Had a good weekend. My dear friend Leila visited from Plymouth and we had a lovely time. On Friday we went to see Hellboy 2 which I have been looking forward to seeing for some time - it was great. Favourite line. Abe says to Hellboy - "My body is a temple." H replies "Mine is an amusement park." On Saturday Leila was brave enough to come with me to a card making workshop at Inkspot, where we made some very pretty Christmas cards. When Andrew picked us up after having gone for a run, he noticed that we were both covered in a layer of glitter - to me the sign of a successful crafting session. In the evening we went out for a meal to the Armless Dragon in Cathays. Sunday was more relaxed and then Leila drove back to Plymouth on Monday morning. Some pics attached. One shows Leila receiving a collage I made for her. She gave me all the 40th birthday cards she received and I put them together in this frame.

What can I say about this weather? It just keeps on raining. I battle every day with a sea of mud, the dogs seem to be permanently muddy and my boots are finally giving up so will have to buy a new pair. It's been so heavy this week that the few flowers we have in the garden have been trashed with their petals forming a kind of puree around the garden, including some pretty late roses and our lovely Japanese anemones.

Andrew will be returning from Scotland shortly - have made him some couscous with prawns and a peach and blueberry crisp. I did do quite a bit of cleaning earlier but the floor is now covered (again!) with muddy little pawprints. While Andrew has been away, Booty has been keeping me company on the bed - she is a real snuggler and keeps me lovely and warm.

Yesterday visited my greyhound friend Penny down in Carmarthenshire with her two lovely lurchers - we also went to the feed merchant and visited a little Section A pony she was thinking of buying (and eventually did). The pony was a pretty dapple grey mare and was overweight after a summer at grass but had very nice confirmation and a sweet nature. Said hello to Penny's other horses, and when I went into the barn, her cats came and greeted me too, including the one with only one eye and a gorgeous black one who immediately decided that my neck was where he wanted to sit, so did. So I was strolling round the barn talking to the horses with a new scarf on, that was purring loudly and vibrating into my shoulder. Of course, when I returned home, wearing this cocktail of entrancing aromas, the two hounds couldn't tear their noses away for ages.