Stephen Dowds & Myna Dowds

We are a young minded, non smoking, recently retired professional couple from the Highlands of Scotland who love Australia. We have been married for 44 years and enjoy travelling and exploring. We have relations and good friends in NSW, WA and Queensland and have made several trips 'down under' including house sitting. House sitting appeals to us as we enjoy the Australian life style and environment. It also offers us the opportunity to spend longer enjoying Australia, seeing friends and family and enjoying the warm weather during the long Scottish winter.
Both our careers were in education and outdoor education. Stephen, a scientist, was ultimately the Head Teacher or Principal of two large high schools and Myna, having started off as a physical education teacher, retired from a position as education manager of the advisory service giving advice and training in Autism and ASD to all Highland schools and to families.
We have an active outdoor and social life, golfing, walking, gardening, fishing, skiing, and cinema & theatre. Music is also a big part of our lives with Stephen playing the accordion in two bands. References can be supplied from both Scotland and Australia and from house sitting.
We have two daughters and four grandchildren in Edinburgh and Sweden who keep us busy. For many years we had lovely dogs in our family and enjoyed their company and even bred pups. Border collies and then West Highland terriers. We miss them but want to be free to travel these days. We are home owners and would want to make sure that any property we were sitting would be as well looked after as our own is.