I'll begin with Madam Butterfly last Saturday night. The day was not the happiest anyway as Andrew's run had been cancelled, but we were both looking forward to a vintage production. We had seats in the front row of the Upper Circle, so had a good view. Unfortunately Julian Smith, the WNO's veteran conductor was as usual setting the volume of the orchestra (who actually play extremely well) in competition with rather than to complement the singers.

The set to be fair was very pretty and the costumes were all in the currently fashionable shades of chocolate, beige and chalk pink. Unfortunately Pinkerton's uniform looked as though he had slept in it, it was extremely baggy and poorly cut, and the portly singer wearing it kept pausing to yank his trousers above his belly. This is not the ideal behaviour for a romantic leading male who is supposed to be a dashing, Richard Gere type figure in a sexy uniform. I just kept wishing they could have afforded to buy him a pair of braces. Things continued to go from bad to worse with Butterfly having a voice like a corncrake, when she was audible over the din of the orchestra. By the end of the first act, we were both so disappointed and fed up we walked out. Butterfly should be an absolute cert for WNO - it's an old war horse, never fails to pull a sell out crowd, has lots of lovely tunes that are very well known, and has opportunities for good visuals and costumes. Yet it went wrong. Audience near us seemed to be enjoying it, but for us we were extremely disappointed. So we came home.

On Sunday, Sarah arrived for her study break - half term in Carmarthenshire is a week ahead of Cardiff. She stayed until yesterday, working on her art portfolio, but it was a constant battle to get her off the computer where she enjoys MSN-ing all her friends.

I seem to have spent the week doing large quantities of ironing. Happily, the pile has now shrunk considerably. As it was such a sunny day yesterday, I took some photos of the garden. We now have lots of crocus emerging, and a few Tete a tete narcissi. I attach a photo looking back towards the house. As you can see, the ferns have settled in extremely well and I am very happy with their progress. The little pot of violas on the step is flourishing. Even the recent snow last week does not seem to have damaged them. For sturdy determination they have been fantastic.

Started making some Easter cards last night- experimenting with a variety of papers. Most enjoyable.