Regular readers will know that Andrew is currently working up in a London borough, and travels up there several times a week, sometimes staying, sometimes coming home. When he stays, he usually has a room in a Travelodge or a Premier Travel Inn, and uses the ones near Tower Bridge, as these are handy for the offices he visits. Of course, this is a lovely part of London, and in the evening, he usually goes for a run, sometimes along the Thames pathway and sometimes down to Canary Wharf. I'm terribly jealous, as I love Canary Wharf - the Underground station is wonderful, and I adore the DLR, and the mall under the offices, and the whole environment is just very pleasant to wander about in. To remind me of London, he often sends me pics from his phone when he is out running, regular faves include the Gherkin and recently the elephant parade around City Hall. On one of his evening runs he came across this bar, and we were mightily impressed they named it after our much loved greyhound bitch.

Today he was heading off for a meeting in Dulwich and sent me this other one, of Dog Kennel Hill. Loved it.

Quite a bit to write about. On Thursday, I attended the first in a two class series over at Busy Bees, learning how to make an embroidered felt bag. I'll write more on the detail of this over on my craft blog, but it was a wonderful morning. Around a dozen ladies gathered together with a table each to work on, and when Sandra our tutor was demonstrating a stitch she called us into the middle to sit in a circle round her to watch, learn and practice. The room was filled with laughter and learning, a busy purposeful enjoyment and concentration. It was also an opportunity for Sandra our tutor who is a very gifted teacher, to share with us precious memories of how her grandmother had taught her to stitch, sitting on a log in the forest outside Cefn Mably nearly sixty years ago. I found this deeply moving, as Sandra obviously valued and cherished these wonderful memories and still used and enjoyed the skills her grandmother had taught her. Like most people my age, all my grandparents are now dead, but I am very lucky in that my great aunt (now in her nineties) is still alive and is a wonderful link to those childhood memories, as well as being a much loved and appreciated family member. One of the things that saddens me greatly is when I hear about family/marriage breakdowns that then results in grandparents as well as parents being estranged from young children. The relationship with a grandparent can be a very special thing for a child, a great gift and a wonderful opportunity for learning - how tragic if that is lost.

After a wonderful morning learning that seemed to fly by, it was time to come home. On Friday I had to drive down to Pontardawe to a wash-up meeting for the Welsh Festival of the Horse. I was armed with some chutney for Penny and a selection of herb cuttings for our mutual friend and greyhound activist Margaret. Taking the bag of cuttings into the meeting, the herbs kept wafting their fragrances up to us - mint and sage, clean and refreshing, it was lovely just to bury your nose in the bag. The meeting went well, and it is still undecided if there will be another festival in two years time.

Saturday and Sunday seem to have flown by. Andrew has been busy in Paula's garden, doing some work for her, laying some slabs and gravel so the dogs can go out without getting muddy. I've been doing my homework from the first class, which is to do the embroideriy on my felt bag, ready for it to be lined and sewn together in the second and final class. As a way of practicing, I used a template and cut out some Christmas ornament shapes from felt and then used my Crop a Dile to punch some holes in the top for a ribbon. I then embroidered across the ornament and finished up with some beading. I attach a couple of pics of them - I think the idea could be refined further but is basically a good one. Watch this space. As a kind thank you, Paula gave Andrew a bottle of port (he has loved port since I first met him) and we had a glass tonight after dinner with our blue cheese and crackers. Lovely. What a wonderful end to the weekend, and a really enjoyable couple of days.

To class tonight with Boola - the second in our Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen series. It's always a bit miserable when you've got three hounds, to take one out and leave behind two little faces, looking up at you with big brown eyes and a hopeful expression. I was just getting ready to go when I had a quick phone call from a friend in GRW - firstly, she's interested in coming to see Fidelio, being done by WNO later in their season, and secondly a suggestion for some contact on my dog microchipping work as detailed in my Houndmistress website (see link in sidebar).

I saw Fidelio many years ago, done by WNO at the Swansea Grand theatre, with my mum, and it was one of those performances that was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The music and singing were (as is usual for WNO) superb, but there were a few issues. Now, it's always vexed when an operatic heroine is meant to be doing something like dying of consumption and yet manages to sing well enough to fill a theatre and looks, hmmm, a bit well-nourished. Most opera goers are happy to suspend disbelief if the singing is good enough - myself included. Anyway at this particular performance, the singers playing the main two roles of the imprisoned husband and his wife who dresses as a man to get a job in the prison to be near him, were both generously proportioned, to put it mildly. Frankly, I do remember me and my mum sniggering when there was heartfelt singing about the diet of only bread and water for months.

