Quite a bit to write about since my last post. After a beautiful start to the week, the weather got progressively worse and by the weekend we were having torrential monsoon style downpours. On Saturday, we travelled down to Cardiff for a night at the opera. The appalling weather which was also quite chilly put paid to my idea of wearing my new summer frock and open toed sandals, in spite of a lovely pedicure with coral coloured varnish. I ended up wearing a tiered skirt with some green shoes and a little shrug, which managed to look quite summery but also kept me warm!

We saw La Boheme and it was gorgeous -actually the very last night of this particular production. Beautiful seats in the stalls and everything came together. The principal singers were all lovely, although Musetta was a bit stiff to begin with and the production was fabulous. No messing about, just a nice straightforward take without any attempt to be modern. As usual, I loved the building too - I adore it with a passion, as it is so gorgeously fit for purpose. Even with a full house, there are never queues for loos ( the only theatre I have ever been in where that is the case for ladies) and so many wonderful nooks and crannies where you can relax and enjoy an interval drink - not just bars either, plenty of cafes and lots of space for promenading, or just people watching. Wonderful.

Spent the night in the Cardiff house afterwards with all three greyhounds in the room with us. Murgatroyd is now getting the hang of the stairs, and is confident going up but still a bit nervous going down. With a bit more practice she'll be flying up and down them. It was great to see the garden - masses of roses and all looking very green. Very pleased to see a fantastic crop of berries on my blueberry plants.

We've decided that we'll be coming back to the Cardiff house to live permanently in about two weeks. Andrew is returning to his previous role as a consultant, and as we've had no credible offers on the house, it is obviously not the right time to sell. I will be very sorry to leave Powys as I love living in the country, but on the other hand I like our Cardiff house, and it makes much more sense for Andrew's work, given Cardiff's quick rail links to London, access to motorway network and airport. Unfortunately, Powys would be completely impractical given the amount of travelling involved. We are now in the process of booking moving men, and sorting out Sky and phone connections. Watch this space for further updates. It will be great to be back out the garden and we've decided to paint the C and C - the bedroom which doubles as study and craft room. We'll be doing this just before we move back in as it will be so much easier to do this while the room is empty. We will also be having my cousin from Canada to stay almost immediately as she is over in the country for a three week trip and it will be fab to see her.

While we were at the Millennium Centre we checked out the forthcoming programme and have managed to get tickets for WNO doing La Traviata in September (the first opera I ever saw, aged about 12) and excitingly an opera gala night of Bryn Terfel singing Wagner - bliss!! I would love to have seen him sing the Ring that he did in London but tickets were like gold dust. Apparently he will be doing a lot of Die Valkure which will practically guarantee me in raptures.

Finally, more news on Murgatroyd's adoption. It looks possible that a home has been found for her where she will be living with another dog, a whippet. I am expecting a call on this later tonight or tomorrow but it is fingers crossed.