one of the ones we use to cross the river usually but today he’s just sitting and occasionally dabbling his feet in the water to cool off.

The river is Archie’s special spot. He spends hours standing in the water, barking at the little mini waterfalls as they tumble over the bits of granite in their path. I honestly think he’d be completely happy to stay there for the whole day if we’d let him. Both our dogs have much longer attention spans for their games than we do. We always tire of them long before they do. We have a ‘command’ for that time – ‘game over’!! When Rosie drops her tennis ball into my lap for the five hundredth time in a day, ‘game over’ brings to her face an expression that’s a mix of indignation and resignation. They certainly know what it means.

A year ago, I was photographing Karen and two years ago we were saying 'goodbye' to Paul....though we see him lots still as he works next door to us!