After we came back from Germany, I inherited a cold from Andrew that he had picked up in London at the client's office he is currently working at. It sounds like my idea of Hell, in that it is a large, open-plan office block with windows you cannot open and a form of air conditioning. Of course at this time of the year, everyone has sniffles so you can imagine all the germs just endlessly recirculating - poor Andrew didn't stand a chance. Anyway, I am over the worst, just a bit snuffly now, thankfully. Let's hope it's not one of those irritating ones that lingers.

Yesterday, we went down to Burry Port to see Rhian, the lady who adopted our much loved first foster dog, now called Callie. We last saw them at the Greyhound Rescue Wales show in September and I had been threatening to go down and see them for ages, so we finally got our butts in gear and went down there. Since Rhian adopted Callie, she (like most greyhound owners!) decided to foster and took in an older dog called Mikey who had been over-raced and left with stretched tendons in his fetlocks, giving him a strange gait. Anyway, the foster was a failure, in that Rhian, (understandably) fell completely in love with Mikey and he is now a permanent member of the family. Mikey has gone from being rather battered looking to a gleaming, healthy boy with a glossy black coat and an insatiable appetite for being cuddled. He still has quite bad scarring on him from his previous hard life (the fur will never grow back) but Rhian's TLC has done wonders for him.

Callie was her usual completely adorable self and it was great to have a cuppa and a chat to catch up on all the news. Rhian is a talented knitter (hand and machine) but was saying that the hounds do have an unfortunate liking for playing with her wool! Anyway after a cuppa we all headed down to Pembrey Country Park. I've written before about this - it's gorgeous, miles of beaches, sandy dunes, open grassy areas, picnic tables and copses of trees extending for miles. It overlooks my beloved north Gower (where I was brought up) and is also full of lovely bridleways, and jumps for horses. We could see people playing with stunt kites when we arrived and then went for a lovely walk through the woods and open spaces, enjoying the sandy turf, the trees, the sky and watching Rhian's two dogs run round us like lunatics having a wonderful time. Having five greyhounds around is wonderfully anarchic and very pleasureable. Callie of course gets on great with our two and even Mikey was playing happily - Boola is pretty chilled and he enjoyed himself as well. All in all, it seemed like no time at all before it was beginning to get dark and even colder, so we bundled everyone back into the car and back to Rhian's house. I drove, and Rhian was in the passenger seat; Andrew sat in the back with Callie and Mikey and our three squashed into the boot. Great fun. Then it was back up the M4 to Cardiff through the dark. I attach some pics.

Today we've had a quiet day - a pleasant walk with the woofs this morning and we went to get our Christmas tree this afternoon from the garden centre. It's a Noble Fir, smells fabulous and we'll be putting it up on Wednesday. While there, I also got some spray gold paint to decorate a big bag of pine cones that Penny gave me earlier this year. They make a wonderful Christmas decoration. Also we bought a plain, holly wreath and I will decorate/embellish it myself with ribbons, pine cones and berries. The garden centre was charging £20 (!!!!) for a wreath with just a few pine cones and one tartan bow on it - daylight robbery.