Tomorrow should have been the St. Mellons show over at Tredegar House. However, due to the appalling weather last week, the show organisers reluctantly decided to cancel it, as the ground is like a quagmire. So my first foray into competitive showing of crafts has been suspended.

Over the weekend, Andrew's parents came to stay with us, the first of a succession (very welcome, I hasten to add) of summer visitors. They arrived on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday we were blessed with blazing sunshine and scorching temperatures. Amazingly we then woke up on Monday after they had gone to be faced with more rain. We had an enjoyable weekend. On Saturday we visited the Brecon Mountain Railway - a gorgeous little baby steam train, above Merthyr running along into the Beacons National Park. Glorious scenery, plentiful wildflowers, absolutely lovely. I attach some pics. Sunday was again very hot, so we ended up just having a walk with the dogs over at Tredegar House, before coming back and soaking up the sunshine in the garden, with Pimm's in a big jug and a delicious crab tart.

While we were over at Tredegar House, and just walking back to the car, we bumped into Marianne, my quilt tutor from Busy Bees so it was great to say hello and introduce everyone. Andy is notorious for flirting with her - he likes leaning against her and looking up at her with adoring eyes. On Saturday night I made some Turkish style flatbreads with Moroccan lamb - very successful, served with big piles of salad. The dogs were very well behaved and all enjoyed themselves.

Went over to friend Paula's tonight, for Andrew to assist in bathing her greyhounds. Although they are not the heaviest of dogs, they are large and an awkward shape to lift, so Jim and Blue are now beautifully clean, fragrant and fluffy.