At the end of the performance there is a stunning finale with the chorus and in this case, the designer and director had gone a bit mad. The chorus were dressed as "freedom fighters" through the ages, so there was everything from bare breasted maidens to geurilla fighters with machine guns, all on a kind of stepped arrrangement. This was meant to sweep forward but kept getting stuck, with disastrous wobbles (especially for the bare breasts) and at the end when various curtains fell, was knocking the freedom fighters. It was one of those (rare, thankfully) moments when a technological glitch completely subtracted from the glorious music, but it at least ensures the performance will stay in my memory. When we saw Meistersinger recently, they also had a stepped bank of seats for the chorus,and I took a sharp intake of breath, but fortunately it stayed still so perhaps WNO have learned from the previous experience.

I've just found out through a comment on the previous post that this blog has been longlisted for the Welsh Blog of the Year, much to my surprise. I'm delighted!

Well, my goodness, what a day it's been. This morning Andrew ran in the Cardiff 10K race. He's raced in this in previous years, although they tend to change the course around a bit each year. Last year, they finished outside the Millennium Stadium, this year the start and finish were outside the beautiful Edwardian City Hall. Weatherwise,the day was perfect. Sunny, with a slight breeze, but neither too hot nor too cold. After his traditional pre-race supper last night of pasta and no alcohol, followed by an early night, we left home this morning at around 9. We were soon in town and parked up for a cup of coffee from the thermos before making our way over to the start. I was given the drink and hoody to hold, took lots of pics at the start then they were off! At this point I then toddled back to the car to read for a while before returning to meet Andrew at the finish line, complete with medal, complimentary water bottle and goody bag. I attach some pics - Andrew didn't think it was his best time, but said it was an enjoyable race. In a couple of weeks, he's doing the Swansea Bay 10K, one of our joint favourites. As usual, I was filled with pride and admiration, not just for Andrew but for all the athletes taking part.

Then home, for Andrew to shower and have a bite to eat. Today, annoyingly, was also the Greyhound Rescue Wales Annual Show down at Pembrey, and Greyhound Welfare (another local greyhound charity) were also having their show in a Cardiff churchyard. In previous years, I've been heavily involved in the GRW show, usually taking entries and so on, so this year we were looking forward to going as participants/spectators. However, with Andrew running in the 10K, we decided against it, as travelling to Pembrey would have taken too long, after the race. So we decided to swing by the Greyhound Welfare event, held over in Llandaff, near the Cathedral.

We've been before to shows at this venue, and it's a lovely little churchyard, filled for the show with various stalls, selling bric-a-brac, plants, the local Dog Warden was there, a BBQ was grilling burgers, and there was a roaring trade in cups of tea from the back of the vestry. Around the ring were those lovely old church chairs with holders in the back for hymn books, and there was a tent for taking entries. We had a nice chat to Paula, the lady who runs GW, who we know quite well, as she often comes to GRW events, and vice versa - we try to work in co-operation as much as possible with other greyhound charities. The classes were divided into two groups - Kennel Club groups and the novelty (fun) classes. We decided to bring Boola along, as he is so mellow with other dogs, and left Andy and Booty at home. Wrangling three dogs in a confined space can be a bit hairy, so by bringing just one, everyone could relax a lot more. I entered Boola in the Hound group class in the KC classes, and Most Appealing Eyes, Best Veteran and Best Rescue Dog in the novelty classes. We enjoyed trotting round the ring, and Boola behaved impeccably, unlike some of the dogs! There was a terrific contrast in some of the classes with all sorts and sizes of dog - glad I wasn't the judge. To our absolute delight and amazement, Boola won the Best Veteran class - this is open for dogs over 7 years. For greyhounds, I think of that as being quite young, but of course for lots of breeds, their life expectancy is much shorter. We got awarded a magnificent rosette and I am not ashamed to say I was quite moist -eyed with pride at our wonderful dog. Boola had his rosette pinned to his collar and once out of the ring, in true greyhound style, promptly lay down for a nap, after all the excitement. Winners of all the novelty classes were called back in for a Champion rosette and trophy. We trotted round the ring, and then as if in a dream the judge awarded the prize to Boola. At this point, I was definately watery eyed - as we got presented with the most enormous rosette, a challenge trophy (which will have his name on it!), a massive bag of dog biscuits and he got to pose wearing a special winner's coat. The reserve went to a lovely little terrrier who had done well earlier in the show. At the moment, I feel as though I am in a most enjoyable dream - naturally, I'm biased and think Boola is the best thing since sliced bread, but it was so lovely to have someone else show their admiration for him. After the show, he trotted back to the car, and is now relaxing downstairs on the sofa. What a wonderful day it's been.

