After one of the longest and coldest winters I can ever remember, spring seems to be getting going at last. We now have crocuses in the garden, plus a few daffs. Yesterday, we came home after running a few errands and doing a big shop at Tesco, to find the pond literally swarming with frogs, all getting busy with appropriate springtime activities. Almost overnight, huge clumps of frog spawn have appeared, again much, much later than usual. When Andrew went out the garden late tonight with the dogs, he could hear the frogs croaking and Booty found one on the patio - fortunately the dogs just sniff them and are not specially interested.

Today has been one of those beautiful spring days that just make you want to be outside. Andrew was running in the Atlantic College 10K race, one he has done before. Atlantic College is a 6th form boarding college set in the grounds of St. Donats Castle on the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan. I attach a picture taken from the grounds, looking out over the sea, you can see North Somerset quite clearly. The views and location are quite stunning, and the school is also the site of a small arts centre, that holds concerts, exhibitions and other performances. For the race, we parked in the school sports field, then strolled a short way through the grounds to the start area near the castle. It's a relatively small race, probably about 300 competitors, with lots of club runners, so times are fast, and the field spreads out. Unusually these days, it is not a chip timed race, but recorded manually as runners cross the finish line. While Andrew was racing I sat in the garden, on a lovely stone bench, reading the paper and soaking up the sun. Then I returned to the finish area, to watch him come in in about 48 minutes, a respectable finishing time after an undulating course. He picked up his souvenir T shirt and water, then we strolled happily back to the car, during which time I took the pic you can see of the view over the Channel. A very enjoyable Sunday morning.

After a relaxed afternoon, we had some spatchcocked roast chicken while watching a couple of programmes about the formation of the solar system. Very interesting with some beautiful photography, including shots of the Aurora Borealis; one of my ambitions is to see these (along with going to Dollywood).

The past week has flown by, and spring seems to be finally on its way. Last Thursday, Andrew's parents came over, and Rita and I went in the afternoon to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, the famous production with the all-male swans. We loved it. It was beautiful, witty, funny, and entrancing. Surprisingly, it was Rita's first time in the Millennium Centre, and she loved the theatre. It was packed out, but as usual, I was impressed with the way the whole building effortlessly swallowed the crowd and made getting in and out, queuing for loos and so on, so easy and pleasureable. Having the all male swans added a very interesting dimension - they were wild, even menacing, and also quite vulnerable. If you haven't yet seen this production, I can heartily recommend it. Should also add that the costumes were fabulous - I coveted several of the dresses and a particularly dramatic black velvet cloak. Lighting and set design were also excellent.

On the Friday, Rita and I enjoyed a delightful day sampling the pleasures of the new John Lewis store and various bits of the new St Davids 2 centre. I had put off visiting JL as I guessed it would be rammed over Christmas, and then we just didn't have the weather for shopping in January and February. Anyway, I was mightily impressed. The store is enormous, and very well laid out, with plenty of room for getting about, and browsing without feeling crowded. Staff seemed plentiful, attentive, helpful and knowledgeable. I'd like to visit it again with Andrew to take a better look at the menswear section which looked promising from a distance, and I was very taken by the fragrances department, with a lovely selection for both men and women. We then went upstairs to fabrics and haberdashery, as I needed some Bondaweb (a certain greyhound with criminal delinquency tendancies had munched mine) and wanted a look at the fabric. I was not disappointed. As a special treat, they stock a wide range of Cath Kidston fabrics, and also lots of lovely Amy Butler designs - mmmmm, bliss! Had a nice chat to the lady in that dept, who again is very knowledgeable and was super helpful. I wish more shops could have staff like that.

After lunch, we continued a pleasant afternoon sauntering round L'Occitane and finished up with a quick visit to Lakeland. Most satisfactory. Home to relaxation, chat and a fish pie in the evening, followed by a wonderful lemon and polenta cake that Andrew made, which was fabulous.

Rita and Roger left after breakfast on Saturday, and I spent most of the rest of the weekend having a relaxing time doing some stitchy stuff. I finished up a quilt top I am making, which now needs basting, and I also started out on an apron I am making for a friend.

This week has been quiet - as usual, Andrew was away for a couple of days in London. While walking the dogs at Hamadryad Park near the station, on the banks of the Taff, we saw an oystercatcher in the park, feeding on the grass. During the week, we have also been having regular visits from a heron. Rita saw it first, on the roof of the garage, when she got up early one morning. Since then, we have seen it on a number of roofs around us, but thankfully not yet near the pond. I was working on the computer yesterday and looked out of the bedroom window, and there it was, practically a couple of yards away. I managed to get this quick shot of it, attached.

Life with a greyhound is never dull. I'm going to repost some text from my other craft blog which is unusual but you will see that it is one of those occasions where craft and hounds collide. On Tuesday of last week, QVC had one of their regular Craft Days. Sometimes these are good value and sometimes they are just fun to dip into and get ideas. This time I was committed to watching avidly as Tim Holtz was appearing, having travelled over from the USA. Tim is an inspirational crafter and with Ranger, is responsible for a range of goodies including alcohol inks, distress inks and all sorts of other great kit, in fabulous colours. He's particularly well known for his "grunge" look but to be fair, many of his techniques and products can be used/enjoyed by any crafter who enjoys messy play. During the craft day they had a selection of goodies from Ranger that were tempting, and as the prices were good, I succumbed. I ordered a selection of 12 Stickles, a fabulous glitter glue in amazing colours which never clogs, drips or spurts. I also ordered a pack which included 3 different Distress Metallic Crackle Paint and matching Distress Stickles. Plus the TSV, which was Tim's new book, bundled with an assortment of goodies, including several products that I had seen before but never actually tried, so figured that now was the time to take the plunge. Previously, when Ranger stuff has been stocked, they've sold out very quickly, so I waited up until midnight on Monday, then ordered via the web, to be sure of getting what I wanted.

