Another Tuesday and not a great deal to report. The weather keeps threatening to turn into a proper summer, and then it rains.......... ho hum. The only upside is the garden looks fantastic. At the front of the house, we have banks of lavender and santolina (cotton lavender) in flower and they smell divine. Also out there are flourishing sage, both purple and gold, rosemary and a variegated marjoram. With some scabious in pinks and purples, and a hanging basket full of pretty verbena the whole effect is fragrant and very pretty. I will try and take some pictures, although they won't be able to capture the glorious scent. Bees love it and the lavender particularly is alive with them, which is good.

In the pond we have a new crop of micro fish - tiny baby goldfish that are no bigger in length than my thumbnail, and about the width of a pine needle. My knowledge of fish biology is rather shaky - I remember doing the life cycle of the stickleback in O level Biology but that was (scarily) nearly thirty years ago. Anyway, we had never attempted to sex our fish when we bought them as I have no idea how this is done, or had any plans for a breeding colony. This seems to be a happy accident and I hope it shows that the pond environment is good for both fish and amphibians. The larger fish (parents, possibly) are flourishing and have become responsive and surprisingly bold when they are fed each day on a kind of pellet. Unfortunately, it is usually a race between the fish and a certain greyhound, who has mastered the art of perilous leaning while stretching his neck like a giraffe. This enables him to scoff any pellets which are within reach. It's an amazing sight to see fish and greyhound tongue chasing the same pellet - one day he is either going to lean too far and fall in, or he is going to accidentally lick up a live fish, and then there'll be trouble.

In other news, local government both nationally and locally will be facing a series of strikes this summer. Nationally, Unison have voted for industrial action on the national pay award. Locally, Cardiff unions are in dispute with the council over the revised sickness policy. It will be interesting to see how these disputes unfold. Generally, all out strike action is limited in its effectiveness, both politically and practically, but industrial action such as refusing overtime could be a very different matter and would be devestatingly effective in our service, where most of our weekend and events cleaning is based on overtime working. With the Eisteddfod shortly coming to Cardiff in a matter of weeks now, this could potentially have a huge impact both nationally and on the city stage. This heightens the stakes considerably for both sides of the dispute, and it will be fascinating to see what tactics are used.