Autumn is charging ahead. One of the things that is very seasonal is the re-erection of rugby posts in the local parks. The trees are starting to turn brown, leaves are falling, and there are berries and haws everywhere. Another feature of this time of year is that "back to school" feeling. I've signed up with some courses at Busy Bees, one starting next week which is a two week one devoted to making an intricately embroidered little felt bag. After Christmas I'm doing a day course on Pineapple blocks (a variation on log cabins) and a log cabin course which is also a single day event. The pineapple course was cunningly designed to appeal to us quilters as not only will we be doing the block but Sue, the lovely lady who is teaching will be producing samples of her mum's pineapple cake and we'll be taking home the recipe! Who could resist?!

Andrew's week off flew by. We saw the solicitor on the Tuesday and on the Wednesday we went down to see my fave auntie and a visiting uncle, meeting up at the King's Head pub, Llangennith for lunch (link here). Llangennith is a beautiful spot, with lovely beaches (v popular with surfers) and a steep down behind the village topped with an Iron Age hill fort . As it was a long way, we took the dogs with us, and sat outside the pub for pre lunch drinks and coffee - this also allowed my uncle to have a cigarette. Fortunately it was sunny but cool so the dogs were fine in the car while we ate. Pic attached, of Hilary, Andrew and uncle Peter.

After a leisurely lunch (which I wasn't too impressed by - like the King Arthur, the King's Head trades on its location I think) we headed back to Hilary's house for a look at the new conservatory. Hil's house is long and thin with the main bathroom downstairs, so the building work had altered the layout. She's now got a new bathroom, a new utility room, back door and new conservatory which has been plastered and will soon be painted. We loved sitting out in the sunshine and Hil said how much she liked being out there in the sun, doing her morning crossword or listening to Radio 4. The dogs came in for a snooze - the pic shows Andy and Boola having a power nap on the rug.

Andrew also did some garden works for our friend Paula and it seemed that before we knew it, it was time to think about him going back to work.

This week, Boola and I started our Canine Good Citizen (CGC) course. You can see our teacher's web site here - www.cardiffcaninecitizens.com which tells you all about her and the various courses she offers. I had received a glowing commendation for her work from her boss, Rowan who is the chair of the all Wales Dog Warden Group (and a thoroughly nice person too). Our course had a very varied selection of hounds - everything from tiny little fluffballs to a huge 10 stone mastiff, that couldn't be walked by its female owner as it was so strong. Everyone seemed very nice, and Caroline our tutor was lovely, full of enthusiasm and very patient. She was also very familiar with "pointies", immediately laughing with me when thinking about doing a sit - greyhounds generally can't do this as it's very uncomfortable for them, and also have what might be described as a rather cat like approach to commands, treating them more as suggestions. In true greyhound style, Boola immediately lay down on the floor whenever our tutor was talking, in a full on stretch, only getting up when it was time for us to strut our stuff. This was in total contrast to many of the other dogs, with lots of them being quite "hyper", constantly bouncing, barking and jumping - it made me very glad that our greys are generally so mellow. We were working on "Heel" on the lead, something that Boola is already good at, so that was fairly straightforward although some dogs are real pullers and it was clear that the owners were wanting to work on this. The hour shot by, and since then we've been doing some homework. I'm liking the course, and it's great to work with an inspiring teacher, especially one who is committed to using sensible, humane methods of dog training - no forcing, no gadgets, no weird collars, no alpha rolls, just gentle, positive training. In a weird kind of way, it actually very much reminded me of being back in Pony Club, with doing the test at the end being like doing one of the Pony Club Certificates.

Since then, the week has shot by and we're looking forward to the weekend. Andrew is running in the Cardiff 10K on Sunday so we are hoping for some decent weather for him. As usual, I'll try and take some pics of the athlete.