The rest of the craft day went well, as I was relaxed about having my purchases safely bagged, and could enjoy the various demos including lots with Tim and his new book. Fast forward, and on Thursday morning, the first of my parcels arrived. QVC do not bag up separate items - they always deliver them in separate packages - I was very impressed with the speed of delivery and sure enough when I opened it, it was a stack of goodies. The new book is brilliant - loads of tips, techniques and ideas, all very inspiring, both for browsing and for detailed technique following. For instance, I didn't know you could use alcohol inks to colour metal charms, so tried out this on a butterfly charm and it seems to have worked brilliantly.

On Saturday, we went out for lunch with my dear great aunt down in Swansea, leaving the dogs in the house. We had a fabulous time with aunty Floss, as we always do, going to one of her favourite pubs and having a carvery lunch. She was in excellent spirits, very cheerful, very sharp and much looking forward to her forthcoming holiday in April. The time flew past, and we were sorry to leave her to come home. I attach a pic which the waitress kindly took while we were having lunch.

Meanwhile, while we were out of the house, the postman pushed through the letterbox, two Jiffy Bags with the remaining items and Andy decided to do what he does sometimes, and attack the post. We are actually in the process of sourcing a mailbox to affix to the side of the house, as we quite often have letters with teeth marks, rips and so on. Anyway, his teeth punctured a pot of Antique Silver Distress Crackle Paint, so when we came home, the hall was a picture. Piles of ripped and munched post, with paint everywhere, including all over the criminal, and a selection of doggy footprints in Antique Silver on the wooden floor, paint all over the hall rug, and worse of all, paint all over the sofa in the living room, which has loose covers. Clearly, having had a good munch, he decided to go and have a lie down on the sofa and rest after all the excitement.

My feelings were very mixed, to say the least. A combination of laughter (it really did look ridicolous), annoyance at my paint being wasted, and worry over the dog being poisoned by the paint, plus concern over clearing up the mess. We managed to find the pot, and reassuringly it had NON TOXIC written boldly in big letters - did this apply to greyhounds, we wondered? The criminal was bouncing round quite happily when we got home, so it obviously was not a fast acting poison (if at all) so we decided to focus on cleaning up. The hall rug is a complete write off but as it was a very cheap one from Ikea, we are not too worried about that. We stripped off the loose covers from the sofa, and immediately washed them, and worked on the floor - fortunately that came clean immediately. The guilty dog was covered in dried paint on his legs - we've now started calling him Twinkletoes since there have been no ill effects. Unfortunately, however, the paint has not come out from the sofa fabric, so we now need to check our insurance policy to see if it is worth making a claim.

Last night, we went back down to Swansea to the Dylan Thomas Centre, near the Marina for a book launch. Marion the author is an old family friend - she is a contemporary of my parents and her husband and my dad were friends as teenagers before they all married and had children. Anyway, they ended up living in the house opposite ours growing up, and Marion and Len had two children, Andrew (my age) and Liz (my brother's age). We all grew up together, playing together a lot as you do. Over the years, I have been close friends with Liz, she was MOH at our wedding, and when she had the children we've been honorary aunts/uncles, with all kids coming to stay with us often. During all this, we see Marion and Len often, either at Liz's house, or here when they drop off the kids, and we love their humour, laid back style and closeness to the kids. Marion's had some health problems, but has still managed to do a first class honours degree in English and be part of a number of writers' groups.

I drove down from Cardiff and picked up Andrew at the train station as he was coming straight from a work meeting in Birmingham. The trouble with revisiting your home town is that all your driving confidence is horribly misplaced. After struggling to get to the station (even though I knew where it was) we then had a rather hairy journey through the centre of town to get to the Centre, again even though I knew where it was, as the road layout had changed markedly, including all sorts of complex one way systems and new traffic lights that seemed designed to hold up traffic rather than encourage flow. Still, we got there eventually and were able to park easily. The room was packed and the publisher gave a short introductory speech before a reading from the book, while we all sat quietly and drank wine. Then there was a mass stampede to buy copies and get them signed, followed by a lot of mingling, chatting and further wine drinking before it was time to leave. I enclose a pic of me with Liz and Katie, her middle daughter, plus another pic of Daniel, her son and the youngest of the three children.

We've had a busy day today. After our dog walk at Tredegar House, I popped in to Busy Bees, my local quilt shop, which is in the courtyard of Tredegar House. Today and tomorrow is their sale. The shop is small, and with three or four customers feels very small, but when I got there today, it was packed to the rafters with happy quilters laden with stash. I was able to find what I was looking for, some backing fabric for the quilt I am currently working on, plus some other nice things which I have a few ideas for.

After a relaxed brunch, we went down to Ikea to see if we could find another rug for the hall, but unfortunately weren't able to find one we liked in an appropriate size. I'm sure we'll find one soon though. While there, we picked up some lightbulbs, some candles and an amazingly zingy duvet set, full of bright colours. Ikea's bedding is great, usually washes and irons really well, and the prices are so stupidly cheap. Since having the dogs, we've upped considerably the change rate for bedding - both on a routine basis and due to scampering pawprints in muddy weather - having another set handy is very useful.

While we were out, we also dropped off the living room rug to the dry cleaner, went to Tesco and then to Pets at Home. While there, we had a new tag for Boola engraved with his contact details, plus got a box of pigs' ears, some kibble and a bag of mealworms for the birds. Now we're at home, Andrew is preparing Moroccan lamb with couscous for tonight and we'll shortly have a gin. Tomorrow off to Bath.