Progress on a number of fronts. Firstly the garden. Saturday was very fine, so we have raided the garden centre. We have potted up some lilies (bulbs) and have planted some sweet peas - three plants in a pot and three in the ground, both with wigwams of willow. We have bought some sunflower seeds and will be planting those this week, and I am also very keen to grow some ornamental gourds, so need to locate seeds for those. Bought a new plant, called a confetti bush, which looks very pretty. I think we will put that in the front, and transplant one of the hebes that are currently doing a bit too well out there. Also have a thrift, a pink and an African daisy type thing for the raised bed. Will also be sowing some Californian poppies and another packet of a Californian mixture which looks intriguing. Last but not least, we succumbed to a holly fern and some foxgloves to go into the shady area in the fern corner. More prosaically, we tied up the wire for our climbers so that is now sorted and have put the trellis on the garage wall. That allows the chocolate vine something to scramble through - it is growing rapidly. I am so excited by the garden at the moment - it is developing very well. A number of bulbs are flowering and some of the other plants are beginning to wake up after the winter and put out leaves. Every time I go out there, something new is happening.

Saturday night we went to a very nice 30th Birthday party for Andrew's friend and squash partner Matt. He lives in a delightful flat down the bay with lovely views. He announced the theme was pink and it it therefore seemed appropriate to give a bottle of pink champagne. Met lots of nice people and thoroughly enjoyed. We were given the option of "homo fun" at one of the city's many gay clubs, but being a boring and ancient pair of heteros, we declined and went to bed, especially as we'd been in the garden all day and that amount of fresh air is always a guaranteed sleep inducer.

Sunday popped down to see friend Liz and had the shock of my life when I arrived as my brother was there, who I haven't seen for a while. Good to catch up on his news, including a new job working on Apache helicopters. Had a long conversation with Liz about dogs and caught up with her trip to Crufts on Thursday which resulted in a fourth place - she was thrilled and had her Crufts number plate proudly displayed on the shelf. Various assorted kids all flourishing, Sarah showed us her 6th form prospectus and we now have the dates for her GCSE results. 24th August. Eek. Katie demonstrated her cantering abilities on her pony and was also doing some demonstration jumping for us. Dan was working on his motocross bike. Usual assortment of dogs, horses, hamsters and general happy mayhem along with their current lodger who lives in a mobile home in the field out the back. A nice afternoon.

Tonight we had a very exciting home visit by the Greyhound Rescue people who are checking us out. We are having earnest debates about whether to adopt a rescue greyhound or a more general rescue dog from the dogs home. I was delighted that the charity does home visits - that is thorough and sensible. We will sleep on it.

Tomorrow is a very big day - Britain's Cleanest City is announced in Birmingham and we are a finalist. Funnily, spoke to the Executive Support office today about picking up our Portfolio holder at home. Mysteriously, the lady in the office insisted the Cllr wanted to be picked up at County Hall at 7 am. I wondered what could be so important. Eventually she confided that his home shower is currently out of action so he wanted to go to HQ first for an early morning scrub. Aaah. Understandable - plumbing never breaks down at a convenient time.

Just realised that I forgot to mention the honeysuckle and the clematis montana that we bought. Oops.