In the best British traditions, it was a Bank Holiday weekend and it rained a lot. And we went to the garden centre! We needed to do a few things out there; when we came back to Cardiff, we tidied up the beds and there were a few casualties. We also needed to refresh some of the pots and baskets - I love having hanging baskets most of the year, and it's possible to enjoy lots of plants this way. The wet weather we've been having had bashed the summer hanging ones to bits so we replaced them with some pretty miniature chrysanthemums, ivy and some cheerful pansies. Another miniature chrsyanthemum in a pot, with a selection for the raised bed, including some thymes and more lavenders (one of my weaknesses). Decided not to buy any bulbs on this trip - that would definately feel too autumnal, will probably go back for them in three to four weeks. Above the raised bed, we've got intertwined climbing roses and clematis montana - a pic is in the title bit of the blog. Most of the roses have finished flowering but we are getting a few late ones. Andrew needed to add some additional wire points and wire to tie in the plants as they had massively outgrown the existing trellis they were scrambling across. Comedy moments ensued with a wobbly stepladder, much swearing, hammering and tying in of recalcitrant plants. All is now much more secure, thankfully. During the performance, the sparrows were highly entertained and the dogs would come out and check up on us occasionally.

On Friday night we had a surprise night out down the Bay at Woods' Brasserie. Andrew was late returning so suggested we eat out. We had a great time down there, but were both surprised how relatively quiet the area was for a Friday at the end of the month. The food at Woods was as usual very good but the service seemed a bit hit and miss - drinks took ages to arrive, and there either seemed to be three wait staff round the table or none, all individually very sweet and willing, but seemingly lacking in co-ordination. Wine was fab and I finished the meal with a bas Armagnac - delicious. Because of the leisurely service, we were longer than expected there so after went for a stroll round the Bay before diving into a taxi and returning home to the usual ecstatic welcome from the woofs.

Yesterday we went down to Morriston Hospital in Swansea to visit my great-aunt who is currently a patient. Delighted to find her in wonderfully good spirits, knitting happily, and full of news. If she continues to make such excellent progress, she will hopefully be out in a couple of days.

My other achievement over the weekend was to finish up a website I have been working on for the Welsh Festival of the Horse. This is taking place next autumn at Margam Park and GRW became involved via the dogs side of things. My contribution was to to set up and manage the website - visits and comments welcome, better still, come to the event itself. You can find the website at www.welshfoh.co.uk This is the first website (not counting my blogs) I've done by myself like this and I really enjoyed doing it. It's got the usual Google analytics to provide the necessary metrics - who's using it, where are they from etc... plus a range of dedicated email addresses which were created specifically for the site. This provides a much more tailored and consistent approach than volunteers' own individual Hotmail account or similar complete with comedy nickname.