So, it's a Bank Holiday - a very happy Easter to all readers and hoping you are celebrating. We've continued to have pretty miserable weather, but at least yesterday (Easter Sunday) was dry. We started the day with a walk over at Tredegar playing fields and then Andrew did some gardening. He has replaced the pond pump - the old one broke last year, when a delightful greyhound we were transporting stopped off here for a comfort break and decided to try to jump in the pond. Fortunately our three are pretty pond savvy and although they like drinking from it, don't generally try to enter it. The only immersions are accidental, usually when they are excitedly trying to jump either the whole width or the corner and misjudge the distance. Generally, only their dignity is wounded on these occasions, and of course it probably startles the fish and the frogs.

Several plants have not survived the extremely cold winter - we've had to say goodbye to a canary palm in one of the pots, and a lovely bergamot in the raised bed. After such a cold spell, I'm more amazed by what has pulled through, albeit a bit battered round the edges. We've got a few thing that looked dead initially but on closer inspection, you can just see a few timid leaves starting to poke through or shoots coming up. There are still one or two things that we are not sure about, so have trimmed and tidied and will wait a bit longer to see if any life resumes. In the evening, we ate roast duck and watched the new Doctor Who. Initially, on seeing the casting, I had been a bit sceptical, but actually I enjoyed it - the new Dr is settling in nicely, and the script still has a nicely witty sharpness about it. Also very enjoyable to play "Spot the Location" since it's all filmed in South Wales and we can usually identify where things are - in this episode, Llandaff outside the cathedral seemed to be a main feature.

Today, we decided to visit some garden centres to help top up a few of the gaps and to get some spring bedding for the pots and so on. First up to the Dutch Garden Centre, which is excellent for trees and shrubs and is where we got a fair few of our plants when initially stocking the garden. We couldn't see anything that was realy grabbing us to replace the canary palm, but did pick up some aubretia for the raised bed. Then we went over to a nice little nursery in St. Bride's, down on the Levels (near by is a lovely walk we do with the dogs sometimes, along the sea wall, out to the lighthouse). We picked up a nice little glazed pot, some pansies and some primroses. They had a lovely selection of herbs, and rather pretty other plants but we felt it was still a bit early for these - we'll probably make a repeat visit in about a month, when we will also be ready for things like sweet pea seedlings and so on. Andrew's sister gave us a strawberry pot, a couple of years ago, so this year, we think it might be nice to have a go with it, and see how we we get on. I'm being optimistic and think that after two such dreadful summers, we MUST be due for some decent sunshine this year.

On the way out, we called in on Paula briefly. She's going to be a great-grandmother later this year, and her grand-daughter knows she is carrying a boy. I must admit I am still getting my head around the fact that so many people know the sex of the baby in advance these days - perhaps I am old fashioned, but always liked the surprise when they are born. Anyway, Paula is making a quilt and she phoned to talk blocks - I popped in to have a look at her fabrics, and also to chat about other options for makes with squares - I showed her a little bag I'd made from the Moda website, with a print out of the instructions in case she wanted to give it a go.

I'm now going back downstairs to make a cup of tea for Andrew who is planting up the pots.